Beyond Time on Task: Students' Reports of Their Thought Processes during Classroom Instruction

Abstract

The Elementary School Journal Volume 82, Number 5 o 1982 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0013-5984/82/8205-0006$01.00 For the past two weeks, Mr. Davis has been teaching his fifth-grade class how to add, subtract, and multiply fractions with like and unlike denominators. Each day he teaches the lesson by explaining the key concepts and skills to the class, working example problems on the board, and providingfeedback and positive reinforcement to the students. He then has students work practice problems at their seats. Mr. Davis has just completed teaching the lesson and is presently passing out the seatwork problems. Before instructing the students to begin work, he reviews the general problem-solving procedures with the students. For instance, he tells the students: "When adding fractions with unlike denominators, first you must find a common denominator. Then for each fraction, form an equivalent fraction using the common denominator. After you have done this you can add the fractions." When Mr. Davis has finished explaining, Jani begins working immediately and spends the rest of the class completing the problems. While she is working, Mr. Davis stops by her desk and notices that she is working the problems correctly. He then tells her she is doing the problems right and adds "Great job, Jani. Keep up the good work!" Depending on their particular theoretical orientations, educational psychologists would differ in their descriptions and explanations of Jani's successful performance of seatwork problems. Some psychologists would focus on the amount of time that Jani spent working on them. These psychologists would assert that Jani obtained a higher score than other students because she was on task more than the other students (see, e.g., Rosenshine 1979; Fisher et al. 1980).