11.1 A GRADUATE COURSE ON THE MODIFICATION OF TEACHER BEHAVIOR

The purpose of this study was to state several desired teacher behaviors relative to the development of cognitive skills in young children and to determine the extent to which those behaviors could be achieved. The study involved 16 students in a graduate course, all of whom were currently or had been teachers. Each graduate student recorded a lesson conducted with children on audio cassette tape both before the first class and after completing 14 weeks of instruction in the course. Interaction forms were used to analyze teacher behaviors on the tapes. The results of the interaction forms were compared with respect to each of the following variables: (a) teacher telling vs. teacher asking, (b) use of open questions vs. closed questions, (c) student inferences and support for student inferences, and (d) ratio of teacher talk to student talk. Results showed that the course produced significant increases in (a) the amount of teacher questioning, (b) teacher use of open-ended questions, and (c) causing students to make and support inferences; and significant decreases in teacher telling and teacher use of closed questions. These was no significant difference in the effort to sustain a two-to-one ratio of student talk to teacher talk