Teacher Perception and Secondary School Classroom Discussion

Abstract

Although the significance of student-teacher perception of student role in elementary school classroom verbal interaction has been shown, a void has tended to exist in such research at the secondary level. Therefore, using the Flanders Interaction Analysis system to quantify and record classroom verbal interaction and the Feshbach Situation test to sample student-teacher perception of student role, an investigation was conducted in 11th and 12th grade classrooms. An analysis of variance revealed significant differences in the mean number of indirect student-teacher verbalizations preceding and following the talk of selected role groups. Differences were also found among the eight role groups in the mean number of student responses to student-teacher questions and in the mean number of episodes of talk initiated by the variously perceived role groups.