Brunswikian Approaches to Research on Teaching

Snow, Richard E.

doi:10.3102/00028312005004475

Cited by 36 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…A theory of how normative beliefs and behaviors become associated with particular activity structures may be constructed using Brunswick's concept of probabilistic functionalism (Brunswick, 1952(Brunswick, , 1955Snow, 1968). For example, participants in regularly occurring activity structures may learn, through experience, to recognize the cue value of recurring stimuli.…”

Section: Background On Activity Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing conceptions of classroom environments: Some light on the T in classroom studies of ATI

Berliner

1983

Educational Psychologist

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Classrooms can be described in terms of the recurrent activity structures teachers use. Activity structures such as reading circle or seatwork have different functions and possess rules and norms to guide the behavior of individuals in the structure. A taxonomy and description of eleven activity structures was derived from observations of over 1200 activity structures in elementary classrooms. Each structure was coded for duration, number of students, the teachers role, student attention, etc. The activity structures perspective allows for a more precise description of classrooms than has previously been possible. This is important for ATI research, which has suffered from a lack of precision in specifying environments or treatments. The usefulness of this perspective for ATI research is described. Hypotheses about aptitudes that may foster or hinder achievement in different activity structures are suggested.Studying life in classroorns is like studying life in the United States of America. To know that a person lives in the United States is to know a great deal. One can quickly bring to bear knowledge about norms for the behavior of Americans, for example, their tolerance levels for political protest, their religious preferences and the strength of their religious convictions, their attitude toward divorce, their preferences in popular music, their treatment of minorities, etc. In general, we have some understanding of the context in which that person lives because of our experience with Americans. The same level of understanding occurs when we study students in Mrs. Maxwell's third grade class. If we have had a chance to experience life in Mrs. Maxwell's classroom, then we probably know the norms for behavior in her class. We would know something about her use of reinforcement and her perceived warmth, her methods of accountability for students, and the academic press in the classroom. We would probably also know something about how fairness is perceived in that classroom and whether work was conducted in a businesslike manner.Within America, however, there are places as different as San Francisco and Iowa City, Las Vegas and Fargo, Honolulu and Houston. In Mrs. Maxwell's class there are settings as different as the reading circle and the listening center, discussion group and seatwork, playground and computer drill, movie viewing and housekeeping. Each city in America and each classroom setting in Mrs. Maxwell's class has associated with it its own norms for behavior. At the global level we understand something about life in the United States and about life in Mrs. Maxwell's classroom. But, it is not until we have information about the sub-or mini-environment: the city, neighborhood or classroom setting, that we begin to feel comfortable about understanding or predicting the behavior of people. This article is directed toward increasing our understanding of the more restricted subenvironments of classrooms. The article begins with a discussion of the importance of activity structures, the name for these subenv...

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Section: Background On Activity Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing conceptions of classroom environments: Some light on the T in classroom studies of ATI

Berliner

1983

Educational Psychologist

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“…In a different focus on representativeness, Brunswik (1956), Millman (1966), and Snow (1968Snow ( , 1974 have indicated the advantages of situational representativeness. Using naturally occurring classroom situations should clearly make it easier to generalize for such situations.…”

Section: Aggregate-type Statementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subjective, individual and aggregate references in educational research

Moxley

1979

Instr Sci

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Subjective, individual, and aggregate references in educational research are distinguished. A particular method may center around a particular type of reference. Uses and misuses are described. Compatible relationships are indicated. The overall process is seen within a general principle of uncertainty reduction.Methods of research in education do not enjoy the prestige of methods in other areas. It may be difficult to find improvements in educational practices that are the result of educational research. Some of the difficulty lies in the nature of the subject matter. Education embraces a massive social hierarchy, with all its levels and systems within systems. The very size of the complexity makes it difficult for research to have an impact on practice. Part of the problem, however, also lies in the methods used for educational research. The knowledge provided by research is limited by the nature of the information used and how it is processed. Increased distinctions in the nature of this information should make it easier to get the kind of information needed. The following seeks to clarify some fundamental distinctions in the nature and uses of some types of information in educational research.For the purposes of highlighting certain relationships, references to information will be classified as being subjective, individual, or aggregate. Subjective references lack connection to specific, identifiable, concrete, objective events. Although possible connections may be implied, there is no available designation or limitation as to what they are. Individual references are connected to objective events that can be clearly discriminated from other individual events. Inter-observer agreement may be used for confirmation. Aggregate references are to collections of individual events. The reference is to the collection as a collection.

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“…To be able to define the dimensions of teaching, categories of teacher behavior must be, as Gage pointed out, "mutually exclusive and yet reasonably exhaustive of the domain of significant teacher behaviors" (Gage, 1969). Thus Gage sees the facet design and analysis deve!oped by Guttman (1954), promoted by Foa (1965) and adopted by Openshaw and Cyphert (1966); Biddle (1967); Snow (1968); Gephart (1969); Elizur (1970); Tuckman (1970); Morrison (1972) 2 and Bar-On and Perlberg (1973) as a "promising approach" to the problems of systematizing and dimensionalizing classroom behavior. The systematic observation system developed in this study is based on facet design and analysis.…”

Section: Development Of a Systematic Observation Instrument For Classmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modification of teaching behavior through the combined use of microteaching techniques with the technion diagnostic system TDS

Perlberg¹,

Bar-On²,

Levin³

et al. 1974

Instr Sci

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One of the most important components of the basic microteaching model in teacher education is the feedback obtained from supervisors, learners, peers and from technical aids such as audio and video recordings (Allen and Ryan, 1969). The feedback serves a dual purpose: first it provides the trainee with information regarding his behavior enabling him to design behavioral changes; and secondly, it facilitates the process of self-confrontation by triggering a cognitive dissonance which stimulates the psychological climate conducive to change (Festinger, 1957; Nielsen, 1962;Kagan et al., 1967;Geerstma andMackie, 1969 andOnder, 1970).The use of video recordings in microteaching training provides instant and accurate feedback of verbal and non-verbal classroom interaction. However, an intuitive subjective analysis of the video recording performed by a supervisor, peer or the student-teacher himself, faces the danger of being diffused and distorted by individual biases.The combined use of microteaching with systematic observation instruments for analyzing classroom interaction has been recommended by researchers and practitioners alike (Amidon and Rosenshine, 1968 andMinnis, 1968). Both Allen, who played a major role in the development of microteaching (Allen and Ryan, 1969), and Flanders, who developed one of the most common interaction analysis systems (Flanders, 1970), recommend the combination of their systems as an effective procedure in teacher education. The researcher and practitioner in this area are faced with the question of either using one of the existing instruments or constructing a new one.

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Brunswikian Approaches to Research on Teaching

Cited by 36 publications

References 14 publications

Developing conceptions of classroom environments: Some light on the T in classroom studies of ATI

Developing conceptions of classroom environments: Some light on the T in classroom studies of ATI

Subjective, individual and aggregate references in educational research

Modification of teaching behavior through the combined use of microteaching techniques with the technion diagnostic system TDS

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