Showing papers on "Student engagement published in 1978"

The Relationship Among Teaching Methods, Student Characteristics, and Student Involvement in Learning

Abstract: Various classroom teaching methods have been termed &dquo;lesson formats&dquo; (Dunkin & Biddle, 1974) or, more simply, &dquo;teaching methods&dquo; (Berliner & Gage, 1976). The latter define teaching methods as &dquo;recurrent instructional processes, applicable to various subject matters, and usable by more than one teacher&dquo; (p. 5). Three commonly used teaching methods are lecture, discussion, and seatwork. Although teachers use a variety of these methods in their classes, they have received little help from theorists or researchers as to which method, or methods, best facilitates learning. Early research, mostly conducted at the postsecondary level, compared the effectiveness of any two teaching methods. Dubin and Taveggia (1968)’ reviewed 36 experimental studies on the most popular comparison between lecture and discussion methods. They found that 51 percent of the comparisons favored the lecture method, and 49 percent favored the discussion method. Virtually no overall difference in the effectiveness of the two methods was indicated.

“The good university teacher” as perceived by the students

Abstract: Many universities, recognizing the student as the main consumer of college instruction, have begun to seek his views regarding the quality of teaching. In this study the Israeli student's concept of a “good teacher” has been investigated. A sample of second year university students were asked to select the three most important characteristics of a good teacher from a list of fifteen. It was shown that students attached primary importance to method of instruction. Of secondary importance was the teacher's ability to spark intellectual growth. Research talents, personality, and academic status were of relatively little concern. Social science, life science, law and medical students all concurred in emphasizing the importance of the teacher's ability to communicate ideas, whereas humanities students stressed his ability to stimulate thinking. It appears that undergraduate students rate teachers by their ability to transmit knowledge rather than according to the university's criteria of research and publication.

Task Engagement and the Consistency of Pedagogical Controls: An Ecological Study of Differently Structured Classroom Settings

Abstract: Managing seatwork-indeed, managing classrooms so that students spend most of their time on the assigned task-is a difficult job for many primary grade teachers, particularly when they are usually expected to both manage seatwork and work with a small group of children. Less effective teachers, in particular, appear to have most of their trouble in the management of classrooms and the seatwork. This area merits more study. The first task is to describe what is going on. Such description could include the percentage of time spent on seatwork in different educational contexts and the percentage of assigned seatwork time that children spend in actual on-task work.

Task Engagement and the Consistency of Pedagogical Controls: An Ecological Study of Differently Structured Classroom Settings. Urban Diversity Series, Number 57.

Abstract: Managing seatwork-indeed, managing classrooms so that students spend most of their time on the assigned task-is a difficult job for many primary grade teachers, particularly when they are usually expected to both manage seatwork and work with a small group of children. Less effective teachers, in particular, appear to have most of their trouble in the management of classrooms and the seatwork. This area merits more study. The first task is to describe what is going on. Such description could include the percentage of time spent on seatwork in different educational contexts and the percentage of assigned seatwork time that children spend in actual on-task work.

Relations among Student and Teacher Perceptions of Behavior.

Abstract: In recent years, many institutions of higher education have been concerned with identifying promising Black high school graduates who have educational deficiencies and providing them with opportunities for acquiring a college education. Many of these students come from social, cultural, and educational backgrounds that poorly prepare them for the demands of a college program. Many times, the Black student carries into the academic situation internal barriers in the form of psychological reactions from past experiences that can be as much a handicap to achievement as the old forms of social and legal discrimination. There is a need for the Black student to become more conscious of these reactions and attempt to cope with them. The remedial programs designed for minority students that are operating in many institutions of higher education have aimed directly at improving the students' academic skills. These programs have not, in most instances, focused attention on the attitudes and behaviors that lie behind the minority students' poor academic performance. Black students express a strong desire to attend college more often than their peers.' Also, they perceive themselves as having adequate abilities necessary for completing a college education. However, there have been discrepancies between Black students' self-perceptions and levels of aspirations, and achievements. Blake2

Student Effort, Learning, and Course Evaluation

Abstract: Although the literature on student evaluations of teaching is extensive—and appears to be growing almost daily—Needham finds a “void” in that literature. In this article he develops a “general model of student allocation of effort between courses incorporating constraints on student time and ability, curricular choices open to students, and information concerning course characteristics.” He asserts that his model should help the reader interpret the conflicting results of other studies which have considered these factors and to provide a rationale for better empirical measures of student efforts and learning rates than the measures now being used.

Measuring Student Behavior during Group Instruction

Abstract: If teacher behaviors and learning conditions have an influence on student achievement, it seems likely that student behavior must mediate this relationship. An instrument designed to assess the physical and mental behaviors and activities of students during group instruction is described. The instrument was employed in a study of five tenth grade mathematics classrooms. The findings indicated that scores from die “Activities Checklist” correlate highly with more general measures of student participation obtained from direct observation and from the stimulated recall procedure. The student behavior measures were shown to be highly predictive of achievement, adding support to the notion that student behavior during instruction is strongly linked to student learning. Both aptitude and affective characteristics were found to be somewhat predictive of the various student participation measures. In contrast to the more general measures, the “Activities Checklist” readily allows for qualitative distincti...

Social Studies and Motivation: High School Students' Perceptions of the Articulation of Social Studies to Work, Family and Community

Abstract: This study revealed that social studies was not perceived as highly articulated with future careers or with marriage and family life, but that students who believed that community work was important to their future happiness were much more likely to consider learning social studies important. A model was constructed and tested to evaluate the relationships between perceived articulation to careers, perceived importance of subject matter, social influence, and student effort. Results demonstrated the influence of perceived articulation on student motivation, as well as the strength of student perceptions of the importance of subject matter as a mediating variable.

The Foreign Student: Better Understanding for Better Teaching

Abstract: A small percentage of the students in the university classrooms of the United States are foreigners. How ever, their educational and personal problems often re quire a disproportionate amount of the instructor's time and tolerance. A few unfortunate encounters may result in stereotyped characterizations by a professor, or, in fact, by the faculty of an entire department, of the European, Arab, or Far Eastern student. This will unin tentionally affect attitudes toward any foreign student, regardless of his ability or performance. Articles such as those by John Cable, A.R. Hagey and Joan Hagey appear ing in the Winter, 1974 issue of Improving College and University Teaching suggest positive approaches to be taken by the institutions and instructors working with foreign students. It appears it would be equally beneficial to elaborate a few specific details about the background of some of these visitors to our country to encourage appreciation of the differences in milieu as well as to increase empathy for their adjustment problems. I have spent a year as an exchange student in Europe, several years in the United States, and recent years teach ing and consulting in various countries of the Near and Middle East, which, in these times of energy shortages, have taken on a new interest for many Americans. After spending years as a "foreigner" myself, I have become more understanding and also more critical of my former behavior toward "problem" foreign students. I have experienced the transition period preceding adoption of different cultural patterns, combined with language difficulties, and found this to be a trying time, scarcely mitigated by repetition. Still I am not able to totally sub jugate feelings of frustration which arise when my per

A Modest Strategy for Reducing School Conflict.

Abstract: A conflict manage ment strategy that has been tried and proven in one school district is outlined on the fol lowing pages. The key to its success, the implementers feel, is student involvement.

Student Reactions to Environmental Factors in the School

Abstract: Reported here are the results of a survey of student attitudes about their school environment. The authors admit their re search is limited in scope, but feel since little has been done in this area their findings are of interest.

Student Teaching: The Emotional Cycle

Abstract: The primary responsibilities of public school and college supervisors of music student teachers are to observe, evaluate, and improve the music teaching skills of their student teachers. There is, however, another area of importance-dealing with the emotional and supportive needs of the student teacher. Especially at the start of the experience, student teachers are quite concerned about being accepted, feeling emotionally secure, and fitting into their new role. By understanding emotional concerns of the student teachers, supervising music teachers are in a better position to help them improve their teaching. Because student teaching is a new and different experience for music education majors, it can initiate an emotional cycle that runs from elation to depression throughout the experience.1 Even before beginning, many stu-\\ dent teachers may share common concerns and problems. These can range from doubting their ability to teach music at all to wondering Ii--if they can handle large ensembles. Anxieties