The Instructional Process: A Review of Flanders’ Interaction Analysis in a Classroom Setting

Abstract

Interaction Analysis is a technique for capturing quantitative and qualitative dimensions of teacher verbal behaviour in the classroom. As an observational system, it captures the verbal behaviour of teachers and students that is directly related to the social – emotional climate of the classroom. It was developed by Ned Flanders out of Social Psychological Theory and was designed to test the effect of social emotional climate on students’ attitudes and learning. The theoretical assumptions of Interaction Analysis (IA) are that in a normal classroom situation, verbal communication is predominant; the teacher exerts a great deal of influence on the student and the student’s behaviour is affected to a great extent by this type of teacher behaviour exhibited. Flanders’ ten category system that attempts to categorize all the verbal behaviour to be found in the classroom is explored in this paper. The objective is the advocacy for the adoption of FIAC in the instructional process in our public schools, since the quantity and quality of teacher – student interaction is a critical dimension of effective classroom teaching and enhanced learning.