Teachers' evaluative decision-making for elementary reading instruction

All experienced teachers are primarily responsible for their own evaluation on a daily basis. Moreover, after the presentation of each lesson, teachers engage in an evaluation of that particular lesson's success. They reflect on which aspects of the lesson went well, and which aspects need to be revised or retaught.This study investigated the influences on experienced teachers' evaluative decisions for elementary reading instruction. Twelve teachers in grades 1-6 from two school districts in the Chicago suburban area were interviewed about their reading program and the influences on their evaluative decisions for reading instruction. Four teachers were chosen from this group to be studied in-depth. Four consecutive days were spent with each of the four teachers observing reading lessons and discussing with the teacher his or her evaluation of the lesson and the factors which influenced that evaluation.Three categories of influences on teachers' evaluative decisions emerged. One category was Influences from the Children which included both performance and non-performance influences. Performance influences consisted of things that the children did or said that actively indicated that they understood the lesson, while non-performance influences included such factors as the children's body language and facial expressions. A second category was Influences from the Teacher. These were factors under the control of the teacher that influenced evaluative decisions. Classroom management, lesson design, and intuition were among the influences included in this category. Finally, Influences from the Environment made up the third category. This included factors that originated outside the classroom that influenced evaluative decisions, such as district requirements and teacher's manual guidelines.The study concluded that actual influences on teachers' evaluative decisions and perceived influences differ, and that teaching method, school culture, and the art of teaching appear to possibly affect evaluative decisions.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio