ERIC Number: ED255926
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1985-Mar-29
Reference Count: 0
Research-based Teacher Behaviors for Effective English Teaching.
Peters, William H.
Two studies examined the relationship between teacher behavior and effective English teaching. The first study, in 1978, investigated whether a relationship exists between the intellectual disposition of English teachers and student response to literature using the Co (complexity) Scale of the Omnibus Personality Inventory (OPI) to measure teacher intellectual disposition and the Written Response to Literature test to assess student response. The findings suggest that teacher intellectual disposition will not interact with complexity in the students' performance, and that neither student intellectual disposition nor the individual teacher had an effect on student performance. In the second study involving a similar group, it was expected that if learning outcomes of students relate to high complexity teachers, then a trait such as tolerance to ambiguity and preference for complexity would relate to cognitive verbal reactions created by teachers in the classroom. Freshman English teachers were tested and ranked according to norms in the OPI manual. Teachers with the six highest and the six lowest scores on the Co Scale were identified, and classes of each teacher selected were observed by a trained observer for a period of four weeks. Cognitive verbal reactions were recorded. The study provided evidence that teachers with the highest scores on the Co Scale tended to move their students into higher levels of cognition and to find alternative methods of presenting information, and were more likely to provide positive reinforcement than low complexity teachers. (EL)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council of Teachers of English Spring Conference (4th, Houston, TX, March 28-30, 1985).