A descriptive study of teacher interventions in laboratory groups of elementary science students

Oakley, Wayne Frederick (1976) A descriptive study of teacher interventions in laboratory groups of elementary science students. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This study was designed to analyze teacher interventions in laboratory groups of elementary school students. It was designed as a descriptive study of interventions, with cross tabulations of certain variables. The study attempted to find information on the number and length of interventions, who initiated the interventions and for what reason, and to ascertain the outcome of the interventions. These variables were considered overall, and by group, class, and grade. The student variables of IQ, self-concept, extraversion and neuroticism were correlated with the student behavior variables of the proportion of sentences, solicits, responses, requests, and commands made during the intervention. The same student behavior variables during and outside the interventions were also studied. -- The sample consisted of ten elementary classes, from grade 2, 4, and 6. Two pairs of students from each class were observed using videotape. The lessons chosen for taping were activity oriented, having the development of processes as one of their main objectives. After videotaping was completed, students were administered the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory, a Self-Concept questionnaire, and the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices, Sets A, Ab, B, designed to measure IQ. -- After all data were collected, typed transcripts were prepared from audio portions of the tapes. After the transcripts were edited, they were coded. Coded data was then keypunched with each unit of analysis on a separate card, and the punched data transferred to a computer disk file. Teacher intervention data was then isolated and analyzed. -- Considering intervention length and number, results indicated that overall the length of the interventions was relatively short, and the number of interventions was generally low. -- T-tests results in no significant difference for intervention length between groups within a class. Analysis of variance resulted in no significant differences between classes and between grades with respect to intervention length. -- A critical incidents techniques showed that teachers intervened mainly to give procedure and to solicit progress reports. Students generally initiated interventions to report observations or to give a progress report. Teachers requested more often than did students. Both teachers and students did very little reacting. -- Chi square tests showed that a significant relationship existed between the speaker and: (i) the type of pedagogical move, where teachers tended to solicit while students tended to respond; (ii) the use of gives, requests, and commands, where teachers tended to request more, and students tended to give more; (iii) the use of the Nature of Reference dimension, where both teachers and students tended to make reference to apparatus and individual results; and (iv) the use of the Rating dimension, where rating by both teachers and students was extremely low. Where rating did occur both teachers and students rated either positively or negatively. -- A chi square test resulted in no significant difference between speaker and the Substantive Logical dimension. -- Correlation analysis resulted in the student characteristic of extraversion being significantly positively correlated with the proportion of sentences made during the interventions. No other student characteristics were significantly correlated with student behavior variables under analysis. -- A comparison of some of the student behavior variables outside the interventions with the same student behavior variables during the interventions indicated definite change in student behavior patterns. The presence of the teacher appeared to change student behavior patterns.

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