Systematic Classroom Observation Research Articles

Middle-Class Bias of Schools--Fact or Fancy?

The study provides a direct test of the popular notion that schools are negatively oriented towards children from the working classes. In nine hours of systematic classroom observation it was found that working-class children received signficantly less than their share of teacher interactions when classrooms were highly teacher-centered. In student-centered classrooms, however, they received significantly more of their share of teacher interactions. This is interpreted in terms of the greater compatibility of open, student-centered environments with the working-class life style. In a recent paper, Randall Collins examines the relative utility of functional versus conflict models in ordering the data on educational stratification. In arguing for a conflict perspective he reviews several studies in the educational literature which claim to support the general proposition that schools are middle-class agencies, in essence that they provide for the continuity of the stratification system by transmitting the values and life styles of the middle classes (Collins, 1971). A stronger statement may be found running through various other writings in the sociology of education, namely that schools actively discriminate against working-class children. This is supposedly manifested in the differential failure rate of working-class students (Hollingshead, 1949; Sexton, 1961), their low participation rate in extra-curricular programs (Coster, 1958; Hollingshead, 1949), and the negative attitude of teachers toward such students (Abrahamson, 1952; Davidson and Long, 1960). The teacher as either a willing or unwitting party to the discrimination process is thus strongly implied, and indeed

A Computer Program for the Compilation of Data from Classroom Observation Systems Having Mutually Exclusive Categories

A Computer Program for the Compilation of Data from Classroom Observation Systems Having Mutually Exclusive Categories

Teacher-child dyadic interactions: A new method of classroom observation

A new classroom observation system is discussed. The system is designed for studying the dyadic interaction between the classroom teacher and each individual child in the class. The paper explicates the rationale underlying the coding system, describes the classroom interaction variables subsumed within it, and discusses the special research and consultative advantages offered by this system.

Studies of Learning in the School Setting

Instead of attempting to review the variety of classroom learning research relevant to all the goals of educational research workers, the purpose of this chapter is to focus on approaches and perspectives which reflect primary emphasis on the goal of explanation of classroom learning, emphasizing developments in classroom observation systems and matters of general methodology, i.e., the conceptual frameworks and the research strategies within which classroom learning research is conducted. The basic reason for this emphasis on general methodology is the belief that difficulties with problems of general methodology are partly responsible for the history of disappointing results from classroom research. According to this belief, the conceptual frameworks of classroom research somehow have not been optimum for developing the specific concepts, theories, methods, techniques, and explanations of classroom learning. An important opportunity for interdisciplinary research characterized by larger scope and a more systematic attack on classroom learning problems was provided by a number of research and development centers and regional laboratories funded by the U.S. Office of Education. The application of other disciplines to classroom learning problems continued, as illustrated by the Stanford conferences on learning and the educational process; the highlights of the 1964 conference were reported in Krumboltz (1965). Boocock (1966) reviewed research in the sociology of learning, including the effects of classroom structure and techniques, the school system as a whole, student peer groups, and social groups outside the school system. Philosophical analyses of the concepts of teaching, learning, and related concepts reduced some of the conceptual confusion in this set of concepts central to the educational process. Perhaps most important, additional classroom observation systems were developed, reflecting a growing recognition of the potential of tape recordings for determining more rigorously the influence on classroom learning of a variety of factors such as teaching, atmosphere, and especially language. Although the presentation is even more terse than is customary in REVIEW chapters, the reviewer's main intent is that the reader will capture enough of the sense of the presentation to decide what material is most relevant to his own research, or to evaluate the present status of