A Procedure for Assessing the Classroom Behavior of Students and Teachers

Abstract

The behavior of students and teachers in the classroom has been a focus of research for over two decades. A persistent methodological problem has been how to obtain reliable objective data on behavioral variables. The need for more refined instruments to measure these variables, the growing interest in pupil and teacher behavior in natural settings, and the specific requirements of a planned research project on underachievement led to the development of the procedure reported here. A method frequently used to study what goes on in classrooms and groups has been the verbatim recording of verbal behavior by machine or stenographer: e.g., Lewin, Lippitt, and White (1939), Anderson, Brewer, and Reed (1946), and Withall (1949) in their studies of socialemotional climate and, more recently, Gallagher (1962) and Spaulding (1963) in their respective analyses of the qualtiy of thinking and of the effective dimensions of the creative process. Hughes (1959) and Leacock (1963) used anecdotal or narrative descriptions to obtain behavioral data that were less quantifiable but greater in scope. Frequently each pair of observers collate their independent records into a single report containing only those data common to the two records. Medley (1963) described a technique called OScAR (Observation Schedule and Record) for measuring a teacher's behavior in the classroom. OScAR is a list of behaviors to be looked for plus a scoring system by which several correlated items form a composite scale that is more reliable and interpretable than any individual item. Other investigators have devised more convenient methods for quantifying and processing behavioral data by training observers to judge and categorize classroom behavior on the spot. In an instrument developed by Flanders (1960a), the observer every three seconds assigns what is then taking place to one of ten categories, seven of which deal with be-