Distinguishing Behaviors and Decision Making Origins of Beginning, Experienced and Expert Teachers

This thesis is being archived as a Digitized Shelf Copy for campus access to current students and staff only. We currently cannot provide this open access without the author's permission. If you are the author of this work and desire to provide it open access or wish access removed, please contact the Wahlstrom Library to discuss permission.The purpose of the study was to examine differences among beginning, experienced, and expert teachers regarding their interactive teaching behaviors and decisions. The population was comprised of fifteen beginning, fifteen experienced, and fifteen expert teachers randomly selected from Connecticut public schools. It was hypothesized that there were no significant differences across the three groups of teachers either in the mean ratings of teaching competence, or in specific teaching behaviors. The Connecticut Competency Instrument was utilized to determine behavioral differences. Research questions were directed at determining differences in the focus of interactive teaching decisions, and knowledge use in making those decisions. Differences in decision making were determined by the use of stimulated recall interviews. An additional research question explored the differences in the interactive teaching decisions of beginning, experienced, and expert teachers as they related to the indicators of effective teaching contained in the CCI. Quantitative analyses employed the use of ANOV A and the chi-square technique, while the qualitative component employed content analysis techniques according to Tuckwell. The findings included: 1) no significant difference m the mean competency scores across the three groups of teachers; 2) a statistically significant difference in the demonstration of the teaching behavior called "monitoring the learning and adjusting the teaching"; 3) substantially more interactive decisions reported by the beginning than either the experienced or expert teacher; 4) a high degree of similarity between the beginning and expert teachers regarding the focus of interactive decisions, with a qualitative difference across the three cases in the concerns imbedded in those decisions; 5) a greater use by the expert teacher of research-based knowledge in making interactive decisions; 6) substantial differences across the three cases in the interactive teaching decisions as they related to indicators of effective teaching. Among the conclusions were the following: 1) numerous impromptu teaching decisions may be more characteristic of beginning teachers than of those with more experience; 2) application of research-based knowledge in interactive decision making may be a characteristic of more expert teachers; 3) specific attention to student learning during interactive decision making may be a factor which distinguishes the expert teacher from those yet to reach that status