An examination of the relationship between the dominant concerns of teachers and their classroom teaching behaviors

The purpose of the study was to determine if relationships existed between student teachers' levels of concerns and their structuring, soliciting, and reacting behaviors. The hierarchical nature of the concerns model suggested that teachers with Concern for Impact would be more frequent users of positive behaviors. Those teachers with lower level Concern for Task and Concern for Self would tend to use less frequently the positive behaviors and use more frequently those behaviors characterized as being negative in terms of teacher effectiveness. The sample consisted of thirty student teachers who were in the last few weeks of their student teaching experience. The concerns of subjects were measured by the Teacher Concerns Checklist - Form B (Revised). Each subject prepared an audio-tape of a lesson in which they used the recitation strategy. The audio-tapes were transcribed to produce typescripts which were coded using the Stanford Recitation Study Observation System. Six coders were trained and each typescript was coded twice by different coders. The average frequency coded for each behavior was used to determine student teacher behavior scores. Intercoder reliability ranged from .96 to .99. Pearson's product-moment correlations between the teacher concerns and the teacher behaviors were low with only Concern for impact and low soliciting being significantly related (p <.10, r = .32). Multiple regression techniques yielded no significant linear relationships. The lack of significant results led the researcher to investigate non-linear relationships between behaviors and concerns. The indications were that significant relationships exist for regression models of the form Y' = a + b[lowered 1]x[lowered 1] + b[lowered 2]x[lowered 1][raised 2] between (a) structuring behavior and Concern for Task, (b) low reacting and each of Concern for Impact and Concern for Self, and (c) low soliciting and each of Concern for Impact and Concern for Task. The latter two relationships must be considered in the light of a high correlation (r = .68) between Concern for Self and Concern for Impact. The results of this study raise some questions as to the developmental hierarchical concept of concerns. The author also questions that 'more is better' in teaching behaviors citing descriptive evidence from the typescripts of what appears to be excessive use of desirable soliciting and reacting behaviors. The author recommends further studies on determining concerns by response-type measures, studies of other affective measures to be used with concerns measures in relationship with teaching behaviors, and studies specifically designed with larger populations to investigate non-linear relationships between concerns and teacher behavior.Education, College o