MICHI AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 1111111111111111111111111111.1 11.111119111111191119111111 3 1293 105802 THESlb 9M1dngm Stan: University ~. A; t LIBRARY ‘l This is to certify that the thesis entitled A STUDY OF TEACHER DECISION MAKING IN READING CLASSROOMS presented by Sandra Buike has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for PhJL degree in_Elemen.tany Education 0-7639 \3’3 11 ‘ 1 .323? '1 1 1 :11»: 1 ' \Lit'r (I :1 N1: thirim ..,-. 1 {m m OVERDUE FINES: 25¢ per day per item RETURNING LIBRARY MATERIALS: H- Place in book return to remove charge from circulation records @ Copyright by SANDRA BUIKE 1980 A STUDY OF TEACHER DECISION MAKING IN READING CLASSROOMS By Sandra Buike A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Elementary and Special Education 1980 ABSTRACT A STUDY OF TEACHER DECISION MAKING IN READING CLASSROOMS By Sandra Buike Based on the premise that teacher decision making is a signifi- cant variable influencing instructional effectiveness (Shulman, l975; Shulman & Elstein, 1975; Clark & Yinger, 1978), this study was designed to provide an understanding of teacher decision making as it shaped the course of reading instruction in four classrooms. Using 1 the fieldwork methods of the participant observer, four teachers' classrooms were studied over the course of the school year in order to discover the decisions teachers made and describe how these decisions were reflected in their classroom practice. The four teachers studied made testing, grouping, materials, and management decisions within the first month of school. These decisions served as the basis of organization for the teachers' reading programs for the remainder of the school year. In addition, these early decisions served as the basis for the modification of decisions, on-the—spot decision making, and the teacher evaluation of student performance. Through coming to understand the four teachers' decision making, the researcher concluded that the underlying purpose of their Sandra Buike decision making was not concerned with the instruction of students but rather with the facilitation of effectively managing a classroom of twenty-five to thirty students. Teachers relied heavily on materials to (l) make their instructional decisions for them, and (2) to provide the structure and organization for the flow of activities which was needed to achieve optimal classroom management. In addition, the researcher concluded that teacher decision making is not independent of the context in which it occurs, which suggests the need for the conceptualization of a model of teacher decision making based on the realities of classroom life. 1 The study provides the basis for continued research in the area of teacher decision making in general and teacher decision making in reading classrooms in particular. In the area of teacher education, the study has significance for the development and the teaching of reading education courses. To Brian and David ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my committee members, Dr. Susan Florio, Dr. Perry_ Lanier, and Dr. Lee Shulman for their support, friendship, and expertise during my doctoral program and the writing of this disser- tation. I am especially greatful for the support and guidance of my chairman, Dr. Gerald Duffy. His continuing encouragement and belief in me sustained me through many difficult times. His friendship and caring added a human dimension to my doctoral program. I will always be indebted to him for the countless number of hours he spent assisting me throughout my program and the writing of this disser- tation. I wish to acknowledge my many friends who shared the stressful and exciting moments of my program with me and Dr. Laura Roehler for her caring and wise counsel. I am also thankful for the love, support, and encouragement of my family. In particular, I thank my sons, Brian and David, for their part in making this all possible. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures .......................... CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE ................ Background of the Problem ................... The Problem ......................... Significance of the Problem ................. Research Questions ..................... Design of the Study ..................... Sample Selection ..................... Data Collection Procedures ................ Data Analysis Procedures ................. Definitions ......................... Assumptions and Limitations ................. Summary ...... » ...................... Organization of the Remainder of the Study ........... CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............... Introduction .......................... Decision-Making Model ..................... Decisions During Instructional Planning ............ Decisions During Interactive Teaching ............. Evaluation in the Decision Analysis of Teaching ........ Research on the Decision Model ................. Preactive Decision Making .................. Interactive Decision Making ................. Content of Interactive Thoughts ............... Evaluative Decision Making ................. iv Page xi 1 Summary of Chapter II ..................... 43 CHAPTER III: DESIGN AND PROCEDURES ................ 45 Introduction .......................... 45 Section I: Descriptions of the Teachers Studied and their Classrooms ..................... 46 Introduction ........................ 46 The Participants and their Environmental Settings . . . .1. . 47 Mrs. Perry ........................ 47 Miss Delta ....... _ ................. 50 Mrs. Bailey ....................... 53 Mrs. Donlan ....................... 56 Section II: Method ...................... 59 Introduction and Background on the Method .......... 59 Data Collection Procedures ................. 61 Participant Observation ................. 1 62 Interviews ........................ 64 Cycles of Data Collection ................ 64 Data Analysis Procedures .................. 65 Identification of the Teacher's Categories of Decisions a 66 The Identification of the Instructional Practices of the Teachers Studied ................ 67 The Comparison of the Categories of Decisions Identified and the Instructional Practices Identified ....... 68 The Classification System of the Teachers' Decision Making and Classroom Practices ............. 68 Summary of Chapter III ..................... 69 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS ....................... 71 Introduction .......................... 71 Section 1: Case Studies .................... 72 Case Study #l ........................ 72 Introduction ....................... 72 Preactive or Planning Phase ............... ' 72 Decisions Identified During the Preactive Phase ..... 75 Testing and Grouping Decisions ............ 75 Materials Decisions .................. 76 Management Decisions ................. 78 Influence of General Management Concerns on the Teacher's Decisions ............... 79 Interactive Phase .................... 80 Implementation of Preactive Decisions: Organization of the School Day ................... 80 Reading Groups as a Setting for Instruction ...... 83 Differences Between High and Low Reading Groups . . . . 88 Modification of Preactive Decisions During the . Interactive Phase ............ 9 ....... 9O On-the-Spot Decisions ................. 91 Postactive or Evaluative Decisions ............ 92 Juding Success of Students . . . . . . . L ...... 92 Reasons Attributed to Success or Lack of Success 93 Sumnary of Case Study #1 ................. 93 Case Study #2 ........................ 95 Introduction ....................... 95 Preactive or Planning Phase ............... 95 Decisions Identified During the Preactive Phase ..... 97 Testing and Grouping Decisions ............ 97 Materials Decisions .................. 99 Management Decisions ................. lOO Influence of General Management Concerns on the Teacher's Decisions ............. 103 Interactive Phase .................... lO4 Implementation of Preactive Decisions: Organization of the School Day ................... lO4 Reading Groups as a Setting for Instruction ...... lOB Differences Between High and Low Reading Groups . . . . lO9 Modification of Preactive Decisions ........... ll4 vi Page Page On-the-Spot Decisions ................. 114 Postactive or Evaluative Decisions ............ 115 Juding Success of Students .............. 115 Reasons Attributed to Success or Lack of Success . . . 115 Smnnary of Case Study #2 ................. 115 Case Study #3 ........................ 118 Introduction ....................... 118 Preactive or Planning Phase ............... 118 Decisions Identified During the Preactive Phase ..... 121 Testing and Grouping Decisions ............ 121 Materials Decisions .................. 122 Management Decisions ................. 123 Influence of General Management Concerns on the Teacher's Decisions ............. 124 Interactive Phase .................... 125 Implementation of Preactive Decisions: Organization of the School Day ...... ' ............. 125 Reading Groups as a Setting for Instruction ...... 128 Differences Between High and Low Reading Groups . . . . 131 Modification of Preactive Decisions During the Interactive Phase ................... 133 On-the-Spot Decisions ................. 135 Postactive or Evaluative Decisions ............ 135 Juding Success of Students .............. 135 Reasons Attributed to Success or Lack of Success . . . 136 Summary of Case Study #3 ................. 136 Case Study #4 ........................ 138 Introduction ....................... 138 Preactive or Planning Phase ............... 138 Decisions Identified During the Preactive Phase ..... 141 Testing and Grouping Decisions ............ 141 Materials Decisions .................. 142 Management Decisions ................. 144 vii Page Influence of General Management Concerns on the Teacher's Decisions ............. 145 Interactive Phase .................... 146 Implementation of Preactive Decisions: Organization of the School Day ................... 146 Reading Groups as Setting for Instruction ....... 149 Differences Between High and Low Reading Groups . . . . 151 Modification of Preactive Decisions During the Interactive Phase ................. 154 On-the-Spot Decisions ................. 154 Postactive or Evaluative Decisions ............ 9 154 Judging Success of Students .............. 154 Reasons Attributed to Success or Lack of Success . . . 155 Summary of Case Study #4 ............. . . . . 155 Section II: Summary of Findings Across the Four Teachers Studied .................... 158 Synapsis of Each Classroom ................. 159 Overview of the Decision Findings .............. 162 Findings of the Study .................... 164 Teachers' Frameworks for Decision Making .......... 164 Beliefs about Program Selection ............. 164 Beliefs about the Teaching of Reading .......... 166 Goals for the Year .................... 167 Summary of Teachers' Frameworks for Decision Making ..... 167 Decisions Identified and Classified as Preactive Decisions . 167 Testing Decisions .................... 167 Grouping Decisions .................... 168 Materials Decisions ................... 169 Management Decisions ................... 170 Summary of Preactive Phase ................. 171 Interactive Phase ...................... 171 Implementation of Preactive Decisions .......... 172 Reading Groups as the Setting for Instruction ...... 172 Differences Between High and Low Reading Groups ..... 174 viii Time Allocations ................... 175 Activities ...................... 175 Teacher Roles and Teacher Expectations ........ 176 Modification of Preactive Decisions During the Interactive Phase .............. 177 On-the-Spot Decision Making ............... 177 Summary of the Interactive Phase .............. 179 Postactive or Evaluative Phase ............... 18D Judging Success of Students ............... 180 Reasons for Successful Readers .............. 181 Reasons for Non-Successful Readers ............ 181 Summary of Postactive or Evaluative Phase .......... 181 Summary of Chapter IV . . . . . . . . . . . . ; ........ 182 CHAPTER V: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS ........ 186 Introduction .......................... 186 Summary of the Study ...................... 186 Conclusions .......................... 187 Teacher Decision Making as it Related to the Realities of Classroom Life ...................... 188 The Nature of Decision Making ................. 194 Implications of the Study ................... 195 Conclusion ........................... 196 APPENDICES ............................ 197 Appendix A: Conceptions of Reading Project Description . . . . 197 Appendix B: Human Subject/Copyright Release Form and School District Materials .................. 200 Appendix C: Interview Schedules ................ 204 Appendices D and E: 1Transcripts of Mrs. Perry's High and Low Reading Groups ........................ 219 ix Appendices F and G: Transcripts of Mrs. Bailey's High and Low Reading Groups ................. 223 REFERENCE LIST .......................... 230 FIGURE 1. LIST OF FIGURES Some Factors Contributing to Teacher's Preinstruc- tional Decisions (Borko et. al., p. 140) Summary of Mrs. Perry's Decision Making and Classroom Practices Miss Delta: Time Allocation and Activity Description of Skill Groups Miss Delta: Time Allocation to High and Low Reading Groups Summary of Miss Delta's Decision Making and Classroom Practices Summary of Mrs. Bailey's Decision Making and Classroom Practices Summary of Mrs. Donlan's Decision Making and Classroom Practices Overview of the Decision Findings Typica1 Morning Organization for the Teachers Studied Differences Between High and Low Reading Groups for Three of the Teachers Studied xi PAGE 94 110 112 116 137 156 165 I73 178 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE Background of the Problem Much of the previous research on reading has focused on how teachers act or perform in classrooms. Only in recent years has the focus of inquiry for research on teaching in general investigated the problems of how teachers thigk about their students, their related instructional problems, their judgement making, and/or their decision making (Shulman & Elstein, 1975, p. 3; Morine-Dershimer, 1979, p. vii; Brophy, 1980, p. 5). These investigations are based on the notion that aspects of the teacher's mental life and decision making are significant variables influencing instructional effectiveness (Shulman, 1975; Shulman & Elstein, 1975; Clark & Yinger, 1978). Some even go so far as to say that decision making is the most impor- tant teaching skill (Shavelson, 1973). Since reading and reading-related activities often consume more than half of the school day for teachers and students, it appears worthwhile to investigate the following questions: (1) how does a teacher decide what a program of reading instruction will consist of, and (2) why does a teacher make a particular set of decisions con- cerning reading instruction? The Problem The purpose of this study was to provide an understanding of teacher decision making as it shaped the course of reading in four classrooms. Specifically, through analytical description (McCall & Simmons, 1969) of the patterns of teacher decision making, the study identified and classified the decisions the four teachers made con- cerning their reading instruction and described how these decisions were reflected in the course of their classroom practices. Significance of the Problem The results of the study are important for educators and researchers alike. By actually talking to teachers and studying their classrooms, the identification of crucial variables of teacher decision making provides fruitful insights for the development of and the teaching of reading education courses. Coming to understand the dynamics of classroom life provides the teacher educator with the means to link the theories underlying developmental reading to the realities facing classroom teachers. Teacher decision making as a part of everyday classroom life provides the stimulation for continued research in the area of teacher thinking in general. In particular, the results of this study provide a basis for continued research in the area of the teacher as decision maker in reading instruction as only the beginnings of teacher decision making and classroom life have un- folded in this study. Research Questions Specifically, the study focused on providing answers for the following research questions: 1. For each of the teachers studied, what were the decisions they made which appeared to shape the course of reading instruction in their classrooms? 2. For each of the teachers studied, how were these decisions reflected in the course of their classroom practices? Design of the Study Sample Selection 9 The four teachers selected for this study were chosen from among the twenty-three teachers studied as a part of the Conceptions of Reading project. The project is one of the working groups of the NIE-sponsored Institute for Research on Teaching at Michigan State University. During the 1977-78 research year, ten teachers were selected by nomination and on the basis of data obtained from instru- l ments and interviews. During the 1978-79 research year, thirteen teachers were selected on the basis of the types of schools they represented and their reported practices in reading.2 1The data collection techniques were a Propositional Inventory (Duffy & Metheny). and a structured interview based on a variation of Kelly's Role Concept Repertory Test (Johnston). 2The type of school was determined by both Michigan State Education Department data regarding socioeconomic status and by school district policy regarding the presence or absence of instructional] curricular mandates. Teacher practices were determined by responses to the Propositional Inventory and by interview. The four teachers selected for this study taught first, second, or third grade. They were solely responsible for the reading instruction in their classrooms. Data Collection Procedures The study reflects two years of investigation of four classroom teachers in a suburban and rural area near a large midwestern university. Using the fieldwork methods of the participant observer, data were collected four times during the school year for each of the teachers studied. The first cycle of data collection was in Septenber; the second in November-Decenber; the third in February; and the final cycle in May. Classrooms were observed three to five half days and one full day per cycle. Interview materials were collected before and after school during each cycle. The activities, sights, sounds, and feelings of the classroom were recorded in field notes and audio recordings of reading groups, and audio recordings were made of teacher interviews. Maps of the room and samples of the children's work were also collected. These materials served as the data base for subsequent analysis. Data Analysis Procedures The data were analyzed according to a three-stage qualitative process. First, the interview data were analyzed to identify the decisions the teachers stated they made which appeared to shape the course of reading instruction. Secondly, the field notes of each teacher were analyzed to identify the instructional practices observed when each was involved in reading inStruction. Finally, the decisions and the instructional practices were compared in order to infer how teacher decision making appeared to shape the course of reading instruction (Buike, Duffy, 1978). Integral to the analysis of the data was Denzin's (1970, 1978) principle of triangulation. The collection of observation data were used to validate and corroborate inferences drawn from the inter- views. In the same way, the interview data served to substantiate findings inferred from the observational data. Definitions The following terms are relevant to the proposed study and are defined as follows: Decision - is defined as the stated or inferred thought behind an observed teacher activity or teacher utterance (Shavelson, 1976; Marine, 1976; Yinger, 1978). Instruction - an "umbrella" term (Durkin, 1979) referring to the various activities and procedures designed to increase a student's ability to read which occur under the direction of a teacher. Assumptions and Limitations The major assumptions underlying this study are: l. The teacher is viewed as a decision maker who, through the process of "limiting and structuring the environment in which he or she must act" (Clark, 1977, p. 4), influences the instructional practices to which students are exposed. 6 2. Teacher decision making is not independent of the context in which it occurs. The major limitation of this study is: It is virtually impossible to eliminate observer bias in participant observation studies where the observer is an instrument for data collection. Summary The purpose of this study was to provide an understanding of teacher decision making as it shapes the course of reading instruc- tion in four classrooms. Using the theory of participant obser- vation and the techniques of fieldwork, the study identified and classified the decisions teachers made and described how these decisions were reflected in the course of instruction in high and low reading groups. In general, educators, researchers, parents, and students may 9benefit from the identification of variables of decision making which appear to shape the course of reading instruction. As well, coming to understand the contextual influence of the classroom environment on teacher decision making provides important insights for pedagogical decision making. Finally, the study provides the stimulation for continued research in the area of teacher decision making in general, and teacher decision making in reading instruction in particular. Organization of the Remainder of the Study In Chapter II of this study, a review of the literature on teacher decision making will be presented. Chapter III of this study will contain a description of the design of the study, and Chapter IV will provide the results of the study. Conclusions and implications of the findings are discussed in Chapter V. The collection of materials found in the appendices includes a description of the larger study from which this study evolved, samples of field notes, transcripts of audio-taped reading group sessions, and teacher inter- view schedules. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Introduction It has only been within the last five years that the mental life of teachers has become the focus of inquiry for research on teaching. Prior research concentrated on the study of teachers' behaviors, that is, on how teachers act or perform in classrooms. While this body of work has contributed to our knowledge of what not only teachers but also students gg_in classrooms, research has typically not dealt with the problems of how teachers thigk_about their students, their related instructional problems, their judgement making, and/or their decision making (Shulman & Elstein, 1975, p. 3; Morine-Dershimer, 1979, p. vii; Brophy, 1980, p. 5). The purpose of this study was to provide an understanding of teacher decision making as it shapes the course of reading instruc- tion in four classrooms. In general, the number of studies on how teachers think, and, in particular, studies on decision making, are few. In the area of reading instruction, a review of the literature reflects the earlier mentioned trend of investigators focusing on teachers and student performance in reading yer§g§_how teachers think about reading instruction and the decisions they make concerning their reading instruction. However, the "small but active and 9 growing literature on teacher thinking" (Brophy, 1980, p. 5) will provide the basis for this review of the literature. Decision-Making Model According to Clark (1978), in a decision-making model the teacher is seen as someone who is "constantly assessing situations, processing information about those situations, making decisions about what to do next, guiding action on the basis of those decisions, and observing the effects of the actions on students" (Clark, 1978, p. 3). Clark believes that research on teaching that is guided by this parti- cular decision-making model seems to focus on explaining and under- standing deliberate teacher activity. This notion of deliberate teacher activity is also supported by Shavelson (1976) who.charac- terizes "the process of teaching as one in which teachers consciously make rational decisions with the intention of optimizing student outcomes" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 412). 1 In his chapter, Shavelson (1976) treats statistical models of decision theory as a heuristic fer examining teachers' decision making. He contends that most of the work on teachers' decisions has been limited to armchair theory. While his own work draws on the available empirical literature, he warns that the analysis should be viewed primarily as a heuristic for future research (Shavelson, 1976, p. 386). In the development of a model of teaching from a decision- making perspective, his focus is on what could be rather than whgt_1§ (Shavelson, 1976, p. 373). Several assumptions underlie the decision model. These assumptions include: IO 1. The decision model assumes that a teacher chooses one act or method from a set of alternatives in attempting to reach a goal or a set of goals. 2. The decision model assumes that a teacher's problem is to select a teaching method that is most likely to be effective for the various states of nature (i.e., learners' states of nature, environmental factors, etc.) that may exist. 3. The decision model assumes that for each combination of a particular teaching act or method with a particular state of nature, an outcome can be predicted. While Shavelson states that "estimating the most probable outcomes poses the greatest problem for models of teacher decision making" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 386), the value in "estimating utilities in decision making results from their usefulness in showing that teachers should consider the consequences of each alternative teaching act under each possible state of nature. This means teachers' objectives should be "stated" in precise, observable terms so that the utility of possible outcomes can be judged against a tangible standard for comparison" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 392). Based on his notion that teachers' decisions are intended to optimize student outcomes, Shavelson (1976) presents an analysis of teachers' decisions during the preactive, interactive, and evaluative phases of teaching. The terms preactive and interactive were borrowed from the work of Jackson (1968) who coined the terms on the supposition that teacher thinking differs greatly in these two situations (Marine, 1976, p. 5). The term evaluative was added to denote the final phase of teaching (Shavelson, 1976, p. 401). Decisions During9Instructional Planning According to Shavelson (1976), the most important decisions a teacher may make occur during instructional planning. He attributes their importance to the fact that "decisions made in planning can be pondered--they have the advantage of time" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 392) unlike the decisions made during interactive teaching. 11 Further, he bases the importance of this period of decision making in terms of the teacher as the instructional designer. It appears logical to Shavelson that at this time teachers should use recommendations for design of instruction taken from models of learning and instruction which provide decision options available in teaching (Shavelson, 1976, p. 393). Shavelson (1976) summarizes teachers' instructional planning as a problem in instructional design that can be described as a decision problem. He stated that the decision problem involves: l specifying the outcomes of instruction, 2 specifying instructional design alternatives, 3. specifying students' entry behavior, 4. estimating the outcome of each combination of an instruc- tional alternative and a state of nature, . 5 choosing the optimal course of action, and 6. evaluating instruction by observing student behavior (Shavelson, 1976, p. 396). Decisions During Interactive Teaching. Decisions made while the teacher is interacting with students may be planned, extemporaneous, or a mixture of both" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 396). He continued by stating that most of the decisions made by teachers while interacting with students are "probably modi- fications of decisions made in planning for instruction" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 396). The modifications of these earlier decisions are often made "on the spur of the moment." The ability of the teacher to consider teaching alternatives and the estimation of students' learning states during this on-the-spot decision making is limited. Shavelson outlines the analysis of a decision during the inter- active phase of teaching as containing the following elements: 12 1. Goals in the decision analysis correspond to the teacher's instructional objectives. 2. The states of nature of particular concern during inter- active teaching are the knowledge and motivation of students relative to that which is needed to begin or continue learning at a particular point in the lesson. 3. Alternative courses of action refer to the teacher's repertoire of teaching acts or methods. The utility of a particular teaching act or method represents the teacher's best judgement about the result of using a particular teaching method when students are in a particular state of learning. The judgement is based on the teacher's prior experience in similar situ- ations, on the teacher's philosophy of teaching, and on the teacher's formal knowledge of learning and motivation. 4. Finally, the outcome of the decision, or the conse- quence of acting on the decision, is student perfbr- mance. This performance is compared with the objective the teacher intended to achieve in order to evaluate the decision and to re-estimate the student's state of learning (Shavelson, 1976. p. 397). Evaluation in the Decision Analysis of Teaching The evaluation phase in the decision analysis of teaching involves the teacher "collecting and using information about the correspondence between the actual outcome of a teaching method and the intended outcome (the teacher's objective or goal) for judging the worth of prior decisions" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 401). This infor- mation is then used in making current and future decisions. The area proves to be most problematic in the model of decision making. Shavelson claims teachers have been characterized g_griori as rational decision makers who intuitively use evaluation infor- mation for estimating the probability of student states of nature and the utility of using alternative teaching methods in the presence of these various states of nature. However, he questions whether 13 teachers can operate in this manner and whether teachers' subjective probability estimates correspond to objective probabilities in the data gathered (Shavelson, 1976, p. 401). While he believes that a model of teaching as rational decision making is not unrealistic, the concern for teachers as rational decision makers in actual classroom situations becomes an issue. He cites several studies in the area of judgement and problem solving which indicate that teachers in a situation of low personal involve- ment can estimate probabilities in their environment somewhat accurately. However, in situations when their evaluation of events not only affects their decisions but their views of themselves as well, teachers' estimates of probabilities or their interpretations of them may show bias (Shavelson, 1976, p. 402). In summary, Shavelson describes teaching as a process by which "teachers consciously make rational decisions with the intention of optimizing student outcomes" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 411-412). He states that the model seems to apply to many goal-oriented teaching situations and has value in making teachers aware of decisions that they might otherwise make without awareness (Shavelson, 1976, p. 412). Research on the Decision Model Expanding upon this earlier work, Shavelson andhis colleagues Borko, Cone, and Russo (1979) developed a model for decision making that, in their estimation, identified some important types of infor- mation that might influence teachers' instructional decisions. The model which they explain as "simply a heuristic device that provides one way of thinking about teaching from a decision-making perspective" 14 (Borko, Cone, Russo, & Shavelson, 1979, p. 138) is based on the view that teaching can be characterized as a decision-making process. The teacher is seen as an active agent who selects a teaching skill or strategy in order to help students reach some goal. This choice may be based on one or more factors. If all of the types of information mentioned above were used, teachers would need to integrate the large amount of information about students available from a variety of sources and somehow combine this information with their own beliefs and purposes, the nature of the instructional task, the constraints of the situation, and so on, in order to select an ap ropriate instructional strategy (Borko, et al., 1979, p. 138). The proposed decision model identifies several important factors that are expected to affect teachers' decisions about instruction. It is believed that teachers are faced with a large amount of information about their students from many sources. In the attempt to deal with this "infbrmation overload“ (Borko, et al., 1979, p. 140), the model suggests that teachers integrate this infor- mation into a "few best guesses" (estimates) about the students' learning, feelings, and behavior. These estimates may influence teachers' plans for instruc- tion and the decisions they make, consciously or uncon- sciously, during instruction. As the model indicates, plans and decisions may also be influenced by the teachers' educational beliefs and the nature of the instructional tasks. The instructional task may also indirectly affect instructional decisions by limiting the alternative strategies that the teacher considers. Finally, the avail- ability of strategies and materials may influence decisions by limiting or expanding the number of alternatives from which the teacher can choose (Borko, et al., 1979, p. 140). These factors contributing to teachers' preinstructional decisions are outlined in the following figure developed by the researchers. The four experimental studies conducted by the group of researchers were designed to investigate the effects of some of the 15 Manchu 9 “comm Melba-don! Figure 1: Some Factors Contributing to Teachers' Preinstructional Decisions (Borko, et al., 1979, p. 140) factors identified in Figure l on different types of instructional decisions in different contexts (Borko, et al., 1979, p. 145). In order to study the model, the researchers "systematically" varied parts of the model by simulating actual classrooms in the laboratory. To this end, descriptions of fictitious students and their classroom conduct were supplied to teachers with different educational beliefs. The teachers, upon reviewing the descriptions, were then asked to make several different types of instructional decisions for a variety of instructional tasks (Borko, et al., 1979, p. 144). In the first study, the accuracy of teachers' estimates about students and the effects of these estimates on instructional decisions were examined. The results of the study suggested that teachers may use different kinds of information to make different kinds of decisions, a finding consistent with the Shavelson, Cadwell, and Izu study (1977). In the case of choosing material at the appropriate 16 grade level for a student, the teachers based their decisions primarily on their estimates concerning a student's ability and much less on other specific infbrmation they were given on the student. Teachers also revised their initial decisions when new infbrmation became available. However, the teachers' estimates of student abilities and other specific information were not used when the teachers were asked to discuss their decision during two interactive instructional decision-making situations. When teachers were asked what they would do if the student failed to answer a question, they tended to ignore the information about the student and their esti- mates of the student's ability in making this decision. Further, when given additional information about the students, teachers tended to ignore it and base their revised decision on their initial one. The researchers concluded that this made sense since information about general ability had little relevance to the particular situ- ation. As well, it appeared that the teachers' responses to the decision depended on factors not measured in the experiment which the researchers concluded might be due to factors of teachers' personal preference for teaching method or philosophy of teaching. The second interactive decision also demonstrated similar results, in that ability and other information played a minor role in the decision fbr the importance of reinforcement for the student. The prior decision was the most influential factor in the revised decision. In the second study, the effects of student cues, teacher beliefs, and types of lessons on preinstructional decisions in reading and mathematics were examined. The results of the study l7 1 suggested that teachers based their estimates primarily on the one cue most relevant to the estimate. That is, teachers' estimates of the likelihood that a student would master the skills and concepts included in the second-grade reading curriculum were based on the student's prior achievement in reading. Similarly, the estimates of the likelihood of mastering mathematics skills and concepts were based primarily on the student's achievement in mathematics. In addition, estimates of the likelihood that a student would be a behavior problem in the classroom were based primarily on accounts of the students' prior behavior in the classroom. Teachers' grouping strategies were also found to be based primarily on students' achievement.1 Some of the teachers in the study only used information about reading achievement in forming reading groups. Others took both achievement in mathematics and reading into account when forming reading groups. Finally, the researchers concluded that teachers' decisions about appropriate strategies for teaching reading and mathematics were based on several factors: educational beliefs, the nature of the group being taught, and the type of instructional objective. Study III focused on the influence of three critical factors in the decision model on preinstructional decisions about classroom organization and management strategies. In particular, the study explored the effects of educational beliefs and cues and estimates about students on these decisions at the fifth-grade level. The results from this study are currently being analyzed and only tentative, preliminary findings were presented. The researchers 18 did find, as in Study 11, that teachers' estimates of the likelihood that a student would master the skills and concepts included in a fifth-grade curriculum were determined primarily by the student's prior academic achievement. Other less important cues were the student's classroom behavior and the ability to work independently. Similarly, estimates of the likelihood that a student would be a behavior problem were based primarily on the student's prior behavior in the classroom. Analyses of the teachers' decisions about classroom organization and management strategies are not yet completed. However, preliminary analyses indicate that these decisions are based primarily on esti- mates about the students. Study IV focused on interactive decisions about classroom management in the context of a reading lesson at the fifth-grade level. One purpose of this study was to examine teachers' use of information about students in deciding how to respond to deviant behavior. A second purpose was to examine how beliefs about education affect these decisions. The data from Study IV is currently being analyzed but the researchers found from their pre- liminary analyses that the factor primarily responsible for teachers' estimates of the probability of disruption is the previous history of the deviant child. In summary, these four studies suggest the teachers making decisions in laboratory settings base their decisions on the most relevant infbrmation on hand. They look at reading scores to make estimates of the likelihood of mastering certain reading objectives, 19 and, in turn, look at these estimates to make decisions about forming reading groups. They look at previous behavior to form estimates of disruptiveness and use these estimates to make management decisions. The researchers conclude that these findings provide preliminary support for the usefulness of the decision model for research as a way of helping us to underStand the teaching-learning process. Preactive Decision Making Several studies on teacher thinking, specifically in the area of teacher planning, provided insights into the decision making of teachers during the preactive setting. 1 In an early study, Zahorik (1970) investigated the problem: Is the teacher who plans a lesson less sensitive to pupils in the classroom than the teacher who does not plan (Zahorik, 1979, p. 144)? Teacher behavior that is sensitive to pupils was defined by Zahorik as "verbal acts of the teacher that permit, encourage, and develop pupils' ideas, thoughts, and actions" (Zahorik, 1978, p. 144). In the investigation, transcripts of lessons were obtained from a group of six teachers who had planned a lesson and from a group of six teachers who had not planned. Both sets of transcripts were analyzed with an instrument designed to provide data about teacher behavior which is sensitive to pupils. The data were then examined to learn the effects of planning and no planning. The results of the study indicated that "planning (in terms of goals, experiences, and evaluation) and lack of planning are not unrelated to the pupil sensitive behavior that the teacher uses during the lesson" (Zahorik, 1970, p. 149). The typical planning model--goals, activities, and 20 evaluation--resulted in insensitivity to the pupils on the part of the teacher. Zahorik speculated that the reason for this “appears to be that planning makes the teacher's thinking rigid and puts him on a track that is nearly derail-proof" (Zahorik, 1970, p. 149). Further, he explained, once the teacher decides what outcomes he wants from the lesson and how he will achieve them, he sets out to produce these outcomes regardless of what pupils introduce into the teaching-learning situation. However, in a study reviewed by Clark and Yinger (1979), Taylor, who examined how teachers planned syllabi for courses in British secondary schools, concluded that.the teachers first planning concern was "the prominence of the pupils, especially their needs, abilities 1 and interests" (Clark & Yinger, 1979, p. 234). Following this, in order of importance, the planning concerns for the teachers were subject matter, aims (goals), and teaching methods. The results of the teachers' ratings of the importance of various issues in curriculum planning and a factor analysis of their responses indicated that teachers tended to consider teaching context (for example, materials and resources) as their most important planning concern. Pupil interests, aims and purposes of teaching, and evaluation considerations followed in that order of importance. Rather than beginning with purposes and objectives and moving to a description of learning experiences necessary to achieve the objectives, as the rational planning theorists pr0posed, Taylor found that these teachers began with the context of teaching, next con- sidered learning situations likely to interest and involve their 21 pupils, and only then considered the purposes their teaching would serve (Clark & Yinger, 1979, p. 234). In his study of Teachers' Planning Models, Zahorik (1975) designed his study to determine what kinds of plans teachers make prior to the time they enter the classroom and begin to teach a group of students. Specifically, the study was designed to investi- gate the following general problem and subproblems. What types of planning models do teachers currently use? 1. What planning decisions do teachers make? 2. What planning decisions are made first the most frequently? 3. For teachers who include objectives in their plans, what types of objectives are used most frequently? 4. For teachers who include activities in their plans, what types of activities are used most frequently? 5. To what extent are planning decisions made in the areas of instruction and organization? 6. Do planning decisions vary in relation to level of teaching, type of content being taught, and experience of the teacher? (Zahorik, 1979, p. 135) The 194 teachers who participated in the study were asked to indicate the decisions they made as they.planned to teach one or more class sessions or periods. The data collection instrument consisted of two parts. In Part I, the teachers were requested to list in writing the decisions they made prior to teaching in the order that they usually make them. Part II of the instrument was given after Part I of the instrument had been collected. In Part II, the teachers who had indicated that they did make decisions about objectives and 22 activities were asked to give an example of an objective and of an activity that they had used recently in their actual teaching situations (Zahorik, 1975, p. 135). The lists of decisions from Part I of the instrument were analyzed according to the types of decisions made and the order of the decisions. Eight categories were used to classify the decisions: 1. Objective - Decisions about goals, aims, outcomes, or purposes; 2. Content - Decisions about the nature of the subject matter to be taught, such as identification of facts, events, or other aspects; 3. Activities - Decisions about the type of learning activity or experience to be used; 4. Materials - Decisions about resources to be used such as books, films, field trip sites, and guest speakers; 5. Diagnosis - Decisions about students' readiness for the particular lesson or session. This would include students' previous learnings as well as their ability and interests; 6. Evaluation - Decisions about how to determine the effectiveness of the lesson or session; 7. Instruction - Decisions about teacher veral and non- verbal behaviors and teaching strategies to be used; 8. Organization - Decisions about how to arrange the teaching-learning environment such as grouping of students, use of space, and use of time (Zahorik, 1975, p. 136). Zahorik found that the kind of decision used by most of the teachers concerned pupil activities (indicated by 81 percent of the teachers). The decision most frequently made first concerned content (indicated by 51 percent of the teachers) followed by only 28 percent of the teachers indicating decisions made about objectives (Zahorik, 1975, p. 136). 23 Zahorik concluded from this study that teachers' planning decisions do not always follow logically from specified objectives, and that in fact, the specification of objectives is not a particularly important planning decision in terms of frequent use. A similar finding was reported by Joyce and Harootunian (1964) in a study where they examined the problem solving abilities of elementary pre-service teachers. In terms of objectives, the researchers concluded that, for the most part, “the subjects had extremely vague and unclear objectives" (Joyce & Harootunian, 1964, p. 424). The subjects reported they were unsure why they were teaching the lessons and had not identified pupil behaviors they wished to change. Only in two cases did the judges rate the objec- tives as stated in clear terms. Further, the objectives did not relate to procedures. While several subjects stated that their objective was to help the children discover an important scientific idea, they were unable to specify the idea, and the lesson provided only for telling the children the concept (Joyce & Harootunian, 1964, p. 424). Further, the results of the study revealed that the major decisions made by the pre-service teachers were in relation to instructional materials for children. In this study, the teachers' major sources of infbrmation about science came from Children's literature rather than from adult-oriented books or manuals that accompany the instructional systems prepared by textbook publishers. In a recent study on teacher planning, Peterson, Marx, and Clark (1978) examined teachers' decision making in actual planning situations. In a laboratory setting, the twelve teachers were 24 instructed to "think aloud" as they planned an instructional lesson. Their verbal statements were later coded into planning categories such as objectives, materials, subject matter, and process. The results of the study indicate that teachers spent most of their planning time dealing with the content (subject matter) to be taught. The next largest amount of planning time was Spent on instructional processes (strategies and activities), and the least amount of planning time was spent on objectives. Further results consistent with the findings of Zahorik (1975), Joyce and Harootunian (1964), Peterson, Marx, and Clark (1978) were reported by Marine in 1976. In her study of teacher planning (Marine, 1976), conducted in conjunction with a study of teacher and pupil perceptions of classroom interaction (Morine & Vallance, 1975), Marine examined the planning teachers do in preparing for daily lessons with pupils, and in organizing a long-range instruc- tional program in reading (Marine, 1976, p. 20). The specific goals of the study were: 1. to document in a preliminary way the kinds of planning that teachers engage in before a lesson begins; 2. to study teacher thinking about evaluation and modifi- cation of a lesson that has juSt been completed, and teacher decisions about how to proceed with a subse- quent lesson; 3. to identify the cues used by teachers in diagnostic activities related to short-term and long-term planning of reading instruction (Marine, 1976, p. 3). The study was conducted partially in semi-controlled classroom settings. Each of the forty teachers planned and taught a lesson in reading and a lesson in math to stratified samples of pupils from 25 their own classroom. After each lesson, teachers were interviewed and presented with a series of tasks related to their information processing in both preactive and interactive settings. A month later the forty teachers met in groups to carry out two simulation tasks. In one task, teachers viewed a videotape of pupils reading aloud and diagnosed the pupils' reading difficulty. In the other task, teachers were asked to plan a reading program for a new class of pupils on the basis of information about the pupils contained in the data bank of written records (Marine, 1976, p. 20). Teacher plans for the reading and math lesson were collected by Marine. The plans were analyzed according to Specificity of written plans, general fbrmat of plans, statement of goals, source of goal statements, attention to pupil background and preparation, identi- fication of evaluation procedures, and indication of possible alter- native procedures. Morine found that teachers tended to be fairly specific in their plans to use an outline ferm. However, they paid little attention to behavioral goals, diagnosis of student needs, evaluation procedures, and alternative courses of action. In the South Bay study, teachers planned and taught lessons in reading, following the curriculum they normally used, to groups of pupils in their own classrooms. These teachers were interviewed about their plans in the morning before their reading lessons began. They described their general plan and then answered questions about diagnosis of pupil needs, use of instructional materials, specific lesson objectives, teaching strategy, and seating arrangements. While diagnosis of pupils' needs, lesson objectives, and seating 26 arrangements were seldom mentioned in the initial plan statements, teacher responses to probing questions clearly demonstrated that these aspects of the lessons were not being ignored but rather, were part of their "mental image" or set of expectations for the lesson (Morine-Dershimer, 1979, p. xi). In his study of teacher's planning decisions, Yinger (1978) sought to describe the mental processes teachers engage in while making preactive planning decisions. He investigated teacher planning by means of a detailed descriptive case study of one elementary teacher's planning decisions for a five-month period (Yinger, 1978, p. 9). The study was designed to address a need for descriptions and theoretical models of planning processes and to examine the usefulness of certain decision-modeling methods for describing complex decisions made in field settings (Yinger, 1978, p. 9). Two phases of data collection were involved in the study. During the first twelve weeks of the study, approximately forty full school days were spent observing and recording the teacher's activities in both the preactive and interactive phases of teaching. Also during this phase, the teacher's planning decisions were recorded as she "thought aloud" during her planning sessions (Yinger, 1978, p. 10). The second phase of data collection further investigated the teacher's planning by observing her behavior in the Teacher Planning Shell (a stimulation task developed for the study). In addition, the teacher participated in three judgement tasks designed to reveal her perceptions of her students and instructional activities. Additional 27 classroom observations and interviews were also conducted during this phase (Yinger, 1978, p. 11). Analysis of the data revealed two central aspects of the teacher's planning and instruction. Planning for instructional activities and the use of teaching routines emerged as major findings. Activities were described as the basic structural units of planning and action in the classroom. Activities played an important role in the teacher's planning decisions. Daily planning, weekly planning, and unit planning all involved to a large degree the organization and sequencing of activities (Yinger, 1978, p. 13). The activities also played the functional role of controlled behavior settings in the teacher's planning and instruction. Seven features of instructional activities were identified: location, structure and sequence, duration, participants, acceptable student behavior, instructional moves, and content and materials. These features were found to be important for the subject when the teacher made planning decisions for instructional activities (Yinger, 1978, p. 14). Routines were a mechanism that the teacher used to establish and regulate instructional activities and to simplify the planning process. Routines also served to increase the predictability and to reduce the complexity of the teaching environment. They played such a major role in the teacher's planning behavior that her planning could be characterized as decision making about the selection, organization, and sequencing of routines. Yinger (1978) identified 28 four types of routines: activity routines, instructional routines, management routines, and executive planning routines (Yinger, 1978, p. 16). Yinger found that much about the teacher's planning focused on instructional activities and that many of the activities were well routinized. A structural model of preactive planning was developed based on the study of this one teacher. Preactive planning was described at five levels: yearly, term, unit, weekly, and daily. At each level of planning, the teacher's behavior was described in terms of her planning goals, information used, the form of the plans, and the criteria for juding planning effectiveness (Yinger, 1978, p. 24). 1 It was also discovered that, for this teacher, reliance on past experience was a prominent part of the teacher's planning while choice (the selection among alternatives) was not. Instead the teacher tended to develop and elaborate activities over time. This elaboration took place as activities passed from general (e.g., yearly or term) to more specific (e.g., weekly or daily) levels of planning (Yinger, 1978, p. 24-25). As with other work reviewed in this chapter (Zahorik, 1975; Peterson, Marx, & Clark, 1978), objectives were not a primary concern of teacher decision making. Also, Yinger (1978) found that well developed alternatives were lacking in teacher's plans, a finding consistent with Morine's (1976) work. Yinger concluded that both findings supported the notion that teacher planning in practice is not characterized by processes 29 advocated in the rational choice model. That, in fact, when planning, teachers are more concerned about content and activities than about objectives and alternatives (Yinger, 1978, p. 25). In a planning study that specifically focused on teacher planning in the first weeks of school, Clark and Elmore (1979) investigated five elementary school teachers (Clark & Elmore, 1979, p. l). The data base of the study was comprised of teacher inter- views of five elementary school teachers teaching in the same school. The data were collected during the first weeks of school (Clark & Elmore, 1979, p. 2). The teachers, interviewed separately, were asked to recall and describe their planning for each week of the school year, beginning with the week before the students arrived. The teachers reported the focus of their weekly planning and the thoughts and events that influenced their plans. Plan books, class schedules, and other documents aided the teachers in reconstructing their plans (Clark & Elmore, 1979, p. 4). The first weeks of school referred to in this study included the week immediately preceding the actual beginning of school and the four subsequent weeks. The researchers found a pattern of planning that was common to all of the teachers and labeled each phase or period of planning to include (1) the "Get Ready" phase, (2) the "Get Set" phase, and (3) the "G0" phase. Teacher planning in the "Get Ready" phase took place primarily during the week before the students arrived. During this phase the teachers were concerned about the organization of the classroom 30 setting to facilitate a smooth and enjoyable operation of the first days of school for students. The physical arrangement of the classroom environment, reviewing files and organizing academic materials, and issue of student motivation appeared to concern all of the teachers during this planning phase (Clark & Elmore, 1979, p. 5-7). The following phase labeled as the "Get Set" phase focused on the teacher planning for the school year which took place during the first and second weeks of school when the students were in school. During this phase student pretesting, and the classroom behavior structure emerged as the major focus of concern for the five teachers during this phase. The pretesting of students in reading and mathematics was the major activity occurring during Phase II. All of the teachers used formal and informal measures of pretesting as a form of diagnosis to help them decide which students should work with which levels of the curriculum (Clark & Elmore, 1979, p. 8). Also included in this phase, teachers planned for training their students to work within the behavior structure of the class- room. The teachers were concerned that their students understand the rules and procedures necessary to operate successfully in all of the different settings and activities likely to occur (Clark & Elmore, 1979, p. 10). The third phase of teacher planning began with the second full week of school and continued for at least two more weeks. A major concern of this phase concentrated on establishing a routine or workable daily and weekly schedule. By the beginning of October, the 31 teachers interviewed had established a workable daily and weekly routine, assigned students to groups for those parts of the curric- ulum in which they used grouping, and began to talk about and think of their classes as collective rather than aggregations of individuals (Clark & Elmore, 1979, p. 13). The researchers concluded that, by the beginning of October for the teachers studied, the "important business" of getting the school year off to a good start had concluded and the planning and teaching tasks for the remainder of the school year could proceed within the framework established during the first weeks of school (Clark a Elmore, 1979, p. 13). _ In summary, the studies presented on teacher thinking, specifi- cally in the area of teaching planning, suggest several findings. A group of studies found that teachers tended to fbllow a model of planning unlike the model proposed by the rational planning theorists. That is, rather than beginning with purposes and objectives in their planning of instructional experiences for students, teachers tended to begin with the context of teaching, next considered learning experiences likely to interest and motivate students, and only then considered the purposes of their teaching (Zahorik, 1970; Taylor, 1970; Zahorik, 1975; Marine, 1976; Yinger, 1978). In fact, the specification of objectives was not particularly an important planning concern for any of the teachers studied (Zahorik, 1970; Taylor, 1970; Zahorik, 1975; Joyce & Harootunian, 1966; Peterson, Marx, & Clark, 1978; Marine, 1976; Morine-Dershimer, 1979; Yinger, 1978). Further, Yinger (1978) and Morine's (1976) work indicates that, when planning, 32 teachers were more concerned about content and activities than about objectives and alternatives. Clark and Elmore (1979) concluded that the first weeks of school were an important time of planning for the three teachers they studied. The planning decisions identified by the researchers provided the teachers with a framework for planning and teaching tasks for the remainder of the school year. Establishing a routine or workable daily and weekly schedule was of importance during this planning phase. A similar finding was supported in Yinger's (1978) work. In addition, Yinger's (1978) observational study revealed that many of the activities were well routinized by the middle of the school year. Interactive Decision Makigg_ The purpose of this section of the review of the literature is 1to present the studies that investigated the decisions teachers make during the act of teaching. Interactive decision making is the term used to refer to the decisions made during the act of teaching. The studies in this group depend on the teacher's self report of the decisions made. The method of obtaining self report data is some variation of a procedure in which a videotape of the teacher's teaching performance is replayed to stimulate recall of the teaching situation (Clark & Yinger, 1979, p. 24). Peterson and Clark (1978) investigated interactive decision making as a part of a larger study of teacher effectiveness (see Clark, Snow, & Shavelson, 1976). Twelve experienced teachers taught a social studies lesson to three different classes of eight 33 randomly assigned junior high students. Each class was taught the social studies lesson over three 50-minute sessions on a given day. At the beginning of each teaching day, teachers were given 90 minutes to plan the day's teaching. Following the planning phase, the teachers then conducted the class sessions, which were videotaped. At the end of the day, students completed several test measures while the teachers were interviewed using a "stimulated recall" technique (Peterson & Clark, 1978, p. 556). Interactive decision making was explored by showing four brief (two-to-three minute) videotaped segments from the class sessions in order to stimulate recall of what the teacher was thinking about while teaching. After viewing each segment, the teacher responded to a structured interview involving a sequence of four questions: 1. What were you doing in this segment and why? 2. What were you noticing about the students? How were the students responding? 3. Were you thinking of any alternative actions or strategies at that time? 4. Did any student reactions cause you to act differently than you had planned? (Peterson & Clark, 1978, p. 559) The major findings of this study included (1) teachers con- sidered alternative strategies only when the instructional process was judged to be going poorly, (2) teachers used student partici- pation and involvement as their primary cue to judge how well the instructional process was going, and (3) it was found that teachers rarely changed their strategy from what they had planned, even when instruction was going poorly. It was concluded that the interactive decision making of these teachers was more "a process of fine tuning 34 and adapting to aspects of the situation that were unpredictable in principal, such as, specific student responses" (Clark & Yinger, 1979, p. 248). Marine and Vallance (1975) also used the method of stimulated recall in their study of teacher and pupil perceptions of classroom interactions. This part of the study was based on the researchers' belief that: teaching behavior is based, at least in part, upon conscious decisions that teachers make as they work with pupils, and, that these decisions are based upon the types of information that teachers collect during class- room interaction including their perceptions of students and their judgements of what teaching moves are approp— riate or inappropriate in specific situations. (Morine & Vallance, 1975, p. 3) Forty second- and fifth-grade teachers were asked to identify decisions they had made while viewing a videotape of a reading lesson they had taught earlier. The lessons were planned for twenty minutes but were videotaped up to thirty minutes if they continued that long. The questions during the interview focused on the teachers' thinking as they decided what to do next at various points in the lesson. The teachers were instructed to stop the tape whenever they reached a point where they were consciously saying to them- selves, "Let's see, I think I'd better do this now," or, "I guess I'll try doing this" (Morine & Vallance, 1975, p. 49). The interviewer also stopped the tape at various points, and the teacher was asked the following questions: a. What were you thinking at that point? 35 b. What did you notice that made you sort of stop and think? (If necessary, add, was there anything pupils were doing that made you sort of stOp and think?) c. What did you decide to do? d. Was there anything else you thought of doing at that point, but decided against? e. What was it? (Morine & Vallance, 1975, p. 50). At the end of the viewing session, the interviewer summarized the session by asking if, from the decisions the teacher had made during the session, could the teacher specify which two or three decisions were particularly important for the success of the lesson and why (Marina 8 Vallance, 1975, p. 50). Three major types of decisions were identified. These included (1) interchanges, which were the decisions relating to instantaneous verbal interaction, (2) planned activities, which were decisions directly related to preactive decisions, and (3) unplanned activities, which were decisions to include an activity not originally part of the lesson (Morine & Vallance, 1975, p. 89-90). In general, the researchers found that nearly all of the decisions could be categorized as either interchanges or planned decisions (approximately 48 percent in each category, Morine & Vallance, 1975, p. 94). A general pattern that emerged across all teachers indicated that teachers focused more on instructional process than on students' characteristics or behavior when commenting on the fecus of their decisions. However, when the teachers were asked to comment on the considerations and bases for the teachers' decisions, the teachers then talked in terms of their major focus as dealing with the 36 characteristics of students. Marine and Vallance also found that few alternatives to their decisions were mentioned by the teachers and that references to cognitive aspects of the lesson were more frequent than references to affective aspects (Morine & Vallance, 1975, p. 93). Morine-Dershimer (1979) investigated the relationship between teacher plan and classroom reality in individual lessons. The dis- crepancy between these two entities turned out to be an important factor in the information processing and decision making of the South Bay teachers (Morine-Dershimer, 1979, p. 1). In this study, a case_study approach of three teachers' reading lessons were reported. The category system used to code stimulated recall protocols was a refined version of a system Morine-Dershimer and her colleague Vallance developed in an earlier study of teacher decision-making (Morine & Vallance, 1975). This system included four major types of categories: 1. Type of Decision Point (pupil-related decision, plan- related decision, supplementary decision, explanation of routine procedures, or description of specific events). 2. Instructional Concerns (pupil learning, pupil attitudes, pupil behaviors, lesson content-information, lesson content-skill or process, typical procedures, modifi- cation of procedures, commercially produced instructional materials, teacher-produced instructional materials, plan-related pacing, or pupil-related pacing). 3. Sources of Information (observation of pupils' verbal behavior, observation of pupils' nonverbal behavior, teacher expectation, teacher recall of prior knowledge, or teacher records). 4. Teacher Awareness (principles of instruction identified, teacher feelin 5 expressed, or alternative rocedures identified). Morine—Dershimer, 1979, p. 2 37 In addition, at any one decision point, teachers were encouraged to mention instructional concerns, sources of information, or types of awareness. For each of these sub-categories, a measure indicating the percentage of these decision points was developed. The case studies indicated that when teachers perceived little or no discrepancy between their plan and classroom reality, the teachers processed information derived largely from preformed images of the lesson and the pupils, and matters were handled by established routines. If the teacher perceived a minor discrepancy between his/ her plan and classroom reality, the teacher processed infbrmation derived largely from pupils' behavior exhibited during the lesson, but observation of pupils was focused by the plan the teacher had in mind. "In flight" decisions (i.e., on-the-spot or context specific decisions) were made in this situation (Morine-Dershimer, 1979, p. 25). However, in the case when the teacher perceived a more serious discrepancy between his/her plan and the reality of classroom life, the teacher processed more varied information about pupils. Obser- vation in this situation was not clearly focused by the teacher plan, and took on some qualities of a search strategy. Decisions in this situation were postponed, and the teacher shifted from discussing decisions being made to providing descriptions of the lesson events (Morine-Dershimer, 1979, p. 26). Morine-Dershimer (1979) concluded that the amount of perceived discrepancy between the teacher's plan and the realities of classroom life bears a relationship to not only the way teachers process 38 information in these situations but also to the type of decision made during the interactive phase of teaching (Morine-Dershimer, 1979, p. 27). Marland's (1977) study of interactive decision making as reported by Clark and Yinger (1978) investigated the interactive thoughts of volunteer teachers during the interactive phase. There were six teachers, two each at the first-, third-, and sixth-grade levels in two schools. Each teacher participated in two stimulated recall sessions using videotapes of lessons in language arts and mathematics for teachers from the first and third grades and two lessons in language arts for teachers from the sixth grade. Marland's analysis of the transcripts of the stimulated recall interviews was extremely thorough. He used two category systems, one being a system he developed himself. This system was based on what he called "thought units." Teacher statements were judged to fit into one of eleven categories: perceptions, interpretation, prospective tactical deliberation, retrospective tactical deliberation, reflec- tion, anticipation, information--pupil, information--other, goal statement, fantasy, and feeling (Clark & Yinger, 1979, p. 249). His second system of analysis did not involve categorizing every sentence or thought unit in the transcripts. For this part of the analysis, Marland examined the transcripts for what he called instances of psychologically meaningful events. These categories of analysis included: decisions, forfeit decisions, deliberate acts, impulsive acts, cognitive linking, field detachment, externality, internality, principles, beliefs, rules, case histories, and examples 39 of accurate or inaccurate recall by teachers (Clark & Yinger, 1979, p. 250). He summarized the results of the analysis in terms of the content of teachers' interactive thoughts, the functions of teachers' interactive thoughts, and individual differences in teachers' inter- active thoughts. Content of Interactive Thogghts The teachers studied by Marland reported thinking about topics and events in the present, past, and future. Present events included student behavior, teachers' interpretations of students' behavior, and the teachers' own affective states. Teachers' thoughts about the past included reflections on past events concerned with a lesson and retrieval from menory of factual information thought to be useful in preparing for the lesson. This information included the personal information about particular students' curriculum content, principles of teaching, and beliefs about children. Topics of teachers' thoughts about the future included tactics to be used next, pre- dictions or visualizations of directions the lesson might take, expectations for students' behavior and learning objectives (Clark & Yinger, 1979, p. 250). Marland identified four functions of teachers' interactive thoughts which he believed accounted for the majority of cases. These functions include: correcting or adjusting the lesson when it is not going smoothly; dealing with parts of the lesson that are unpredictable in principle (for example, how to prompt a student who gives a partial answer); regulating one's own behavior by reference 40 to certain principles of teaching; and adapting instruction to individual students. Absent from the teachers' interview protocols were four other possible functions of teachers' interactive thoughts: self monitoring, verifying interpretation of students' behavior, considering alternative teaching tactics, and optimizing instruction. Teachers in this study were found to rarely give any consideration to their own teaching style, its effectiveness, or its impact on students. Instead, they tended to operate on the basis of hunches and intuition about the cognitive and affective states of students. They did not consider first impressions as hypotheses to be tested by further observations or direct questions. Teachers did think about tactical moves to be made in the lesson but usually did not consider alternatives. Finally, the teachers did not tend to think - about improving an instructional situation unless it was going poorly. In the final category of results, Marland found an interesting relationship between an individual difference measure and teachers' self reports of their interactive thoughts. This finding developed when one teacher, who was characterized as having an abstract belief system, was considered more open to making adjustments in expec- tations held for students then the remaining five teachers, all of whom were characterized as having concrete belief systems. There did not appear to be any other relationships between an individual difference measure and teachers' self reports of their interactive thoughts. In summary, the studies on interactive decision-making suggest several findings. Peterson and Clark (1978) found that teachers considered alternative strategies only when the instructional process 41 was going poorly, a finding consistent with the work of Marine and Vallance (1975), Morine-Dershimer (1967), and Marland (1977). In addition, Peterson and Clark (1978) found that teachers rarely changed their strategy from what they had planned, even when instruc- tion was going poorly. Teachers in the Peterson and Clark (1978) study used student participation and involvement as their primary cue to judge how well the instructional process was going. Teachers in the Marine and Vallance (1975) study focused more on the instructional process than on student behavior when conmenting on the focus of their decisions. However, when the teachers were asked to comment on considerations and bases for teachers' decisions, the teachers then talked in terms of their major focus as dealing with the characteristics of students. Three major types of decisions were identified during the inter- active phase of teaching in the Marine and Vallance (1975) study. .These included decisions labeled as (l) interchanges, (2) gl_ag_n_eg activities, and (3) unplanned activities. The researchers found nearly all the decisions made by teachers could be categorized as either interchange (decisions relating to instantaneous verbal interaction) or planned decisions (decisions directly related to preactive decisions). Morine-Dershimer (1979) found the discrepancy between teacher plan and (flassroom reality as an important factor in the information processing and decision making of the South Bay teachers. If teachers perceived little discrepancy or no discrepancy between their plan and classroom reality, teachers processed information derived largely from pre-formed images of the lesson and pupils, and matters 42 were handled by established classroom routines. If a minor dis- crepancy was noted, the teacher processed information based on pupil behavior exhibited during the lesson, and "in flight" decisions were made in the situation. If a major discrepancy was perceived by the teacher, information was processed from varied information about pupils, and decisions were postponed. Further, teachers in this situation shifted from discussing decisions to providing descriptions of the lesson events. Marland (1977) summarized the results of his interactive decision making study in terms of the content of teachers' interactive thoughts, the functions of teachers' interactive thoughts, and individual differences in teachers' interactive thoughts. Teachers studied by Marland reported thinking about topics and events in the present, past, and future. However, the teachers in this study were found to rarely give any consideration to their own teaching style, its effectiveness, or its impact on students. Instead, they tended to operate on the basis of hunches and intuition about the cognitive and affective states of students. Evaluative Decision Making_ Shavelson (1976) characterizes teaching as consisting of three phases. These phases include the preactive or planning phase, inter- active or teaching phase, and the postactive or evaluative phase. The evaluative phase of teaching involves the teacher "collecting and using information about the correspondence between the actual outcome of a teaching method and the intended outcome (the teacher's objec- tive or goal) for judging the worth of prior decisions" (Shavelson, 43 1976, p. 401). This information is then used in making current and future decisions. A review of the literature on teacher decision making did not provide a body of literature on evaluative decision making. Shavelson (1976) claims this area proves to be most problematic in the model of decision making (Shavelson, 1976, p. 401). Perhaps the lack of conceptualization of the notions of evaluation in the decision-making model in part explains the reason for the lack of research on evaluative decision making. Summary of Chapter II The purpose of this chapter was to present the current body of literature on teacher decision making. Since it has only been within the last five.years that research on teaching has focused on questions concerning the mental life of teachers, only a limited number of studies were presented. The decision model proposed by Shavelson (1976) is presented in order to provide an understanding of the application of the statis- tical models of decision theory to phases of teaching. The decision model assumes teachers' decisions are intended to optimize student outcomes (Shavelson, 1976, p. 392). In addition to his outline of the decision making teachers ggggt_to follow during the preactive, interactive, and evaluative phases of teaching, studies on the decision model are presented. Several studies on teacher thinking, specifically in the area of teacher planning, are presented in order to provide insights into the decision making of teachers during the preactive setting. Studies 44 that investigate the decisions teachers make during the act of teaching, or the interactive phase, were presented to provide insight into the decision making of teachers during teaching. No studies in the area of evaluative decision making were found. CHAPTER III DESIGN AND PROCEDURES Introduction The purpose of this study was to provide an understanding of teacher decision making as it shaped the course of reading instruc- tion in four classrooms. Using the theory of participant observation and fieldwork techniques, data were collected on the four teachers studied in order to identify and classify the decisions these teachers made which appeared to shape the course of reading instruction in their classrooms. As well, the data were collected in the actual classroom settings in order to describe how the decisions teachers made were reflected in the course of practice in their classrooms. Since teacher decision making is not independent of the content in which it occurs, Section I of this chapter contains brief descriptions of the teachers studied and their classrooms. In Section II of this chapter, the method of data collection and analysis procedures used will be presented. The method of classification of the teachers' decisions and practices will also be included in this section. The final section of this chapter contains a sunmary of the chapter. 45 46 Section I Description of the Teachers Studied and their Classrooms Introduction The teachers studied were chosen from among the twenty-three classroom teachers who volunteered to be observed as a part of the on-going study of Teachers Conceptions of Reading at Michigan State University (see Appendix A). For the purpose of this study, which focused on teacher decision making as it shaped the course of reading instruction, four classroom teachers were selected on the basis of the following criteria. 1. All were observed by this researcher as a part of the Conceptions of Reading study; 2. Each teacher established reading groups in his/her classroom; 3. The teachers were solely responsible for the instruction planned and presented in their reading classrooms; and 4. Each used materials that allowed for teacher decision making to occur. (This criterion eliminated "script" type materials as exemplified by the Distar program.) Once a teacher had volunteered to participate in the Conceptions of Reading study, a general procedure was followed in order to seek university and school district permission. First, in order for the research team to collaborate with teachers in a school district, the program of research had to be approved at the university level through the Human Subjects Committee. Following the Human Subject Committee's 47 approval of the research, superintendents of each teacher's school district were contacted in order to secure the school district's permission to conduct collaborative research. Once permission had been granted through the superintendents, the principal of each teacher was contacted and, upon their approval, the teachers were notified of their acceptance. A packet of materials describing the program of research, the superintendent and principal permission forms, and teacher release forms were provided for the permanent files for each school district (see Appendix B). The Participants and Their Environmental Settings9 To protect the identity of the teachers studied, the names of the teachers, their school buildings, and their school districts have been changed. However, the data presented under the fiction- alized names are factual. Mrs. Perry. Teacher One was a thirty-six year old married, white female. She began teaching in a small rural community twenty miles from a large midwestern city. In her thirteen years in this school district, she had always held a second grade teaching position in one of the three elementary schools in the district. She became a teacher in the district as a result of a teacher shortage in the community. Having newly moved from another midwestern state with her husband who had come to Michigan for a job, she found herself with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and a valued candidate for a teaching position. Her participation in the 48 Conceptions of Reading project was based on her reading belief system and the fact that her school represented a school typical of a low socioeconomic school setting (see Appendix C). The twenty-four students comprising Mrs. Perry's second grade class were drawn from a community comprised of approximately 3,500 predominately white, low-to-middle income level working families. While farming was once the major occupation in the rural community, at the time of the study most of the families received their income through employment in a large car factory twenty miles from the conmunity. For this researcher, collaborating with Mrs. Perry provided an experience in a school setting not known to the researcher before this time. In general, teachers in the school district were highly respected by members of the community and their own children served as the "good models" in school. It was not uncomon for a parent- teacher conference to occur in the local grocery store, nor was it uncommon for the high school band to be heard playing through the community in practice for the latest parade. Most members of the community had rather strong feelings about the reasons for the "moral decay" in today's society. It was easy to learn what was going on in the community from overhearing conver- sations with the lunchroom personnel, the secretary, and the bus driver. The janitor policed the bathrooms and patrolled the hallways when students were going to lunch. A rigid atmosphere of orderliness and righteousness seemed to prevail. There was no morning recess for the children, since the teachers and students in self-contained classrooms were to remain 49 working on the basics of reading, writing, and math. According to the principal, that's why the teachers and students came to school. Gym, art, and music existed in the program but were not considered to be an integral part of going to school. In order to get to the art room, one had to go through various parts of the building and walk a distance outside of the building to get to the portable class- room housing the art room. It was only within this room that student's artwork was displayed. While observing in other schools, assemblies, special programs, and library periods often interrupted an observation. The observations of Mrs. Perry's classroom were never interrupted by these activities. The school where Mrs. Perry's classroom was located was built in 1912. Several additions have been made to the original building. The building housed thirty-one full time teachers and 850 students ranging from grades kindergarten through four. In addition, a full time music, gym, art, speech, and two reading specialists serviced the students. The reading specialists were funded by state and federal funds. Their consultant work with teachers was minimal, and the majority of their day was spent working with small groups of children on reading skills. The teacher stated that the consultants were "helpful," but that they provided "insights into kids" that Mrs. Perry felt were not always accurate. The teacher reported that she experienced very little contact with the principal and/or assistant principal. She felt she was not under any principal and/or school district constraints when deter- mining her programs, activites, or testing procedures. With the exception of the fourth grade Michigan Assessment Test, there was 50 no district-wide and/or individual school-wide testing in reading. The district, however, had adopted a reading basal text series for district wide use. Mrs. Perry's classroom was a self-contained unit housing a student coat area, sink, and drinking fountain. Blackboards extended across one wall in the front of the room, while bulletin boards extended across the back of the room. Windows comprised one-half of the outside wall, and the ledge below the windows served as a home for numerous plants, two hampsters, and a bowl of guppies. A parakeet was housed in a cage among a series of hanging plants suspended from the ceiling on teacher-made macrame' plant hangers. The twenty-eight desks were grouped in various combinations of two, feurs, and sixes. Groups of chairs surrounded the writing, art, and listening centers. The four shelf bookcase, in the back of the room, held an assortment of paperback books, hard cover books, magazines, and newspapers. The teacher's desk was pushed off to one side of the room. The focal point of the room was the reading table located in the front of the room. The rectangular shaped table was able to accommodate nine children, and the table was located near the blackboard which the teacher used frequently during her reading group instrUction time. It was within this physical arrangement that Mrs. Perry and the twenty-four second grade students (ten boys and fourteen girls) went about the business of teaching and learning. Miss Delta. Teacher Two was a twenty-three year old single white female. Miss Delta received her Bachelor of Arts degree from 51 Michigan State University in elementary education in 1975. At the time of the study, she was pursuing a Master of Arts degree in reading instruction at Michigan State University. As a part of the larger study of the Conceptions of Reading, Miss Delta was selected as a linear skills candidate (see Appendix A). The fall of 1977 marked the beginning of her third year of teaching. In her first two years of teaching experience, she taught in a team teaching situation with two experienced teachers in an Open classroom setting. Kindergarten and first grade students comprised the student body of the classroom at that time. The classroom observed in this study was in a school new to the teacher and, although she had regularly scheduled an aide and a parent volunteer to be present in the classroom, this was her first teaching experience in a self-contained classroom. Her class was composed of seventeen first grade students (seven girls and ten boys) and seven second grade students (three girls and four boys). All white and heterogeneously grouped with respect to ability, the students ranged in age from five and one-half years old to eight and one-half years old. The first/second grade classroom observed in the study was located in one of the two smallest schools in a midwestern school district which serves 6,000 students. The community is comprised of approximately 5,000 predominately white, low-to-middle level income working families. The majority of families received their income fifteen miles away through employment in a large car factory in a midwestern city. 52 The school in which Miss Delta's classroom was located was built twenty-two years ago. It housed nine full time classroom teachers for the 243 pupils ranging from grades kindergarten through five. A part time music, gym, Speech, and reading consultant serviced the students. The teacher reported that the reading consultant was available "for children with special learning and reading problems." She continued, however, to state that she rarely sought out the advice or help of the consultant in testing or planning classroom activities for the children in her room. The teacher reported She was free to select her own materials from a variety of materials housed in the school. As well, she was not under any principal or school board constraints in determining programs, activities, and informal testing procedures for the children in her classroom. The principal's only intervention was to have all of the second graders in her room (as well as the other second graders in the building) take a standardized test. The principal told the teacher the purpose of the testing was "to find areas of competencies, not solely reading." The teacher offered the comment, “the principal decided this was a good idea." The classroom was a self-contained unit housing its own bathroom, sink, drinking fountain, and student coat area. Blackboards extended across one wall in the front of the room, and a smaller section of blackboard and a bulletin board, Sink, and cupboard and bathroom stretched across the back wall of the room. Windows comprised one wall of the room, and the remaining wall was devoted to book shelves above the students' coat area. 53 The twenty-four student desks were grouped in sixes serving as work areas for the students. An additional four desks were grouped together to form the listening center area. Four desks also com- prised the science center/quiet work area. Two individual table desks made up an area for the math materials. A nine-foot by twelve-foot carpeted area in the front of the room served as a meeting place for the teacher and students. Next to this area was one large bookcase which served to house individual dishpans for each student's materials. Four additional smaller book- cases housed books for the children to read; two art easels held examples of well-known artists' works; two large barrels served as tables for games; three crates were used for plants and little student desks; and a comfortable, saggy reading chair sat in the reading corner. Mrs. Bailey. Teacher Three, Mrs. Bailey, was a thirty-seven year old married, white female. Mrs. Bailey was in her third year of teaching while under study. However, she had been an aide in several classrooms in the school district and spent thirteen years as a sub- stitute teacher in the community's schools before assuming the position she held when she became a participant in the Conceptions of Reading research project. She had received her Bachelor of Arts degree from a small midwestern college. Her participation in the Conceptions of Reading project was based in her inferred reading belief system and the fact that she was a teacher in a high socio- economic school setting (see Appendix C). 54 The twenty-two students which comprised the student papulation of Mrs. Bailey's classroom were drawn from a community that surrounded a large midwestern state university. The community, considered by many as the original community, remains stable and slow paced in spite of the mixture of students, professors, faculty, and professionals that comprise the neighborhood. Nestled in the middle of the community is the school building which the principal and teacher state has a high degree of parent and community involvement. Mrs. Bailey was a first grade teacher at the time of the study. She was highly thought of as a competent teacher by her colleagues and by the parents in the community. One was struck by a sense of orderliness, purpose, activity, and contentment on the part of the children and teacher as one entered room 12. Mrs. Bailey was extremely enthusiastic about her participation in the Conceptions of Reading research project. She felt very strongly that her collaboration in the project was an important step in helping to understand the profession to which She is strongly committed. In fact, she had such a busy meeting schedule with school personnel and parents for whom she was responsible that when it became necessary to schedule an appointment for an interview with this researcher, she scheduled the appointment for 3:30 on a Friday after- noon. Feeling she might want to get home early on the last afternoon of the week, it was suggested that the appointment be scheduled for the following week. Assuring the researcher that "Friday was just like any other day," the interview was held and lasted until 5:30 p.m. 55 Mrs. Bailey's classroom was located in a building built in the early 1900's. Additions over the years to the original building blend in well with the original style. The building houses twenty-two full time teachers for approximately 500 students ranging from grades kindergarten through four. In addition, a full time music, gym, art, Speech, and reading specialist serviced the students. The teacher reported that she experienced an excellent profes- sional relationship with her building principal. Unique to this school was the dual position held by the building principal, who also served as the building's reading consultant. At the end of the previous school year, the principal asked Mrs. Bailey if she would be willing to pilot a new handwriting program. She reviewed the program and instituted the program in her classroom this year. Not only was Mrs. Bailey cooperative, but the principal valued her critical appraisal of materials and situations. He often asked for her in- sights on matters before making a decision. As well, the teacher reported she often talked with him because She needed a "sounding board" when faced with a difficult decision. The teacher reported She was not under any principal and/or school district constraints in determining programs, activities, or testing procedures. Mrs. Bailey's first grade class was comprised of twenty-two students, of which twelve were boys and ten were girls. The class- room was a self-contained unit, with an adjoining glassed-in room that served as a storage/art/science activity room. The bathrooms and a drinking fountain were also housed in the area. 56 Blackboards extended across the front of the room, while the bulletin boards and built-in cupboards covered the side wall of the classroom. Windows extended the full length of the outside wall. Activity centers were in various places around the room. The window wall housed the library center, a game center, a handwriting center, a science center, and a math center. A listening center was stationed in the back of the room. A desk placed on the carpeted meeting area served as a writing center. Another desk located in the front of the room was a math game area. Large tables were grouped together in the center of the room which served as "desk" areas for the children. Adjacent to the desk area was the focal point at the room--the "reading circle" area. The round reading table, a movable blackboard, a card chart, and a book- shelf filled with the teacher's reading materials comprised the area where the majority of reading instruction occurred. Mrs. Donlan. Teacher Four was a twenty-six.year old married, white female. Mrs. Donlan received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1973 from Michigan State University in elementary education. In 1977 she completed her Master of Arts degree from Michigan State University in reading instruction. As a participant in the larger study of Conceptions of Reading, Mrs. Donlan was selected as a skills/ integrated whole candidate for the research project (see Appendix A). Mrs. Donlan was an energetic teacher and popular with her colleagues, with the students in her classroom, as well as with the students from other classrooms. At the time of the study, Mrs. Donlan was beginning her sixth year of teaching in a suburban midwestern 57 school district near a large state university. It was her second year in the particular school building located in a community comprised of families from various socioeconomic (lower to upper middle) situations, and various differing cultural backgrounds. The school served 3l0 students in grades kindergarten through five. A staff of eleven full time teachers had available to them the services of a full time reading consultant, counselor, gym and music teacher, psychologist, resource teacher, librarian, and Title I reading teacher. The teacher reported the reading consultant was available but that she did not consult this person often. The teacher felt the reading consultant should be important, but remarked "this area needs strengthening" in her particular building. The teacher reported she was free to select her own materials from a variety of materials housed in the school. As well, she was not under any principal or school board constraints in determining programs, attivities, and infbrmal testing procedures for the children in her classroom. However, she was required to administer a district- wide criterion referenced reading test. The teacher felt the test "didn't tell her anything." She believed her testing procedures were more thorough and yielded the information she needed to know to plan for each student's reading program. V Seven of the classrooms in the school building where Mrs. Donlan taught were self-contained units. Mrs. Donlan's classroom was located in an "open quad" comprised of four classrooms. Unique in this case was that Mrs. Donlan's overall management and conceptual decisions were shared by the three other teachers in the open quad. The four teachers, while maintaining separate classrooms and separate 58 decision making, believed that by working together they were able to teach most effectively by sharing teaching responsibilities. They believed they could better serve the "needs and interests of all students" by collectively planning activities. As a group, they carefully planned a strategy involving work centers and team teaching. Mrs. Donlan's class was composed of twenty-two second and third grade students. Eleven students were second graders. Seven of these students were boys and four were girls. Eleven children were third graders. Four of the third graders were boys, and seven were girls. Two children were black and one was Oriental. The group of six and one-half to eight and one-half year old children were assigned to the class as a result of parents requesting placement in an open area classroom. Mrs. Donlan teamed with another teacher who also had a second/third grade combination room. One of the teachers in the quad arrangement was a male fourth grade teacher, while the fifth grade teacher was a female. The carpeted open quad containing the classrooms was arranged around the focal area of the working-learning centers. The large area for centers housed a reading center, math center, social studies center, science center, handwriting center, publishing center, and a calendar-activity center. Folding walls served to shield each center from one another. Each center had a table and chairs so work could be completed at the center. Four brightly painted utility wife spools were in the middle of the center and served as work tables. 59 One wall in the center area served as a material storage area for the four classrooms. It was filled with books, kits, filmstrips, tapes, and games. A piano painted red, white, and blue sat near this area. On the other side of the center area was an old red bath- tub with a pillow in it, two large sofas, and an old chair-sall . serving as a quiet area for reading. A large cupboard held dishpans containing student materials. Within Mrs. Donlan's classroom area, the student desks were grouped in fours and sixes. A bright green utility wire spool served as a reading table in the "front" of the room. The reading table was kidney-bean shaped and was also located at the "front" of the room. The teacher's desk was shoved in a corner, and a student quiet time desk was located near it. One wall was covered with cupboards, a sink, drinking fountain, and an area for student materials. Two listening centers, a science center, a reading center, and a time out center were arranged on the periphery of the room. Section II Method Introduction and Background on the Method This study was designed to investigate teacher decision making as it shaped the course of reading instruction in four teachers' classrooms. The ethnographic method of participant observation was selected. It was through this method that the researcher was able to talk directly with teachers and study their classroom situations, 60 thereby serving to promote an "understanding about the realities of learning and teaching reading" (Singer & Ruddell, l976, p. 7). Borrowing Harry Holcott's (1977) definition of ethnography as “literally a picture of the way of life of some group of people," the initial concern of the study was with the "way of life" in the four classrooms with particular emphasis on the reading period. By focusing on teacher thinking and decision making, the study was concerned with exploring that which constituted "reading instruction" (1) for the teacher and (2) for the teacher and students as they collectively made sense of their world in the classroom. Using the theory of participant observation and the fieldwork techniques of the participant observer, data were collected in each of the four classrooms. McCall and Simmons (1977) describe partici- pant observation as a characteristic blend or combination of methods and techniques that are used in studying certain types of subject . matter, i.e., social communities like hospitals, primative societies, informal groups. Rather than being a single method, participant observation is characteristic of a style of research making use of a number of methods and techniques, including, "observation, informant interviewing, document analysis, respondent interviewing, and partici- pation with self analysis" (McCall & Simnons, 1977, p. 5). techniques are typically and to some degree necessarily involved in a field study of any complex social organization, and the techniques are viewed as "especially important for obtaining a particular type of information" (McCall & Simmons, 1977, p. 5). 61 In much the same way as the lone anthropologist living among an isolated people, this researcher found her work: involving some amount of genuinely social interaction in the field with the subjects of the study, some direct observation of relevant events, some formal and a great deal of informal interviewing, some systematic counting, some collection of documents and artifacts, and open- endedness in the directions the study takes (McCall & Simmons, 1977, p. 1). In summary, participant observation is not a single method but a type of research enterprise, a style of several methods toward a particular end, the "end" being analytical description of the complex social organization under study. The basic concepts underlying analytical description will be discussed by the writer in the next section of the chapter under the heading of data analysis. For the 'purposes of this portion of the chapter on methodology, the data collection procedures used in the study will be outlined. Data Collection Procedures In participant observation studies, data collection is not a distinct phase in the research process but, rather, is one analytically distinguishable aspect of a multiplex process. Design, analysis, and write-ups are also being carried out simultaneously with data collection and all four aspects continually influence and impinge upon one another (McCall & Simmons, l977, p. 6l). In order to answer the research questions in this study, data were collected using a blend of research techniques (McCall & Simmons, l977, p. 6l). The techniques used in the study include participant observation, informant interviewing, and audio-taped recordings of reading group sessions. 62 Participant observation. Zelditch (l977) describes this phase as one in which the field worker directly observes and also partici- pates in the sense that (s)he has durable social relations in the complex social organization being studied. (s)he may or may not play an active part in events, or (s)he may interview participants in events which may be considered part of the process of observation (McCall & Simmons, l977, p. 9). For each of the teachers studied, this researcher was a partici- pant observer in their classrooms; that is, the researcher directly observed the activities of the teacher and students in the classroom. The researcher participated in the sense that the children were told by the teachers studied that the researcher was there taking notes in order to write a story about their classroom life. Active partici- pation in the events in the classroom on the part of the researcher included helping children with snowsuits and boots at recess time, putting chairs on table tops at the end of the school day, and listening to teachers at break times as they talked about problems they were experiencing. This researcher did not actively participate in the classroom during an instructional segment. During that time, this researcher was recording the activities that were occurring in the classroom. However, it was not at all uncommon for Children to come to me fbr clarification of assignment directions or help on a problem. Students soon came to understand that the teacher would have to handle these problems. 63 The data collected during classroom observations were in the form of field notes and audio-taped recordings of the teachers' and students' participation during the reading period. Field notes were a paper and pencil record containing the "activities, sights, sounds, smells, and events" (Schatzman & Strauss, 1973, p. 52) occurring in a classroom on the particular day of the observation. As well, the field notes contained a log of the "relatively casual, informal con- tinuous interviews" (McCall & Simmons, l977, p. 8). Upon returning to the university from a classroom observation, the field notes were typed by the secretarial staff. Due to time limitations, rarely were the field notes elaborated upon by the researcher at this time. How- ever, instead of only taking "very brief-~merely words, phrases, possibly a drawing" (Schatzman 8 Strauss, l973, p. 95), notes taken for this study were detailed records of a teacher's classroom practice. In addition, during each cycle of data collection, a cassette tape recorder was used to record reading group sessions in each of the classrooms studied. Audio-taped recording§_of the group sessions were collected in the attempt to "glean" the obvious, as well as the not so obvious, relationships and activities occurring within the group setting. Once the tapes had been transcribed and typed by the secretarial staff, the tapes were catalogued and filed as a part of the permanent data for the Conceptions of Reading project. Retrieval of the tapes during analysis for use in conjunction with the typed transcription provided a further source of data on the activities, tones, and impressions of the classrooms studied. 64 Interviews. Two methods of interviewing were employed in the study which included an informal interview and a formal interview. Informal interviews consisted of questions developed by the researcher which were designed to specifically probe a teacher as to the “why and hows“ behind some observable activity. These interviews generally did not last more than ten or fifteen minutes and occurred during a teacher's scheduled break time, out on the playground, or at the end of the school day. These data were collected generally on a daily basis or at least twice during the observational cycles. Formal interviews varied from the informal interviews in several ways. First, they were structured in format and typically took two hours to complete. The interviews were audio-tape recorded and later transcribed for analysis. Secondly, these interviews were designed to probe the teachers' thinking and decision-making concerning general issues about reading instruction. These data were collected fbur times a year fOr the teachers studied (see Appendix D). Cycles of data collection. The data were collected four times during the school year for each of the teachers studied. The time periods of data collection for this study were based on the work of Yinger (1978). In his research on teacher planning, Yinger (l978) isolated four critical times during the school year which the teacher he studied identified as important periods of time for teacher planning. Data were collected in a cycle format. The first cycle of data collection occurred in the first month of school. Generally, this 65 cycle began in the second week of school in September and continued through the first week in October. The data collected in the second cycle occurred before Thanksgiving and concluded early in December. The third cycle of data collection began in the middle of February and continued through the middle of March. The final cycle of data collection coincided with the end of the school year and occurred in the month of May and early June. Within each of the cycles, the classrooms studied were observed from three to five half days and one full day. Interim visits of a half day were scheduled in between the cycles. The interview materials were collected before, during, and after school within each cycle. Data Analysis Procedures The participant observer gathers data by participating in the daily life of the group or organization he studies (McCall & Simons, l969, p. 245). Observational research produces an inmense amount of detailed description, and, in the case of this study, teacher interview data, field notes, and transcriptions of audio- taped reading groups produced approximately 1,500 pages of such material. Integral to the analysis of the data was Denzin's (l970; l978) principle of triangulation. That is, the collection of observational data was used to validate and corroborate inferences drawn from the interviews. In the same way, the interview data served to substan- tiate findings inferred from the observational data. The data were analyzed according to a three-stage process which included (l) the identification of the teachers' categories of 66 decisions, (2) the identification of the instructional practices of the teachers studied, and (3) the comparison of the categories of decisions identified and the instructional practices identified in order to infer how teacher decision making appeared to shape the course of reading instruction for each of the teachers studied. Identification of the teacher's categories of decisions. As a first step toward understanding a field of human activity, one must organize the raw observations into a descriptive system. Recalling that participant observation is not a single method but rather a style combining several methods, participant observation strives toward the goal of analytic description of a complex social organi- zation. Analytic description is much more than the simple description of a particular phenomenon typified by the work of a journalist or writer. An analytic description (l) employs the concepts, propo- sitions, and empirical generalization of a body of scientific theory as the basic guides in analysis and reporting; (2) employs thorough and systematic collection, classification, and reporting of facts; and (3) generates new empirical generalizations (and perhaps concepts and propositions as well) based on these data (McCall & Simmons, 1977, p. 3). In order to understand teacher decision making in this study, the analytic descriptions of each teacher's decision making were developed. To develop an analytic description of each teacher, the data were first organized into a descriptive system consisting of categories. In some cases, one has only to apply categories already set up by previous investigators or by the society itself, and 67 proceed with the further stages of analysis (McCall & Simmons, l969, p. l73). In other cases, previously existing categories are clarified and revised by the attempt to apply them to a concrete body of data. In some cases, and in particular in the case of the study described here, the researcher must create his/her own classification category system for the material under study (McCall & Simmons, l969, p. 173). The identification of the teachers' categories of decisions were derived from the decision topics a teacher generated during an interview. For example, Teacher Three stated during the fall cycle interview: I decided to use the Ginn (textbook) series, because it has a balanced approach between phonetic development and compre- hension (COR Interview, 9/19/78). This statement was judged by this researcher as the teacher's decision concerning the selection of materials. The decisions teachers stated concerning some aspects of their reading instruction were compiled in list form. The identification of the instructionalgpractices of the teachers studied. In this stage, the observational data (i.e., field notes and transcripts of reading group sessions) were analyzed. The focus of this analysis was to identify the instructional practices of the teachers studied when they were observed teaching reading. Lists of instructional practices were developed for each teacher. This portion of the analysis was accomplished in three stages. First, the field notes were analyzed by this researcher to identify a practice, that is, some method or technique the teacher employed in his/her program which appeared to provide reading instruction for 68 l students. Second, the field notes and transcripts of audio-taped recordings of reading groups were analyzed to locate further pieces of evidence which indicated the practice was an integral part of the teacher's reading instruction. Finally, the observational data were analyzed to determine if the practice occurred over time or to some degree of regularity in the teacher's instruction. This step eliminated a one-time activity or practice being considered as characteristic of the teacher's instructional practice. The comparison of the categories of decisions identified and the instructionalpractices identified. In this stage, the categories of decisions teachers stated they made and the actual instructional prac- tices observed were compared in order to infer how teacher decision making appeared to shape the course of their reading instruction. The classification system of the teachers' decision makinggand classroom practices. The categories of teachers' decisions and class- room practices that emerged from the analysis of data were classified according to preactive, interactive, and postactive or evaluative phases of teaching. The terms used in the instructional model of planning describe the particular phases involved in a teacher planning, implementing, and evaluating a lesson (Jackson, 1965; Shavelson, 1976; Yinger, 1978). For the purposes of this study, these terms were used to describe a particular time of the school year. For example, four major types of decisions were identified as having been made by the teachers within the first month of school. 69 The first month of school appeared to represent a "preactive" or "planning phase“ for each of the teachers studied. Following this phase, evidence from classroom observations revealed that the reading programs of the teachers studied were underway. This phase was characterized by the implementation and the modification of the teachers' preactive or planning phase decisions. This phase typically began late in September and continued well into the spring of the school year. During the last six weeks of school, the teachers studied began to reflect upon the school year. This phase of teaching was described as the postactive or evaluative phase. Sunmary of Chapter III The purpose of this chapter was to present the procedures used in the study of teacher decision making as it shaped the course of reading instruction in four classrooms. Since teacher decision making is not independent of the context in which it occurs, brief descriptions of the teachers studied and their classrooms were presented. Using the theory of participant observation and fieldwork techniques, data were collected in order to identify the decisions teachers made and in order to describe how the decisions teachers made were reflected in their classroom practices. The data were analyzed according to a three-stage process. This process included (l) the identification of the teachers' categories of decisions, (2) the identification of the instructional practices of the teachers studied, and (3) the comparison of the categories of decisions identified in order to infer how teacher decision making appeared to 70 shape the course of reading instruction for each of the teachers studied. The categories of teacher decision making and classroom practices were classified according to preactive, interactive, and evaluative phases of teaching. These terms were used to describe a particular time of the school year. CHAPTER IV FINDINGS Introduction The purpose of this study was to provide an understanding of teacher decision making as it shaped the course of reading instruc- tion in four classrooms. Through analytic description of the patterns of teacher decision making, it was possible to identify and classify the decisions the four teachers made concerning their reading instruction. Further, through an analysis of the f0ur teachers' decision making and classroom practices, it was possible to describe how teacher decisions were reflected in the course of reading instruction in their classrooms. The purpose of this chapter is to present the major findings of the study. In the first section of this chapter, a case study for each of the teachers studied will be presented in order to describe each teacher's decision making and classroom practice. Section II will contain a sunmary of the findings across the four teachers studied. A discussion of the findings follows these sections, and a summary of the chapter is contained in the final section. 71 72 Section I - Case Studies Case Study #1 Introduction This case study provides a description of a teacher and her second grade class as they went about the business of teaching and learning over the period of a school year. The teacher in this study, Mrs. Perry, is a second grade teacher in a rural community. Her teaching assignment is in a self-contained classroom, and she has twenty-fOur students in her class. Preactive or PlanningPhase The preactive or planning phase is characterized as a "reflec- tive, thoughtful time" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 392). The planning phase for this teacher began in August and continued through the first week of school in September. It was during this time that the teacher made a variety of decisions concerning the reading instruction for the students in her class. However, it appeared that the combination of her beliefs about program selection, her beliefs about the teaching of reading, and her goals for the year served as the framework upon which she made decisions concerning her reading instruction. The fbllowing excerpts of interview statements illustrate the three components of the framework of thinking which Mrs. Perry operated from in making decisions concerning her reading instruction. Mrs. Perry began thinking about the school year in August. As Mrs. Perry stated, "I think I probably do a lot of thinking about what's going to happen before the kids get here" (COR Interview 73 l/lZ/79). The teacher explained her "planning" began in August. This August planning did not involve handwritten plans but, rather, a time she characterized as thinking about the new school year. She described her August planning in the following interview segment. I guess it's partly just mentally just getting myself psyched up to come back. I guess I start thinking about things that I will be teaching. If there are new materials, then of course I try to get hold of those. What changes I anticipate, you know, like this past year we had an assistant principal joining. I don't know that I think in terms of specifics, like with reading stories, specific skills, that kind of thing. I guess what I really reflect back on is what I figure I didn't do so well and is there a better way to do it? Or, if we've been someplace during the summer and I've seen something and how that could be used. Sometimes it's making games and things like that...things that I know will come up. And, when you get right down to about the last week in August, then it's actually planning for what you are going to do that next week...that kind of thing ...how you'll handle those first few days when you're trying to sort everybody out and keep them from swinging from the light fixtures and everything (COR Interview 2/l3/79). Mrs. Perry stated that her program "does not change drastically from year to year" (COR Interview, l/12/79). Before the school year began, she had knowledge of the materials she would be using and the fact that she would establish reading groups as the setting to accomplish her reading instruction. When asked in January to project her plans for the next year's reading program, she said: My program does not change drastically from year to year. I mean the materials are a given and you use what you've got. Um, so sure, I'll be using much the same materials unless we get something brand new all of a sudden. Reading groups I couldn't tell you. I guess I've never had less than four, but I've had as many as six or seven. Uh, for three or four years I was running five; they just split themselves that way. Uh, but now this year it's four and it's working out nicely with four. Um, sometimes it depends (COR Interview, l/lZ/79). 74 During this phase, the teacher defined her belief system of the teaching of reading as a "combination of skills instruction and comprehension instruction" (COR Interview, 9/78). When asked to consider her reading beliefs in terms of goals for the year, the teacher described her goals in terms of skills instruction, compre- hension development, and progression through a basal textbook program. She summarized her goals during this phase in the following inter- view segment. Well, to advance them from where they are, for them to make some progress. You know, with the bright kids, you're just not going to have a great problem. For them it's going to be a perfection of their skills. With the middle of the road ones, golly, it will be advancing their word analysis skills, their contextual skills. They seem to need a little bit more so far as comprehension. I do have some word callers. So I think for those kids, I've got to work especially on getting them to get meaning, because it's all well and good to be able to use the skills and to mark the right box, but it's useless if they're not getting any meaning out of it. And for my slower ones, well, we hope they're going to gain a sight vocabulary because they're very weak in that, they know their sounds beautifully, their consonant sounds. But they wouldn't dream of using them. So we have to teach them to use those things; I keep trying to point out the parallels between the...I mean relationships between spelling and reading because kids also don't know that if they could read them on a spelling list, they could read them in a reading book, too. So I'll be working on that, and certainly getting them to advance in the program, as much as possible. Right now they're working on the Laidlaw thing, and so I'd like to get them back to the Houghton-Mifflin. I'd really like to get them at least through Signposts, which is l-2 or a 2-l, depending on how you look at it. If I could do that with the slow children, I think I'd be doing quite a bit (COR Interview, 9/78). In summary, the combination of Mrs. Perry's beliefs about the teaching of reading, goals for the year, and program conceptualization appeared to serve as a framework upon which she made decisions concerning the plans for her current program. In the following 75 section of the case study, the decisions Mrs. Perry made which appeared to shape the course of reading instruction in her classroom are presented. Decisions Identified During the Preactive Phase Testing and grogping decisions. In order to get her program started, the teacher began the school year with a testing program. When asked what her testing program consisted of, she replied: I used...well, I looked first at what, you know, they had completed last year. Ask the kids what books they had read, this kind of thing. I tested them on the knowledge of the alphabet sounds, on the Dolch list. I did some of the Houghton-Mifflin list itself, I had them try to read a bit, asked them what they thought about their efforts, how they felt about it, was it too hard, was it too easy, this kind of thing (COR Interview, 9/78). The decision to test students resulted in the determination of a student's instructional level. The teacher then used this infor- mation to place the student in a basal textbook at a student's appropriate instructional level. Students were then "grouped" upon the results of the testing program, that is, placement in a basal textbook determined the reading group memberShip of a student. The observations of this teacher began September l3, l978, one week after the start of school. While the teacher stated she had tested students, the teacher was not observed testing students. By the first observation, children had already been placed in their particular basal textbook and were meeting with the teacher in reading groups. Following is a segment taken from the field notes on September 13, 1978, illustrative of the teacher giving basal textbook assignments 76 to various groups and then inviting a reading group to meet with her. 8:57 - 8:58 - 9:00 - 9:0l 9:02 9:03 9:04 - "People in Secrets, instead of reading in your books, go pick a book about an animal. When you come, you must tell what you read about and why you liked it." "People in Rainbows, you finish to the bottom of page 22 and read to the bottom of page 26. That will finish the story about Jeremy." Class working, teacher is helping girl find a book. Teacher circulates helping students. Teacher says, "Zeke and Tad and Jean go to speech." Class is still reading. Teacher moves helping students. “If you are reading Rainbows get a chair and come up here.“ Group meets at front of room. "Was Lucy any better listener today?" S - "Un on." S - "She stayed in library and didn't put her lunch bag away." Teacher - "What about on the playground?" "So Lucy really has a - problem with her listening; what can she do to get better?" S - No response. Teacher - "How about pay attention?“ S - "yes" (COR Field Notes, 9/l3/78). Materials decisions. The overall decision for the type of basal material to be used by Mrs. Perry was decided by a district-wide committee of teachers in charge of selecting a district-wide reading basal text series. The teacher outlined the procedure for materials selection in the following interview segment. She stated: Let's see, there was quite a selection procedure several years ago. We reviewed, there must have been six or eight different reading programs, and we decided at that time what we wanted. And this was fine, we got the readers, the workbooks, the supplementary dittoes that went along with it. We haven't really gotten a whole lot more than that since then, and there have been other things that have come out. They have also up-dated the series somewhat, they split each grade into smaller books. However, there is either no money or no push, I'm not sure which, to at least up-date the program (COR Interview, 9/78). 77 The materials the teacher used during the time of the study had been used during her previous years of teaching. When asked if the program was consistent with how she liked to teach reading she explained: That program, to me, doesn't have enough work on using their skills. The workbooks are very much direction oriented, you know, "find this and put a box around it," which is fine, but the kids can't handle the vocabulary very often. And they're very, most of those kids, are quite unsure of them- selves already by second grade. So they're hesitant to use context clues, they're hesitant to try to use their sound clues, and put the two together; they just cringe. So in that respect, I found that I was doing a lot of ditto making last year to kind of give them a little bit of drill on word family sounds, and that kind of thing (COR Interview, 9/78). Although she stated she would "probably use mostly teacher-made" reading materials, observations revealed that the use of teacher-made dittos, etc. was limited and commercial materials dominated. The fOllowing excerpt taken from field notes illustrates a typical day's use of commercial materials provided by the district. 9:l0 - Reading group called Secrets (5 children). These children took a book test. H.M. progress unit tests; rest of children are working on reading, reading dittos. Assignments: (on board) Secrets - read dog story Signposts - choose your own Raindows - read l09-l15 ‘ Fish - read 66-7l (COR Field Notes, l0/28/78). While Mrs. Perry used the district-mandated series, she talked about the problems she faced when being asked to use only one series with the students in her class. If a kid can't cut the Houghton-Mifflin, or if, like a kid who's been retained, he's been through the Houghton-Mifflin and just, you know, has done a lousy job, then depending on the grade level, you do have some supplementary things. 78 But, those are kind of, whatever we're able to get, whenever. We do have a few copies of the Harper Row thing, which is easier, sort of a remedial kind of program. And then last year, because I had l5 out of my 25 kids that were unable to read the primer from Houghton-Mifflin, they did come u with this Laidlaw series for me to use (COR Interview, 9/78). During this phase, Mrs. Perry did not talk about the use of supplementary materials. The basal textbook and the related activities of the basal textbook (dittoes and workbooks) served as her reading program. Management decisions. Management decisions during this phase tended to be organizational techniques that would provide for the students an understanding of how the classroom was going to work for the year. Observations occurring in the second week of school, indicated children "knew" they were to enter the room quietly each morning, go directly to store their coats on their individual coat hooks in the room, and then place their lunch money or notes on the teacher's desk before going to their individual desks (COR Field Notes, 9/l3/78). Once seated, the children took materials out of their desks and began reading or working on some quiet activities at their seats. Daily assignments were listed on the board, and the children learned they were to come into class and begin reading their day's story silently. Following the attendance, morning news and "show and tell" were a part of the morning routine. Class rules about hitting, pushing, getting into lines quietly were posted on a bulletin board in front of the room. Bathroom passes were hanging by the door of the school- room, and students were allowed to visit the bathroom one at a time (COR Field Notes, 9/20/78). 79 Influence of general management concerns on the teacher's decisions. Management concerns in general influenced the other group decisions the teacher had made. For example, the nature of “grouping" in Mrs. Perry's classroom came about as the result of trying to manage a program for twenty-five to thirty students. Mrs. Perry stated, "I think that given the fact that you've got twenty-five kids, grouping is a definite convenient way to handle instruction" (COR Interview, 4/23/79). Even the number of children in a group reflected the management concerns of Mrs. Perry. In telling a story about another teacher who had eleven students in one reading group, Mrs. Perry stated: Now, Edith next door has...oh I think she said eleven kids who are reading on one grade level. And I would not attempt to work with eleven kids in one group, because I feel that's an impossible task. I don't know what they're doing and they certainly aren't all paying attention to me. So simply from the fact of numbers I would split that group if I were in her place. So I do make that kind of decision too, you know. If you've got a whole bunch of them reading on the same level, chances are I'm still going to make two groups out of it simply for ease of management on my part (COR Interview, 4/23/79). Mrs. Perry's decision about the use of materials also reflected her concern for the management of her classroom. While a district- wide decision, she preferred to use a basal series as a matter of convenience. A matter of convenience, I think probably you need a basal reader because--well, maybe I'm just not talented enough-- but I can't see how, given the length of the school day and number of activities there are to handle and the number of programs the kids are involved in, and the lack of help for record keeping, you can keep track of skills, comprehension, and everything else on a completely individualized program. I think maybe if you had few enough kids, that would work. But, I think as a matter of convenience, you need that basal reader. I do think that sometimes people just out of college 80 who have not taught before, have not had a lot of experience teaching, they probably need the organization of a basal reader--just to get started on it. Because otherwise I think you could kind of be lost in the forest for awhile, and kids could get lost, too (COR Interview, 2/l3/79). Interactive Phase The interactive phase of teaching is defined as the period of time “when the teacher is interacting with students" (Shavelson, l976, p. 396). For the purposes of this study, the beginning of this phase for Mrs. Perry began in the second week of school. She had established her reading groups and her program of reading instruction was underway. This phase was characterized by the implementation and modifications of the decisions made in the preactive or planning phase. On-the—spot and context specific decisions also surfaced within observations on particular days. Implementation ofgpreactive decisions: organization of the school day. Implementation of the testing, grouping, materials, and management decisions in Mrs. Perry's class resulted in a consistent routine pattern of organization. The class of twenty-four second grade students (ten boys and fourteen girls) spent their morning working on basal materials and other reading related activities. As well, the teacher spent her mornings working with reading groups and/ or individuals on reading. The children knew their morning time was to be spent working quietly and industriously. Mrs. Perry felt her time was to be spent teaching and, in general, leading the class through an instructional program. Over the period of the school year, 81 the organization of the school day reflected in thirteen out of fourteen observations remained the same. Typically, a day in Mrs. Perry's room followed the general schedule outlined below. 8:30 8:30 - 8:32 8:32 - 8:40 8:40 - 8:45 8:45 - 9:00 9:00 - 9:15 9:15 - 11:00 11:00 - 11:20 11:20 12:30 - 1:15 1:15 - 1:30 Bell rings. Children enter room, remove coats and store, find their seats. Children occupy themselves in some type of activity, i.e., playing with clay, reading a book, drawing, quiet conversation. Teacher takes attendance, children continue their activity, sharing time. Teacher may review a skill lesson, or hand- writing, goes over general directions for the day. Teacher circulates around room helping individual students, teacher may work at her desk on papers, children are beginning their work, a hum of children reading orally to themselves can be heard. Teacher works with the various reading groups. Students are involved in a variety of reading, math, recreational activities, and reading group instruction. Last reading group is generally dismissed and teacher and students go about business of getting materials put away, winding up activi- ties, and in general, getting ready for lunch. Lunch and outdoor recess. (The school has a hot lunch program. The majority of children stay for lunch. Since there is no morning recess, a lunch recess time is provided for.) Return to room, class leaves for bathroom and drink break. Depending upon the day, this time may be devoted to math, music, or art. Tuesday from l2:35 to 1:00 is music. On Wednesdays from 12:35 to l:OO is art. Another music period is glggted on Wednesday afternoons from 2:00 to Recess. 82 1:30 - l:45 Return from recess, bathroom break. 1:45 - 2:30 Review math, or have a science or social studies lesson, language arts, films. 2:30 - 3:00 Free time. Story at the end of the day. 3:00 Dismissal (COR Field Notes, 9/78 to 6/79). Typically, the classroom atmosphere is one of "no-nonsense-you- have-work-to-do." While only a second grade classroom, the students did not have a recess break in the morning. The room as a whole was generally very busy and very quiet. The majority of voice noise emanated from the reading groups as students read orally or as the teacher worked with a reading group on a lesson. Student morning time was generally characterized by approximately twenty-five minutes participation in a reading group, with the remainder of the morning characterized by students seated at their desks engaged in paper and pencil tasks. During one minute sweeps performed on six individual students in the classroom, a variety of activites were found to be occurring. Following is a segment of data that illustrated the types of activities students spent their time on during the block of the morning reading period throughout the school year. Sam - working on crossword puzzle, a Secret's ditto. Jane - working on teacher made spelling ditto. Gary - working on teacher made spelling ditto rhyming words, put right word in the blank. Dee - completing ditto on sequencing, drawing a map of her favorite park. Jan - in Secret's reading group, rather distracted, not reading words in the list with the others skill lesson. 83 Anne - in Secret's reading group, appears to be actively involved in reading list of words from skill lesson, uses words in sentence clues (COR Field Notes, 2/27/79). A one minute sweep taken of the same children two hours later reveals a variety of the most common activities observed just before lunch throughout the school year. Sam - in Secrets I reading group, playing vocabulary game. Jane - is working on her airplane project for her Rewards story, asks me to cut her airplane wings. Gary - is Secrets I reading group, playing vocabulary game. Dee - completing a workbook page, goes to visit another group member to see her airplane. Jan ~ is talking to a boy who is cutting out a paper heart, she is laughing and giggling. Anne - is wandering around the room with an allegator puppet (COR Field Notes, 2/27/29). Reading groups as a setting for instruction. Within this organi- zation of a typical morning, the reading groups emerged as the setting used by Mrs. Perry for reading instruction. Observations throughout the school year revealed that the teacher spent nearly two full hours in the morning working with various reading groups. Generally, a group session lasted for approximately twenty to thirty minutes a day (COR Field Notes, 9/78 to 6/79). During fburteen out of fourteen observations, the teacher was observed spending the majority of her morning time engaged in activities with the various reading groups. Mrs. Perry followed the teacher's guide of the basal series very closely. The following segment of field notes illustrates the four components of an 84 instructional lesson. Group work began with a general questioning segment, followed by oral reading by students, a skill lesson, and directions being given for workbook activities. General Questioning Segment T - "Well, how about it, did little Hippo find what he was looking for? Think about the shape of the hippo's hand. I wonder if he would see better if he stretched his neck? How did he get in the lion's cage? Why did the lion 9:30 - Child begins reading orally 9:36 9:40 leave?" Oral Reading student provides word for another student. - group helps a student with a word. - "I'll help him with a word." - Teacher says the word alone for a student. Another child begins - Another student helps reading orally the student reading orally read the word Charlie. Another child reads orally - student said stamp-ded. - Teacher says "stamped." Skill Lesson "Let's make an m sound. Is your mouth open or closed? How about an 5 sound, f sound, is your mouth open or closed? Okay, how about a short 'a' sound-—is your mouth open or closed? Whenever you open your mouth, it is a vowel sound. How many vowels in many? How many times do you open your mouth? It will tell you how many vowels." (Children are clapping to sounds.) "Syllables are like ghunks of words" (reads list of words from guide . "Do you remember what compound words are? --- that's right." 85 9:41 Holds up list of words, give sentence and leaves out a word. 9:42 T - "Okay, word means...(reads a sentence and says)... what does suit mean in that sentence?" Direction/Assignment Giving_ 9:43 Passes out workbooks. T - "Look at page 39. What you are going to be using? (Goes through directions.) "This is a page about syllables." (Children "clap out" examples.) "It's like that for the page." Next page. 9:45 Group dismissed (COR Field Notes, ll/20/78). Mrs. Perry prepared materials to supplement each skill lesson in the Houghton-Mifflin basal series. During the teacher directed skill lesson of a particular group, the teacher used charts she had prepared to coincide with the material in the textbook. She used these materials as a guide during a skill lesson, and to give students additional practice during the skill lesson. However, without the structure of the basal text, the teacher was often left unprepared to handle adequately an instructional problem. For example, when a child faced an unknown word during an oral reading segment of a reading group period, the teacher seldom offered a constructive decoding skill to help the child. During almost every observation, the teacher allowed another student to supply the unknown word, or the teacher placed the student in a position of having to "guess" the right word. Following is a segment of an audio-taped transcript of a reading group representative of the observed and recorded practice of the teacher making a child "guess" 86 the unknown words. The child is reading orally from her basal text- book and runs into difficulty with the word "want." Student: (reading) Newman, open the door. I want S: won't 5: want Teacher: Which is it? Want or won't? We had want in spelling. How do you spell it? Can you remember how to spell want? Student: w-h-a-t Teacher: That's what. Student: I mean, w-h-n-t Teacher: w-a:n-t Student: Yea Teachers: This isn't w-a-n-t, so it can't be want. It's won't. Yea, I won't Student: have Teacher: Do you know where you are now? All right. Student: I won't have that robber (COR Transcript, 2/27/79). In another example, a child is reading and is not able to recognize a particular word. The teacher uses her "guessing strategy" as a way to help the child "unlock" the unknown word. In addition, the teacher asks the other children in the group to help the child with the unknown word. The child reads along and becomes stuck on a word. Following is the teacher's strategy to help the child. "Which is it, held or hold? How do you know? Help him (to the others in the group). How should he know? (COR Field Notes, 2/19/79). While the teacher talked of the importance of skills instruction, the instructional segments of her reading groups often left the observer wondering how the teacher accomplished instruction. 87 Observations in all four cycles revealed the teacher's ”teaching" was more in the mode of student recitation and direction following rather than teacher instruction. Following is an excerpt of an audio-taped recording of a vowel lesson illustrating the "recitation" style of teaching very common for this teacher throughout the year. Teacher: Okay, which vowel do you hear in "tease”? Student: Long E. Teacher: Long E. How about in "place"? Student: Long A. Teacher: Long A. "Castle"? Student: Short A. Teacher: Spinach? Student: Short 1. Teacher: Twist? Student: Short I (COR Transcript, 2/27/79). The fbllowing excerpt from an audio-taped recording, again illustrating the "recitation" style of teaching, is a lesson on syllables. The lesson began with: Teacher: How many syllables in sunflower? Student: Three Teacher: Prove it Student: Sunflower Teacher: Snowman Student: Two Teacher: Carrot Student: Two Teacher: Fashionable Student: Four Teacher: Four, John, if you count them, its better to be kinda counting as you go along (COR Transcript, 2/27/79). The final example taken from field notes is a leSson on con- tractions and an extreme example illustrating the lack of adequate teacher instruction. Okay. Those contractions are the lazy way of saying things. Now, let's look at your workbook pages (COR Field Notes, 2/19/79). Teacher: 88 Differences between high and low reading groups. During the many hours spent in Mrs. Perry's classroom observing reading groups in operation, it became apparent that the experience of learning to read is qualitatively different for high and low readers. The implementation of the preactive decisions and the contextual in- fluences posed by the grouping and teacher attitude seemed to explain the differences between the groups. Mrs. Perry stated she "spent more group time with the slower students" (COR Interview, l/12/79). In addition to the differences in the time allocated to the high and low groups, there were differences in the types of activities planned and presented to the students in the high and low groups. The teacher discussed her perception of how the groups were spending their time by stating: I think probably with the lower groups I tend to work a little more on the word identification skills, using the sound because I guess I think they've got to say the words before they're going to understand them. With the other group...well, like the top group--the "Wide-Eyed Detectives" group--right now I'm spending more time with them on compre- hension because they are good readers...they're fast readers but I guess I'm spending a little more time with them on comprehension than I am on skills right now (COR Interview, 2/13/79). Observations of the low reading group revealed that students spent their time working on word identification and decoding activities. The development of these skills typically occurred in isolation from whole words and/or whole sentences (see Appendix E). Observations of the high reading group revealed that students spent their time working on extending the meaning of stories, and com- pleting comprehension and vocabulary activities within the context of 89 sentences (see Appendix F). As the teacher stated, "for bright kids, isolating skills aren't meaningful" (COR Interview, 4/23/79). Besides the differences in the types of activities planned and presented to high and low groups, Mrs. Perry also perceived a difference in her role and her expectations for the high and low groups. With the low readers, the teacher described her role as directive in nature. She stated: I think I have to be quite directive with them. I think I have to be more of a corrective, I guess. More of a person you know, who points out this is where you're wrong. And then you fbllow up with and this is why. You kind of push, pull, probe, lead, all the way because they have a hard time putting things together and they also sometimes have a hard time spitting out what they do know. So I guess in that respect you're very much involved, very much directing and pushing at the same time (COR Interview, 4/23/79). With her high readers, Mrs. Perry viewed her role more as a guider and planner. Well, I think in terms of reading, if they can read it them- selves and understand, then I'm perfectly content to just make assignments, make suggestions, plan some activities for them, that kind of thing. If they've got a specific need, okay, then I am more than willing to go ahead and just pro- vide for that one need (COR Interview, l/12/79). The teacher perceived her low students as "frustrating." This frustration stems from the student "not being able to cope with one little skill" (COR Interview, 4/23/79). The high readers, on the other hand, were viewed as having a "natural feel for phonic-type skills" (COR Interview, 2/13/79). High readers, she claimed, "tend to synthesize the phonic skills, the context, the whole thing" (COR Interview, 2/13/79). Low readers were viewed as not being able to synthesize their information well: "They've got parts but they don't put it together well" (COR Interview, 2/13/79). 90 The teacher also stated that children read because of "what the teacher expects, what the child expects, and what the home expects" (COR Interview, 2/l3/79). When asked which group she preferred to wOrk with, she stated, “I think most teachers would like to work with the bright kids only, you know, because they don't give you the prob- lems with learning that the slower ones do (COR Interview, 4/23/79). The "problems" of the low reader were defined by Mrs. Perry as: Well, let's see. They don't possess the sight vocabulary, they don't know "the," "is," you know, the little words, those words stop them. They have to come ask fbr all sorts of help, they‘re hesitant to come ask for help, but they can't do it. They get no meaning out of reading; it's sheer torture fbr them to sit down and read. Ones that go to the bathroom an awful lot, because they don't want to read, or they drink an awful lot, or manage to break their pencil leads every ten seconds, or something, so they can go sharpen it again. You know, those things are typical of your poor reader. They simply cannot read, they can't use what skills they have, and they don't really understand once they have read. I guess that's my poor reader (COR Interview, 9/78). A successful reader was defined by Mrs. Perry as "someone who can read and understand with a minimum of teacher assistance, who enjoys it, you know, who really enjoys it" (COR Interview, 9/78). The teacher strategy employed with the high readers for this teacher was more of a "conversational type process." "With the low group, it was more of question and answer" type process (COR Interview, 2/13/79). Modification of_preactive decisions during the interactive phase. During this interactive or teaching phase, Mrs. Perry revised her initial decision concerning students' group placements. Realizing that a student was able to "function much more independently than I 91 realized at first" (COR Interview, 2/13/79), a students' group place- ment was changed. The teacher explained: A lot of times it's what I don't see at first. There are a couple of kids that were on the remedial center's list that have just suddenly picked up and gone. I could feel that they were doing much better. On that basis, I moved them to new groups (COR Interview, 2/13/79). On-the-spot decisions. One day while observing in Mrs. Perry's classroom, she stated to the students in a reading group, "Okay, we are not going to do the skill lesson" (COR Field Notes, 2/15/79). Later, when questioned about her decision to omit something from her planned lesson, a discussion about on-the-spot decision making evolved. If I find that something isn't working; something isn't being learned, then we'll stop there and go back over it again. So there are day-to-day decisions, too (whether we've really covered what we should, whether the kids really understood what they were doing or whether they were a little confused; and then, is that something one of the skills that will be hit later, is it one that is not too crucial, or is it something that maybe I'd better stop and work on for awhile before they go on--and yet not work it to death because there's a point where you can't work (COR Interview, 2/13/79). Her decision to eliminate some of the skills lessons evolved as a matter of just not having enough group time. I could not in any way handle all their skills lessons for any particular group. I just...it drove me wild (COR Inter— view, 2/13/79). She also elected to eliminate some of the skills based on her feelings that parts of the basal textbook program seemed "completely point- less" (COR Interview, 2/13/79). She viewed herself "constantly adapting“ the program. She stated: They may have systematized it for me, but I don't believe they have told me what I think about reading--particularly. 92 when it comes to the comprehension part. They've got the comprehension thing written out, if you follow them. But then I don't...I just don't read down through where it says, "Teacher says..." and then you wait for thus and so answer and that kind of thing. So I guess the comprehension part doesn't come totally from them. Some of the things they do I find completely pointless--like hearing the number of syllables in the word. Who cares? (COR Interview, 2/13/79). Postactive or Evaluative Decisions Judgingpsuccess of students. The postactive or evaluative phase involves the teacher reflecting upon the school year and "judging the worth of prior decisions" (Shavelson, l976, p. 401). This phase occurred at the end of the school year for Mrs. Perry. During an informal interview recorded in field notes, the teacher stated she. had achieved her goal of "getting all but the Tricky Troll group through the second grade readers" (COR Field Notes, 5/14/79). While the teacher at one point stated, "I don't think you can just measure their progress by going from one reader to another" (COR Interview, 2/13/79), this appeared to be the measure she used at the end of the school year to evaluate student progress. This evaluation of student progress based on how many readers were completed seems to result from the teacher's feelings about the next year's teacher the student will meet in the coming fall. There is "a lot of difference in what they expect," she stated, and further, "I have to prepare them to go on" (COR Interview, l/12/79). When I asked her why she con- tinued to teach something she didn't feel was necessary, she stated: Because the third grade teachers do teach it. I checked that one out. And they do teach it, and so I know the . children will have to have at least exposure to the con- cept (COR Interview, 4/23/79). 93 Reasons attributed to success or lack of success. For the students who were successful, the teacher outlined their success in terms of the reading program they had used. Now, they started out last fall in the Rainbow book which is the primer in the first grade. And they have just come so far, and they have accomplished so much. It's rewarding, the fact that they have accomplished so much (COR Interview, 4/23/79). For the children who were not successful and, in particular, the ones the teacher had spent the most time working with over the school year, their lack of progress was blamed on motivation, environmental, and personal problems. Right how I am having a hard time thinking about what to do with the low group. I have tried and I have tried, and you know we have limited materials and Joany herself has decided that she can do a little reading, and on a given day she'll try. Goerge has learning disability problems. Mary Ann, I don't know. I don't know. I finally got her mother to get her some glasses, but it seems no matter how low a goal I set, she manages to fail it. So I don't know. Maybe there (at home) are other problens there that there's nothing I can do about. Children like Joany and Mary Ann, there are emotional problems someday. George, you know, the children that you mainstream (COR Interview, 4/23/79). Sunmary of Case Study #1 The following figure (Figure 2) summarizes Mrs. Perry's decision making and classroom practices. It appeared that the decisions Mrs. Perry made concerning her reading instruction evolved around the basal textbook series she used in her reading program. The preactive or planning decisions were based on a mental framework involving the basal textbook series. Her testing, grouping, and management decisions all fbcused on getting students placed into the basal series. 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The three high second grade readers spent little and/or no time in an instructional situation with the teacher. The teacher stated the high readers "did not need her, and would make it on their own" (COR Field Notes, 11/29/77). Following is a figure (Figure 4) summarizing the typical allot- ment of time devoted to readers of differing ability levels. During the minutes listed in Figure 4, the low and average students worked on skill development activities with the teacher. In addition, the times listed in Figure 4 have taken into acccount the amount of time the aide spent reading orally with the low and average students. The twelve minutes the teacher spent with the high students involved the teacher and students together reading the directions fbr workbook pages (COR Field Notes, 3/6/78). The teacher stated in an audio-taped interview in June that: ...at the end of the school year, I hit skill instruction with the lower children, and I did more creative writing, just reading activities with the children who were reading. About April, my highest groups were doing more actual reading than skill instruction, and I hit my lower groups with the same things that I did with those kids at the beginning of the school year. I hit them very hard with skill instruction" (COR Interview, 6/4/78). 112 Observation Low Average High Day Students Students Students I 35 22 O p(minutes) II 20 40 0 III 35 26 9 = time with aide; one student read orally IV 60 43 2 V 75 O 12* Total , Minutes 225 131 23 (COR Field Notes, 11/29/77, l/12/78, 2/7/78, 3/6/78, 3/9/78) Figure 4: Miss Delta: Time Allocation to High and Low Reading Groups 113 The following excerpt taken from an audio tape recording of a skill lesson exemplifies the nature of a skill lesson for the low students. Okay, I would like to show you something this morning. I have written the letters a, t. When you see a, t together you are going to say at. Can you say at? At. Now I want you to get your mouth ready to make the sound that Mr. B makes. Ryan, do you know what sound Mr. B makes? What word can B make when you put it with at? This is the word bat. Can you say bat? Bat. Bat, Nicki, what is this word? Bat. Okay, if we typed the letters a and t which say at, and now this time we are going to get our mouth ready to make the sound that C makes. What is that word? Cat. Right. Okay, now this time the sound that f makes, what would this be? Fat (COR Transcript, 4/26/78). While the teacher spent the majority of her instructional time teaching specific skills, the students in the low and average group were rarely, if ever, observed reading stories from their basal text- books or trade books. The basal materials for these students were not available to them upon completion of their reading group and, as a result, they were most often observed spending their morning seat- work time on skill practice sheets. The high students who spent little or no instructional time with the teacher were observed spending most of their seatwork time reading 114 basal text stories, trade books, or working on large amounts of reading related seatwork activities designed to keep them working independently. . In addition to the different activities provided for the high and low readers, the differences of teacher role and expectations for the high and low groups also became apparent through the analysis of the data. The teacher's role at the end of the first cycle was primarily that of a diagnostician. During the second, third, and fourth cycles, the teacher role could be summarized as "skills instructor." She stated at the end of the second cycle that she worked primarily with skill groups as she feels S51 is "important for skill development" (COR Field Notes, 9/14/77). However, obser- vations revealed that the teacher as skill instructor applied only to the low readers in the classroom. Observations did not provide evidence that this role applied to the high readers. Miss Delta spent little or no instructional time with these students because she felt they "did not need her and expected that they would make it on their own" (COR Field Notes, 11/29/77). Modification of preactive decisions. From analysis of the data, it could not be determined by the researcher if preactive decisions had been modified. On-the-spot decisions. From the analysis of the data, it could not be determined by the researcher if on-the-spot decisions had been made. 115 Postactive or Evaluative Decisions Judging success of students. The postactive or evaluative phase involves the teacher reflecting upon the school year and "judging the worth of prior decisions" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 401). Evidence for this phase occurred at the endof the school year for Miss Delta. During an interview, the teacher stated the school year "went well," and, she was "happy with the outcome" (COR Interview, 6/4/78). She felt the use of the skills program helped her achieve her goal of providing the students with a "good background" in reading skills. No mention was made of the basal materials she used in her program in terms of helping her achieve her goals for the year or judging student progress. . Reasons attributed to success or lack of success. Miss Delta did not discuss the reading progress of her students other than to say that she "was disappointed that her low students did not show the progress she expected after working so hard with them all year" (COR Interview, 6/4/78). No mention was made of the specific reasons that she attributed to the success or lack of success for her students' progress. However, it is inferred by this researcher that students' success or non-success was attributed to the skills program. Summary of Case Study #2 The fOllowing figure (Figure 5) summarizes Miss Delta's decision- making and classroom practices. It appeared that the decisions Miss Delta made concerning her reading instruction evolved around the skills management system she used in her reading program. 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A.e.e=ouv m «gamed 118 preactive or planning decisions were based on a mental framework involving the skills management system. Her testing, grouping, and management decisions all focused on getting students placed in skill groups. The implementation of these decisions in her practice resulted in the skills program providing the structure and the flow of activities in her reading program. The evaluation of student progress in reading was based on students' progressing through the skills program. Case Study #3 Introduction Mrs. Bailey is a first grade classroom teacher. The school where she is a teacher is located in a community that surrounds a large midwestern state university. The twenty-two students in her self-contained classroom are children of professors, faculty, and professionals that comprise the community. The school is considered a "neighborhood" school with a large degree of parent and community involvement in its operation and programming. Preactive or PlannipggPhase The preactive or planning phase is characterized as a "reflec- tive, thoughtful time" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 392). The preactive or planning phase for this teacher occurred within the first two weeks of school. It was during this time that the teacher made a variety of decisions concerning the reading instruction for the students in her class. However, it appeared that the combination of her beliefs about program selection, beliefs about the teaching of reading, and 119 her goals for the year served as the framework upon which she made decisions concerning her reading instruction. The following excerpts of interview statements illustrates the three components of the framework of thinking Mrs. Bailey operated from in making decisions concerning her reading instruction. Mrs. Bailey began the school year with a mental plan of how she wanted to conduct her reading instruction. However, as Mrs. Bailey stated: I can't plan anything until I know the kids and I've never been fortunate enough to know what students I am going to have until like the day before school. But I do know that I am going to do group instruction and I know the materials (COR Interview, 3/2/79). Based on the notion that Mrs. Bailey "pretty much knows what she wants to do with reading instruction for the school year and the tasks of reading she must do," planning fbr the "first month, or the first two or three weeks is almost a day-to-day basis" (COR Interview, 1/20/79). Mrs. Bailey defined her reading program as'"rather structured" and further stated that she used the same reading program for the last three years. When asked why she decided on the program, she stated: The reason I decided on this series that I am using is because the first room I was in, the first school I was in, that was the series that was assigned for me to use. Each teacher, chose a company and that was how the initial decision was made. Those were the materials that were available for me to use. But I'd had enough experience through substitute teaching and four years as a teacher's aide working with other reading series that once I got into it I really liked this one, and I've made comparisons back and forth since then and I've stuck with the one that I ended up with that first time (COR Interview, 9/16/78). 120 During this phase, the teacher defined her belief system about the teaching of reading as a "combination of a phonetic approach and reading for meaning, comprehension" (COR Interview, 9/16/78). How- ever, this belief system was also influenced by the sensitivity she gained as a parent of a struggling reader. The following interview segment describes a further addition to her belief system. I think, to be very honest, I think the thing that was the most influential in my concept of the teaching of reading was the experiences I had with my own children. I have two children. One had a very positive primary experience and has always had very successful school experience, always read above grade level, positive self image, everything. The other child had a disastrous primary reading experience. A lot of pressure at the wrong time. Poor instruction, and it took us until she was at eighth grade to get the personality settled down. The feeling of not confident, the feeling of I can't do it. I think, my attitudes about teaching at this age level come a lot from the experiences I had as a parent and seeing how this age level can influence c71577§1 more than just in the school hours (COR Interview, 9 . When asked to discuss her goals for the year, she stated: That the children enjoy reading and feel comfortable with it and that they can read with good comprehension at their level, that they feel successful and have a very positive attitude toward the entire concept of reading whether it's for reading to follow directions or reading pleasure or reading for assignments. That they feel that it's a very positive thing, not a frightening thing (COR Interview, 9/16/78). In summary, the combination of Mrs. Bailey's beliefs about the teaching of reading, goals for the year, and program conceptuali- zation appeared to serve as a framework upon which she made decisions concerning the plans for her current program. In the fbllowing section of the case study, the decisions Mrs. Bailey made which appeared to shape the course of reading instruction in her classroom are presented. 121 Decisions Identified During the Preactive Phase Testihgpand grppping decisions. In order to get her program underway, Mrs. Bailey began the school year with a testing program. Working with each child individually, she administered a letter recognition test, a picture-sequence test, the Slosson vocabulary list, and had students read from the primer book Sgh_gp_(COR Field Notes, 9/12/78). From the results of these tests, the teacher deter- mined an instructional reading level for each student. The teacher used this information to place a student in the appropriate level basal textbook. Students were then "grouped" upon the results of the testing program; that is, placement in a particular basal textbook determined the reading group membership of a student. By the second week of school, the teacher had completed her testing, established her reading groups, and was observed meeting with groups for reading instruction (COR Field Notes, 9/19/78). Four groups were formed from the testing, and the group name reflected the name of the basal text being used by the group. The following is a segment of field notes indicating the group name and the assignment fbr the particular groups. Sun Up Read pages 1-4 Ditto on beginning sounds A Happy Mornipg_ Read pages 2-5 Letter identification ditto Readiness Dittoes in fblder (letter-sound association dittoes Ss, Bb) 122 Iggether We Go Read pages 8-11 (COR Field Notes, 9/19/78). Materials decisions. While Mrs. Bailey had used the materials that She had used for previous years' programs, she indicated that she preferred the program because it provided "a balance, an equal emphasis on phonics and comprehension" (COR Interview, 9/78). In addition to her basal materials, the teacher supplemented her reading program with a variety of other materials. She described these materials in the following segment of an interview. Okay, I use, I could go on and on and on. I use the basal reading series. I use phonics books. I use listening tapes for auditory things. I have the Patrol Talking Picture Dictionary Kit in my room. Now I have the Learning with Laughter Film Strip Series. I use the LEAR Language Develop- ment Kit. Talking Alphabet. A combination of all kinds of materials. But the basic materials are the basals (COR Interview, 9/16/78). When she was asked how she decided on these materials, she replied, "I look for the thing (material) that meets the need I have the most" (COR Interview). In addition to these materials, Mrs. Bailey had established activity centers within her room. A listening center, a library center, a game center, a handwriting center, a science center, and a math center were designed to provide activities for the children when they had completed their work. Mrs. Bailey stated the purpose of the centers during an interview. "Centers are used for extension and enrichment--not fbr teaching--I do that" (COR Field Notes, 9/21/78). 123 Mapagement decisions. Management decisions during this phase tended to be organizational techniques that would provide the students with an understanding of how the classroom was going to work for the school year. The fbllowing segment of a recorded reading group is an example of an organizational technique. In the segment, the teacher is telling the students what they are expected to "do“ when they have been called to meet with their reading group. -- Boys and girls, while you're waiting for me to come to reading circle...you have to sometimes be quiet, because maybe one of the reasons it's taking me a minute to get here is I'm giving some help to people getting started at board work. We talked last week about this being a big group, didn't we? -- "Yah, yes.“ -- And didn't I ask your help? When coming to circle, you've got to help yourselves get seated around the table. You're big enough; you don't need to have the teacher to find a place for you. If you work together, you can do it. Will you try tomorrow morning better? -- "Yah, yah...“ (con Transcript, 9/25/78). Another reading group, upon coming to "reading circle," was commended for "knowing" how to come to the reading circle. -- Oh, you're all ready to begin! How very nice! And your books are all open to the next story in our book (COR Transcript, 9/25/78). Additional examples of teacher statements made in the early weeks of school served to remind the students how the classroom was going to work. These included statements like: Mrs. Bailey would really appreciate it if you could get here on time (COR Field Notes, 9/15/78); This is milk money, we don't put it in the envelope fbr lunch money (COR Field Notes, 9/15/78); and, When you reading group is called, you have to stop and come right then (COR Field Notes, 9/15/78). 124 By the second week of school, observations indicated the child- ren knew they were to hang up their coats in their assigned lockers before coming into the room. Once in the room, lunch boxes were to be stored in the box under the empty desk near the front of the room. Envelopes containing lunch money were to be tacked on the bulletin board near the front door of the classroom. Once these tasks had been completed, the students sat down at their desks, and, without removing materials from their desks, visited with one another until the teacher positioned herself in the front of the class, said "good morning," and began to take attendance (COR Field Notes, 9/12, 15, 19, 25/78). Following attendance, general announcements, and "show and tell," the teacher reviewed the assignments for the day for each group. This segment of the morning ends when the teacher says, "Okay, let's get to work" (COR Field Notes, 9/12/78). The rules for the classroom were posted on a bulletin board near the front door of the room. They reminded the children to "work quietly," "no running or pushing," and "to listen while others are speaking" (COR Field Notes, 9/12/78). As well, the bathroom pro- cedures had been established. The bathroom for the students' use was located in an adjoining room, and only "one person at a time" was allowed to occupy the bathroom (COR Field Notes, 9/12/78). Influence ofgeneral manpgement concerns on the teacher's decisions. Management concerns in general influenced the teacher's decision to select a basal program and group students for instruc- tion. She stated that the basal program "provides organization." In 125 particular, she cited the teacher's guide as being an important agent in keeping her organized. She stated: I love the teacher's guide. It's easy to use, it's organized, it has really good suggestions in it for the teacher. In fact, I think the teacher's guide is very influential in helping me to direct where I am going. A good teacher's guide is very important (COR Interview, 3/2/79). Grouping students for instruction became a method for Mrs. Bailey to manage the students at this age level. She stated she grouped students because "the students at this level are not ready to work independently and need the structure of groups" (COR Interview, 9/78). Interactive Phase The interactive phase of teaching is defined as the period of time "when the teacher is interacting with students" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 396). For the purposes of this study, the beginning of this stage for Mrs. Bailey began in the second week of school. She had completed her testing, and her program of reading instruction was underway. This phase was characterized by the implementation and modification of the decisions made in the planning stage. On-the- spot and context specific decisions also surfaced within observations on particular days. Implementation of preactive decisions: organization of the school day. Implementation of the testing, grouping, materials, and management decisions in Mrs. Bailey's classroom resulted in a con- sistent routine pattern of organization. Generally, the students spent the first hour of the morning working on basal materials and 126 other reading related materials. During this time, the teacher called students to join her at the reading circle for reading group instruction. Following recess, a language arts activity, library, special classes, or an assembly nay have occupied the rest of the morning. Over the course of the school year, the organization of the (school day, reflected in the eighteen observations, tended to remain the same. Following is an outline of the daily schedule. 9:10 Bell rings. 9:10 - 9:15 Children enter room. They have stored their coats, boots, etc. in lockers outside of the classroom. The children upon entering the room find their seats and sit down. The children engaged in quiet morning hellos or share a story with the teacher. On Friday, the children deposit their lunch money for the fbllowing week in an envelope by the door. The children generally never take out materials to begin working at this time. They wait until after attendance and assignment time. 9:20 - 9:25 The teacher begins her "good morning" to the students and takes attendance. Lunch money collection, special announcements, and show and tell also occur during this time. 9:25 - 9:30 The teacher introduces board work, hand- writing, and explains the reading assignment to each reading group. The assignments are listed on the board. 9:30 - 10:25 The teacher works with various reading groups. (This is altered on days when assemblies come first.) 10:25 Clean up and prepare for recess. 10:25 - 10:40 Recess. 10:40 - 11:30 LEIR (Language arts program). 11:55 - 12:55 Lunch 1:00 - 2:00 Math 2:00 - 2:15 2:15 - 3:00 3:00 - 3:15 3:15 127 Recess. Science, social studies activities. Clean up, notes passed out. Dismissal. The weekly schedule was also punctuated by other scheduled activities. The teacher listed those for the researcher, and they are as follows: Weekly Reader - Used once a week--various times. USSR - Recess - Library - Music - Gym- Art - Uninterrupted sustained silent reading. "I work to get this time to 30 minutes by end of year. No talking! Everyone reads, in- cluding me. A book or magazine of your choice." Friday, 11:15-11:45. A.M. 10:25-10:40 P.M. 2:00-2:15 Friday 10:45-11:15 Friday 2:35-3:05 Tuesday & Thursday 11:05-11:30 Friday 1:15-1:40 Every other week on Tuesday, 1:00-2:00 (COR Field Notes, 9/78 to 5/79). The classroom atmosphere generally impressed the observer as being of a busy, active teaching and learning environment. At the same time, however, it was a relaxing environment with children and teacher alike feeling free to stop the workings of school for a moment in order to exchange a personal story or laugh. Part of this perhaps came from the teacher's overall belief about what she hoped to accomplish in reading this year. She stated: 128 I hope to accomplish...that the children enjoy reading and feel comfortable with it and that they can read with good comprehension at their level, that they feel successful and have a very positive attitude toward the entire concept of reading whether it's for reading to follow directions or reading pleasure or reading for assignments. That they feel that it's a very positive thing, not a frightening thing (COR Interview, 9/78). During the morning reading period, the students were involved in a variety of activities. The f01lowing segment of field notes illustrates the types of activities students generally spent their time working on during the "reading period" over the course of the school year. 9:41 Jay is still at listening center putting things away--returns to seat and gets out primer--begins reading to self. 9:42 Lynn is at reading lab. 9:43 Jeff is on the carpet playing a game. 9:44 John in reading group--has workbook open to page-- listens to teacher's directions relative to that page-~raises hand when teacher asks question. 9:45 Tom also on the workbook page in reading group-- follows teacher's directions and marks responses in the page. 9:46 Kathy has finished story, walks around room. Returns to seat, digs around in her desk for pencil--begins to do ditto. 9:47 Mary is walking around room with ditto in her hand-- takes it to teacher-~returns to desk--continues to read primer to herself. 9:48 Todd--at reading lab (COR Field Notes, 2/26/79). Reading groups as a setting fbr instruction. Within the organi- zation of a typical morning, the reading groups emerged as the setting used by Mrs. Bailey for reading instruction. Using the basal 129 textbook as the basis fbr her instruction during the reading group period, Mrs. Bailey planned the activities for these groups based on the progression of stories and activities fbund in the teacher's guide. She discussed her planning procedures fbr the teaching of reading groups by stating: Reading plans are done ahead pretty much for the entire book. Lesson plans for each book are kept on a ditto master. So when I begin a group reading in a basal, I pull out this basic guide that I have made myself and that runs on a day to day basis (COR Interview, 3/2/79). Further, this concept of planning enabled the teacher to feel well organized and well planned. As she stated: I feel like when I walk in in the morning everything is well organized, and it's just a matter of here we go! (COR Interview, 3/2/79). However, in general, the eighteen observations of the teacher working with reading groups indicated that only the oral reading and general comprehension questioning components of the basal series was included. The greatest amount of the reading group time was devoted to the teacher giving directions for a ditto page, workbook page, or a phonics book page. The fbllowing samples of field notes illustrates the oral reading, general questioning, and direction giving sections typical of a reading group session. 9:52 Sun U group, 5-6 students. Teac er helps another child--still waiting for group members to arrive for group. 9:55 Can anyone read the title? Children begin reading. Teacher asks how did the turtle hide? Did Sandy go in his shell? Why would he hide from the turtle? What do you think what might be the reason? Do you think he is playing a game? 10:00 10:01 10:03 130 1 “Okay, close your books." Teacher passes out dittoes. Okay, we have three words: hid, sun, and in. Which word rhymes with gun--with did--which word would go in the blank? Okay, read the sentences and the word choices and decide which one makes sense in the blank. For example, cats like to sleep in the (sun). Okay, how many have to do board work? Okay, take your dittoes and go back to your seats and get to work. Group dismissed (COR Field Notes, 11/29/80). The following example is longer but also typifies the reliance on the use of materials to provide instruction: 9:50 9:51 9:52 9:53 9:55 9:58 9:59 Okay, I would like to see Iggether We Go; bring everything with you. What is this word--sad, dog, cat, under, rock-- puts on board. Okay, I am going to ask you some questions about these words--which one rhymes with bad, sock, bat? What one begins like the word rat? Which one begins like work do? Which one begins like word say? Which is the opposite of happy? Okay, those are new words. Okay, when you read, you should try to remember what you read. Why did the man send the donkey away? What animals joined him? Why was the cat without a home? Did the cats master tell him to leave? What were the animals going to do in Brennan? I'd like to do a page in your workbook together. If you look at page 59, you've got three words with the same end sound. They all have nd sound. What about the word mop? Pond? Sand? STed? In the middle of the page, we are listening for pt_ ending words. What about plant? Belt? Do you hear an lt_there? Sun and Shadows (9), I would like you to join this group with your B books and pencil. We are going to do page 15 together. 131 10:03 Okay, I want you to think about vowel sounds, and we are going to look at this page. I am going to say the picture, and if you hear a short a and make short mark above it--put a_on the line under the picture--can, gum, short p7-bell, map, jet, bed, i_sound like in pin-wig, bat, bib, short p:-cot, sock, top, pen, short p:-cup, bus, pig, sun. 10:08 Next page. All are short sound. You have to write the vowel you hear--rug, tub, belt, cut. 10:09 Let's read them and learn as we go along. The teacher reads right answers and says, "you may fix it if it is wrong." 10:10 Next picture is drum, rat, brush, socks. Teacher tells answer. 10:11 Next picture, hen, truck, cuff--a sleeve on a shirt, flag. Tells answers--fix it if you got it wrong. 10:13 cub, bug, rug, dot, duck-~"Let's learn by hearing the answer." 10:15 Group ends. Teacher reminds the students to "finish your board work"--teacher is correcting dittoes at the reading table. Clean up (COR Field Notes, 2/13/79). Differences between high and low reading groups. During the observations in Mrs. Bailey's classroom during reading groups time, it became apparent that the experience of learning to read is qualitatively different for high and low readers. The implementation of the preactive decisions, contextual influences posed by the grouping, and teacher attitudes seemed to explain the differences between the groups. Mrs. Bailey stated she believed she should spend "equal amounts of time with the low, middle, and high reading groups." However, she "knew" she spent "more time with low and average groups" (COR Inter- view, 3/2/79). In addition to the difference in the time allocated 132 to the high and low groups, there were differences in the types of activities planned and presented to students in the high and low reading groups. The teacher discussed her perception of how the groups were spending their time by stating: With the upper groups, I began to do more of going over materials. Okay, like the stories they have read--it becomes more discussion and building on comprehension and inferencing skills and things like that. Also I do a lot of work with scanning...like if I want them to recall details, finding the place in the story, that kind of work. We don't do much rereading of the story. Periodically I ask them, I tell them I want to hear them read, make sure that they're not having any problems. I do...when they read orally, it's more a building on voice inflection and making it sound more interesting. But with the lower group, we read every day...reread the story that they've read and some work on comprehension, but mostly just the word identifi- cation skills...decoding skills (COR Interview, 1/20/79). Observations of the low reading groups revealed that the students spent their time working on word identification and decoding activities. The development of these skills typically occurred in isolation from whole words and/or whole sentences (see Appendix F). Observations of the high group revealed that the students spent more time on activities designed to extend the meaning of a story. Further, the comprehension, vocabulary, and decoding skills instruc- tion for the high readers was typically developed within the context of sentences (see Appendix G). It is interesting to note, however, that while a program of skill development was emphasized for low readers, Mrs. Bailey was not concerned about her high readers who had poor phonics skills. She stated: 133 I think Julie is a good example of that. There is not too much sense in taking her back and struggling her through beginning blending consonant sounds when she took a jump like she did in reading. Brad is another case. He doesn't seem to have the skills but he seems to be reading fine without it. Joe is scoring low in vowel sounds on his testing, but the kid's reading on a fifth grade level so I don't worry about the phonics (COR Interview, 3/2/79). While different activities comprised the reading program of the high and low readers, Mrs. Bailey also perceived a difference in her role and in her expectations for the high and low groups. In terms of her perceptions of role variations, the teacher outlined the differences in the fbllowing interview segment. Okay, with the upper group it's more relaxed in terms of I don't feel like I have to keep pulling them to keep their minds on it...keep their minds on the books, so I'm more relaxed. It's more of a discussion exchange type thing between the upper group and myself. I'm more a part of their learning, a kind of working together to help them learn. With the lowest group I'm more of a leader, a puller --let's pay attention, a director; I don't know, I'll bet if you even looked at my body I'd even be stiffer, more rigid with that group. Because if I let down or relax at all, then they relax and their attention span goes down. They need to feel me as a real strong figure (COR Interview, 1/20/79). Mrs. Bailey also stated that as a teacher you expect different performance from high students than low students. You meet group expectations. With the high students, I expect them to work more independently and their assign- ments will require them to work more on their own. With the low students, they need more adult contact. They are not being challenged as much as if they knew how to read (COR Interview, 9/16/78). Modification ofppreactive decisions during;the interactivepphase. During this interactive or teaching phase, Mrs. Bailey revised her initial decisions concerning several students' group placements. The 134 change in one student's group placement evolved as the teacher observed the student “getting her work done very fast." Mrs. Bailey explained: Like in the case of Joany, it's very difficult to decide whether you are pushing them too fast--but this mOrning she was bored. There's a fine line between it's too hard or it's too easy. Anyway, I talked to her about it, and I showed her that I felt that she was getting her work done very fast and the reason she was getting it done quickly was because it wasn't challenging to her. I said this book may be more difficult for you. You may enjoy it, you may not. Reading's not fun if it's too hard. And I asked her if she wanted to try it. I could tell by her reaction that she felt good about trying it, and so I changed her group (COR Interview, 9/16/78). The group placement of another student was also changed. How- ever, the change for this student evolved as the parent of the child questioned her child's placement in a particular book. The parent claimed the child was reading all kinds of books at home, and the book the child was using in school appeared to be "too easy." The teacher checked the placement and reported that she was "shocked" and didn't realize how well the child was reading. The teacher explained the student was shy and encountered problems during testing situations. The student was initially placed in the low group and, with the corrected placement, spent the rest of the year in the high group (COR Field Notes, 1/24/78). In addition, the decision to place the low readers in a particu- lar book "was speeded up." The teacher reported she placed the students in a book earlier than she had planned as they needed "a boost in self concept" (COR Field Notes, 10/24/78). 135 On-thesspot decisions. While Mrs. Bailey made the global decisions concerning grouping, materials, and so on, categories of on-the-spot decisions emerged from the data. For Mrs. Bailey, deciding when to meet with particular reading groups was determined on a daily basis and depended on the context of the situation. As Mrs. Bailey explained: I never know which group I am going to call first. I never have in mind--all right, first, I usually know which group I am going to start with, but, from there on, the rest of the morning is played by ear. I key into, I watch the room and when the majority of the kids in that group have got their work finished then I call them to circle. I never know where I'm going after that first group. I never know how long I am going to keep them. I know what I intend to do, or would like to do when they come but some days they can come and I can get through all those lesson plans I have on my mind and some days I won't get through one thing because they are not attending and it's not worth keeping them, so I let them go (COR Interview, 3/2/79). The teacher also indicated that, while she made reading plans for the entire book, the daily implementation of these plans were often altered. I make up the plans for a whole book on a ditto sheet. And then there is place to put the dates and so I can just date each one as I go along, and then I just scribble all over them because I always have to change things depending on the children or the group. Some children can read a story a day and progress quite fast through a text and then you'll get another group going through that same book and you'll need to spend maybe a day with a story and then two days on the skills or something like that, so I have to alter that (COR Interview, 3/2/79). Postactive or Evaluative Decisions Judging success of students. The postactive or evaluative phase involved the teacher reflecting upon the school year and "judging the worth of prior decisions" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 401). This phase 136 occurred at the end of the school year for Mrs. Bailey. Mrs. Bailey believed that the best way to judge the success of her students in reading was according to the criteria she outlined in the following statement. That they love to read. That they love to be read to. That when they're work is finished and they have a choice of things to do on their own, art center, listening center, activity center, that at least once in a while they choose to read (COR Interview, 5/30/79). In addition, the progression through materials was “another way of determining success" (COR Interview, 3/2/79). A student's perfor- mance on skill work was also cited as a measure of judging student progress. Reasons attributed to success or lack of success. For the children who were successful readers, the teacher attributed their success to "learning from the program, and learning by themselves" (COR Interview, 5/30/79). For the children who were not successful readers, the teacher stated she found them "frustrating to work with" and that they had attention problems and other non-reading types of learning problems. Mrs. Bailey stated: You saw me trying to keep them bodily still. You saw me standing behind their chairs to keep them from wiggling to keep them able to attend. You were there one day when I had to lose my temper with them. Two of the boys are also learning disabled children, so I'm working through non- reading type learning problems. I'm working through per- ceptual problems and auditory problems and things that are not necessarily reading related (COR Interview, 5/30/79). Summary of Case Study #3 The following figure (Figure 6) sunmarizes Mrs. Bailey's decision making and classroom practices. 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Generally, the reading programs remained the same from year to year for each of the teachers studied. "My program doesn't change drastically from year to year," stated one teacher. "In fact," stated another, "my program has stayed- basically the same through the years." One teacher provided a nice contrast by stating, "We, a group of teachers in the building, were really bored--everything was too much the same. We needed to pick out new materials fbr this year's program--we sorta' needed a shot in the arm." In the case of Mrs. Donlan working in the open-quad with three other teachers, her program was embedded within the larger structure designed by the four teaChers which enabled them to "teach most effectively." However, her reading program was also a program she had used in the previous year of teaching. Beliefs about the teaching of reading. 'Teachers defined their beliefs about the teaching of reading in terms of the development of decoding skills and comprehension instruction. One teacher expressed her major emphasis on skill development. Another teacher added a concern for the development of positive student self concepts along with her belief of the combination of skill and comprehension instruction. Another teacher, Mrs. Donlan, defined her belief system as an integrated method of instruction. She believed in an emphasis on skill instruction but felt it was necessary to provide students with opportunities to apply the reading skills in other content areas. 167 Goals for the year. Goals expressed during this phase were generally vague in nature. Teachers made statements like, "My goal is to get children reading," or, "I want them to be able to read by the end of the school year." "Getting children to learn reading as an enjoyable and pleasurable activity" was also expressed, For one teacher, "to advance them from where they are, for them to make progress" was her goal. Only in the case of the two teachers using the skills management program were specific instructional goals or teaching objectives mentioned in this phase. Summary of teachers' frameworks for decision making. In summary, the combination of the teachers' beliefs about program selection, beliefs about the teaching of reading, and goals for the year appeared to serve as a framework upon which teachers made decisions concerning their reading instruction. -In the following section of the findings of the study, the decisions teachers made which appeared to shape the course of their reading instruction are presented. Decisions Identified and Classified as Preactive Decisions Evidence from the data revealed that four major groups of decisions were identified during this planning phase of all of the teachers studied. Testing decisions, grouping decisions, materials decisions, and management decisions formed the major groups of decisions identified from the data. Testing decisions. All four of the teachers made the decision to test students early in the school year. While the tests used 168 varied from teacher to teacher, generally testing consisted of an evaluation of sight words, oral reading, and general reading skill abilities. In the study, one teacher completed her testing of students within the first week of school in September. Another teacher was "still testing" in the first week of October. Generally, however, by the third week of school, the teachers' testing procedures were completed and formal reading programs were observed in operation. For three of the teachers, further "testing" or formal monitoring of student progress beyond this initial testing, was not evident. Mrs. Donlan, however, employed an "on-going" evaluation of her students' progress. Prior to placing a student in a "new“ textbook in the progression of the series, she administered several tests. These tests consisted of an evaluation of sight words, oral reading, and general reading skills abilities. For the two teachers using the skills management program as a portion of their reading instruction, observations revealed these teachers pre-testing and post-testing students on specific skills that had been a part of their instruction. Grouping_decisions. The category of grouping decisions stems from the decisions teachers made as a result of the information the tests yielded. All four teachers used the results of tests to make a general statement about a student's instructional reading level. Considering this level, the teachers then selected a basal textbook that was appropriate for the student's demonstrated instructional level. Membership in a particular group evolved as a result of the basal text a student was placed in. 169 Two of the four teachers studied formed skill groups innaddition to their basal groups. The evidence from their test results indicated Specific reading skill strengths and weaknesses of students. Membership in a particular skill group evolved from the skill deficiencies the teacher identified from testing. The teachers stated that the children in the skills group "needed" to be taught these specific skills during the school year. Materials decisions. Decisions made concerning the materials selected for the reading program tended to be "old” decisions. That is, each of the four teachers studied were experienced teachers and used textbook materials they had used in their previous years of teaching. Only in the case of one of the teachers using the skills management program was the decision to use the materials a "new" decision. "A good teacher's guide" was reported by all teachers as the single most important factor they considered when making the decision about which textbook series to use. The two teachers using a skills management system in addition to their basal program stated that the decision to use the material was based on a feeling that basal series were "not complete enough" as far as skill development was concerned. One teacher stated that the program provided "good organization and direction for teaching specific reading skills.“ Within this category of materials decisions, the teachers also made decisions about a variety of supplementary materials. While the basal programs served as the core of their reading programs, 170 they selected supplementary materials at this point to incorporate into the program later in the school year. Observations revealed, however, that only Mrs. Donlan incorporated supplementary materials for the purpose of instruction. For the three other teachers, supplementary materials were added to their programs for the purpose of providing students with independent activities to complete once they had finished their basal and/or skill work. Management decisions. Management decisions during this phase surfaced as organizational techniques designed to "get the routine" of the classroom established. "Seating arrangements," "social rules of the classroom," "knowing where to put your lunch money and find supplies," and knowing "how the centers work" were expressed by the teachers studied as being important factors of organizational knowledge for students. In general, the organizational techniques described by teachers and observed in their practice were designed fbr students to understand how the classroom was going to work for the school year. Management decisions, however, tended to be pervasive in all of the decision categories. For example, in order for a teacher to test a small group of children or individuals, the teacher had to make decisions concerning the management of the rest of the class and/or for the management of the small groups or individuals once their testing sessions had ended. Management concerns also influenced grouping decisions. The very nature of "grouping" comes about from the four teachers' desire 171 to manage a program for twenty-five to thirty students. As one teacher stated, "I think that given the fact that you've got twenty-five kids, grouping is a definite convenient way to handle instruction." The number of children in a group was also a concern fer the teachers. One stated, "If‘you've got a whole bunch of students reading on the same level, chances are I'm still going to make two groups out of it simply fbr ease of management on my part." Materials decisions as well were influenced by the teachers' general concern for the management of her classroom. All four teachers used a basal textbook program as the core of their reading programs. One teacher said she used a basal reader as a matter of convenience. She also stated that the basal served as a means of "organization." .For another, basals gave her a sense of "direction" and "structure." Summarygofgpreactive phase. In summary, the four major categories of decisions described in the preactive or planning phase are testing decisions, grouping decisions, materials decisions, and management decisions. Based on the analysis of data, it was possible to characterize the teacher role during this phase as "teacher as thinker, planner, and decision maker." Interactive Phase The interactive phase of teaching is defined as the period of time "when the teacher is interacting with students" (Shavelson, 1976, p. 396). For three of the teachers studied, this phase began by the third week of school in September and continued well into 172 the spring of the school year. For the remaining teacher studied, this phase did not begin until the fifth week of school in the early part of October. The phase for this teacher, like the other teachers studied, continued well into the spring of the school year. Analysis of the data collected during this phase did not reveal any new categories of teacher decisions. Rather, this phase was characterized by the implementation and modification of the decisions teachers made in the preactive or planning phase. Implementation of thegpreactive decisions. Implementation of the preactive decisions resulted in the establishment of a consis- tent, routine pattern of daily organization across the four teachers observed. Generally, the morning was comprised of a series of events. The headings "Morning Business," "Assignment Giving," "Reading Groups," "Recess," and "Reading and Other Subjects" summarize the major events of the morning (see Figure 9). Reading_groups as the setting for instruction. Within the organization of a typical morning, the reading groups emerged as the setting used by three of the teachers for reading instruction. One teacher used the skill group setting exclusively for reading instruction, and placed an untrained aide in charge of meeting with her basal reading groups. The three teachers and the aide relied exclusively on the teacher's guide of the basal series to direct the flow of activities during reading group sessions. As one teacher stated, "Reading plans 173 Time Event Classification 9:00 - 9:15* Morning Business -- attendance -- lunch money -— library notices Show ggd tell 9:20 - 9:30 Transition -- teacher circulating, helping students begin assignments -- teacher "fixing" and locating materials for students -- "getting organized for readinggroups" 9:30 - 10:30 Reading Groups -- teacher meets with 3-4 reading groups -- students not in reading were observed involved in a variety of activities 10:30 - lO:45 Recess 10:55 - 12:00 Reading and Other Subjects -- reading groups may continue -- language arts (whole class lesson) . -- art, music, gym, library, assemblies may occur during this time 12:00 Lunch *The times listed represent actual time allotments but not necessarily the actual time the event began or ended. Figure 9: Typical Morning Organization for the Teachers Studied 174 are done pretty much for the entire book. I keep them on a master plan and changes depend on the children--if something is too hard we might need another day, but usually we just move along with the book.“ Suggestions feund in the teacher's guide established the events that comprised the fbrmat or structure of a reading group session. However, for two of the teachers studied (and the aide), there appeared to be little evidence indicating that instruction occurred during the group sessions. Teachers appeared to simply "pilot" students through a progression of materials, and "instruction" came in the form of the teachers reading the directions for a workbook page or ditto sheet. Only in the case of Mrs. Donlan were instances of actual "teaching recorded. .This teacher occasionally provided instruction which included introducing a skill or concept to be taught, actually directing the students' learning of the skill or concept, and then assigning workbook pages or dittoes as a means for independent practice of the particular skill or concept. Further examples of this kind were noted across all reading groups. Differences between high and low readingggroups. During the time spent in the classrooms observing reading groups in session, it became apparent that the experience of learning to read is qualitatively different fbr high and low readers. The implementation of the preactive decisions, contextual influences posed by the grouping, and factors of teacher role and teacher expectations seemed to explain the differences between the high and low groups. 175 Time allocations. Three of the four teachers stated they Spent more time in group situations with their low readers. Only in the case of Mrs. Donlan was the allocation of time for group work generally equal. Observations substantiated these findings. How- ever, closer examination of the data revealed "more time" did not necessarily mean more instructional time was devoted to the low students. Management problems associated with low readers often prolonged a reading group session. Activities. In the cases of three of the teachers studied, students in their low groups were observed spending the majority of their "seatwork time" completing workbook pages, dittoes, and boardwork assignments. The activities designed for these students focused on alphabet letters, word recognition, and vowel rules. In addition, this skill work tended to be introduced and practiced in isolation from the context of sentences, paragraphs, or stories. Students in the high group in these classrooms were observed spending the majority of their "seatwork time" reading and working on skills within the context of sentences, paragraphs, and whole stories. Better readers spent more time than low readers working in extra activity centers, going to the library, and playing reading and math related games. In the case of the fourth teacher studied, Mrs. Donlan, the students in the low groups were provided with materials as well as the opportunity for participation in the same kinds of activities that students in the high group were experiencing. The students in the low group spent time completing workbook pages and ditto sheets focusing 176 on word recognition and decoding skills. However, additional activities were provided for these students to enable them to apply these skills in content materials within the context of sentences, paragraphs, and whole stories. Regardless of ability level, all students in the class spent time working in activity centers, going to the library, reading, and playing reading and math related games. Teacher roles and teacher expectations. In addition to the general differences in the types of activities provided for high and low readers, it appeared that three of the teachers studied perceived a difference in their roles and expectations for their high and low readers. These teachers tended to view their role with low students as being "directive" and "corrective" in nature. The teachers felt that the low students needed to see them as “strong figures,“ "pulling and prodding" students along in their learning. The teachers perceived the group settings with these low students as "very structured," and "not relaxing." In addition, law students were expected to "need help" and have "lots of learning problems." Two of the teachers perceived their role with the high students as a "guide" or "discussion leader." These teachers felt they were “more a part of the students' learning," although one teacher felt the high students in her room "did not need her, and they would do fine on their own." These teachers perceived the group settings as “relaxing" and evolving around a discussion-conversation type format. In addition, high students were expected to work independently and enjoy reading. 177 In the case of Mrs. Donlan, virtually no difference was found in her perceived role and/or expectations for students in high and low reading groups. She characterized herself as taking an "active role" in gll_students' learning with the expectation that all_ students would become "proficient readers." Following is a figure (Figure 10) summarizing the differences found between time allocation, activities, teacher role, and expec- tations for groups of high and low readers for three of the teachers studied. Modification of preactive decisions durigg_the interactive phase. In general, the only preactive decision teachers tended to modify in this phase was the initial grouping decision they had made for several students. Two teachers were observed changing students' group placements because the materials assigned fbr a particular group's work appeared “too hard or too easy" for these students. Statements like, "he really caught on" or "the student's self concept needed a boost" were also expressed as reasons to alter the pre- active grouping decisions. On-the-spot decision making, Dn-the-spot decision making occurred for two teachers when something in a lesson appeared to be a problem for students. The teachers then altered their day's plan by spending a longer time than anticipated on the particular problem area or continued dealing with the problem area the following day. 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