Suchergebnisse

Since we have hardly any criteria for measuring good teaching, we have hardly any instructions on how to be a good teacher; so much so, that the issue itself is generally treated with some embarrassment in academic circles. Except as one is truly an extaordinary teacher, in which case we defer to his gift, sustained interest in teaching is viewed as something of a gaucherie. This shocks our friends and distresses our students, but it makes perfectly good sense, since we conventionally assume that good teachers are born, not made. (If they were made, then we should be able to make them; since we do not profess to know how to make them, yet they continue to turn up here and there, they must be born.)The logic is somewhat circular, and quite like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Having established that good teaching, when it happens, is essentially accidental, and hence not scientifically reproducible, we snicker at the "educationists" who profess to have identified "rules" for our work. There does exist, for example, a body of literature which employs scientific standards to identify the best methods for presenting various kinds of knowledge to students. Yet this is a literature which is almost totally unknown to anyone who is likely to make use of it. Thus its validity has not been tested, except experimentally.Although random efforts to improve the quality of teaching, and perhaps to apply the same standards in our analysis of teaching that we apply in our research, seem to be increasing, it is, on the whole, unlikely that they will grow substantially. For the most part, such efforts are directed at curricular revision, or at restructuring of course contents; they rarely deal with the nature of the relationship between the teacher and his students. And, even when they do, they must overcome an ethic of futility which is firmly established in our graduate schools.

Observations on factor costs in public elementary & secondary Sch's, & on efforts made to measure the productivity of educ'al systems. In current dollars, the instructional expenditures per pupil per day have risen from $ 0.357 in 1929-1930, to $ 1.311 in 1957-1958. The increase for the same period in constant dollars (1949-1950 = 100), is from $0.748 to $0.915. The mean/average of all earned income in the US is used as the deflator for the salary portion of the instructional budget, under the assumption that relative changes in teachers' pay affect the calibre of staff &, hence, the output of Sch systems. Progressive Sch authorities now appear to respond to the demand for higher standards of performance by seeking to make changes in the instructional process via curriculum revision, redeployment of staff, & the use of new physical devices. Costbenefit analysis in educ is not sufficiently developed to make close judgments on the efficiency of alternative combinations of inputs, primarily because unobtrusive means of observing the teaching process are not yet available. Should teaching machines come into widespread use, however, it will be possible to link the individual instruments to a central data bank. Examination of the data obtained may allow fairly sophisticated types of systems analysis to be applied in educ. AA.

Though statistics & methodology are usually presented in the undergraduate curriculum, their value is questionable. On the graduate level, one semester of statistics & 2 semesters of methodology are usually required for the MA candidate, with an additional semester of statistics required of PhD candidates. There has been some pressure for one introductory course in applied soc statistics, instead of having each soc sci dept give its own course. Elementary textbooks are unsatisfactory, but on the advanced level the subjects are given good treatment. A journal is needed which would discuss & appraise theoretical & methodological topics for sociol't Sociol'ts should take note of the advantages that electronic computers hold. These computers will revolutionize res & thereby the teaching of methodology. Individual res by the student can profit by thesis seminars & secondary analysis of already collected data. The most important factor is the kind & amount of interaction between the student & the instructor. Collective res by students can be effectively accomplished by having the class, during the first semester, work as far as pre-testing a L 1, & at this point give them data for the secondary analysis of the problem being studied. The res instit provides training for res assistants, gives the res assistant the benefit of working on group projects which provide informal discussion & study groups, & offers formal & internally developed programs of instruction, & res facilities. General purpose instit's which are closely affiliated with a U, but not necessarily with a single dept, are most likely to develop an effective program of training in methodology. AA.

This study, investigating teaching style, was conducted as part of a curriculum development and research effort aimed at teaching students conceptualized skills considered useful in the analysis of public controversial issues. Approximately 220 junior students entering into an American history-problems of democracy two-year course sequence were taught the conceptualized analytic skills. Four teachers learned three teaching styles; namely, recitation, seminar, and socratic, The teachers used the three styles with small groups of students in discussions of case studies involving public controversial issues, In the discussions students were expected to use the analytic skills taught to them. This study investigated whether there was a differential impact of the three styles on student use of the analytic skills, Audio-tape recordings were made of "teacher-led" group discussions for analysis to determine whether the teachers were able to conform in their behavior to the three teaching styles, Additionally, tape recordings were made of "teacher-led" discussions (i.e., without tho presence of the teacher) for analysis to determine whether there was a differential impact of teaching style on student use of the analytic skills. An instrument for systematic observation of teaching behavior, adopted from an earlier similar study conducted at Harvard University, was used to determine whether the teachers conformed to the style models. Group discussions of issues in three case studies were scored by two trained observers using the observation system. A chi-square goodness-of-fit test was made to check inter-observer agreement in scoring. It was confirmed that the two observers were generally in agreement--of 288 chi-square computations, 47 were below the .50 acceptable probability level (not .05, as in the more common test of significance). The results obtained by the two observers were then analyzed using a three-way analysis of variance--teaching style by teacher by observation system category. It was determined that an overall style difference occurred although certain hypothesized category differences for the three styles failed to materialize. Individual category analyses showed significant style differences occurred in 9 of 15 categories. It was concluded that the four teachers were generally able to conform in their behavior to the three teaching styles. Next an analytic content observation system (ACOS) was developed to determine whether there was a differential impact of teaching style on student use of the analytic concepts. Two observers learned to use the system and scored the tape recordings of "teacher-less" discussions for three case studies. Again, chi-square provided the necessary test to determine whether the scorers were in agreement in their categorizations of student interacts considered to reflect student learning of the analytic skills. Only 1 of 72 chi-squares computed fell below the acceptable .50 probability level. A three-way analysis of variance was used--style by teacher by observation system category, to test for a differential impact of style. It was determined that no overall difference occurred among the three styles in student use of the analytic skills. There were, however, style differences reported for 1 of 16 categories. Further, an overall interaction of style and teacher was reported; an interaction of style and teacher occurred in three categories. It was concluded that, with the category exceptions noted, the study failed to show a differential impact of teaching style on student learning of the conceptualized analytic skills.

Stanley Arnold, chairman. ; Feb. 1963. ; At head of title: Preliminary report. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Study of retraining and other adult educational training programmes in the USA - covers retraining necessitated by technological changes in public services, private enterprises, etc., and includes case studies of the work of employment services in vocational guidance and comments on the teaching methods provided by legislation