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L IB R A R Y

   
  

  

  

Michigan State

University

.

H

This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

A Study of Teacher Planning:

Description and Theory Development Using

Ethnographic and Information Processing Methods

presented by

Robert Johnston Yinger

has been accepted towards fulfillment

of the requirements for

Ph.D.

degree in

Education 

are, firm

Major professor

Ij/x / 77

Date

0-7 639

® Copyright by

ROBERT JOHNSTON YINGER

1977

A STUDY OF TEACHER PLANNING:

DESCRIPTION AND THEORY DEVELOPMENT

USING ETHNOGRAPHIC AND INFORMATION

PROCESSING METHODS

BY

Robert Johnston Yinger

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to

Michigan State University

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

v

Department of Counseling, Personnel Services

and Educational Psychology

1977

ABSTRACT

A STUDY OF TEACHER PLANNING:

DESCRIPTION AND THEORY DEVELOPMENT

USING ETHNOGRAPHIC AND INFORMATION

PROCESSING METHODS

BY

Robert Johnston Yinger

The major purpose of this study was to investigate teacher plan-

ning by means of a detailed case study of the processes involved in one

elementary (first-second grade) teacher's planning decisions during a

five month period of instruction.

The study was designed to address

a need for descriptions and theoretical models of teacher planning and

to examine the usefulness of certain decision modeling methods for

describing complex decisions as they occur in field settings.

To ac-

complish this, the study used the perspectives and methods of both

ethnography and information processing psychology.

The study involved two phases of data collection.

In the first

twelve weeks of the study, approximately forty full days were spent

observing and recording the teacher's activities in both the preactive

and interactive phases of teaching.

Also during this phase, the teach-

er's planning decisions were recorded as she "thought aloud" during her

planning sessions.

The second phase of the data collection further in-

vestigated the teacher's planning by observing her behavior in the

Teacher Planning Shell (a simulation task developed for this study)

and in three judgment tasks examining the teacher's perceptions of her

Robert Johnston Yinger

students and instructional activities.

Additional classroom observa-

tions and interviews were also conducted during this phase.

Two central aspects of the teacher's planning and instruction that

emerged in this study were planning for instructional activities and

the use of teaching routines.

Activities were described as the basic

structural units of planning and action in the classroom and were por-

trayed as "controlled behavior settings" which were shaped and molded

by the teacher to conform to her perceptions and purposes.

Seven fea-

tures of instructional activity were identified (location, structure

and sequence, duration, participants, acceptable student behavior, in-

structional moves or routines, and content and materials) and used as

a basis for analyzing and describing the teacher's planning and in-

struction.

Teaching routines emerged as another distinctive feature of the

teacher's planning "technology."

Four types of teaching routines were

described in this study:

activity routines, instructional routines,

management routines, and executive planning routines.

Functionally,

routines were characterized as methods the teacher used to reduce the

complexity and increase the predictability of classroom activities,

thus increasing her flexibility and effectiveness.

Two models of teacher planning were developed in this study.

The

first was a structural model of preactive planning describing planning

at five levels:

(1) yearly planning, (2) term planning, (3) unit plan-

ning, (4) weekly planning, and (5) daily planning.

The second model of

planning generated in this study was a theoretical model of teacher

planning based on data collected in this study and on studies of plan-

ning in the areas of chess thinking, musical composition, art, and

Robert Johnston Yinger

architectural design.

Planning decisions were characterized by pro-

cesses emphasizing problem finding and problem formulation as well as

problem solving.

In contrast to traditional models of planning emphasi-

zing the statements of goals, the specification of alternatives, and

the choice among alternatives, this model placed greater emphasis on

finding and developing the planning problem and on the "design" process.

Three stages of planning were represented in the planning model.

The first stage, problem finding, was portrayed as a "discovery cycle"

where the teacher's goal conceptions, her knowledge and experience, her

notion of the planning dilemmaland the materials available for planning

interact to produce an initial problem conception worthy of further ex-

ploration.

The second stage in the planning process was problem formu-

lation and solution, where problem solving was characterized as a de-

sign process involving progressive elaboration of plans over time.

The third stage of the planning model involved implementation of the

plan, its evaluation, and its eventual routinization.

Dedicated to

My parents, who have

loved me and encouraged me

throughout all my endeavors

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A study of this magnitude would not have been possible except for

the support and guidance provided by my doctoral guidance committee

and the resources and support furnished by the Institute for Research

on Teaching.

I want to express my appreciation to the members of my guidance

committee, Dr. Robert Bridgham, Dr. Joe Byers, Dr. Christopher Clark,

and Dr. Edward Smith, who had the confidence in my abilities to approve

this project and the continuing interest in the work to help see it

through to its completion.

To my chairman, Dr. Lee Shulman, a special

thanks.

He has been a continuous source of ideas, support, and chal-

lenge throughout this project and has served as an inspiration and a

model for scholarship throughout my graduate studies.

This study was conducted while serving as a Research Intern at the

Institute for Research on Teaching at Michigan State University.

The

Institute is funded primarily by the Teaching Division of the National

Institute of Education, United States Department of Health, Education,

and Welfare (Contract No. 400-76-0073).

The Institute provided the

support, resources, and research environment that enabled me to pursue

a study of this intensity and duration.

The many individuals who

reacted to my ideas and findings throughout the study are too numerous

to mention.

Thank you all.

I want to especially thank Debbie, Sheba,

iii

and Lynn for the many hours spent transcribing the field notes, proto-

~cols, and early drafts.

Their help was invaluable.

When one decides to do a study of only one individual, a great deal

is riding on his or her participation and cooperation.

I want to

express my greatest appreciation to Mrs. Lisa who was willing to open

up her professional life for five months and put up with an outsider's

attempts to understand what was going on in her head.

Her friend-

ship is an important outcome of this study.

Finally, I want to thank my wife Janet for her companionship and

love.

She has been a never ending source of patience, support, and

encouragement and a joy to live with.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

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Organization .

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Planning as Design

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Planning Theory

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Planning in Education

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Naturalistic Data Collection .

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The Teacher Planning Shell .

Judgment Tasks .

Pupil Sort

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Sociogram Analysis

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Chapter Summary

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Chapter

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Page

THE SETTING

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The Set and Props for Learning:

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Teacher and Students .

The Teacher .

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The Script:

The Curriculum

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A Day at School .

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Life in the Classroom

Classroom Organization

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The Set and the Props for Planning .

Planning at School

Planning at Home

Chapter Summary

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ACTIVITIES AND ROUTINES:

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Routines in Teaching .

Types of Teaching Routines

Activity Routines

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Management Routines

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Executive Planning Routines

Teaching Routines and Planning

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Teaching Routines and Interactive Teaching

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VI.

A STRUCTURAL MODEL OF PREACTIVE PLANNING .

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Overview of the Model

Rationale .

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Level V - Yearly Planning

Planning Goals

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Level IV - Term Planning .

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Planning Goals

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Connections Between Levels of Planning .

Chapter Summary

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. VII.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PLANNING I:

Data from Other

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Thought and Choice in Chess:

DeGroot's Theory

Phase Structure of Chess Thinking

General Methods of Chess Thinking

Plan formation

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vii

Chapter

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Progressive Deepening .

Trying Out

Summary .

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Problem Finding in Art:

Problem Situations

Problem Finding .

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The Creative Process

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Problem Finding and Creativity

Reasoning in Architectural Design

Introduction

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Problem Formulation .

Solving Methods .

Summary .

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. VIII.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PLANNING:

A Process Model

of Teacher Planning .

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Introduction .

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Toward a Theory of Teacher Planning:

The

Model's Purpose

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Grounding of the Model

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General Features of the Model

The Model's Focus .

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Purposefulness and Rationality

Intelligence .

Design .

Choice .

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Design or Decision?

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Outline of the Planning Model .

Problem Finding

Introduction

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General Teaching Dilemma

The Discovery Cycle .

Planning Dilemma .

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Teaching Goal Conceptions

Knowledge and Experience .

Materials

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Initial Problem Conception

Summary .

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Problem Formulation and Solution .

Introduction

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The Design Cycle

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The Elaboration Phase

The Investigation Phase

The Adaptation Phase .

Summary .

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Implementation, Evaluation, and Routinization

Introduction

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Implementation and Evaluation .

Routinization .

Summary

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226

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Chapter

Page

IX.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

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Comparison of Results with other Planning Studies

Discussion of Method .

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The Ethnographic Approach .

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The Information Processing Approach .

The Teacher Planning Shell and the

Judgment Tasks .

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Conclusions About the Method

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Implications and Directions for Future Research

The Technology of the Teaching Process

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The Structural Model of Preactive Planning

The Process Model of Teacher Planning .

Problem Finding

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Problem Formulation and Solution .

Implementation, Evaluation, and

Routinization .

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A Model for Planning Research .

Implications for Teacher Training

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The Current Status of Training for Instructional

Planning .

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A "Via Media":

Planning as Intuitive Design

Suggestions for Teacher Training

Summary

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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

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smary O

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Conclusions

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APPmDIX A O

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APPENDIX B .

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APPENDIX C .

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APPme D O

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APPENDIX E .

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APPEND IX F O

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APPENDIX G O

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LIST OF REFERENCES .

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317

324

324

327

328

330

330

331

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ix

LIST OF TABLES

Table

4.1

Number of students in Mrs. Lisa's classroom

during the year .

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66

Page

Table

5.1

Mean number of activities per day in each

subject matter area during a twelve week

period of instruction .

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113

Table

5.2

Teacher-roles observed in activities during

a representative three week period in

winter term .

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128

Table

5.3

Frequency of complex and simple activities

during a twelve week period of instruction

in winter term

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130

Table

5.4

Mean duration of activities by subject

matter area .

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134

Table

5.5

Frequency of Mrs. Lisa's teacher-roles

during a three week period of

instruction .

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Table

5.6

Routinization of activities in the weekly

schedule for winter term

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147

Table

7.1

Types of problem situations and related

cognitive functions .

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Table

7.2

Correlations between ratings on three

dimensions of product evaluation and the

problem-finding variable scores (Getzels

and Csickzentmihalyi, 1976) .

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237

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

1.1

The missing element in studies of teaching

Figure

4.1

Floor plan of Byron School

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Figure

4.2

Mrs. Lisa's classroom .

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Figure

4.3

Divisions in the school day .

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Figure

4.4

Winter term schedule

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Figure

4.5

Spring term schedule

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Page

59

62

88

90

91

Figure

5.1

Activities in Mrs. Lisa's classroom .

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110

Figure

5.2

Frequency of instructional activities in

Mrs. Lisa's classroomrduring a twelvedweek

period of instruction .

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112

Figure

5.3

Mean percentage of daily activities in each

subject matter area during a twelve-week

period of instruction .

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114

Figure

5.4

Reshaping the task environment by

planning

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119

Figure

5.5

Locations of activities in Mrs. Lisa's

classroom .

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122

Figure

5.6

Definitions for teacher role categories

(After Gump, 1967)

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126

Figure

5.7

Approximate allocated times for activities

in Mrs. Lisa's classroom

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133

Figure

5.8

Effects of complexity and routinization

on the structure and duration of an

act iVi ty

0

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

0

150

Figure

5.9

Distribution of Mrs. Lisa's activities on

dimensions of complexity and routinization

151

Figure

6.1

A structural model of preactive planning

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170

xi

Page

Figure 6.2

Interaction between levels of planning

(illustrated for fall term)

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Figure 8.1

Stages of the planning process

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Figure 8.2

The problem finding stage of teacher

planning

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Figure 8.3

The problem formulation and solution (design)

stage of teacher planning .

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Figure 8.4

The implementation, evaluation, and

routinization stage of teacher planning .

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Figure 9.1

A model for planning research

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xii

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

Problem

Much of the research on teaching in the last twenty years has in-

volved the search for those teaching behaviors that are related to

teaching effectiveness.

The results of these efforts have been some-

what disappointing in that there have been few teaching behaviors that

have been strongly and consistently related to student achievement

or student attitudes.

A general characteristic of most of these

studies is their focus on teaching behavior that occurs when students

are in the classroom.

Jackson (1965) has referred to these face-to-

face encounters between teacher and students as "interactive" teaching

and has contrasted these behaviors with "preactive" teaching.

Pre-

active teaching includes behavior that occurs before and after school,

during recess, and at other times when the teacher is alone in the

c1as$room.

This behavior in the "empty classroom" may include such

things as preparing lesson plans, marking papers, setting up equipment,

making and running dittos, thinking about how to deal with certain be-

havior or learning problems, and so forth.

Although this distinction

between preactive and interactive teaching has been popular for many

years, there have been few studies that have set out to examine the

world of teaching when the students are absent.

Recently it has become popular to characterize teachers as problem

solvers and decision makers (Shulman and Elstein, 1975; Lanier and

Shulman, 1975).

Many educational researchers have contended that the

most important teaching skill is decision making (e.g., Shavelson,

1973), or have gone on to assert "in teaching it's the thought that

counts.

"1

One consequence of this view is the temptation to portray

the teacher as a rational information processor who is chiefly involved

in making diagnoses, testing hypotheses, and making decisons all day

long.

It is much more likely that this conceptualization of teaching

more accurately describes some moments of teaching than others.

Jack-

son argues that although there may be some advantage to using logical

and rational models to describe the teacher's in-class activities, op-

portunities for this type of behavior during interactive teaching are

"few and far between" (Jackson, 1965).

The rapidity and immediacy of

the teacher's interaction with pupils in the classroom, he argues, pre-

cludes the rational-purposeful kind of thinking that is normally asso-

ciated with problem solving and decision making.

To understand teaching as a purposeful, reflective activity, it is

necessary to look in those places where this type of behavior is most

likely to occur.

Jackson argues that the preactive phase of teaching

is one place where the notion of the teacher as problem solver and de-

cision maker may have the most descriptive power.

He goes on to say:

As the teacher goes about deciding what textbook to use,

how to group the children for reading, or whether to notify

Billy's parents of his poor performance in arithmetic, his

behavior is at least analyzable in terms that describe the

 

1This saying has been attributed to Dr. Perry Lanier and has be-

come the informal motto of the Institute for Research on Teaching at

Michigan State University.

rational problem solver.

At such moments concepts such as

evidence, evaluation, prediction, and feedback have real

meaning for understanding what the teacher is doing.

It is

doubtful that they have the same meaning in the interactive

setting.

(Jackson, 1965, p. 15)

Of the many different things that teachers do in the preactive

phase of teaching, one of the most important may be planning.

It may

be a rare teacher and classroom that would be able to function effec-

tively without some kind of planning by the teacher.

The wealth and

variety of instructional materials available for teaching, the emphasis

on meeting school or district objectives, and the wide range of student

aptitudes in most classrooms are but a few of the demands on teachers

that virtually necessitate thinking and planning for the term, coming

weeks, or even the next day.

The importance of teacher planning has been further emphasized in

recent ecological studies of the classroom (Kounin, 1970; Gump, 1969;

Doyle, 1977 a,b).

In a study of beginning teachers, Doyle (1977 a)

found the most salient characteristics of the classroom environment for

those teachers were:

(1) multidimensionality, (2) simultaneity, and

(3) unpredictability.

By multidimensionality, Doyle means that class-

rooms serve a variety of purposes not all of which are compatible.

Classrooms are simultaneous in that significant events often occur at

the same time rather than following each other in serial fashion.

Un-

predictability refers to the degree to which the complexity of ebb and

flow in classroom events prevents the teacher from accurately predict-

ing the outcome of a planned activity.

By adding to these characteris-

tics those of urgency and spontaneity or, as Jackson (1968) refers to

it, the "immediacy" of the classroom, one arrives at a picture of the

teaching environment dominated by two features:

complexity and un-

predictability.

In addition to characterizing the environment in which teachers

are required to operate, ecological psychology acknowledges and empha-

sizes the subtle yet complex interdependencies between behavior and en-

vironment.

As a way of looking at classrooms, ecological studies are

based on the premise that the environmental demands of the classroom

both shape observed behavior and establish limits to the range of re-

sponse options available to the actors (Doyle, 1977 b).

In other words,

"settings have plans for their inhabitants' behavior, and inputs are

achieved within the limits of the settings' control system to produce

the planned behavior" (Barker, 1963).

What this means for teachers is

that not only is the classroom environment complex and unpredictable,

but teaching behavior in the classroom may be to a large degree "con-

trolled" or "planned" by the environment itself.

Jackson illustrates

how one central feature of the environment, the students, may affect

teaching by suggesting that:

...the students to some extent control what the teacher

does.

When they are present, much of the teacher's be-

havior is in response to their requests and questions and

could not have been planned in detail ahead of time.

In

effect, the students "tell" the teacher what to do, and

he simply does it without much thought.

Much of what goes

on during a teaching session (or for that matter during

almost any kind of an interpersonal encounter) is pre-

dictable in a broad sense only; the specifics must be

dealt with as they happen. (Jackson, 1965, p. 13)

If it is true that teaching behavior in the classroom is, to a

large degree, a function of the features of the environment, then it

becomes an important question to ask how the teacher can influence the

environment so that behavior within the interactive setting conforms as

closely as possible to the teacher's goals.

It may be that teacher

planning becomes the major tool by which teachers manipulate teaching

environments to shape and control settings that may later shape and

control their own behavior.

To date, there have been no studies of teacher planning that have

explored the role that planning plays either psychologically or func-

tionally in teaching.

The ecological studies have been concerned with

identifying the salient features of teaching environments and describ-

ing teaching behavior that is "adaptive" to the environment.

Kounin's

(1970) study of classroom management (much of whose findings have since

been replicated by Brophy and Evertson (1974, a,b,c) suggests that the

behavior of successful classroom managers is characterized by "withit-

ness," or the awareness of what is going on at all times in the class-

room; "overlappingness," or the ability to sustain one activity while

doing something else at the same time; "smoothness," or the ability to

maintain classroom continuity without unnecessary interruptions or con-

fusion; and "momentum," or the ability to maintain proper lesson pacing

and flow.

Similarly, Doyle (1977 a) found five teaching "skills" that

were successful for reducing environmental complexity for beginning

teachers:

1.

Chunking, or the ability to group discrete events into

larger units.

2.

Timing, or the ability to monitor and control the duration

of events.

3.

Overlap, or the ability to handle two or more events at

once (borrowed from the Kounin).

4.

Differentiation, or the ability to discriminate among

units in terms of their immediate and long term signifi-

cance.

5.

Rapid judgment, or the ability to interpret events

with a minimum of delay.

The picture of teaching that these studies paint is of the envi-

ronment on the one hand, characterized by such things as complexity

and unpredictability, and on the other hand, successful or "adaptive"

teaching behavior such as "withitness," "Chunking," "smoothness," and

"timing."

What they fail to portray are those elements of teaching

that allow or facilitate a teacher's coping with these demands of

teaching.

It is suggested here that it is largely through planning

that teachers simplify and shape the teaching environment so that they

can successfully deal with classroom life.

This portrayal of planning

as the missing yet important element in these studies is illustrated

in Figure 1.1.

To summarize the argument thus far, most of the studies that have

examined teaching have ignored that part of teaching that occurs be-

fore students arrive at and after they leave school; and if one is

interested in portraying the teacher as a problem solver or decision

maker, it is probably more likely that this type of deliberation will

occur in these "preactive" phases of teaching.

Furthermore, of the

many different things that teachers do in the "empty classroom," one

of the most important may be planning.

Ecological studies have

pointed out the demanding characteristics of the environment and suc-

cessful behavior for coping with the complexity and unpredictability

of the classroom.

It is posited that planning may play an important

role in helping teachers to function effectively and efficiently in

the classroom by allowing them to manipulate and shape behavior set-

tings.

The study of planning, therefore, becomes important because of

M
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its role in teaching and because it may be one of the important teach-

ing activities where the teacher can and does function in a more ra-

tional and deliberative manner.

If this thesis is warranted, it may also have important conse-

quences for the training of teachers.

If effective and efficient

methods for making planning decisions can be described and developed,

they could become an important feature of teacher training and, thus,

a powerful way to improve teacher effectiveness.

Much of traditional teacher training has focused on those aspects

of teaching important to teacher-pupil interaction in the classroom.

Since the early sixties, an emphasis has been put on planning and in-

struction that Jackson (1968) has referred to as the "engineering"

point of view.

This viewpoint includes both a set of values about the

educational process and a set of instructional procedures by which the

values can be implemented.

Jackson summarizes the "engineering" view-

point as follows:

The core of values to be discussed here--the "goods," so

to speak, of the engineering point of view--comprise the

standards by which one might judge a piece of machinery

or the plans for achieving a military objective.

The first

question, of course, is:

Will it work?

Will it get the

job'done?

This question, which entails the criterion of

effectiveness, implies a clear idea of what job is to be

done or what objectives are to be reached.

Next comes a

series of secondary questions having to do with the effi-

ciency of the procedure under consideration.

After ascer-

taining that it will work, the critic is next interested

in knowing whether it will do so speedily, accurately,

precisely, and economically.

These questions are chiefly

concerned with the conservation of energy and expense.

In the best of all possible worlds, according to this view,

jobs should be done as cheaply and as quickly as possible,

with a minimum amount of wasted motion.

(Jackson, 1968,

p. 164)

When this viewpoint is applied to education, it usually takes on

some variation of the following form.

The first requirement is pre-

paration of a detailed statement of objectives, preferably in "behav-

ioral" form.

Next one must analyze the skills and knowledge that a

student will need to attain the objectives.

This analysis is often

carried out by a process called "task analysis."

After the task is

analyzed, the skills and knowledge that the student already possesses

are measured.

After instructional materials and techniques are se-

lected, based on where the student is in relation to the objectives,

the rest of the instruction process proceeds by the following sequence:

teaching, evaluation of performance relative to the objectives, and

finally, if the student has failed to master the objectives on the

first try, re-teaching the lesson.

This specific cycle of instruction

has become known as the Basic Teaching Model of Glaser and includes the

 

essential features of most goal-referenced instructional models (e.g.,

Popham and Baker, 1970).

In addition to instruction, the "engineering" point of view has

been prescribed for curriculum and classroom planning.

For example,

Taba (1962) recommends the following eight steps for planning a unit:

1.

Diagnose needs.

2.

Formulate specific objectives.

3.

Select content.

4.

Organize content.

5.

Select learning experiences.

6.

OrganiZe learning experiences.

7.

Evaluate.

8.

Check balance and sequence.

10

Such prescriptive theories of planning are common in education, al-

though relatively little is known about how teachers actually plan,

There has been much debate in educational circles about elements of

the "engineering“ point of view such as "behavioral objectives," but

there have been few empirical investigations of classroom teachers to

examine whether this point of view is an accurate portrayal of how

teachers gag_and dg_function in the classroom.

One of the benefits of a detailed analysis of the planning pro-

cess may be a better understanding of methods and procedures that

classroom teachers can realistically use.

Critics of the engineering

view argue that one of its major weaknesses is its oversimplified

image of what actually goes on in the classroom.

They argue that it

ignores features of the classroom environment mentioned above such as

simultaneity, immediacy, multidimensionality, and unpredictability.

They also argue that the engineering view overlooks such potentially

important aspects of teaching as the teacher's interest in the sty-

listic and artistic qualities of his or her own performance.

An important outcome of investigations focusing on the planning

process may be models of teacher planning that are known to reflect

the teaching environment and the abilities and concerns of teachers.

One might argue against this procedure by stating that what "is" in

teaching is not necessarily what "should be."

The approach taken in

this study is not in opposition to this statement, but rather is based

on the belief that it is important to examine and describe the behav-

ior of experienced and successful practitioners who have developed

strategies and methods for functioning effectively in the teaching

environment.

It is argued that models of planning based on what is

11

possible in the classroom will in the long run he more effective than

more efficient models "borrowed" from other fields that are too diffi-

cult and complex for most classroom teachers to implement.

In this

manner, descriptive models of teacher planning can lead to prescrip-

tive models for preservice and inservice teacher training.

The potential importance of teacher planning for effective teach-

ing, the potential for portraying teacher planning as decision making,

the lack of knowledge about how experienced teachers actually plan, and

the potential importance of more accurate and effective planning models

for teacher training are the central reasons for pursuing this study

of teacher planning.

The primary problem of the present study is to

investigate and describe the decision processes involved in planning

for instruction.

Purpose

The major purpose of this study is to investigate teacher plan-

ning by a detailed examination and description of the decision pro-

cesses involved in one elementary teacher's planning during a five

month period of instruction.

The specific objectives of the study

fall under two major categories.

The first category includes ques-

tions about the planning process itself:

1.

What different kinds of planning decisions does the

teacher make?

2.

What are the relationships, if any, among these

decisions?

3.

What information or cues are gathered and proCessed

by the teacher to make planning decisions?

4.

What is the major "unit" or element that the teacher

thinks about when planning?

12

5.

What are the general strategies and processes of the

teacher's planning, and how might these processes be

represented in a decision model?

The second set of questions addresses those special problems and

concerns related to conducting descriptive information processing re-

search in complex naturalistic settings:

6.

How useful are ethnographic methods for studying

classroom decision making?

7.

What is the usefulness of "process tracing" methods

for modeling teacher decisions?

8.

What are the advantages and limitations of various

structured and unstructured methods for collecting

planning data in the preactive phase of teaching?

9.

How successfully can a "moderate fidelity" judgment

or In-Basket type task be used to supplement pre-

active and interactive classroom data collection

strategies?

In addition to these questions, a goal of this study is to gener-

ate further questions about teacher planning and indicate potentially

fruitful areas for future study.

It is the intent of this study not

to test specific research hypotheses, but rather to generate hypothe-

ses about teacher planning and, if possible, weave them into a model

of teacher planning that might be tested and elaborated by further

study.

Because of the huge gaps in our knowledge about teacher de-

cision making, there is no way in which this study can be much more

than a first step towards understanding the determinants and processes

of teacher planning decisions.

Overview of the Study

 

Chapter II consists of a review of the pertinent literature on

planning theory in fields outside of teaching as well as a comprehen-

sive review of the literature on curriculum and teacher planning in

13

education.

In Chapter III, method is discussed including the scope of

the study, the selection of the teacher, data collection, and analysis.

Chapter IV presents a description of the setting in which the study

took place to provide a backdrop for later descriptive analysis.

In

Chapter V, two features of the teacher's "technology" of teaching,

instructional activities, andiroutines are discussed; and in Chapter

VI, a structural model of preactive planning is described.

Chapters

VII and VIII represent an attempt to develop a theoretical model of the

planning process.

Chapter VII discusses psychological research on

deliberative, planning-related tasks in fields other than education.

Chapter VIII presents a theoretical model consistent with the data

discussed in Chapter VII and with the data collected in this study.

Chapter IX includes a comparison of the findings of this study with

those of previous planning studies, questions for future research, and

implications for teacher training.

A summary and conclusions are pre-

sented in Chapter x.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Organization

 

It has only been within the last ten years that planning has be-

come an area for empirical study in research on teaching.

Prior to

this, those studying planning in education were primarily concerned

with curriculum planning.

The process of planning has been, however,

a subject of serious study in areas such as economics, business, city

planning, and national planning since the mid-1930's.

This literature

will be reviewed because of the volume of theory and research on plan-

ning in these other areas and their influence on theories of educa-

tional planning.

The chapter begins with a discussion of the efforts to arrive at

a definition of planning in areas outside of education and then pre-

sents the definition of planning that will be used in this study.

Se-

cond, the planning literature in other areas is discussed, focusing

on theory and research that have viewed planning as rational decision

making.

Third, the planning literature in education is reviewed and

discussed.

A Definition of Planning

 

Interest in planning is as old as man's interest in relating

knowledge to action.

This can be traced back to Roman, Greek, and

Middle Eastern cultures and might historically be found in the study

14

15

of government, law, administration, and public works.

The systematic

theory of the relation of knowledge and action has been traced back to

the beginnings of urban civilization when a priesthood schooled in

magic and astronomy sought to mediate between heaven and earth by ex-

tending heaven's mandate into the affairs of men (Wheatly, 1971).

The

modern study of planning, however, has had more modest intentions (in

most cases) and has been an object of theory and inquiry since the

Great Depression.

The myriad definitions of planning that have sprung

up in the literature of planning will be discussed under two general

headings:

those approaches that define planning as design, and those

that define planning as process.

Planninggas Design

The word plan_is derived from the Latin word planum, or level

ground, and is commonly thought of as a drawing or diagram drawn up on

a flat surface, such as a chart or blueprint.

In this sense, the

planner draws a blueprint, the design of which is completed before any

steps are taken to realize its intentions.

This is the kind of plan-

ning characteristic of architecture and is the source of such defini-

tions as, "Planning results in blueprints for future development; it

recommends courses of action for achievement of desired goalS" (Bol-

lens and Schmandt, 1965).

Planning as Process

Because of the tendency of deductive plans to decompose into

smaller, more manageable parts or to distort reality when applied to

complex, dynamic systems, those who study planning have become more

interested in process than in states.

Planning has come to pertain

16

not to some idealized future, but to the mode of moving from the pre-

sent (Peterson, 1965).

Thus, most planning theories of today are pro-

cedural theories or theories of process.

When viewed in this manner, planning can be generally defined as

an activity centrally concerned with the linkage between knowledge and

organized action (Friedmann and Hudson, 1974).

One school of thought

within planning theory characterizes the link between knowledge and

action as rational decision making.

This viewpoint is illustrated by

the following definitions:

Planning may be simply regarded as reason acting on a net-

work of ongoing activities through the intervention of

certain decision structures and processes (Friedmann, 1967).

We define planning as a process for determining appropriate

future action through a sequence of choices...Each of these

choices requires the exercise of judgment; judgment permeates

planning (Davidoff and Reiner, 1962).

Planning is rational, adaptive thought applied to the future

and to matters over which the planners or the administrative

organizations which they are associated have some degree of

control (Simon, Smithburg, and Thompson, 1950).

Planning is more and more regarded as equivalent to rational

social action, that is, as a social process for reaching

a rational decision (Dahl, 1959).

(Planning is) careful, deliberate, systematic and formal

decision making (Argenti, 1974).

Planning is the process of preparing a set of decisions for

action in the future, directed at achieving goals by opti-

mal means (Dror, 1963).

A second school of thought has arisen in opposition to the

"rational-comprehensive" (Lindblom, 1959) view of planning that the

above definitions portray.

This position has develOped largely as a

result of the difficulties and inadequacies of the pure rational model

for accurately describing planning behavior.

This viewpoint will be

17

referred to in this chapter as "practical rationalism" and is illus-

trated by the following definitions:

(Planning is) pragmatic and piecemeal and never compre-

hensive and complete, (and usually constitutes) compro-

mise solutions of pressing practical issues (Myrdal, 1960).

...the planner may see himself as reasonably extending the

domain of bounded rationality, as opportunity affords.

If

so, he is not a practical man, at least not enough to pride

himself on it; he is not a rationalist, at least not enough

to have rationalized too much of himself or others; perhaps

he is a practical rationalist, or better, a rationalistic

practitioner (Seely, 1962).

The plan initiates a course of action which produces events

experienced by the agent, in the light of which he modifies

the plan; so that, in a sequence of phases, the plan is con-

tinuously initiating action or being modified by the results

of action; and this modification is not merely a more ef-

ficacious employment of means to an originally intended

end..., but also a modification of the end of view, a re-

vision of intention, a recasting of desires, a development

in understanding (Blackham, 1961).

(Planners) might be better defined as practical artists,

artists with reference to purpose, rational artists..., or

artists of rationality with reference to human activity

(Seeley, 1962).

The main interest of this study is to examine the mental pro-

cesses involved in teacher planning.

Since there is little empirical

evidence to support specific deliberation processes in planning, most

of the preceeding definitions are inadequate as a starting point for

this investigation.

There are few psychological definitions of plan-

ning available.

One of the oldest and most well known definitions of

a plan is that of Miller, Galanter, and Pribram (1960).

"A plan is

any hierarchical process in the organism that can control the order in

which a sequence of operations is to be performed."

Recently Bobrow

(1975) has referred to planning as "a search for a series of actions

to bring about a particular world-state."

The definition that will be

18

initially used in this research study is similar to the definition of

planning suggested bdee Groot (1965L

For the purposes of this inves-

tigation, planning is referred to as a process of preparing a frame-

work for guiding future action.

It can be seen from this definition

 

that planning is regarded as a process strongly oriented towards

future action.

It is oriented towards action rather than, say, knowl-

edge or self-development, and the fact that this action is in the

future introduces the problem of uncertainty and unpredictability.

It

is assumed that the planning process involves decision making and

judgment.

At this time, however, no claim is made regarding the "ra-

tionality" of either the process or the resulting framework.

Planning Theory

 

It is not the intention of this section to attempt a comprehen-

sive review of the planning literature outside of education.

This has

been amply and effectively done by others.2

The purpose here is to

discuss that part of planning theory that Friedmann and Hudson (1974)

refer to as "the tradition of rationalism."

This school of planning

has had as its primary concern the problem of how decisions can be

made more rationally.

Until recently, this has been the predominant

tradition in planning theory, so much so that, for many, planning has

become synonymous with rational decision making.

This tradition is of

special interest to the study of teaching since it has been concerned

with individual decision making in complex social situations such as

economics, management, and city planning.

 

2For example, Dykman (1961) and Friedmann and Hudson (1974).

19

Rational decision models are rooted in the Utilitarian founda-

tions of modern economics.

Economics begins with the premise that

people act rationally with a goal to optimize something.

Historically,

economics has been concerned with such things as optimum allocative

efficiency, optimum product factor relationships, and Optimum degrees

of specialization.

Much of modern economic theory has been involved

with the search for the rule that would locate the position of optimal

decisions.

The paradigm for decision making that has grown out of

this work requires:

1.

The setting of goals,

2.

The formulation of alternatives,

3.

The prediction of outcomes for each alternative, and

4.

The evaluation of each alternative in relation to the

goals and outcomes.

This view of "economic man" was first challenged by Herbert Simon

in his now classic book Administrative Behavior (1957 a).

His think-

 

ing was influenced by Chester Barnard's (1938) work and was chiefly

concerned with the limits of rationality in human social behavior.

Simon proposed a model of rational choice that differed from previous

notions on two specific points:

1.

While economic man maximizes — selects the best alter-

native from among all those available to him; his

cousin, whom we shall call administrative man, sacri-

fices - looks for a course of action that is satis-

factory or "good enough"...

2.

Economic man deals with the "real world" in all its

complexity.

Administrative man recognizes that the

world he perceives is a drastically simplified model

of the buzzing, blooming confusion that constitutes

the real world.

He is content with this gross simpli—

fication because he believes that the real world is

mostly empty — that most of the facts of the real

world have no great relevance to any particular

20

situation he is facing, and that most significant chains

of causes and consequences are short and simple...He makes

his choices using a simple picture of the situation that

takes into account just a few of the factors that he

regards as most relevant and crucial (Simon, 1957 a, pp.

xxv-xxvi).

Thus, Simon retained the general paradigm mentioned above with two

major modifications.

First, the criterion by which decision are made

was changed.

Rational man became a satisfier who makes choices without

specifying and examining all the alternatives rather than a maximizer

searching for an optimal or maximal solution.

Second, the decision

maker no longer had to deal with the real world in its totality and

interrelatedness but could just deal with those "strategic factors"

(Barnard, 1938) of a situation, enabling him to reduce the demands on

his capacity for thought and use relatively simple rules of thumb.

These ideas were further elaborated by Simon in a book on organization

behavior co-authored by James March (March and Simon, 1959).

Here,

they elaborated the notions of "satisficing" and "bounded rationality."

March and Simon identified planning as decision making but failed ade-

quately to distinguish planning from decision making in general.

The first practical application of Simon's model was undertaken

by Jan Tinbergen (1952, 1964).

He devised an econometric model for

economic policy analysis that was used for short range planning in the

Netherlands and for National Planning under the directions of the

United Nations.

While this model of planning was gaining wide support,

several empirical studies focusing on the application of the rational

model in city and national planning began to reveal some gross defi-

ciencies of the method.

Meyerson and Banfield's (1955) case study of

public housing in Chicago found the realities of urban planning

21

practice to fall far short of the rational-comprehensive model of

planning.

Also, a large number of empirical studies of national plan-

ning (e.g., Gross, 1965; Hirschmann, 1967; Faber and Sears, 1972) found

little success in using a rational planning model to generate signifi-

cant developmental actionflat the national level.

The impact

of these studies on rational planning theory has been summarized by

Friedmann and Hudson (1974):

Rationalism had largely ignored the experience of planning

practice, as indeed it had ignored the work of organiza-

tion development theories.

And for good reason, for the

recorded experience with planning threatened the very

foundations of rationalist thinking.

While rationalism

argued a thin logic from the first principles to derive

the basis for rational choice, empiricists labored to

discover how "real" planning worked or did not work - and

why.

And what they discovered - if nothing else - was

that planning-in-practice did not look at all like

planning-in-theory (p. 12).

Proponents of the rational planning method have had to come to

grips with three major problems--reasons that planning-in-theory

breaks down in practice.

The first reason is the complexity and "tur-

bulence" of most planning environments.

Rational models were developed

on simple problems or assumed that alternative courses of action were

either given or obtainable and that the outcomes or consequences of

each alternative were either specified or calculatable.

Most of these

assumptions are unrepresentative of social settings because of the

complexity, uncertainty, and multidimensionality of social interaction.

It rarely is possible for a decision maker to determine all possible

courses of action (or even known when one has done so) or to predict

the consequences of various alternative actions.

The second reason rational planning theory breaks down in prac-

tice involves the limits on knowledge available during planning.

In

22

any given situation, there are limits to the information available to

a decision maker.

The complexity of most planning situations makes

extraction of knowledge from the environment difficult.

Even enormous

data banks do not reduce the problem since they create further prob-

lems of classification, search, and aggregation.

The problem of

knowledge is compounded by the difficulty of untangling means from

ends and the difficulty of establishing values for various alterna-

tives.

The non-repetitiveness of many planning situations and changes

brought on by the passage of time are additional factors that place

limitations on knowledge available during planning.

The third difficulty rational planning has failed to face is that

of limited human information processing capabilities.

Rational models

require that decisions be based on optimal or maximal criteria that

use as information probabilities and utility functions.

Models such

as Simon's reduce this demand somewhat, but still assume a comprehen-

sive approach to the problem.

This presents the difficulty of deter-

mining goals at the outset and evaluating alternatives in light of

goals and outcomes.

In effect, what this implies is that decision

makers when confronted with a decision will start from fundamentals

anew each time and build from the ground up.

These difficulties of the rational-comprehensive model of plan-

ning were quickly recognized by several theorists.

One of the earli-

est and best known alternatives proposed was Lindblom's (1959) "suc-

cessive limited comparisons" presented in a paper entitled "The

Science of Muddling Through."

He argues that, in practice, policy

makers consider relatively few values and relatively few alternative

policies and proceed in decision making by "building out of the

23

current situation, step-by—step and by small degrees" (Lindblom,

1959).

Lindblom proposes that in most situations means-ends analysis

is of limited value or even inappropriate, since the selection of

goals and the empirical analysis of alternatives are often tightly

intertwined.

He argues that in deciding between two policies, a

decision maker focuses his attention on the marginal or incremental

values, being concerned only with those increments by which two alter-

natives differ.

Finally, Lindblom's method proceeds not by a compre-

hensive analysis of the situation in hand, but by a chronological

series of successive approximations towards a desired objective, that

is, a series of "successive limited comparisons."

Lindblom proposed

a modification of this method in his book The Intelligence of Demo-

 

gragy_(l965).

Here he argues that the preferred social good is de-

termined by an incremental decision process he refers to as "mutual

adjustment."

Lindblom was criticized for his failure to acknowledge the im-

portance of structural decisions in planning and this criticism led to

much debate about the relative importance of "big" and "little" de-

cisions.

This debate was put to rest by Etzioni's (1967, 1968) notion

of "mixed scanning."

Here effective decision making is based on a

strategy that combines synoptic and incremental decision strategies.

Etzioni proposes that effective decisions combine what he calls "con-

textuating" decisions with "bit" decisions.

Contextuating decisions

are those fundamental decisions that are made through an exploration

of the main alternatives of a situation omitting details so that an

overview is pdssible.

Bit decisions are made incrementally within the

24

contexts set by the fundamental decisions.

The relationship that he

suggests between the two strategies is that:

1.

Most incremental decisions specify or anticipate

fundamental decisions, and

2.

The cumulative value of the incremental decisions

is greatly affected by the underlying fundamental

decisions (Etzioni, 1968, p. 289).

There have been no published empirical studies of planners using

either Lindblom's "successive limited comparisons" method or Etzioni's

"mixed-scanning" strategy.

Most of the empirical work in planning

theory has been limited to case studies showing the inadequacies of

rational-comprehensive planning methods.

It is a purpose of this study

to throw further light on these strategies, not by testing them speci-

fically, but by describing planning decisions in an environment not

unlike those that have been studied outside of education.

Teacher

planning probably contains elements common with the planning conducted

by architects and designers, public and private administrators, policy

analysts, and urban and city planners.

Planning in Education

 

Until recently, the literature on planning in education has been

mainly prescriptive.

Many volumes have been written recommending spe-

cific principles for curriculum planning3 and most recent methods

textbooks include at least one chapter on teacher planning.

Within the

last several years, researchers have become interested in how teachers

plan in the classroom and have begun investigating the relation

 

3See, for example:

Anderson (1956), Caswell and Campbell (1935),

Gwynn (1943), Krug (1950), Sayior and Alexander (1974), and Varduin

(1967).

25

between planning and classroom teaching and learning.

Both of these

areas of discourse and inquiry will be discussed in this section, be-

ginning with the prescriptive planning literature and followed by the

research literature on teacher planning.

Prescriptive Planning Literature

 

Most of the work in curriculum planning to date has focused on a

model of curriculum planning first proposed by Tyler (1950) and later

elaborated by Taba (1962) and Popham (Popham and Baker, 1970).

This

model recommends four essential steps for effective planning:

1.

Specify objectives.

2.

Select learning activities.

3.

Organize learning activities.

4.

Specify evaluation procedures.

This model is basically a rational means-ends model in which a plan-

ner's first task is to decide on the desired ends, or what is to be

accomplished, and then select the appropriate learning activities to

accomplish them.

Curriculum planning is characterized as a task that

requires orderly and careful thinking, and this model is proposed as a

rational and scientific method for accomplishing this task (Taba,

1962).

The central decisions in this model are choices concerning objec-

tives and choices concerning content and activities.

The formulation

of clear and comprehensive objectives has been considered by many to

be the "essential platform for the curriculum" (Taba, 1962) which may

be the reason behind the extensive debate among proponents of various

methods for stating instructional objectives (see, for example,

26

Popham, Eisner, Sullivan, and Tyler, 1969).

Although the statement of

objectives is advocated by nearly all curriculum theorists, the state-

ment of objectives in behavioral form has dominated most planning

models.

Within this model, theorists seem to be in greatest disagree-

ment in relation to the specificity and observability of the behavior

included in the objective.

Whereas earlier theorists portrayed the

formulation of objectives in a more general, developmental, and fluid

context, more recent proponents of behavioral objectives (e.g., Mager,

1962; Gagné, 1965) advocate a very specific, linear, and operationally

oriented process of objective development.

Choices concerning content and activities are becoming more impor-

tant with the enormous increase in available materials and activities

and with increased public interest in what is being taught in the

schools.

The major criterion for selection of activities that is im—

plied in the rational model of curriculum planning is the degree to

which various content and activities lead to the accomplishment of the

desired objectives.

Additional criteria for this decision have been

proposed such as validity and significance of content, consistency with

social realities, balance of breadth and depth, provision for wide

range of objectives, learnability and adaptability to experiences of

students, and appropriateness to the needs and interests of the stu-

dents (Taba, 1962).

These additional criteria are proposed as a screen

through which each activity would be sifted, but how each of these po-

tentially complicated judgments are to be made by the planner is not

Specified.

In general, Curriculum planning is currently viewed as an orderly,

rational, deliberative process that can be most effectively

27

accomplished by using a rational, "ends-means" type of model (Zahorik,

1975).

It is interesting that this type of model, which may be appro-

priate for planning at the more general curricular level, is the same

model that is most often prescribed for teacher planning at the class-

room level.

In most elementary methods textbooks, planning for teaching is

defined within the following framework:

A plan for teaching, like a plan for a house, for losing

twenty pounds of weight, for winning the conference

championship, or for a vacation serves as a guide to

selecting activities, actions, and decisions as one

attempts to move from where he is to where he wants to

be - to his goal(s)...The plan developed by the teacher

is his best estimate of the most direct route to reach

educational objectives and is made prior to embarking

on a lesson (Collier, Houston, Schmatz, and Walsh, 1967,

p. 115).

Although various types of long term and short term planning are usu-

ally discussed in textbooks, the process of planning proposed always

takes the form of (1) state objectives, (2) select and organize the

materials, procedures, and techniques to be used to achieve the objec-

tives, and (3) specify evaluation procedures to determine whether ob-

jectives have been attained.

When discussing planning for instruc-

tional units, Beauchamp (1965) presents four plans developed by others

for organizing a unit, all of which contain the above components.

Peterson (1964) presents the same procedures for planning specific

lessons.

The only departure from this rational model of teacher planning

that has been advocated is the "integrated ends-means model" (Zahorik,

1975) suggested by McDonald (McDonald, 1965; McDonald, WOlfson, and

Zaret, 1973) and Eisner (1967).

They propose that teachers do not

28

begin their planning by thinking about objectives and then proceeding

to decisions about activities, evaluation, and so forth; rather,

teachers first focus on the type of learning activity that will be pro-

vided for the students.

They argue that objectives arise and exist

only in the context of an activity, as a result of students' choosing

their own learning experiences and pursuing their own objectives.

Thus, in this model, ends for learning become integrated with means for

learning and the specification of goals prior to an activity becomes

meaningless.

With the exceptions of McDonald and Eisner, the steps that are ad-

vocated for rational curriculum planning and rational instructional

planning are the same.

The same model has been proposed for decision

making from the most comprehensive curriculum planning project down to

planning for tomorrow's social studies lesson.

There has been little

attention paid to the process other than its proper sequence, result-

ing in few guidelines for making the complex judgments and decisions

at each point in the model.

In effect, what appears to have happened

is that education has borrowed the rational ends-means decision making

model from other fields and has prescribed this procedure as the most

effective and efficient method for all_educational planning.

Because

of the improved efficiency that this model has brought to curriculum

planning, fiscal planning, and so forth, educators have not questioned

the appropriateness of this procedure for classroom planning.

The

question of whether teachers d2 plan in this manner has been over-

looked, along with the more important question of whether teachers gap.

or should plan in this manner.

29

The answers to these questions have immediate and practical impor-

tance since the rational planning model is accepted by most teacher

educators.

It has become part of most materials directed at improving

teacher education and has become central to most materials directed at

improving teacher planning skills (e.g., Joyce, egial,, 1971; Taba,

1966).

Morine (1973) has aptly summarized the state of current train-

ing for classroom planning:

Teacher educators may agree that planning is an essential

part of teaching effectiveness.

Judging from the scar-

city of training materials, it is questionable whether the

educational world at large concurs with this view.

Train-

ing materials for planning skills begin and end with diag-

nosis and the writing of behavioral objectives...The ma-

terials may be systematic, but they are hardly comprehen-

sive (p. 135).

Teacher Planning Research

 

Although researchers such as Philip Jackson have long pointed to

the importance of looking at teacher behavior in the preactive setting,

relatively few studies have ventured into this domain.

Empirical

studies of teacher planning have only been conducted since 1970, and,

to date, the published studies can still be counted on one hand.

There are basically two types of research on teacher planning.

The

first type has focused on testing the adequacy of the rational plan-

ning model for describing what teachers do and has examined the effect

of using this model on teacher classroom behavior.

The second type of

study has attempted to describe how teachers actually plan, free from

the constraints of any recommended procedure.

Zahorik (1970) did the first empirical study of classroom plan-

ning when he examined the effect of structured planning on teacher

classroom behavior.

He provided six of his sample of twelve teachers

\

30

with a partial lesson plan containing behavioral objectives and a de-

tailed outline of content to be covered two weeks hence.

He requested

the remaining six teachers to reserve an hour of instructional time to

carry out a task for the researchers, not telling them that they were

going to be asked to teach a lesson on credit cards until just before

the appointed time.

Zahorik analyzed recorded protocols of the twelve

lessons focusing on "teacher behavior that is sensitive to students."

He defined this behavior as "verbal acts of the teacher that permit,

encourage, and develop pupils' ideas, thoughts, and actions."

Upon

examining the protocols of the planners and non-planners, Zahorik

noted that teachers who planned exhibited less honest or authentic use

of the pupils' ideas during the lesson.

He concluded from this that

"the typical planning model--goals, activities, and their organization,

and evaluation--result in insensitivity to pupils on the part of the

teacher."

These results must be interpreted cautiously because of the

size of the sample, the length of observation, and the lack of control

for or description of the content taught or of the teacher's normal

teaching style.

The study does, however, raise interesting questions

about the effect of a teacher's planning method on the way one reacts

in the classroom.

Zahorik (1975) continued this line of inquiry by examining the

use of behavioral objectives and the "separate means-ends" model of

planning as well as the use of the "integrated means-ends" model pro-

posed by McDonald and Eisner.

He asked 194 teachers (primarily grades

K-12) to list in writing the decisions that they make prior to teach-

ing and the order in which they make them.

He classified these de-

cisions into the following categories:

objectives, content,

31

activities, materials, diagnosis, evaluation, instruction, and organi-

zation.

He found that the kind of decision used by the greatest num-

ber of teachers concerned pupil activities (indicated by 81% of the

teachers).

The decision most frequently made first was content (51%)

followed at a distant second by objectives (28%).

Zahorik concluded from this study that teacher planning decisions

do not always follow logically from a specification of objectives, and

that, in fact, objectives are not a particularly important planning de-

cision in terms of quantity of use.

He also argued, however, that the

integrated ends-means model does not appear to be a functioning real-

ity because of the relatively few teachers (only 3%) who began their

planning by making decisions about activities.

Several things should be kept in mind when interpreting the re-

sults of this study.

First, the data are based on teacher self-

reports.

Second, there is no indication of what Zahorik meant by

planning decisions or how the teachers interpreted its meaning.

Third, there is no evidence that the classification system used by

Zahorik reflects the types of decisions actually made by teachers.

For example, it may not be true that decisions concerning activities

and decisions concerning content are easily separated in the teacher's

mind.

It may be that content is an essential component of a learning

activity and if the content is changed the nature of the activity is

changed.

Only recently has research on teacher planning begun focusing on

describing teacher decision making in actual planning situations.

Peterson, Marx, and Clark (1977) examined planning in a laboratory

situation as twelve teachers prepared to teach an unfamiliar

32

instructional unit to a group of eight students (also new to the

teachers).

During the planning period, teachers were instructed to

"think aloud" and their verbal protocols were later coded by means of

decision categories such as objectives, materials, subject matter, and

process.

As in Zahorik's (1975) study, there was no indication whether

these categories accurately captured the teachers' actual perceptions

of the planning situation.

The following results were obtained from

this study based on protocols from the planning periods prior to three

days of teaching (fifty-minute periods):

(1) teachers spent the

largest prOportion of their planning time dealing with the content

(subject matter) to be taught, (2) after subject matter, teachers con-

centrated their planning efforts on instructional processes (strate-

gies and activities), and (3) the smallest proportion of their plan-

ning time was spent on objectives.

All three of these findings were

consistent with those by Zahorik (1975) and Goodlad, Klein, and others

(1974).

The third finding is also similar to results reported by

Joyce and Hartoonian (1965) and by Popham and Baker (1970).

Also

reported in this study were results suggesting individual differences

in cognitive processing styles and abilities in planning that were

relatively stable during the experimental period.

A major weakness of the study is that it was conducted in a labo-

ratory situation, with students and materials that the teachers were

dealing with for the first time, and planning was only observed for

ninety minutes prior to the lesson.

Also, planning was only observed

over a three-day period.

It is possible that this type of task may

offer little information about how planning might proceed when the

teacher is in his or her own classroom, with familiar students,

33

materials, and resources.

Peterson, Marx, and Clark did, however,

point to the richness of descriptive data that may be obtained by

observing actual planning and also suggested the usefulness of thinking

aloud as a method to elucidate the teacher's thought processes.

Morine (1976) avoided some of these problems by studying planning

in a semi-controlled classroom setting and in a simulated planning

situation.

Teacher written plans were collected for two experimenter-

prescribed lessons (one in mathematics and one in reading) and ana—

1yzed according to (l) specificity of written plans, (2) general for-

mat of plans, (3) statement of goals, (4) source of goal statements,

(5) attention to pupil background and preparation, (6) identification

of evaluation procedures, and (7) indication of possible alternative

procedures.

Morine found that teachers tended to be fairly specific

and use outline forms in their plans, yet paid little attention to

behavioral goals, diagnosis of student needs, evaluation procedures,

and alternative courses of action.

In the simulated setting, Morine had teachers plan a reading pro-

gram for fourteen new students.

The task was designed to identify the

kind of information teachers consider important for planning a program

for a school year.

Information was available from cumulative records

for each student, and the resulting plans were analyzed according to

the types of information about pupils that teachers requested, group-

ing procedures used, and the differential use of materials and support

services.

Morine found that a majority of the teachers indicated that

there were major differences between the way that the simulation was

constructed and the way that they normally planned.

The major dif-

ference reported was that they normally avoided so much preliminary

34

information about students or try to get first hand information (e.g.,

give their own tests).

Morine found that as a group the teachers

tended to ask for the same kind of information, were fairly accurate

in identifying the pupils' reading levels, and differed little in

grouping practices and use of support services.

Currently, Morine and Joyce (1976) are involved in.a study inves-

tigating, among other things, the preactive planning of a group of

teachers at different times during the school year using four different

methods of data collection.

Planning will be examined using thinking

aloud technique, a post teaching interview, and structured and un-

structured written lesson plans.

Although decision making has been a concern of nearly all the em-

pirical studies that have been discussed thus far, they are all char-

acterized by the following weakness.

None of the studies has examined

teacher planning in the classroom over long periods of time.

Recent

investigators such as Morine and Joyce have begun examining planning

in naturalistic settings, but their observation and description have

been limited to one or two days per month for each teacher.

To date,

no one has taken on the task of describing teacher planning in detail

over an extended time period.

Moreover, there has been no attempt to

describe the process of teacher planning decisions as they occur.

Typically, an analysis has been made from the product of teacher plan-

ning, that is, lesson plans.

Peterson, Marx, and Clark (1977) have

conducted the only study of teacher planning as it happens and then

only for three ninety-minute periods.

Finally, although Zahorik has

compared teacher planning to prescribed models of teacher planning, no

35

one has attempted to develop a model of teacher planning from actual

planning behavior in a naturalistic setting.

It is because of these weaknesses in research on teacher plan-

ning and decision making that the present study has been undertaken.

Teacher planning was examined as it naturally occurred in the class-

room setting over a period of several months.

The resulting behavior

was described in detail and models of teacher planning were developed.

CHAPTER III

METHOD

Scope of the Study

 

The primary objective of this study was to describe those mental

processes involved in teacher planning decisions made prior to teach-

ing.

This objective was addressed within the context of a case study

focusing on a detailed examination and description of one elementary

teacher's planning decisions during a five month period of instruc-

tion.

The central thrust of the study was descriptive with a major

purpose of providing a "thick—description" of the teacher and the

classroom setting in which she functions.

There is no attempt in

this study to examine the relationship between teacher planning and

either classroom interaction or student outcomes.

These process-

product relationships (Dunkin and Biddle, 1974) were ignored because

it was felt that before the effects of planning decisions on classroom

interaction and student learning can be understood, we need to de-

scribe and understand what actually occurs during the planning pro—

cess.

Although major interest was in describing planning behavior as

it naturally occurs, teacher planning was also examined in a simulated

setting in which certain aspects of the teacher's present environment

could be manipulated.

The study began in January, 1977, and was concluded in June, 1977.

During the first three months of the study, the investigator was pre-

sent in the classroom on the average of four days per week.

During

36

37

these days he observed the teacher from 8:30 in the morning until she

left school at 4:45 in the afternoon.

The fourth month of the study

involved only occasional visits to the classroom while the data were

being analyzed and while the theory and models were being developed.

The fifth month of the study involved several more weeks of observation

(usually half days) and the teacher's participation in the planning

simulation.

Selecting the Teacher

 

Before the study began, four criteria were established to guide

the search for a participant in this study.

First, an experienced

teacher was sought so that planning could be observed that had proved

workable and effective for the teacher over a period of several years.

Second, a teacher who did a great deal of overt planning was desired,

since it would be easier in an initial study of teacher planning to

begin with a teacher whose planning activities were more readily ob-

servable.

The third criteria was to look for a teacher who was re-

garded as being successful by other professionals--a "good" teacher.

This was thought to be important since good planning was of primary

interest at this time and would be of more value if one wanted to make

prescriptions to other teachers' planning behavior.

Finally, a self-

contained classroom was sought so that the teacher would not be shar-

ing planning responsibilities with other teachers.

In the first week of January, several potential teachers were

identified through the recommendations of teachers currently working

at the Institute for Research on Teaching.

Two teachers were con-

tacted and appointments were arranged to discuss the study.

The first

38

teacher expressed interest in participating in the study and agreed

that a final decision on her participation would be contingent on both

the investigator's and her willingness to proceed with the study after

three days of classroom observation

and interaction.

The second

teacher turned out to be in a team-teaching situation, and it was de-

cided to make a decision about the first teacher before contacting

others.

After the observation period, the teacher agreed to participate

in the study, and it became apparent to the researcher during this time

that she met all of the specified criteria for a participant in the

research.

The teacher was teaching in a combined first and second

grade classroom in a local school district.

She had had six years of

teaching experience, three years in a special education classroom and

three years in a first and second grade "split" classroom in the pre-

sent building.

She appeared to be a very organized and creative

teacher who spent much time in planning activities and was highly re-

garded by her colleagues.

She was in her early thirties and had

earned a bachelor's degree in social work and a master's degree in

special education prior to teaching.

Naturalistic Data Collection

 

A central purpose of this study was to examine and describe plan-

ning decisions as they were made in the classroom setting.

Two meth—

ods of inquiry were chosen to accomplish this.

The first method, pro-

cess tracing, is an approach to describing decision making that has

proven successful in relatively simple laboratory and field settings

but has never been tested in a complex naturalistic setting.

The

39

second method was micro—ethnography (Smith and Geoffrey, 1968) which

has been widely used to examine the social environment of groups but

has only once been used as a tool to examine teacher decision making.

Each of these methods will be discussed in turn.

An Information Processing Approach

 

While the major purpose of this study is to describe the mental

processes involved in teacher planning decisions, it is also concerned

with examining the usefulness of a particular mode of inquiry that has

proven successful in studies of decision making in other fields.

This

approach, called process tracing, begins with a complex representation

of decision making in the form of verbal protocols and attempts to

simplify the processes by representing the decisions in the form of

decision trees or flow diagrams.

Most researchers using this methodology subscribe to the notion

that humans are adaptive, goal oriented systems.

Simon (1969), elabo-

rating on this view, states that:

A man, viewed as a behaving system, is quite simple.

The

apparent complexity of his behavior over time is largely

a reflection of the complexity of the environment in which

finds himself (p. 25).

It is this view of "thinking man" that provides both the theoretical

and methodological foundation for this study of teacher decision mak-

ing.

Viewing man as a relatively simple, adaptive system has certain

implications for the ways in which human information processing should

be studied.

Newell (1973) has suggested that to predict a person's

behavior, one must have information about (1) his goals, (2) the struc-

ture of the task environment in which he is functioning, and (3) the

4O

invariant structure of his processing mechanisms.

Using this informa-

tion, one can fairly accurately predict what "methods" are available

to the subject, and from the method one can predict what the subject

will do.

In order to utilize Newell's formula, the researcher must take

pains to describe the subject's goals and the structure of the task

environment for each new situation.

One assumes, however, that there

are certain invariant structures of the human processing mechanism

across situations, and that only a gross knowledge of these processes

is needed.

Simon (1969) has summarized these processes as follows:

The evidence is overwhelming that the system is basically

serial in its operation:

that it can produce only a few

symbols at a time and that the symbols being processed

must be held in special, limited memory structures whose

content can be changed rapidly.

The most striking limits

on subject's capacities to employ efficient strategies

arise from the very small capacity of the short-term

memory structure (seven chunks4) and from the relatively

long time (five seconds) required to transfer a chunk of

information from short-term memory to long term memory

(p. 53).

The process tracing approach has proven manageable and effective

for understanding behavior during relatively simple tasks such as

cryptarithmetic or chess problems (de Groot, 1965; Newell and Simon,

1972).

In these situations both the goals of the subject and the task

environment are well specified, and the researchers can focus their

efforts on determining the "methods" or "programs" that the subject

is using to solve the problems.

The investigator's job becomes more

difficult, however, as the task environment increases in complexity.

 

4This estimate was based on Miller's (1956) estimate of short-

term memory (STM) of approximately seven chunks, plus or minus two

chunks.

More recent work on STM (Craik, 1971) has lowered this esti-

mate to three chunks, plus or minus one.

41

This has been shown to be true in studies of physicians' diagnostic

problem solving (Elstein, eg_al,, in press) and in attempts to describe

the decision making of bank trust investment officers in naturalistic

settings (Clarkson, 1962).

Elstein and his colleagues set out to describe the cognitive pro-

cesses of physicians from their initial encounter with a patient to

the final diagnostic decision.

Physicians were confronted with simu-

lated patients in a simulated office situation,and data were collected

on their "thinking aloud" during the encounter as well as their com-

ments during simulated recall (Bloom, 1954; Kagan, et_al,, 1967) of the

session.

By repeating the same simulations on twenty-four physicians,

the major features of the task environment became well understood.

The protocols and stimulated recall provided information about the

physicians' goals and intentions.

Thus, they were able to complete

Newell's formula and their study provided interesting and unexpected

information about the methods that the physicians were using to solve

these problems.

Clarkson examined the decisions of a bank trust investment offi-

cer as he selected investment portfolios during a period of several

months.

He used a variety of data collection methods, illustrating

"the slow, painstaking, and frequently artful manner in which 'think-

ing aloud' and other process data are collected and transformed into

information processing models" (Shulman and Elstein, 1975).

He began

his study by interviewing the bank's trust investment officers and by

attending departmental meetings that reveiwed past and future trust

investment decisions.

He then focused on the deliberations of one

investment officer, examining the history of several accounts and

42

attempting to develop "naive behavioral models" of those decision pro-

cesses that seemed to be invariant across accounts.

In an attempt to test these models, "think aloud" protocols were

made of the trust officer's successive deliberations during the course

of his work.

Inspection of these protocols indicated that many of the

decisions pertaining to expectations and valuation of stocks, indus-

tries, etc., were made prior to portfolio selection.

To discover how

these prior decision were made, protocols were gathered while the trust

officer read and commented on articles from financial journals and on

analysts' reports to which he subscribed.

From these protocols and

those collected earlier, a model was constructed of the trust offi-

cer's decision processes, eventually being developed into a computer

simulation.

Over a validation period of six months the computer

simulation successfully matched the predictions of the trust officer,

and appeared to be using approximately the same deliberative processes

as used by the human decision maker.

These two studies illustrate well the information processing ap-

proach to examining decision making.

Here the subject is viewed as a

processor of information capable of being simulated by a sequential

decision making model.

There are a number of benefits from this in-

formation approach:

(1) it provides a formal language for dealing

with complex problems, and as such, (2) it requires a precise formula-

tion of the theory, and (3) it allows for a direct test of the model

by running the program and comparing its output and processes with

that of a human decision maker performing the same task (Wortman,

1972).

43

The application of information processing methodology to the de-

scription of teacher decision making processes promises to be a chal-

lenging and formidable task.

The environment in which teachers, es-

pecially elementary teachers, daily operate is many times more complex

than that of the physician or trust investment officer.

This is true

largely because of the fact that teachers deal with many people at one

time and are in contact with them in a variety of different settings

every day, over long periods of time.

One way to address the complexity of the teacher's environment is

to characterize it as being composed of many different task environ-

ments in a process of constant fluctuation and change.

According to

Simon's earlier statements, it makes sense to think of the teacher as

being effective in certain situations and with certain tasks rather

than as the possesser of global or generic traits and abilities.

In

other words, the appropriate question to be asked in research on

teaching is not

"What is an effective teacher?" but rather "In what

situations is a teacher effective?"

If one wishes to use Newell's "formula" to describe and predict

teacher behavior, a large amount of effort must be devoted to describ-

ing and characterizing the task environment and the teacher's goals for

decision making.

This is one reason that this study takes the form of

an in-depth process tracing of one teacher over a long period of time.

As mentioned earlier, the goal of information processing ap-

proaches such as process tracing is to describe the processes or meth-

ods by which problems are solved and decisions are made.

To obtain

this information, the researchers have generally relied on introspec-

tive reports gathered as participants think aloud while performing a

44

task.

These protocols are then formalized into models representing

the mental processes used by the participants while engaged in the

task.

A primary source of data for this study is the teacher's verbali-

zations of her thought processes during instructional planning.

There

is much debate in psychology about how to deal with verbal data.

This

study takes the same approach to the issue as do Newell and Simon

(1972):

The prOtocol is a record of the subject's ongoing behav-

ior, and an utterance of time t is taken to indicate knowl-

edge or operation at time t.

Retrospective accounts leave

much more opportunity for the subject to mix current knowl-

edge with past knowledge, making reliable inference from

the protocol difficult.

Nor, in the thinking-aloud proto-

col, is the subject asked to theorize about his own behav-

ior - only to report the information and intentions that

are within his current sphere of conscious awareness.

All

theorizing about the causes and consequences of the sub-

ject's knowledge state is carried out and validated by the

experimenters, not the subject (p. 184).

In this study, the teacher was requested to think aloud through

out most of her preactive teaching activities.

For those deliberative

planning periods such as writing down next week's schedule in her plan

book or planning for a new instructional unit, her thinking aloud was

recorded on audio tape.

During other preactive activities, a written

description was kept on her behavior, making special note of verbali-

zations related to planning decisions.

An Ethnograhic Approach

A second and equally important set of data collected during this

study was detailed written descriptions of the teacher's behavior in

both the preactive and interactive phases of teaching which provided

45

detailed descriptions of the environmental "context" in which plan-

ning decisions were made.

One reason for using this approach is that research on teaching

has provided few in-depth descriptions of actual teaching behavior in

classroom settings.

The exceptions to this are the ethnographic

studies done by participant observers who have spent long periods of

time examining one educational setting (e.g., Cusick, 1973; Smith and

Geoffrey, 1968).

These studies, along with less extensive observations

by researchers such as Jackson (1968), have provided valuable knowl-

edge and insights into the nature of teaching that has been for the

most part overlooked in the short and infrequent forays into the

classroom that characterize research on teaching.

Given this dearth

of information about life in classrooms and the promise of the

descriptive—ethnographic studies, it seemed that to describe adequate-

ly and understand teacher decision making, one would want to spend an

extended period of time in the classroom observing the day to day

activities of teaching.

Ethnographic descriptions of teaching in this study were col-

lected as the investigator functioned as a "participant observer" in

the classroom.

"Participant" does not mean here that the investigator

took on the role of either the teacher or a student, but that he par-

ticipated in the social structure of the classroom developing signifi-

cant relationships with the teacher and students.

The observer's role

most frequently took the form of sitting quietly at a spot in the

classroom offering full view of all activities, taking written notes

and recording as much of the action of the classroom (focusing on the

teacher) as possible.

Interactions with students were limited

46

primarily to friendly and informal conversations and to occasional

questions about what was being written down by the observer.

At times

when the students were not in the classroom, the investigator func-

tioned as the teacher's "shadow," following the teacher throughout the

day and recording her behaviors and statements.

During these times,

the teacher was engaged in an on-going "thinking aloud" process where

she attempted to verbalize her thoughts regarding the activities in

whcih she was involved.

Notes were kept throughout this process and

questions were often asked to clarify or elaborate her statements.

During more deliberative instructional planning sessions, thinking

aloud was also tape recorded.

By using these approaches, a detailed

written description of the teacher's behavior was obtained that por-

trayed her planning decisions within the context of days, weeks, and

months of teaching.

Another advantage of the ethnographic method is the detailed de-

scription it provides of the teaching environment.

The importance of

carefully describing the environment in which behavior occurs has been

pointed out by both the ecological and information processing psycho-

1ogists.

As mentioned in Chapter I, the ecological approach to exam-

ining teaching underlines the subtle and complex interdependencies

between behavior and the environment.

Their notion that settings es-

tablish limits on the response Options of participants suggests that

an understanding of behavior in any given situation will require an

understanding of the environment in which it occurs.

This view is

supported by information processing theory and has been most widely

discussed by Newell and Simon.

In their theory of thinking, they set

forth the following propositions:

47

1.

A few, and only a few, gross characteristics of the

information processing system (IPS) are invariant

over task and problem solver.

2.

These characteristics are sufficient to determine

that a task environment is represented (in the IPS)

as a problem space, and that problem solving takes

place in a problem space.

3.

The structure of the task environment determines

the possible structures of the problem space.

4.

The structure of the problem space determines the

possible programs that can be used for problem

solving (Newell and Simon, 1972, pp. 778-779).

The third and fourth propositions of this theory suggest the important

role of the task environment in shaping decision making.

They suggest

that the task itself must be considered a major determinant of human

behavior, as Opposed to attributing behavior to a stable trait or

ability of the decision maker across situations.

Thus, if decision making is largely a function of the task envi-

ronment, a crucial task of research becomes that of describing the

situation in which the behavior occurs.

These descriptions contribute

to an understanding of information processing by making possible an

understanding Of the task requirements which, in turn, yields a better

understanding of the person who performs in a more-or-less successful

manner (Dawes, 1974).

Summary of the Naturalistic Data Collection

Two strategies of naturalistic data collection were used in this

study.

A process tracing approach was used to collect detailed infor-

mation about the teacher's specific planning decisions with an empha-

sis on describing the decision process.

In addition, a micro-ethno-

graphic approach was used to describe the behavior and context of

48

teaching with a goal of providing a background from which to better

understand the specific planning decisons.

The Teacher Planning Shell

 

During the course of this investigation, teacher planning behavior

was Observed in several artificial situations.

The first Of these

situations that will be discussed has been named the Teacher Planning

Shell.

The Teacher Planning Shell is a moderate fidelity simulation

resembling an In-Basket, although differing in one major sense.

Clas-

sical teacher In-Baskets (Shulman, 1965; Shulman, e£_al,, 1968) gener-

ally represent total task simulations.

In these simulations, the

participant is usually confronted with a familiar task in an unfamil-

iar situation.

One of the major tasks confronting the participant is

to familiarize oneself with the new environment and then manipulate

it in some manner to achieve the desired goal(s).

A weakness of these

simulations is that it is nearly impossible to duplicate the informa-

tion that would be internally available in real situations as a re-

sult of previous experience.

(Efforts have been made to provide re-

ference memories representing this experience, but the process of re-

trieving this information is often cumbersome and time-consuming.)

The Teacher Planning Shell attempts to circumvent these problems

by providing a simulated situation in which a participant can use his

or her current knowledge about most aspects of the task environment.

This is achieved by manipulating one or two components of the teach-

er's environment while leaving the rest undisturbed.

For instance, a

teacher may be asked to plan lessons for a new curriculum component

that would be implemented in his present classroom with his current

49

students at the present time of year.

Although situation factors are

not standardized and controlled as in classical In-Baskets, informa-

tion on these factors can be collected by a questionnaire administered

prior to the planning task.

This approach has several advantages over total-task simulations.

First, the Teacher Planning Shell provides a format for planning in a

semi-controlled setting that has greater task validity.

By allowing

the teacher to remain, for the most part, in the present teaching

situation, the psychological fidelity of the task should also be in-

creased.

Second, the Teacher Planning Shell should be less difficult

than most In-Baskets, in that there is less learning and searching for

information that must occur prior to planning.

Third, the "shell"

format provides for flexibility by allowing different kinds of plan-

ning tasks and potential problems to be presented to the teacher.

For the purpose of this study, five different problems were de-

veloped that would be appropriate for use in late spring.

Four of the

problems were used with the teacher in this study.

The instructions

and problems for the Teacher Planning Shell are presented in Appendix

A along with the Teacher Planning Shell Questionnaire administered

prior to the simulation.

The Planning Shell was primarily designed for this study, but is

constructed so that it may be used as a tool to examine teacher plan-

ning decisions outside the framework of an in-depth case study.

Since

an essential element of the Teacher Planning Shell is that the parti-

cipant deal with the problems at the current time of the year, addi-

tional problems are being developed that would be appropriate for be-

ginning of the year, fall, and winter term simulations.

50

In this study, the Teacher Planning Shell was used primarily as a

tool to examine teacher planning in situations that had not been na-

turally observed during the Observation period.

The teacher was in-

structed to think aloud during the task and the verbalizations were

recorded on audio tape.

Since the Teacher Planning Shell was adminis-

tered late in the study, the data were used to modify or confirm hy-

potheses and models that had been developed from earlier descriptions.

Judgment Tasks

 

During the third and fourth months of the study, the teacher was

asked to participate in several small scale experiments that were de—

signed to examine more closely the teacher's thinking about students

and activities by providing information about the characteristics or

cues to which the teacher paid attention.

Initially, only two tasks

were planned, a pupil sort task and an activity sort task.

As a re-

sult of the teacher's interest in doing a sociogram on the class, a

third task was added to provide additional information about teacher

perceptions of students.

Pupil Sort

 

This task consisted of presenting to the teacher names of her

students written on separate index cards and instructing her to group

the pupils according to any dimension or characteristic that she could

think of.

No guidance was given as to what characteristics to use nor

about the number of groups.

The task lasted approximately forty-five

minutes and the teacher was instructed to think aloud during the task.

If the teacher had not done so during the task, she was requested at

the end of each sort to explain how the groups differed from each

51

other and how the children in each group were similar.

Within the

forty-five minute period, twenty-two different sorts were accomplished.

A list of the sort dimensions used is presented in Appendix B.

The

protocols were examined to determine the number of dimensions used by

examining the similarity of group composition in the various sorts.

Activity Sort

 

The activity sort used the same procedure as the pupil sort using

the names of the fifty-one instructional activities used in the class-

room that had been identified by classroom observation.

During the

forty-five minutes set aside for this task, twenty dimensions were

used as a basis for sorting.

These dimensions as well as the fifty-one

activities are presented in Appendix B.

The analysis procedure was

the same as that used in the pupil sort task.

Sociogpam Analysis

 

During the third month of the study, the teacher expressed in-

terest in doing a sociogram of the class.

She had informally done

this before and had found it to be an interesting source of information

about social relations in the classroom.

The investigator offered to

construct the sociograms if she would decide on the questions that she

would ask the students and be willing to discuss her predictions about

the outcome of each sociogram prior to seeing the results.

To this

she agreed, and a period was set aside during class to collect the

students' responses to each of the twenty questions that she had

constructed.

Over the weekend, the investigator constructed a socio-

gram for each of the questions.

During the next week, these were pre-

sented to the teacher and her reactions recorded.

Prior to showing

52

each sociogram to the teacher, the question was read and she predicted

how the diagram would look.

While she examined each sociogram, her

reactions and the accuracy of predictions were discussed.

These data

were used to supplement and elaborate the information on her thinking

about pupils collected in the pupil sort task.

(The questions for

which the sociograms were developed may be found in Appendix B.)

Analysis

Basically, two types Of data were generated and analyzed in this

study.

During the first three months of the study detailed field

notes were taken during both the preactive and interactive teaching

activities that occurred on the Observation days.

In addition, de-

tailed notes or audio recordings were made during the teacher's plan-

ning and during her participation in the Teacher Planning Shell and the

judgment tasks.

The field notes were taken with the purpose of providing a run-

ning account of the teacher's behavior.

As incidents occurred, as

many features of the behavior and situation were recorded as possible.

Attempts were made to record what was said, who said it, the nature

and location of the activity, the participants, the noise level, tone

of voice, posture, facial expression, and so forth.

Obviously, in

quick interchanges and fast moving activity sequences, certain things

were missed.

The strategy used to sort out complex situations was to

focus on the teacher's behavior, only recording students' behavior as

they interacted with her.

The analysis of the field notes proceeded in the following manner.

At the end of each observation day, the field notes were recorded onto

53

cassette tapes to be later transcribed.

Putting the field notes into

a form that could be easily transcribed served as a review of the day's

activities and provided a further stimulus to thinking about the

teacher's planning in relation to classroom activities.

When in typed

form, the field notes were reread with the purpose of looking for

broad patterns of behavior in the interactive setting that seemed re-

lated to planning decisions.

As the study progressed, the field notes

became the background for interpreting planning behavior, since they

illustrated the various factors that seemed to be influencing the plan-

ning of classroom activities as well as shedding light on the factors

that effected the implementation of the activities in the interactive

setting.

The notes and tape recordings of the naturalistic and simulated

planning activities were analyzed in a manner similar to that used

with the field notes.

Because of the difficulty of transcribing the

audio tapes, they were analyzed by repeatedly listening to the deci-

sion protocols and summarizing their content, making special note of

decision components and processes.

The variety and complexity of the

different planning situations precluded an analysis of the protocols

at a level similar to those used in previous process tracing analyses,

but a model of the planning process was constructed that reflected the

process at a more meaningful level.

(This point will be discussed in

more detail in Chapter IX.)

The data analysis and model development proceeded by alternation

between data collection and conceptualization.

The general procedure

followed the steps in qualitative analysis initially advocated by

Becker (1958) and used by Smith and Geoffrey (1968).

They include:

54

1.

Selection and definition of problems, concepts,

and indices.

2.

Checking the frequency and distribution of

phenomena.

3.

Construction of social system models.

4.

Final analysis and presentation of results (Smith

and Geoffrey, 1968, p. 14).

Time became an important tool in the analysis.

Concepts, methods, and

processes gradually surfaced in the data as a result of spending ex-

tended amounts of time observing and describing the teacher's decision

behavior.

As process elements became apparent, they were formulated

into working hypotheses to be examined in future situations as well as

in previous field notes.

As models were further developed, they were

discussed with colleagues at the Institute, many of whom were or had

been classroom teachers.

Thus, over time, concepts were defined and

tested against classroom observations and a process model of teacher

planning gradually took form.

Chapter Summary

 

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate teacher

planning by a detailed examination and description Of the decision pro-

.cess involved in one elementary teacher's planning decisions during a

five month period of instruction.

Data were collected by observation

and recording of the teacher's activities in both the preactive and

interactive phases of teaching and by recording the teacher's thinking

aloud during planning in naturalistic situations in a new simulation

task called the Teacher Planning Shell and in three judgment tasks.

Data were analyzed by examining field notes and taped protocols as the

study proceeded, and by generating and testing concepts and hypotheses

55

through interaction with previous data and ongoing teacher behavior.

As a result, descriptions of the teacher's planning were developed

along with models of the planning process.

These descriptions and

models will be elaborated and discussed in the following chapters.

CHAPTER IV

THE SETTING

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the character of the

setting in which this study was conducted.

The analogy that will be

used is that Of a play.

Ecological psychologists have drawn on this

analogy when they talk about behavior settings and props.

The picture

of the teaching environment that will be painted here will necessarily

lack the richness and detail of the real setting, but like the oversim-

plified and Often stylized stage backdrop, it will contain enough of

the features of the real setting to convey the proper context.

And,

as such, it may serve to enhance the visual appreciation of the set-

ting, and to facilitate the audience's perception and understanding of

the action.

The chapter will follow a dramaturgical or theatrical outline.

It begins by describing the stage and set on which teaching occurs.

Next the characters and the major props in the classroom are discussed.

Subsequent to that, a typical plot is unfolded followed by a more

general discussion of the daily drama in the classroom.

The final

section discusses the set and props for planning.

56

57

The Stage:

Byron School

 

Byron School5 is located in a medium sized community adjacent to

a large midwestern university.

It is one of nine elementary schools

in a rather progressive school district.

The surrounding neighborhood

is primarily made up of single family dwellings along with some rental

property.

The neighborhood is mostly upper middle class and many of

its inhabitants are faculty, staff, or students at the university.

Because of these university affiliations, the neighborhood is approxi-

mately 92% white with 8% minority inhabitants.

There is a very active and influential community organization in

the area that is concerned with any city policy that would affect the

neighborhood.

Recently, they have been involved in issues such as

building and zoning codes, parking and traffic control, and rental

housing standards.

The school also has a very active Parent Teacher

Organization that sponsors work days several times a year to clear up

the school grounds and activities like flea markets to raise money for

the school.

Community participation is very prominent in the life of

the school, and there are always many more volunteers than needed for

parent aides or room mothers.

Byron School was built in 1922 and is the second oldest building

in the district.

The building and playground take up a square city

block, bounded on the south and west sides by primarily student rental

housing and on the nOrth and east sides by single family dwellings.

The building is a three story, brick structure with a newer wing

(built in 1946) that contains the lower grade classrooms.

There are

 

5The names of the school, teacher, and students have all been

changed to insure anonymity.

58

twelve classrooms in the building, eight of which are currently being

used for general instruction.

The other four classrooms function as a

music room, art room, reading lab, and science room.

The school also

contains, in the older part of the building, a library and a gymnasium

that also serves as an auditorium.

The kindergarten, first grade,

first-second grade, and second-third grade classrooms are on the first

floor in the newer wing of the building.

The third grade, fourth

grade, and the two fourth-fifth grade classrooms are on the second and

third floors of the building.

A floor plan of the building is pre-

sented in Figure 4.1.

The building uses steam heating that keeps the

newer wing much too hot and the second and third floors much too cold

throughout the winter.

The older classrooms are characterized by very

high ceilings and room for litte more than the teacher's and students'

desks.

The rooms in the newer wing are much larger than the older

classrooms.

In this wing there are two rooms on each side of the hall

connected by a workroom containing restrooms, the teachers' desks, and

storage space.

The Set and Props for Learning:

Mrs. Lisa's Classroom

Mrs. Lisa's classroom is located on the north side of the new wing

and adjoins the second-third grade classroom.

This was the third year

that Mrs. Lisa has had her first-second grade class in this room.

Her

three previous years were spent teaching special education in what is

now the music room.

(The special education classroom has been moved

to another school in the district.)

The classroom is approximately twenty feet wide and thirty-five

feet long.

The north wall is made up of windows affording a view of

59

 

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60

the asphalt play area just outside and the playground beyond.

The

floor is covered with a grey tile and the walls are light blue.

walking into the room, one is struck by the brightness and neatness of

the room.

Along the south wall there are brightly decorated bulletin

boards on the doors of the built-in storage cupboards.

Other bulletin

boards around the room are covered with bright paper and are either

decorated or used for such things as displaying today's weather and

date, indicating job assignments, and displaying newspaper articles of

interest.

There are many posters and signs above the windows and

around the room.

The student desks, work tables, and bookcases are

neatly arranged, and one gets the impression that everything is in its

place.

The student desks are located toward the front of the room and

the large chalkboard.

The students sit in pairs at small tables that

are rearranged several times a term.

They are often grouped into

three or four major seating clusters.

On top of each table are rec-

tangular plastic wash tubs (one per student) containing parapher-

nalia such as pencils, erasers, and rulers.

Texts and workbooks are

kept in a vertical file rack where each pupil's books are displayed in

the slot behind his or her name.

There is a large (9 x 12 feet) rug toward the back of the room

that is used as a gathering place for the whole class at the beginning

of the day, after recess, and at other times when the whole group gets

together.

Near the rug, there is a small carpeted platform raised a

foot Off the floor that Mrs. Lisa sits on to direct activities.

Around

the edge of the rug are a half dozen brightly painted cement blocks

that the students can use as seats.

In addition, the room contains

61

two tables that are used with small groups, Mrs. Lisa's worktable

which serves as her desk during the day, and several other worktables

and cupboards.

See Figure 4.2 for a basic floor plan of the classroom.

The "backroom" that connects Mrs. Lisa's classroom with the class-

room next door is approximately eighteen feet long and twelve feet

wide.

In the middle of the room are Mrs. Lisa's and the other teach-

er's desks and file cabinets.

Along the south wall there are two rest

rooms (one for each classroom) and a storage closet.

Windows run the

length of the north wall and beneath the windows and along the west

wall are storage cabinets with a low counter top on them.

This area

is used as an art lab where Mrs. Lisa sets out various materials that

the students may use during their "choice time" activities.

Each year, Mrs. Lisa decorates the room and names activities fol—

lowing a central theme.

This year the room is set up around a "Pea-

nuts" cartoon theme, and there are many posters and signs around the

room depicting various characters from this pOpular comic strip.

Last

year the room had a bicentennial theme, and the year before the theme

was signs of the zodiac.

The room is very well furnished with enough room for an informal

meeting area, four places where small groups can meet, chalkboards for

each small group area, adequate storage space, a record and cassette

tape player, and easy accessibility to film strip and movie projectors.

The main inconveniences of this classroom are the noise from the adja-

cent playground, the small number of electrical outlets in the room,

and the heat problem in the winter.

The heat problem seemed to be the

most troublesome.

Since the new wing has radiant floor heating, it

caused the floor tile adhesive to bubble up between the tiles, Often

62

 

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63

making the floor too messy for sitting.

Also, since all the heat for

the wing went through Mrs. Lisa's room first, the temperature in her

room often was as high as eighty degrees.

This required Opening win-

dows and having the students wear lighter clothes in the room.

After

much complaining, several letters to the superintendent of schools,

and several months of inconvenience, this problem was finally cor—

rected.

The Main Characters:

the Teacher and Students

The Teacher

 

When one first meets Mrs. Lisa, one gets the impression of an or-

ganized, energetic person.

She is in her early thirties, a little over

five feet tall, and has short blond hair.

She makes most of her own

clothes, and at school slacks or a jumper accompanied by brightly

colored tennis shoes were her usual outfit.

Mrs. Lisa has been teaching for six years.

Prior to teaching,

she worked as a school social worker then returned to school and earned

a Master's in special education.

Her first three years of teaching

were spent in a special education room in Bryon School working with

emotionally impaired and learning disabled students.

This was the

third year that she has been teaching in a regular classroom, all of

which have been first-second grade classes in Byron School.

Mrs.

Lisa is well respected by other teachers who call upon her for advice

in handling difficult students and who are constantly amazed at the

pace that she keeps up in her planning and teaching.

Mrs. Lisa has

described herself as a compulsive organizer and planner which is

reflected in the amount of time that she spends preparing for teaching.

64

Mrs. Lisa designs many of the games and activities that she uses in

the classroom.

Much time is spent creating new materials to use with

the students,and she is constantly on the lookout for new ideas that

might be useful in her teaching.

Mrs. Lisa is married with no children, and she and her husband

Bill live across town in a large townhouse complex.

In her spare time

she enjoys sewing and swimming, and she says that she has a passion

for traveling that is too often left unfulfilled.

The Students
 

Because of declining enrollment in the district in the last few

years, many teachers have been assigned combined or split classes.

This is the third year that Mrs. Lisa has taught in a first-second

grade split classroom in Byron School.

The students that Mrs. Lisa

had this year were assigned or selected mainly on the basis of teacher

recommendations and parent requests.

The kindergarten and first grade

teachers recommended students that they thought would get along well

both socially and academically in a split classroom.

Some students

who had created problems together were purposely split up.

This also

involved recommending the assignment of several fast first graders and

several slow second graders to the room.

Eight of the thirteen second

graders had been first graders in Mrs. Lisa's room last year, and they

and their parents requested that they return to the room.

Several

parents of first graders also requested Mrs. Lisa's room since the

other first grade teacher was not assigned until late in the summer.

The rest of the students ended up in Mrs. Lisa's classroom as a result

of the need to assign specific numbers of students to each room.

65

For most of this study, there were twenty-seven students in Mrs.

Lisa's classroom--fourteen first graders and thirteen second graders.

This fluctuated throughout the year, however, and the slightly dif-

ferent composition of the class as the year progressed is listed in

Table 4.1.

When asked to describe her class as a whole, Mrs. Lisa gave the

following response:

The group as a whole is on the immature side, dependent on

me for many easy decisions they could make.

(They) cry

easily, (are) unable to create things on their own (in art

or letter writing), (and) they tend, as a whole, to copy or

imitate my work.

They are louder than other groups I have

had (and) are very talkative.

On the whole, in comparing

them to other (city) children, they are of average bright-

ness with a couple of outstanding exceptions.

They are

difficult to manage as a class, as they tend to be very

"I-me" oriented--not a sharing, work-together type group.

They tend to take things for granted--are less appreciative.

We have spent a lot of time on manners, cooperativeness,

and consideration.

There was a wide range of ability among the students.

At one extreme,

a group of students was reading at a pre-primer level, and at the other

extreme, a group was reading at a fourth and fifth grade level.

In

math the students ranged from a first to a fourth grade ability level.

In most subject matter areas, the achievement of approximately half of

the class was clustered just above grade level with the other half

distributed somewhere above or below.

A richer view of the class can be presented by listing some of

Mrs. Lisa's descriptions of individual students.

When asked to de-

scribe several "good" or successful students in her class, Mrs. Lisa

offered the following descriptions:

Lana

- hard worker, neat, consistent behavior, follows

rules, very independent, sincere, very straight,

far above grade level in academics.

66

Table 4.1

Number of students in Mrs. Lisa's classroom

during the year

First Grade

Second Grade

Total

  

September

January

March

May

6

5

5

5

9

9

9

8

7

8

9

8

5

5

5

5

27

27

28

26

67

Jim

-

sincere, sympathetic, good worker, follows rules,

independent, well liked by classmates, responsible,

tolerant.

Allan

independent, good sense of humor, kind to others,

good worker, bright.

Elaine

well liked, athletic, independent, hard and neat

worker, very responsible, follows rules, sympa-

thetic to others, COOperative.

Bobby

-

popular, excellent judgment, good, neat worker,

very independent, empathetic towards peers, co-

operative.

Susan

-

independent, cooperative, considerate, good

worker, bright.

Tommy

-

good worker; a bit immature, yet responsible;

very, very bright; creative.

The following

descriptions are of those students who gave her the most

difficulty in

the classroom--her "problem" students:

Tim

-

very insecure, unhappy, non-accepted, stubborn,

responds negatively to many things, has many small

annoying habits, tends to steal.

Billy

-

pushy, unkind, grabby, mean to other children,

constantly talks.

Jan

-

very immature, very dependent, unable to make a

decision, cries easily, bright.

Diane

-

emotional problems causing learning problems,

immature, insecure, emotional block to listening.

Roy

-

severe learning problems, tries hard, reversals,

poor reader, repeating first grade.

Anna

-

severe learning problem, immature, highly distrac-

ted, talks a lot, repeating first grade.

The Script:

the Curriculum

 

The city

school district influences the classroom curriculum in

two major ways.

It exercises a major influence by specifying perfor-

mance objectives for all elementary grade levels in five subject

68

matter areas:

reading, mathematics, writing skills, social studies,

and science.

These objectives were developed over a five year period

with the cooperation of a group of classroom teachers, and are pub-

lished in a handbook that is organized by subject matter topics.

General objectives are provided for each area as well as enabling ob-

jectives for each grade level to work towards meeting the general ob-

jectives.

Both affective and cognitive performance objectives are

specified and examples are provided for each objective.

The objectives

are not presented as mastery objectives; rather, the emphasis is placed

on specifying the grade level at which acquisition should begin.

In

the preface to the handbook, the following statement about its use is

made:

It (the handbook) has been developed by teachers with teach-

ers as its key targets.

As such, it is hoped that Objectives

are in a form that will be most helpful to teachers in (1)

providing an overall picture of a subject area in total and

by grade level, (2) establishing their own classroom and stu-

dent objectives, and (3) sharing Objectives with parents.

An outline of the objectives by subject matter is presented in Appen-

dix C.

The Objectives exercise an additional influence through the for—

mat Of the student evaluation and reporting forms.

At each grade

level, performance statements based on enabling objectives are listed

for reading, communication skills, math, science, and social studies.

The teacher is to report the student's progress by marking for each

statement whether the student is (1) doing well, (2) needs to improve,

(3) is working in an area, or (4) whether the statement does not apply.

The performance statements listed in the first and second grade eval-

uation and reporting forms are presented in Appendix C.

69

The second major influence the district exercises on the curricu-

lum is through curriculum programs that have been adopted district-

wide.

The district has adopted programs in two subject matter areas.

The Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) program has been chosen

for elementary science instruction and the Man A Course of Study

(MACOS)--Family of Man program--is being used for social studies.

The

complete SCIS kits are available in each school, and the Family of Man

kits circulate among the schools.

Within the last year, the district

has also developed and adopted a standardized spelling check list for

grades one to five.

This check list is to become part of each stu-

dent's permanent file, and at the end of the year, the teacher is to

check those words that the student is able to spell.

In the classroom, Mrs. Lisa used all three of these programs with

modifications.

Since she is teaching a combined class, she has com-

bined the first and second grade science objectives and selected

activities from the Level 1 and Level 2 SCIS program to use with her

children.

She omits most of the beginning lessons in the Level 1 pro-

gram since she feels the lessons are too repetitive.

She mainly draws

upon the second half of Level 1 and the first half of Level 2 so that

there will be minimal repetition for those students who go into a

second-third grade classroom next year.

In addition to the SCIS ma-

terials, Mrs. Lisa also teaches additional units on such things as

nutrition, dinosaurs, and the solar system.

For social studies, Mrs. Lisa uses three or four of the Family of

Man kits during the year.

This year she taught units on Mexico, Mos-

cow, and Japan.

In the fall, she began a unit on the states in the

union, but discontinued it after several weeks because it was too

70

difficult for this class.

Most of the social studies time in the fall

is spent using a socio-emotional program called Developing Understand-

ing of Self and Others (DUSO).

The program contains records, posters,

and puppets, and focuses on skills such as listening, cooperation,

manners, and so forth.

In addition to these programs, Mrs. Lisa has

developed additional social studies units such as a unit on economics

that she integrated with math.

Mrs. Lisa uses the district spelling

checklists, but has developed several lists of words that the students

are taught prior to beginning the first grade words.

At the beginning

of the year, each child was tested on the spelling words and was as-

signed to each group depending on how far along he is in the list.

There is no reading series specified by either the district or the

school.

The school and district have available basal readers from

several publishing companies.

This year Mrs. Lisa has used three dif-

ferent basal reading series, upper level readers from three other

series, and a phonics workbook series.

She uses ditto masters for two

of the series, and has developed comprehension worksheets for many Of

the texts.

In math, Mrs. Lisa uses the mathematics series adopted by all of

the teachers in the building.

She uses the workbooks for grades one

through four and has developed a recording system for the workbooks to

keep track Of each student'sprogress during the year.

She has also

developed a series of math quizzes that are given several times a week.

The quizzes are timed mastery quizzes designed to provide practice in

addition and subtraction and move students towards meeting the computa-

tion objectives.

71

For handwriting a second grade workbook is used from a series that

was adopted by several other teachers in the building.

There is no

language arts or writing skills program available to Mrs. Lisa, so most

of this instruction is based on activities that she has designed.

They

include such things as board work, teacher-made dittos, writing to pen-

cil pals, writing thank you notes and recipes, finding mistakes in

written passages, and teacher-made games.

Special teachers are provided for gym, music, and art.

The stu-

dents leave the room for these activities, and Mrs. Lisa is not re-

quired to teach in these areas.

The students spend one-half hour per

week with the music teacher, one hour every other week with the art

teacher, and thirty minutes three times per week with the gym teacher.

They also spend an hour per week at the library and forty-five minutes

per week with the reading consultant in the reading lab.

Activities that are not subsumed under the above subject matter

areas include perceptual and psychomotor skill training, listening

skill development, reading aloud to classmates, art projects in the

room, and field trips.

Several times during the year, the class plans

and cooks a meal together in the room.

Mrs. Lisa uses this activity

to integrate math and writing and to give the students a realistic ap-

plication exercise for these academic areas.

This year she also had

the students publish a class newspaper in order to integrate various

aspects of language arts.

A Typical Plot:

a Day at School

Before describing the more general characteristics of Mrs. Lisa's

teaching and planning, it may be helpful to describe a typical school

72

day.

It is difficult to isolate and describe a typical day in Mrs.

Lisa's classroom since the scheduled activities vary widely from one

day to another.

The purpose here is not to describe what is typical

of or common to all school days, but rather it is to provide a picture

of one representative school day.

The day that has been chosen is a

Monday in February, the week before Valentine's day.

Mrs. Lisa arrives at 8:00 a.m.

This morning she spends the time

before school running off dittos and beginning her weekly letter to

parents that she will send home on Friday.

The first bell rings at 8:55 and the students come in from out-

side.

They go immediately to their lockers and begin removing their

coats and boots.

Mrs. Lisa is in the hall greeting the students and

collecting the empty envelopes in which she sends the week's work home

on Fridays.

The students come into the room and most go over to sit

on the rug.

One of the students, Allan, has brought in his valentines

and begins putting them in the students' mailboxes at the "post of-

fice."

Several other students gather around him.

Mrs. Lisa enters the

room and tells them that they should be on the rug unless they are dis-

tributing valentines.

At 9:00 the second bell rings, and Mrs. Lisa comments to the

class, now sitting on the rug, that they are not doing their jobs.

She then asks who are the Today Is and Weather Report persons.

Tim and

Diane get up to do their jobs.

Jan, who has also forgotten her job,

gets up to mark off the day on the calendar.

Mrs. Lisa begins calling

the roll.

The students respond to their names as they finish putting

on their shoes.

When Mrs. Lisa finishes the roll, she remarks that

there are five people absent this morning.

She then asks Tim and

73

Diane who are standing by the date and weather boards to give their

reports.

Tim does all right, but Diane has up the wrong month and

day of the week.

Mrs. Lisa corrects her mistake, then has her say the

correct day and date.

Mrs. Lisa then asks whose job it is to take the

attendance slip to the office.

Bobby jumps up, takes the slip, chooses

one of his classmates to go with him, and leaves for the Office.

Mrs. Lisa then asks the Snoopy Snews people to come up to the

platform.

Debbie comes up and Mrs. Lisa asks who the other Snews per-

son is.

Jim says that he is, but has forgotten to bring in a news ar-

ticle.

Debbie shares a story about down filled clothing.

Mrs. Lisa

asks the students if anyone has an article of clothing containing down

insulation.

She then reads exerpts from the article to the students,

explaing as she goes along.

Several students then comment about down

clothing that they have.

At 9:10, Mrs. Lisa finishes the discussion, thanks Debbie, and

walks over to the small blackbOard near the rug on which the morning

schedule is written.

The schedule has been written with mistakes in

spelling, grammar, and punctuation; and Mrs. Lisa says, "OK, let's

find the mistakes."

Before she begins calling on the students, she

points out this week's Break-the-WOrd Contest word that the students

may try to unscramble before Thursday.

She then begins calling on the

students and correcting the mistakes that they point out.

When done,

she goes overthe morning schedule with them.

At 9:17, Mrs. Lisa picks

up the handwriting folders and tells the students to come up and get

them as she calls their names.

The students get their folders and

pencils and return to their seats.

  min“ iv

74

At 9:20, Sandy, the aide, and Mrs. Pat, a parent volunteer, enter

the room.

Mrs. Lisa calls on one student from each of the seating

areas to get the dictionary for his group.

When done, she goes up to

the front board and asks, "Who knows what the Mindbender is for this

week?"

A student says "consideratiOn."

Mrs. Lisa writes it on the

board, and the students copy it onto their sheets.

Mrs. Lisa then has

the class find the word in the dictionary, read the definition, write

down a short definition, then write a sentence using the word.

Sandy

and Mrs. Pat circulate around the room aiding those students who have

questions or need help.

At 9:40, Mrs. Lisa hurries along several students who are not

finished and tells the "Nowadays"6 reading group to get their books

and pencils and go to the back table (Mrs. Lisa's table) to read with

Mrs. Pat.

She calls the students in the low reading group by name and

tells them to get their books and go up to the round table at the

front of the room.

The students in the "Highways" group (the top

group) are instructed to go to the rug to read with Sandy.

She then

explains the assignment on the board to the remaining group ("Seven

Is").

By 9:45, Mrs. Lisa is sitting down and reading with the pre-

primer group.

She has them turn to a specific page and begin reading.

Each student reads aloud one page as he is called on.

If a reader has

difficulty with a word, Mrs. Lisa helps him or her sound out the word.

Periodically, she comments on the pictures or'On what is happening in

the story.

 

6The reading groups are named after the title or part of the

title of their current reading books.

75

At 9:57, the "Nowadays" group that has been reading with Mrs. Pat

finishes reading.

The students put away their books in the book file

cabinet, get their reading folders, and return to the table.

When the

pre-primer group finishes their story, Mrs. Lisa has them open their

phonics books.

She tells them to put their names and date on the as-

signed pages, and tells them that today they are going to work on the

short p_sound.

She then works through several pages with the group.

At 10:07, Mrs. Lisa looks up at the clock and tells the group that

they page they are working on will be the last page that she will do

with them.

The "Highways" group has just broken up, and the students

are working at their seats on dittos in their reading folders.

The

"Nowadays" group is still working with Mrs. Pat at Mrs. Lisa's table.

Mrs. Lisa then tells the pre-primer group to put circles around the

numbers on the next three pages and then explains how to work each

page.

At 10:13, Mrs. Lisa announces, "It's recess time," and tells the

class that they can leave their materials where they are working.

She

tells them that she has recess duty this morning and that they may head

outside as soon as they are ready.

By 10:16, Mrs. Lisa is hurrying

along those students still in the hall and goes out for recess duty.

At 10:25, Mrs. Lisa blows her whistle, and the students come in

from recess.

She helps several students with their coats and boots in

the hall.

The students come into the room and go over to sit down on

the rug, talking and putting on their tennis shoes.

Mrs. Lisa enters

the room after several minutes and tells those still putting on their

shoes to hurry since they must leave for gym.

She asks if anyone has

seen Mike's other mitten.

No one responds.

76

At 10:30, Mrs. Lisa again tells them to be sure to have their gym

shoes on and tells the class that when they come back from gym, they

can finish their phonics or folder work and then do their station work.

She then calls the Line Leader who jumps up and heads out of the room

and the Tapper who excuses each student by tapping him or her on the

head.

The following excerpts from field notes describe Mrs. Lisa's ac-

tivities while the students are at gym:

Mrs. Lisa says that she's going to ask in several other

rooms if they've found a mitten.

She then goes down to

the office to see why so many kids were absent today.

When she returns to the room, Mrs. Lisa pulls out the

folder work for those who were absent.

She puts their

names on the folders and then the word "absent" on top

of each.

She says she sends them home with their work

done on Friday and puts notes at the bottom of the weekly

letter to their parents.

She isn't that concerned that

they do it.

She won't take the time in class for make-

up, but she says many parents are real good about it and

have their kids do it at home and bring it back to school.

She next grades the other work turned in this morning.

Mrs. Lisa writes down the pre-primer group reading pages

for this week.

She mentions that she tries to have them

read four stories per session, and it goes down to three

as the stories get longer since she wants to be able to

spend more time on comprehension.

She plans for Wednesday,

Thursday, and next Monday in a notebook that she keeps with

the reading materials for the pre-primer group.

She looks

at the next primer in the series.

She then looks through

the "Nowadays" reading books to see what work to put in

their comprehension folders for next Monday.

She checks

to see if she has a worksheet for a story several pages

away.

She does, and says that this will work out just

right since there are two days' reading before it.

At 11:05, the students return from gym.

Mrs. Lisa tells them to

get a drink, then start in on their work.

She tells the "Seven Is"

group to get their books and meet her at the round table.

She gets

her book and walks over, sits down with the group, and starts them on

their story.

Several times during the reading, students come up to

77

Mrs. Lisa with questions about their seat work.

She lets them wait.

until there is a break in the reading, then quickly answers their ques-

tions.

At 11:20, Mrs. Lisa finishes with the reading group and tells the

students to put their books away.

She stands up and says to the class,

"Anyone who has a question, put your hand up and I'll come and answer

it."

Mrs. Lisa spends several minutes answering questions and circu-

lating to inspect the work that the students are doing at their seats.

As the students finish their seat work and begin on their station work,

the following incident is recorded:

11:25

Several kids are complaining that Karen is copy-

ing and telling the others the answers to the

station work.

Mrs. Lisa tells Karen that if that's

what she wants to do, she'd rather have her throw

it away than do the work.

Mrs. Lisa then puts up on the windows several ditto sheets that the

students have colored, then continues pulling the morning work from

the students' work-done folders.

She comes to an empty folder and

asks Debbie if she has completed her boardwork.

Debbie says "no," and

Mrs. Lisa tells her that it has to be done before she goes to lunch.

By 11:30, most of the students are on "choice time" although sev-

eral are still working on their folders or on station work.

Mrs. Lisa

continues checking the students' work until 11:35 when she tells the

class to begin cleaning up for lunch.

She asks the "boardbuffers" to

erase the front board.

Several students come up to tell her that

their station work is not done.

Mrs. Lisa replies, "No sweat, you can

do it this afternoon."

She then walks over and writes the afternoon

schedule on the small blackboard as the students finish cleaning up

and stand behind their seats.

When everyone is at his or her seat,

78

Mrs. Lisa calls the Line Leader and Tapper, and the students go out to

their lockers.

When they have gotten their coats or lunches (some stay

for lunch and some go home), the students return to the room and go

over to the rug.

At 11:40, the bell rings and Mrs. Lisa calls the Line Leader and

Tapper.

As the students are tapped, they leave for lunch.

Before

leaving for lunch, Mrs. Lisa spends approximately forty minutes finish-

ing grading the morning's work.

Mrs. Lisa pulls work out of the file folders and sees that

Jim has turned in no work.

She checks and finds his phonics

book still in the book file cabined.

She puts it on his

desk and then walks over to the small blackboard and writes,

"Jim W. - no recess."

She then can't find Tom and Tim's

phonics books.

She marks them down on the point record

sheet and marks "re-do" on sloppy sentences from the pre-

primer group's board work.

As she pulls the work from the

"Nowadays" comprehension folder, she writes in next week's

assignment on the attached assignment sheet.

She then

checks the pre-primer group's phonics books and marks how

each student did on the record sheet attached to the inside

of the cover.

She then grades this morning's work in the

B phonics book and the C phonics book.

Mrs. Lisa leaves at 12:20 to eat her lunch in the teachers' lounge and

returns to the room at 12:50.

At 12:55, the first bell rings.

Mrs. Lisa stands at the door of

the classroom and watches the students in the hall.

The students come

in and sit on the rug; some put valentines into the mail boxes.

At

1:00, Mrs. Lisa comes into the room, tells those delivering valentines

to stop now, and then sits on the platform and calls the roll.

When

done, Alice and Tristin take the attendance slip to the office.

Mrs.

Lisa then goes over the afternoon schedule with the class, and then

tells them that they will need pencils for the math quiz and that they

can return to their seats.

She passes out a quiz sheet to each

79

student, telling them to keep it face down.

She then goes to the front

of the room and explains to the class that they will have one minute to

do as many problems as they can.

She gets the class ready, then has

them begin.

After a minute, she calls time, and then has the students

exchange papers.

She reads off the answers, lets the students see how

they did, then has the afternoon helpers collect the papers.

Mrs. Lisa

then reads a letter to the class from a previous classmate who is now

living in Germany.

She then puts the letter up on the Snoopy Snews

Board so that the students may later look at the writing and the Ger-

man stamps.

At 1:15, Mrs. Lisa begins a lesson on metric measurement.

Ex-

cerpts from the field notes describe the activity:

1:15

Mrs. Lisa asks the students to get out their math

rulers and asks Eric and Lucille to pass out a

worksheet to everyone.

She tells everyone that

he or she should have two different sheets.

She

reminds them to put their names on them and then

walks around making sure everyone has both sheets

...she asks the kids to make sure that they have

a front and a back on each sheet.

1:20

Mrs. Lisa tells the kids to take out their rulers

before they start, and for each to measure a hair

on the person next to him or her.

She then asks

the kids how long their hairs were.

Then she has

the kids measure their hands from the palm to the

tip of the middle finger.

She circulates to check

on them.

She then asks for the different lengths

that they've found and tallies the numbers on the

front board.

1:25

When through tallying, she asks which number had

the most tallies and which had the 1east...she

then gives instructions for the next worksheet

(on measuring objects) and circulates to check on

who is measuring properly and who isn't.

Mrs.

Lisa pulls a few shades because of the sun's re-

flecting off the snow outside.

1:30

Mrs. Lisa goes back to the front and tells them

how to do the other worksheet.

She then checks

80

the work of several kids and tells the class that

when they're done, they can turn the sheet over

and begin on the other side.

1:35

Mrs. Lisa draws an object on the board and demon-

strates how to measure an object that isn't

straight, and how to add up the sides to get the

length.

She tells the kids that when done, they

, should put both sheets together, and asks Eric,

Tom and Michelle to pick up the Sheets as the

kids finish.

At 1:40, Mrs. Lisa tells Bill and Eddy, who are far ahead of the

other students, to get their workbooks and start working where they

left off.

She then calls students who have just completed a unit and

passes out the unit test for them to complete at their seats.

Next she

calls by name the seven students who are in her lowest math group and

tells them to get their notebooks and sit on the rug.

Mrs. Lisa sits

down with them on the rug and passes out a pretest for the next unit

that they will be doing.

She explains the sheet to them, works a few

problems with them, and tells them that they may return to their seats

and work on the pretest.

At 1:50, Mrs. Lisa calls those students in the top math group over

to the rug.

Before beginning with them, she says to the class, "Any-

one with a question, now is the time."

Two students come up, and she

answers their questions.

Mrs. Lisa then begins working with the group.

Mrs. Lisa hands out slips of paper to those on

the rug and tells them she wants to start on the

concept of carrying.

She writes a problem on her

sheet and tells them to copy it onto theirs.

She

gives them the problem 238 + 111.

She stops Bobby

who is starting to add the numbers with the hun-

dreds column.

She tells them that they should al-

ways, always, always start with the ones column;

"otherwise, you'll get all your carrying problems

wrong."

1:55.

Mrs. Lisa gives them another addition problem with

carrying to try., Mrs. Lisa calls Diane over and

81

tells her that all the work is wrong that she's

just handed in to her.

She explains what she's

to do and tells her to re-do the problems.

Mrs.

Lisa then gives the group two problems, one that

involves carrying and one that doesn't.

She asks

the group if they can tell the difference.

She

then explains that they can't leave a two-digit

number in the ones' column.

It has to be carried

over to the tens' column.

2:00

Art comes up to the rug with a question.

Mrs.

Lisa gives the group two more problems and has

them figure out which one needs carrying.

She

then answers Art's question.

She then shows the

group how to do a carrying problem and tells them

to try one on their own.

When they've tried, she

works it with them.

Fred brings up his work;

Mrs. Lisa says it's okay and that he can do some-

thing on his own.

Fred gets out the Blockhead

game and begins playing with it.

Mrs. Lisa works

through another carrying problem with the group.

2:05

After a few minutes, Mrs. Lisa tells the group

that they'll continue working on this later this

week, but it's now time for recess.

Mrs. Lisa tells the whole class that it's time to clean up for recess.

She calls Jim, Debbie, Art, and Mike over to the round table.

She

tells Jim that he has to complete the work he didn't do this morning

and hands back to the others some work from this morning that has to

be re-done.

At 2:10, Mrs. Lisa calls the Line Leader and the Tapper, and the

rest of the class leaves for recess.

She returns to her table and

begins stapling together the metric work sheets done earlier.

After

about five minutes, Art and Mike finish their sheets and give them to

Mrs. Lisa.

She says, "That's better," and the boys leave for recess.

Mrs. Lisa spends the rest of the recess looking over the math quizzes.

At 2:25, the students begin coming in from recess.

Debbie gives

Mrs. Lisa her re-done work, and Mrs. Lisa says that she has done a

much better job.

The students sit down on the rug.

Mrs. Lisa then

82

passes out the spelling folders and reminds the class that they should

each have a sheet of paper, a pencil, and their folders when they go to

their seats.

When everyone is seated, Mrs. Lisa goes to the front of

the room and reads this week's spelling words for each of the five

spelling groups.

The words have been previously marked on the spelling

lists that are stapled to the inside of their folders.

The students

follow along as the words are read for their group.

When she is done,

she goes over the headings they should have on their sheets of

paper, and then tells everyone to write all of their spelling words

once and to write two sentences using two of the words.

As the stu-

dents work, Mrs. Lisa moves around the room answering questions and

checking their work.

She picks up the folders as the students finish.

Those who are finished sit and talk to those seated around them.

At 2:45, Mrs. Lisa puts away all of the spelling folders and

walks over to a table near the window that has a box of science materi-

als on it.

She tells the students that they are to come up to the

table and get a tray of science materials, and they are to work with

partners until 3:00 trying to invent a "system" using the pulleys,

rubber bands, and other materials on the tray.

(This is a lesson from

the SCIS unit on systems.)

When all the materials are distributed,

Mrs. Lisa walks around the room making comments on the students' ef-

forts.

The students are working intently on their systems, talking

and showing to others what they have created.

At 3:00, Mrs. Lisa tells each pair to decide on one system and

put it together so they can demonstrate it to the class.

She also

tells them to think of names for their systems while they are waiting

83

for everyone

to get ready.

The remainder of the lesson proceeds as

follows:

3:05

The students start demonstrating their systems

at the front of the room.

Mrs. Lisa writes the

names of the systems on the front board.

Some

of the names they tell her are:

the putt-putt,

the blast-off system, the typewriter noise system,

the train system, tic-tac-toe, the fan, the cuckoo

system, and the break system.

She tells those not

demonstrating to be quiet and not to play with

their systems.

She warns Paul once and then takes

his tray away from him.

3:15

Mrs. Lisa tells the class that the other person

in each pair should now make a system.

She also

tells them to begin to fill out the sheets that

she gave them earlier.

Each student is going to

put the name of the system and the objects of

interaction on it.

She lists the possible objects

on the board that they may have used.

3:20

Tom says that he feels as if he's going to be sick.

Mrs. Lisa asks him if he can wait until school is

out, and he says no.

She then sends him down to

the office to call his mother.

Mrs. Lisa then

tells the class to draw their first system at the

bottom of the sheet.

She draws an example on the

board and circulates to check on how they're doing.

She then tells them that if they can't remember,

to put the system back together again and then

draw it.

3:25

Mrs. Lisa tells the kids to listen closely to the

instructions so they can start where they leave

off next time.

She tells them to put their ini-

tials on the bottom of the tray that their materials

came on and to circle the initials of the person

who is supposed to demonstrate next time.

They

are to take the systems apart; otherwise, she won't

accept them.

She goes around the room and picks

up the system description sheets from those who

are finished.

3:30

She tells those who are ready to bring their trays

up to her.

When the systems are turned in, the students put their chairs up on

their desks and begin cleaning up the room.

Those who do not have a

clean up job stand by their desks.

Mrs. Lisa reminds the class that

84

there are two times that they may pass out valentines:

five minutes

before school starts and during choice time.

I

At 3:35, Mrs. Lisa tells the class to get behind their seats if

they are ready.

She inspects the room and thanks the class for being

quiet today.

She reminds the students to check the "nameless bucket"

(where nameless papers go) before leaving, and then calls the Line

Leader and the Tapper.

The students file out to the hall to get their

coats and boots on.

When they are dressed, the students come back to

the rug and wait for the bell to ring.

At 3:41, the bell rings.

Mrs. Lisa calls the Line Leader and the

Tapper, and the students leave for home.

After school, Mrs. Lisa sits down at her table and writes the

reading assignments into the "Highways" group folders for Wednesday.

She then looks over the math quiz from this afternoon and separates the

perfect papers from the rest.

When done, she gets out the handwriting

workbook and plans the handwriting lessons for the rest of the week.

After that, she checks the math work from this afternoon.

At 4:40,

the teacher with whom she rides home comes into the room, and she

packs up to go home for the day.

The Drama:

Life in the Classroom

 

Mrs. Lisa has described her teaching style as traditional, orga-

nized, structured, flexible, routine, consistent, creative, and demand-

ing.

These adjectives well portray the organization of her teaching,

and may serve as an outline for describing life in her classroom.

85

Classroom Organization

 

Mrs. Lisa's classroom is traditional in the sense that she is in

charge at all times.

She does all of the planning for and organization

of instructional activities, thus providing a well structured learning

environment for the students.

She requires that for most activities,

noise be kept at a minimum, that the students be polite and respectful

to her as the teacher, and that they be courteous and well behaved to-

wards each other.

All activities are planned and organized well in advance of teach-

ing.

Materials are checked and rechecked before class; and instruc-

tions for activities, the passing out of materials, and the activities

themselves run smoothly once initiated.

Much of Mrs. Lisa's work be-

fore school and during breaks involves preparing and organizing ma-

terials for activities later in the day.

Once an activity begins,

little or no time is needed to locate and organize materials for the

students.

At the beginning of fall term, and prior to the beginning of win-

ter and spring terms,7 Mrs. Lisa draws up a weekly schedule for the

class.

This schedule is tentative at first and may be modified some-

what before its establishment by the third week of the term.

Mrs. Lisa establishes a classroom schedule for several reasons.

Primarily, she does so since she feels that children of this age need

a schedule and routine to reduce anxiety.

She feels that too much

change is disorienting for the students and that they learn better if

 

7The "term" is not an official calendar designation, but is a di-

vision that Mrs. Lisa uses in her planning since winter and spring

breaks divide the school year into three sections.

86

they can predict what is coming next in the day.

She tries to be

flexible in her teaching, but tries to avoid abrupt or frequent changes

in routine.

A weekly schedule also aids Mrs. Lisa in her planning so

that she can count on a specific number of lessons with a fairly set

duration.

A schedule also makes it easier to schedule her teacher aide

and parent volunteers on a regular basis.

The Weekly Schedule

 

The weekly schedule becomes the major time allocation mechanism

in Mrs. Lisa's classroom, and each term the schedule is changed to re-

flect her instructional priorities.

Most of the fall is spent getting

to know the students, organizing the class socially, and sorting out

the students by ability levels.

Much student time is spent on listen-

ing to instructions, following directions, and on other basic class-

room skills.

The winter term is the heaviest academically, and much

emphasis is placed on reading and mathematics.

Spring term is slower

paced, with a continued emphasis on reading and math skills, but with

more time devoted to writing skills, social studies, and science.

Throughout the year, Mrs. Lisa places a premium on developing basic

reading and math skills, and, as a result, science and social studies

are often given a less prominent position in her curriculum.

Mrs. Lisa strives to meet several criteria when establishing her

schedule.

She tries to balance each day between the more intense aca-

demic activities such asreading and math, and more active large group

activities such as art, science, and social studies.

She tries to

schedule a more rigorous academic regimen for earlier in the week when

the students are fresh, and taper it off on Thursday and Friday as the

87

weekend approaches.

Mrs. Lisa also tries to schedule activities to

take into account times when the students will be more active such as

after gym and recess, and times like the end of the day when the stu-

dents will be more fatigued.

Her second major concern is to schedule

small group and individual activities when she will have help in the

classroom.

There is a full time aide for the four classrooms in the

newer wing of the building, so Mrs. Lisa must schedule her in advance

on a regular basis.

She uses her to help with reading groups three

mornings a week, for math one morning, and to help give spelling tests

to the spelling groups on Friday morning.

She also has four parent

volunteers, two of whom help with reading groups once a week, one who

helps with math one morning a week, and one who serves as a reader dur-

ing library.

During most terms, there is a student aide who is in the

classroom one full day per week.

Each day is divided by lunch and recesses into four instructional

blocks, as shown in Figure 4.3.

There is an hour and ten minutes from

the beginning of school to the morning recess, an hour and fifteen

minutes between recess and lunch, an hour and ten minutes between

lunch and the afternoon recess, and an hour and fifteen minutes from

recess to the end of the school day.

Each recess is fifteen minutes

long, and the lunch period lasts for an hour and fifteen minutes.

School begins at 9:00 a.m. and is over at 3:40 p.m.

At the beginning of the year, times for music, art, library,

reading lab, and gym are chosen on the basis of teacher seniority or

assigned.

Once these times are set, Mrs. Lisa is free to arrange her

schedule as she desires.

Once aide times are set, they are not very

flexible because of the need to coordinate with other teachers, but

88

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89

parent volunteer times are more easily changed.

Reading and math are

for the most part scheduled for the morning when help is available, and

large group activities such as science, writing skills, and social

studies are typically scheduled for the afternoon.

Mrs. Lisa's winter

term and spring term weekly schedules are presented in Figures 4.4 and

4.5.

The daily schedule provides adequate time between activities to

allow for transition as a group and to take into account individual

differences in student work rates.

Mrs. Lisa has developed two mecha-

nisms to handle these differences.

The first is station work.

This

year there were two stations in the classroom (there have been as many

as five in previous years) to which students are variously assigned on

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The station work consisted primarily

of dittos that were oriented towards perceptual and psychomotor de—

velOpment in one station and more academically oriented in the other.

When students finished their morning work on these days,they would

determine their work station work assignments by their initials that

Mrs. Lisa had placed in a slot over the station, and then complete the

assignment.

If this work was completed before the period ended, the

student was generally free to sign up for the second controlling mecha-

nism, choice time.

Choice time consists of free time activities that Mrs. Lisa has

provided for the students.

These activities include the art lab in

the back room, games, a science center, the record player, construc-

tion blocks, books, and so forth.

The number of students participating

in each activity is regulated by a board with nails on which students

may put tags with their initials.

The choice time activities are used

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92

to provide the students with a change of pace as well as to provide for

learning and skill develOpment in a more informal play situation.

Grouping for Instruction

 

Instruction in Mrs. Lisa's classroom is primarily conducted in

large and small groups.

Students who are having problems that require

extra help are worked with individually, although time is rarely taken

away from group instruction for this purpose.

Individual help is most

often given at times when the remainder of the class is doing work at

their seats.

When Mrs. Lisa came from a special education classroom to the

regular classroom, one of the beggest errors she remembers making was

trying to individualize all of her teaching.

She said it was easy for

nine to twelve special education students, but it was a "disaster" for

a split classroom of twenty-five to thirty students.

Now, Mrs. Lisa

tries to group students in those subjects where there will be wide

variation in basic skills and where attention to individual differences

is most crucial at this age.

This normally includes subjects such as

reading, mathematics, and spelling.

Most writing skills activities

were conducted as a large group (whole class) since they mostly in-

volved skill development and practice, and she felt she could ade-

quately monitor performance through turned-in assignments.

Social

studies and science were taught as a large group since grouping was

not perceived as necessary, and planning for these subjects involved

enough time and effort as it were.

This year, Mrs. Lisa also grouped the students for reading, mathe-

matics, and spelling.

Activities were never divided by grade level,

93

and Mrs. Lisa never referred to the students as first or second graders.

Reading groups were established around the fourth week of fall term.

Group membership changes were common in the fall as students improved,

but became less frequent in winter and spring terms.

There were four

reading groups this year:

a group of first graders reading at the pre-

primer level, a group of second grade boys reading at the first grade

level, a group of first and second graders reading at the second grade

level, and a group reading at the third and fourth grade levels.

Math

groups, usually three in number, were set up for specific units based

on pretesting.

Within math groups, students often worked at different

paces in their workbooks.

Spelling groups, as mentioned earlier, were

set up by pretesting the students on the district spelling list in the

fall.

Spelling activities were usually done in a large group, with

each student using the words assigned to his or her group.

Social

studies, science, and writing skills were always taught to the whole

class.

Instructional Goals

Many of Mrs. Lisa's goals for the year are concerned with develOp-

ing responsibility, neatness, independence, and c00perativeness in the

students.

When academic assignments are made, she expects each student

to complete his or her work in a neat manner and turn it in to the pro-

per place.

Each student has a "work-done" file near Mrs. Lisa's table,

and worksheets and workbooks are to be turned in when completed.

Re-

sponsibility is further fostered by the assignment of jobs in the

classroom.

Each week jobs are chosen by the students that include such

things as Boardbuffer (board eraser), Light Person (responsible for

94

turning off and on lights), Stagehand (pulls down shades and projection

screen for films), Helpers (help Mrs. Lisa pass out or collect materi-

als), and Tapper (taps students on the head when they are quiet and

ready to leave the room for recess, lunch, going to the library, and so

forth).

There are enough jobs so that everyone can have one each week.

Besides developing responsibility, Mrs. Lisa has found that the jobs

provide a mechanism for keeping the room neat and clean and activities

running smoothly.

Mrs. Lisa's academic goals are much more loosely defined than her

social objectives.

She uses the district objectives as a general

guideline for what should be presented, but does not formulate beha-

vioral or other objectives for the students.

She has expectations for

the students, although she does not feel that every student should get

to the same point by the end of the year.

She tries to monitor closely

each student's learning progress, especially in reading, math, and

language arts, and then uses grouping and sometimes individual in-

struction to allow the students to progress as far and fast as they

can.

Mrs. Lisa spends most of her instruction on fundamentals in

reading, writing, and math since she feels strongly that a solid foun-

dation in these areas will be the basis for later progress.

Classroom Discipline

 

Disciplining was rarely observed in Mrs. Lisa's room.

When it

occurred, it was smooth and rapid and rarely interfered with class ac-

tivities.

Mrs. Lisa clearly specified appropriate student behavior in

various situations.

Contingencies for misbehavior were well laid out,

and she was consistent in following through on her promises.

She said

95

that this approach to discipline resulted from her special education

experience and seemed to be very effective in the regular classroom.

Creativity in Teaching

 

The creative aspect of Mrs. Lisa's teaching was apparent in most

all of her instructional activities.

Potentially dull and routine

tasks were usually framed in activities that resulted in a high level

of student interest and involvement.

Many activities and groups were

named after Peanuts characters--a technique that heightened interest

and involvement.

Mrs. Lisa's creativity was apparent in her develop-

ment of science and social studies activities, but was most obvious in

language arts.

A few examples might best illustrate this point.

Each Monday morning, the handwriting lesson consisted of spelling,

looking up in a dictionary, and writing the "mindbender" word for the

week.

These were words such as vociferous, sympathetic, procrastina-

 

tion, and scrumptious that were used as vocabulary builders.

They were

 

tied into social studies later in the week when the students did their

"Snoopy books."

These were folders for which each week the students

were given a ditto containing a Peanuts character engaged in an ac-

tivity related to the mindbender word.

For instance, the students

were given a picture of Snoopy dressed as a detective ("Super-Sleuth")

when the mindbender word was investigate.

The students were asked to

 

write the mindbender word on the sheet, and then Mrs. Lisa directed a

short discussion about the meaning of the picture and the mindbender

word with an emphasis on social and affective development.

Another

example of creativity was the decoding activity.

Each student was

given a sheet with a symbol code for each letter of the alphabet.

96

They were required to write all of their spelling words in code, and

then to decode a message that Mrs. Lisa had written on the board.

This

provided a review of the spelling words as well as practice in hand-

writing.

Other activities were framed in semi-competitive situations that

allowed the students to display their academic abilities.

One of the

favorites was the weekly Spelling Bee.

An excerpt from the field notes

illustrates how this activity was conducted.

2:53

Mrs. Lisa numbers off the kids by two's and tells

them to sit down on the floor in two lines down

the middle of the room.

She then tells them the

ground rules:

"no drinks, no getting up for any-

thing except for marking points on the board."

She also reminds them of their promise made last

week to be quiet if she continues with the spelling

bees.

She tells them she will stop immediately if

they are noisy.

She begins the spelling bee, cal-

ling kids from alternate rows, using words from

each student's spelling list.

(Note:

She has to

look at the student, remember what group he or she

is in, and pick a word from the list that hasn't

been used.)

She pronounces the word and uses it

in a sentence before asking for an answer.

If the

spelling is correct, the student gets up and marks

a point for his or her team.

If it is wrong, Mrs.

Lisa skips to the next person.

3:05

They finish one round and start down the rows again.

J. raises his hand and Mrs. Lisa calls on him.

He

says, "D. made two marks (on the board)."

Mrs. Lisa

tells him that she is keeping score on her paper, so

she will know if he does.

She comes to D. and tells

him that she is going to ask him a word and if he

misses it, she will give him another one.

She asks

him a word off of another spelling list (I assume

more difficult).

He spells the word correctly and,

she says, "Good,"1?u1going to move you to the other

group."

3:10

She continues down the rows.

T. and D. are talking.

Mrs. Lisa sends them immediately back to their seats.

3:14

They finish the bee.

Mrs. Lisa walks to the front

board and counts the points.

97-

Another competitive activity was the Word Contest.

This invOlved

the students' writing as many words as they could based on the letters

in the mindbender word within a specified period of time.

In the fall,

the class tried to see how many words they could generate as a group,

and by spring Mrs. Lisa was giving an award to the person who could

generate the most words by him- or herself.

Communication with Parents

 

Mrs. Lisa feels strongly that it is important to communicate to

the parents what is going on in her classroom.

The primary way that

she accomplishes this is by writing a letter to the parents that is

sent home each Friday.

In this letter, she comments on special ac-

tivities that the students did during the week and notifies the parents

of anything special that the students will be doing next week.

She

also uses the newsletter to remind the parents of special days such as

professional development days when school is not in session all day,

and of times when the students need to bring in money for field trips,

book club orders, and so forth.

Appendix D contains the first letter

that Mrs. Lisa sent out in the fall and.lexamples of letters sent home

during winter and spring term.

Another way that Mrs. Lisa communicates with parents is through

the take-home envelopes that she sends home on Fridays.

This contains

all of the work that the student did during the week.

As Mrs. Lisa

grades the students' work during the week, she puts it into a large

tray.

On Thursday afternoon, she sits down on the rug with the class

and passes back the graded work.

The students can then see how they

did on each assignment and ask any questions that they have.

Mrs.

Lisa then has them pass in their work, and she puts it in their large

98

manilla envelopes.

On Fridays, she puts her letter and the school

newsletter in the envelopes and sends them home.

At the beginning of

the next week, the students are to bring back their envelopes with

their parents' signatures and comments in the space provided on the

outside of the envelope.

This way she makes sure that the parents

have an opportunity to see their children's work and respond with any

questions or comments.

The school district requires only two grading reports and parent

conferences each year.

Mrs. Lisa feels that there is too much time

between them, so she has developed a feedback form that she sends home

in March.

This provides the parents with more specific information

about where their children are in reading, math, and writing skills

than they receive by seeing their children's work or through the per-

sonal notes that Mrs. Lisa often writes on the bottom of her weekly

letters.

To follow up comments or questions that parents have sent to her

and to keep certain parents appraised of their children's special pro-

blems or unusual progress, Mrs. lisa spends on the average of four

hours a week on the phone talking with parents.

This usually takes

place at night or on weekends, and is a major portion of the school

related work that she does at home.

Mrs. Lisa spends so much time on

this and other activities because she feels that the home is a major

and crucial influence on her students.

She believes that life at home

directly affects both the academic and social performance of the stu-

dents.

Because of this, she tries to keep abreast of things that are

happening at home in a student's life, and tries to let the parents

know what is happening at school.

She also feels that the parents can

99

play a more active role in their children's learning if they know what

activities are going on at school, and if they can see samples of their

children's work.

In short, she sees the home and the classroom as ex-

tensions of each other and feels that the children's school experiences

will be more meaningful if the teacher and the parents know what is

going on in the other portion of the children's lives.

Summary of Classroom Life

 

To summarize, Mrs. Lisa's classroom is run in a fairly traditional

manner centering around well planned, organized, and structured acti-

vities.

Much effort is spent on developing responsibility, neatness,

independence, and cooperativeness in her students.

Daily and weekly

activities are guided by a well structured schedule that has as its

goal the provision of well balanced, interesting, and effective learn-

ing activities.

Students are grouped for reading, math, and spelling,

and aides are used to facilitate small group instruction.

Many crea-

tive activities are used for teaching language arts and writing skills,

and semi-competitive situations are used to create an enjoyable atmos—

phere for learning and for performance testing.

Mrs. Lisa makes many

efforts to communicate these activities to the parents of her students

through a weekly letter, by sending work home on Fridays, and through

phone conversations.

The Set and the Props for Planning

 

The previous sections have focused on those aspects of the setting

most closely related to Mrs. Lisa's interactive teaching.

This has

been necessary to provide a comprehensive view of the environment in

which this study of planning was conducted.

Since this was a study of

100

planning, the setting in which Mrs. Lisa's preactive decision making

occurs becomes of special interest.

The purpose of this section is to

provide a description of where, when, and with what Mrs. Lisa does her

planning.

The major description of the "how" of her planning will be

reserved for later chapters.

Planning at School

 

The planning that Mrs. Lisa does at school is usually of a short

term nature.

This mainly includes weekly and daily planning.

The dis-

trict requires that each teacher keep a plan book with daily lessons

filled in one week in advance.

They are to keep these plan books on

their desks so as to be available to substitutes if they have to be

called on short notice.

There are several principals in the district

who require their teachers to submit their plans for the next week by

Friday afternoon, but Mrs. Lisa has never had to do this since she has

been at Byron School.

Mrs. Lisa lays out her weekly plans two weeks in advance and then

makes any necessary modifications on a weekly or daily basis.

The

other teachers in the lower wing use the standard plan book in much

the same way, although Mrs. Lisa's planning is usually in more detail

and done farther in advance of teaching.

Mrs. Lisa does most of her in-school planning at her work table

near the door.

This is a low round table that serves as her base of

operations during the day.

On the table is a plastic filing bin in

which she keeps a clip board with frequently used record or scoring

sheets and several file folders and teacher manuals.

Also on the table

are a can of pencils and pens, a tape dispenser, and a stapler, plus a

101

stack or two of teacher manuals, workbooks, dittos to be used later in

(the day or week, and miscellaneous notes that Mrs. Lisa writes as re-

minders to herself. The round table is Mrs. Lisa's area and is only oc-

casionally used by the students when they read in small groups.

Mrs.

Lisa uses this table rather than her desk in the backroom since it

gives her more room to spread out whatever materials she is using.

It

also is easily accessible to the students' work-done folders and the

filing rack where the students' books and her teacher manuals are kept.

If her table is too cluttered, Mrs. Lisa may move to one of the other

tables in the room where she has more room.

When doing her weekly and daily planning, Mrs. Lisa usually has

present her plan book and the notebooks in which she has done her more

long range planning.

Often she will get up and check a text or work-

book for page numbers or will look in her file cabinet for a worksheet

that she might want.

There are basically three times during the day that planning may

occur:

in the morning before school, during breaks in the day, and

after school.

Mrs. Lisa says that she is not a "morning person," and

as a result, does not function at her best early in the morning.

Be-

fore she leaves school in the evening, Mrs. Lisa tries to make sure

that there is nothing left undone that is essential to tomorrow's ac-

tivities.

Typical morning activities, because of this, usually in—

volve such things as running off dittos that will be used in several

days, writing her weekly letter, and running necessary errands such as

checking the film schedule in the teachers' lounge, returning a book

to the library, or talking with another teacher.

102

Mrs. Lisa has typically three breaks in the day, and sometimes

four, when she can do some planning.

These are the two recess periods

and the lunch period, and the times when the students leave the room

for gym, art, and music.

Most of this time is taken up by marking the_

students' papers from the morning or afternoon, although occasionally,

as time allows, Mrs. Lisa will do some weekly or daily planning then.

For some activities, her planning is entwined with her evaluation.

If an activity is based in a folder, as are some spelling, handwriting,

and reading activities, the folder usually includes an assignment and

comment sheet attached to the inside cover.

When Mrs. Lisa grades the

work from today, she will also make next week's assignment and enclose

the appropriate worksheets.

In this manner, she does not have to deal

again with the folders until she passes them out for the activity the

next week.

Several excerpts from the field notes illustrate this prac-

tice:

As she pulls the work from the "Nowadays" comprehension

folders, she writes in next week's assignment on the

assignment sheet.

(2/7)

(As she begins grading the comprehension sheets) she re-

members that the kids won't be here next Monday to do

the folder work because of Presidents' day.

She decides

to do the folder work next Wednesday because she says that

it's more important than phonics work at this point.

She

gets the "Nowadays" reading book and looks through it

to see what story they will be reading this Wednesday so

she can get the comprehension worksheet to go with the

story.

(2/14)

Mrs. Lisa does most of her daily planning after school.

Since the

schedule and the weekly planning usually already specified what acti-

vities will occur each day, most of this planning is intertwined with

setting up activities, writing assignments on the board, and so forth.

This is especially true for well routinized activities such as reading,

103

where the only major daily decision that she has to make is about con-

tent.

This selection from the field notes shows a typical afternoon's

work.

After school, Mrs. Lisa asks the student aide to finish

grading the other side of the pretest that she started on

earlier.

Mrs. Lisa then sets up the station work (for

Friday) and then writes tomorrow's lessons.

She remem-

bers that she has a new aide coming tomorrow (Jenny's mom)

and starts to assign her to the "Nowadays" group, but re-

members that Jenny is in that group.

She reassigns Sandy

to this group and then goes up to the front board and

writes the reading assignments for tomorrow.

She then walks

over to the small blackboard and writes the word "due" and

underneath (l) word contest, (2) library book, (3) home-

work.

She sets up the memory blocks and pulls the spelling

work from the spelling folders.

She gets the math board

work out of the work-done folders and sorts it by groups.

She then looks through the metric pretest and begins plan-

ning the next steps that she's going to take with the unit.

She then grades today's spelling lessons.

(2/2)

Planning at Home

 

Most of Mrs. Lisa's long term planning is done at home.

The pri-

mary reason for this is that at home, there is much more room to spread

out the materials and she can leave them out until she is finished.

At

school, things must be put away to make room for daily activities.

Also, home is a more comfortable atmosphere for long periods of plan-

ning.

Mrs. Lisa does her planning at home in the basement.

One half of

the basement is carpeted and furnished with several bean bag chairs,

her sewing machine, and a television set.

When Mrs. Lisa is planning

for the year (as she does in the summer) or for specific units, she

brings home all the materials that she has gathered that might pertain

to the planning task and then sits down on the rug or in a bean bag

chair and spreads her materials around her.

In this manner, she can

104

visualize all of her materials at once and experiment with different

patterns of organization and sequencing.

If she wants to see how pos-

ters or maps look, she tapes them to the walls.

When she previews

films or movies, she shows them on the wall and listens to tapes or

records on her record player and tape recorder.

Sometimes in the even-

ing, she will watch a television show if she is doing a task not re-

quiring constant attention.

Other planning activities which Mrs. Lisa

typically does at home include scheduling films from the media cata-

logue, previewing new instructional materials that have been purchased,

and in the spring,ordering materials for next year.

Not all of Mrs. Lisa's school related activities involve planning.

Planning is most emphasized in the summer, during breaks and at times

during the year when she is developing an instructional unit.

During

two months of this study, Mrs. Lisa kept a diary of her activities at

home.

She spent on the average of two hours per night working on

school related activities.

This is similar to the average out-of-

school work time reported in a study of English elementary teachers

(;'= 130.7 minutes per day) by Hilsum and Cane (1971).

The most com-

mon activities that Mrs. Lisa did at home, listed in order of fre-

quency of occurrence, include correcting papers, talking with parents

on the phone, planning, and general organizational tasks.

This is com-

parable to the English study where they found that most of the teach-

ers' at home time was used for marking (26.2%), for lesson planning

(15.3%), and for mechanical jobs (13.5%).

The complete entries from

Mrs. Lisa's diary are listed in Appendix E.

105

Chapter Summary

This chapter has attempted to describe those aspects of the class-

room, curriculum, and students that shape life in Mrs. Lisa's class-

room.

The importance of such a description is based on a conviction

that understanding the context of behavior is essential to understand-

ing the behavior itself.

The outline of the chapter was based on a

dramaturgical or theatrical outline, where the classroom, teachers,

students, and so forth, were characterized as elements essential to a

good drama.

The chapter begins by describing the most general characteristics

of the drama, the stage set by the school and the set and props that

make up Mrs. Lisa's classroom.

Next, the main characters--the teacher

and the students--were described.

A description of the script used in

the classroom (the curriculum) was presented next, followed by a pre-

sentation of one school day as a typical plot.

A large part of the chapter was devoted to describing general

characteristics of Mrs. Lisa's classroom.

Discussed in this section

were classroom organization, the weekly schedule, grouping for instruc-

tion, instructional goals, classroom discipline, creativity in teach—

ing, and communication with parents.

Finally, the setting and props

that Mrs. Lisa uses for planning were discussed.

The following

two chapters will present some hypotheses and

models about teaching and planning in Mrs. Lisa's classroom.

It is

hoped that this chapter will serve as a useful backdrop for under-

standing and interpreting what is presented subsequently.

CHAPTER V

ACTIVITIES AND ROUTINES:

A TECHNOLOGY OF TEACHING

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss two aspects of Mrs.

Lisa's teaching that emerged as central factors in her thinking and in

her planning for instruction.

The chapter begins by discussing acti-

vities, their function as structural units of planning and action,

their role as controlled behavior settings, and their major structural

components.

The second part of the chapter deals with routines in

teaching, including the different types of routines observed in Mrs.

Lisa's teaching and their role in planning and interactive teaching.

Part I:

Teaching by Activities

 

Activities as Structural Units of Planning and Action

 

Activities may be broadly defined as self—contained organizational

units for performing a specific function.

Educational activities are

designed to stimulate learning by firsthand experience--hence, educa-

tors usually refer to them as instructional or learning activities.

Educational activities involve transactions between students and their

environment-~the teacher, other students, materials, and so forth.

Homans (1950) has suggested that the activity of the group is an

important part of the sociological structure of a group.

Smith and

Geoffrey (1968) argued that the structure of activities is a major and

often neglected part of classroom social-system analysis and devoted a

full chapter to discussing activities, focusing primarily on daily

106

107

lessons.

It is proposed here that activities not only play an impor-

tant role in classroom organization and interaction, but are also a

basic structural element in the teacher's decision making.

There are several reasons for suggesting that teachers use activi-

ties as the basic unit for decision making and planning.

The first

reason is that activities permit the organization of classroom action

at a manageable level.

Organizing instruction at the level of activi-

ties is much more specific and manageable than thinking about a subject

matter or whole units of instruction, and is not as detailed and com-

plex as thinking about and trying to organize statements of behavioral

outcomes of instruction.

Second, activities have as their focus some

action--some "work" that is to be done.

Since planning is chiefly con-

cerned with future action, activities are a natural "action unit" for

teachers to work with.

Jackson (1968) suggests that teachers are more

concerned with immediate behavioral outcomes such as enthusiasm and

involvement in the classroom than they are with more long-term learning

outcomes.

If this is so, then the activity becomes a unit that can be

used as a device to create enthusiasm and involvement as well as learn-

ing.

Third, since activities are self-contained units, they can be

tailored to fit into a specific time slot, and because of this somewhat

independent characteristic, they may be arranged and sequenced into

larger units of instruction.

In short, it is because of their manage-

ability, their orientation towards action, and their independence, that

it is suggested that activities are a basic structural unit of both

preactive and interactive teacher decision making.

Early in this study it became apparent that activities played a

central role in Mrs. Lisa's thinking about instruction.

Activities

108

first became visible in the classroom as the basis for organizing the

day.

Nearly all action and interaction in the classroom took place

within the boundaries of an activity, and, for the most part, the re-

maining time was used for preparation for or transition between acti-

vities.

This organization was communicated to the students by way of the

daily schedule.

The first thing that Mrs. Lisa did each morning and

afternoon after calling the roll was to go over the schedule.

It was

presented as a list of activities, some of which were punctuated by

times.

Two excerpts from the field notes serve as examples:

Mrs. Lisa then goes over the afternoon schedule.

It reads:

Roll, Sharing, Change Jobs, Mindbender, Recess - 2:10,

Read-a-Story, Weekly Reader, Spelling.

(4/11)

After school Mrs. Lisa erases the small blackboard and puts

up tomorrow's schedule.

It reads:

Snews, Graphing, John's

Shells, Weight and Height, Recess - 10:10, Field Trip -

10:30, Pass Out Papers, Clean up.

(4/13)

As a result of experience, the activity names became for both the

teacher and students a sufficient source of knowledge about what was

to occur and how it would be carried out.

The students often came over

to look at the schedule to see what was coming up next, and the names

of the activities served as an adequate cue to evoke Mrs. Lisa's plans

for the activities.

It soon became apparent that activities also played an important

role in Mrs. Lisa's planning decisions.

In addition to her daily plan-

ning, Mrs. Lisa's weekly and unit planning was largely made up or or-

ganizing and sequencing activities.

Her weekly planning as it was

laid out in her plan book looked much like the schedules that she put

on the blackboard each day.

For some activities, page numbers and

109

additional notes were listed along with the activity name, though for

most activities, the activity name alone was sufficient to indicate

what would occur during the allotted time.

When Mrs. Lisa planned

units for science or social studies, the first step in her planning was

to gather all the materials she could find on the topic, look through

the materials, and then list activities that might be carried out as

part of the unit.

These activities were either based on the materials

themselves or on ideas developed from the materials.

Once a general

sequence for the unit had been decided, Mrs. Lisa's planning largely

involved the selection and sequencing of activities.

This process can

be seen during Mrs. Lisa's planning for a unit on dinosaurs for

science:

Mrs. Lisa begins by thinking out loud about where she wants

to begin the unit.

She decides that she wants to begin in

the pre-dinosaur era and begins looking for a film strip

on this era and appropriate activity to go with it.

As she

checks through the filmstrips, she relies on her preview

comments.

She also keeps the general sequence of the unit

in mind.

It is a time line following the evolution of rep-

tiles and dinosaurs.

She then begins writing activities in

her plan book.

She does one week at a time, first looking

to see how many periods she had previously set aside for

science and then fits in activities into each slot.

(3/9)

Types of activity.

Fifty-three activities8 were identified in

Mrs. Lisa's schedule.

A complete listing of these activities grouped

by subject matter is presented ianigure 5.1.

Some activities such

as roll, Snoopy Snews, finding mistakes in the schedule, and recess

took place every day, while others such as cooking, holiday parties,

and field trips

 

8"Activity: as used here refers to the generic activity type.

A

specific instance of an activity type will be referred to as activity

occurrence.

ActivitiesinMrs.Lisa'sclassroom

Figure5.1

#

wordContest

SpellingTest

SpellingFolders

SpellingBee

RemedialHandwritingGroup

PencilPals

OrangeSuitcase(Grammar)

Newspaper(ClassNewspaper)

Mindbender

PostOffice)

Treat

Roll

Recess

Movies(Fridayp.m.)

LetterWriting(Classroom

HolidayParty

HandwritingWOrkbooks

BucketCheck(DeskClean-up)

FindingMistakesinSchedule

 
Non-Instructional

Decoding(Spelling)

CreativeWriting.

StationWOrk

Calendars(FirstofMonth)

GradedPapers)

 
WritingSkills

PassoutPapers(Returning

MusicwithMusicTeacher

MathWorkbooks

Gym

FieldTrip

Directions(Listening)

MathUnits

MathQuizzes

MathGames

Cooking

Math

ChoiceTime

ChangeJobs

LibraryBooks)

BlockPatterns(Memory)

tainedSilentReadingin

ArtwithArtTeacher

toClass)

Assembly

U.S.S.R.(UninterruptedSus-

 
Miscellaneous

SilentReading(inReaders)

ArtinRoom

StoryReading(TeacherReading

ScienceUnits

ReadingGroups

Science

ReadingFolders

WeeklyReader

Read-a-Story(StudentReadingto

Class)

ReadingLab

SnoopySnews

SnoopyBooks

SocialStudiesUnit

 
SocialStudies

PhonicsWOrkbooks

Library

BookReports

Reading

110

Writingskills

morethanonemathactivityonMondaysandWednesdays.

mathactivityeverydayexceptFriday,anditwasmorecommontohave

Therewasatleastone

eachdayexceptFridaywhichhadonlyone.

Therewereontheaverageatleasttworeading-relatedactivities

ulewasillustratedinFigure4.4(p.90)anddiscussedinChapterIV.

Thissched-

lowedfairlycloselyherweeklyscheduleforwinterterm.

Figure5.2andTable5.1generallyindicatethatMrs.Lisafol-

graphicallyinFigure5.3.

Thissameinformationisportrayed

activitytotals(Table5.1).

eachdayoftheweekwerecalculatedalongwithdailyandweekly

ofactivitiesbysubjectmatter,themeannumberofactivitiesfor

Toprovideabreakdown

activityduringthisperiodofinstruction.

Figure5.2illustratesthefrequencyofeach

occurreddaily.

activitiessuchasSnoopySnewsandfindingmistakessincethey

Omittedfromthesecalculationswere

inMrs.Lisa'sclassroom.

tabulatedtodeterminethefrequencyanddistributionofactivities

activitiesoccurringoverthetwelve-weekperiodofwintertermwas

Thenumberofacademic

Activityfrequencyanddistribution.

wereapartofthescheduleonlyduringspringterm.

Read-a-Story,silentreading,bookreports,andremedialhandwriting

Thenewspaper,

readingfolderswereonlyusedduringwinterterm.

Activitiessuchaspost-office,letterwriting,mathgames,and

groupartactivitiesintheroomdidnothappenonaregularbasis.

occurredeveryotherweek,andactivitieslikepencilpalsandlarge

tookplaceatleastonceaweek,thoughartwiththeartteacher

Mostoftheotheractivities

happenedonlyonceinseveralmonths.

111

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areaduringatwelve-weekperiodofinstruction.

Meanpercentageofdailyactivitiesineachsubjectmatter

Figure5.3

-Misce11aneousActivities

-ScienceandSocialStudies

m.-WritingSkills

x\\\‘-Math

-Reading

Week

Friday

Thursday

Wednesday

Tuesday

Monday

   
  

 
  
 

  

 

 

Activities

Of

Percent

 

 

 

 

   

114

Alsodescribedinthissectionwerethetypes,frequency,and

discussingthefunctionthatactivitiesplayasbehaviorsettings.

Thenextsectionwillelaborateonthisnotionby

forinstruction.

hasdiscussedthenotionofactivitiesasstructual"buildingblocks"

Thissection

tionmightbebestdescribedas"teachingbyactivities."

andinstructioninMrs.Lisa'sclassroom,somuchso,thatherinstruc-

Tosummarize,activitieswereasalientfeatureoftheplanning

latersection.

Thetimespentinvariousactivitieswillbecoveredina

sameday.

minutesthatMrs.Lisamightspendreadingastorytotheclassonthe

everyotherTuesdayisrepresentedasoneactivityasisthefifteen

Thus,thehourspentwiththeartteacher

oftimespentineacharea.

totalactivitiesoccurringineachsubjectmatterareangt_theamount

tiousininterpretingFigure5.3sinceitrepresentsthepercentageof

Onemustbecau-

tieswhileFridayhadthelargestnumber(over60%).

Tuesdayaveragedthesmallestnumberofthese"miscellaneous"activi-

takenupbyactivitiesnotsubsumedunderthesubjectmattergroupings.

Ontheaverageaboutthirtypercentoftheday'sactivitywas

oftheschedule.

herprioritiesthesetwosubjectswouldbethefirsttobesqueezedout

scienceandsocialstudies,butMrs.Lisaacknowledgedthatintermsof

Therewerefourperiodssetasideinthescheduleeachweekfor

week).

theentiretwelveweekperiod(justoveroneofeachtypeoflessonper

teenscienceunitlessonsandfourteensocialstudiesunitlessonsfor

Figure5.2showsonlyfour-

occurredlessfrequentlythanscheduled.

Scienceandsocialstudiesactivities

dayoccurringquitefrequently.

activitiesoccurredmorefrequentlythanmathactivities,withtwoper

115

ofsignalingandelicitingbehaviorthatconformstohisorher

theteacherisabletostructureactivitiestoincreasetheprobability

Throughplanning,

createdandcontrolledbytheteacheraheadoftime.

andcontrolledbythesetting,butthesettingitselfhasbeenlargely

Notonlyisthebehavioroftheteachersignaled

behaviorsettings.

settings,althoughtheymaybemoreaccuratelydescribedascontrolled

Activities,asdefinedinthisstudy,areequivalenttobehavior

type.

mentisconsistentwithbehaviorinotherenvironmentsofthesame

son'sperceptionandthatbehaviortakingplaceinacertainenviron-

Hefurtherstatesthatbehaviorsettingsexistindependentofaper-

betweenthephysicalcomponentsandthestandingpatternofbehavior.

soforth),(3)astandingpatternofbehavior,and(4)interaction

tialboundaries,(2)aphysicalmilieuwithprops(books,pencils,and

(1)definitetemporalandspa-

settingshavefourdistinctfeatures:

Kounin(InstituteforResearchonTeaching,1977)statesthatbehavior

behavioroccursinecologicalunitsreferredtoasbehaviorsettings.

Theyfurtherarguethat

thatshapeandsetlimitsontheirbehavior.

Doyleproposethattheenvironmentmakescertaindemandsoninhabitants

ItwasstatedthatresearcherssuchasBarkerand

discussedbriefly.

gardingtheinterdependencebetweenbehaviorandtheenvironmentwas

InChapterI,thepositiontakenbyecologicalpsychologistsre-

 
ActivitiesasControlledBehaviorSettings

ticsoftheseactivitieswillbediscussedinthesectiononfeatures

Thecharacteris-

distributionofMrs.Lisa'sinstructionalactivities.

ofinstructionalactivity.

116

Thoughhisstudyexamineddecisionmakingoveralong

inChapterIII.

Clarkson's(1962)studyofabanktrustinvestmentofficerdiscussed

Theexceptiontothispatternwas

periodsoftime(daysorweeks).

abletorepresentisproblemsolvingordecisionmakingoverextended

Whatthesesimpleproblemshavebeenun-

amanageableproblemspace.

tailproceduresandmethodsusedt9simplifythetaskenvironmentinto

focusingontasksofthistype,theyhavebeenabletodescribeinde-

By

inafairlyshortperiodoftime(oratleastatonesitting).

moveorsolvingacryptarithematicproblem,allofwhichcanbesolved

logyhavebeenrelativelysimpleproblemssuchasdecidingonachess

Mostofthetasksinvestigatedbyinformationprocessingpsycho-

solutionwithinthatspace.

tionorcertaincharacteristicsoftheenvironmentandsearchesfora

lemsolverordecisionmakercreatesamentalrepresentationofapor-

ratherthanconfrontingtheenvironmentandallitscomplexity,aprob-

Thus,

aresimplifiedandrepresentedinthemindasproblemspaces.

humaninformationprocessingcapabilities,complextaskenvironments

Informationprocessingtheoryassumesthatbecauseoflimitationsin

decisionmakingbetweenthetaskenvironmentandtheproblemspace.

tionthathastraditionallybeenmadeinstudiesofproblemsolvingor

ignoredbyinformationprocessingpsychologyandobscuresthedistinc-

Thistypeofinteractionwiththeenvironmenthasgenerallybeen

throughpreactiveplanning.

boundariesandguidelineshavealreadybeenestablishedforbehavior

islargelyareactiontothepupil'sactionsinthesetting,general

Therefore,eveniftheteacher'sbehaviorintheactivity

purposes.

117

Throughtherearrangementofthephysical

tohavewiththestudents.

lyinfluencedthetypeandqualityofinteractionMrs.Lisawasable

cludedthewholeclassorspecificgroupsofchildren,groupinggreat-

Whetheranactivityin-

forinstructioninMrs.Lisa'sclassroom.

Variousformsofgroupingalsoinfluencedthetaskenvironment

eachactivity.

eachweektoactivitiesandbysettingtheamountoftimeprovidedfor

subjectinhercurriculumbyallocatingaspecificnumberofperiods

ningofeachterm,Mrs.Lisadeterminedtherelativeemphasisoneach

Bysettingaweeklyscheduleatthebegin-

teachingenvironment-time.

Schedulingdealswithoneofthemajorfeaturesofthe

classroom.

Lisa'sclassroomwerethroughscheduling,grouping,andrearrangingthe

ThreecommonwaysthisoccurredinMrs.

throughteacherplanning.

conceptualizationofthesituationtakesplaceinavarietyofways

Thisreshapingofthetaskenvironmentbasedonone'sinitial

processisillustratedinFigure5.4.

This

theexternalenvironmentbasedonthisinternalrepresentation.

ficproblemspace,butalsogoesontoactuallychangeandsimplify

simplifiesthetaskenvironmentinternallybythinkingwithinaspeci-

Inotherwords,theplannernotonly

withinwhichheisfunctioning.

tomoldthetaskenvironmenttoconformbettertotheproblemspace

Whenthishappens,theplannerisattempting

inwhichitwilloccur.

toshape,accordingtoone'sperceptionsandpurposes,theenvironment

Onewaytoguidefutureactionis

frameworkforguidingfutureaction.

AsdefinedinChapterI,planningisconcernedwithdevelopinga

periodoftime(severalmonths),hewasalwayslookingatthesame

welldefinedtask.

118

5
.
4

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611

Duration

3.

StructureandSequence

2.

Location

1.

Thesecomponentsare:

ininstructionalsettings.

ofbehaviorsettingsexpandedtoincludecomponentsespeciallysalient

featuresarebasicallyanelaborationofBarker'sandKounin'sfeatures

These

characterizeinstructionalactivitiesinMrs.Lisa'sclassroom.

Inthecourseofthestudy,sevenfeatureswereidentifiedthat

analysisofactivityfeatureswasundertaken.

standbetterMrs.Lisa'sthinkingaboutinstructionalactivities,an

Tounder-

theirfunctionascontrolledbehaviorsettingswasproposed.

structuralunitofplanningandactioninMrs.Lisa'sclassroom,and

Intheprevioussections,activitieswereportrayedasthebasic

 

FeaturesofInstructionalActivities

identifiedandwillbediscussedinthenextsection.

tionalactivitiessubjecttomanipulationthroughplanninghavebeen

withinthecontextofinstructionalactivities,componentsofinstruc-

SincemostofMrs.Lisa'sinstructiontakesplace

teacherbehavior.

mentthatmaybemanipulatedbytheteachertoinfluencestudentand

Theseexampleshaveshownthreefeaturesoftheclassroomenviron-

geographicboundariesinwhichtheseactivitiestookplace.

learningsettingsforvariousactivitiesinfluencedthespatialand

theartlabareexamplesofhowherconceptualizationofappropriate

differentsettingssuchnastherug,thetablesforsmallgroups,and

Herprovisionfor

oftaskenvironmentsavailableforinstruction.

structureoftheclassroom,Mrs.Lisawasabletoinfluencethetypes

120

activities.

and,forsomeactivities,secondarylocationsforeachofMrs.Lisa's

Figure5.5listsprimary

atvariouslocationsaroundthecommunity.

Fieldtripstookplace

readinglab,andintheclassroomnextdoor.

occurredoutsidetheroomatthelibrary,artroom,gym,musicroom,

Activities

tivities,thestudentscouldpickwheretheymightsit.

Forseveralac-

roundtablesoratotherlocationsaroundtheroom.

Activitiesalsotookplaceatthe

thestudents'seatsandontherug.

InMrs.Lisa'sclassroom,themostcommonlocationsforactivitieswere

theactivitymighttakeplaceatmanydifferentplacesintheroom.

althoughforsomeactivitiessuchaschoicetimeorthewordcontest,

activities,locationwasspecifiedthefirsttimetheactivityoccurred

Formost

oneofthetables,orinanotherlocationinthebuilding.

Theactivitymighttakeplaceontherug,atthestudents'seats,at

Locationreferstothephysicallocationofanactivity.

Location.

boratedfurtherbydiscussingeachofthesevenfeatureslistedabove.

characteristicsofMrs.Lisa'sinstructionalactivitieswillbeela-

Beforeproceedingtothat,however,the

secondpartofthischapter.

Thisroutinizationofactivitieswillbediscussedinthe

routinized.

decisionswereonlymadeonceortwiceandtheactivitybecamefixedor

Insomeactivities,thesedecisionsweremadequiteoften,butinmost,

classroom,planningdecisionsweremadeabouteachofthesefeatures.

ItisprOposedthatforeachinstructionalactivityinMrs.Lisa's

ContentandMaterials

7.

InstructionalMoves

6.

AcceptableStudentBehavior

5.

Participants

,4.

121

IR-InRoom

‘

R-Rug

OR-OutofRoom

S-Seats

aSecondarylocationsareinparentheses

RT-RoundTable

 

LocationsofactivitiesinMrs.Lisa'sclassroom

Figure5.5

-ClassroomNextDoor

-Playground(IRwhenraining)

Movies

Recess

ArtRoom“'

ArtwithArtTeacher

-Gym

Gym

-ReadingLab

ReadingLab

-MusicRoom

-Library

Music

Library

-Gym

Assembly

 
OutsidetheClassroom

SilentReading

BucketCheck

StationWOrk

ArtinRoom

ScienceUnits

WeeklyReader

SnoopyBooks

MathGames

WordContest

ChoiceTime

HolidayParty

U.S.S.R.

 
StudentChoice

jobboard

ChangeJobs-at

chalkboard

SocialStudiesUnits(R)

linesnearfront

Cooking

SpellingFolders

SpellingBee-two

ReadingGroups

PencilPals

 
OtherLocations

 
AtRoundTables

Newspaper(R,RT,OR)

OrangeSuitcase

SpellingTest

Treat

Roll

PassOutPapers

Directions(S)

BlockPatterns

SnoopySnews

RemedialHandwriting

Mindbender

LetterWriting

HandwritingWOrkbooks

Decoding

CreativeWriting

Calendars

MathWOrkbooks

MathUnits,(R,RT)

MathQuizzes

FindingMistakes

PhonicsWOrkbooks(RT)

StoryReading

Read-a-Story

 
OntheRug

ReadingFolders(RT)

BookReports(RT)a

AtSeats

 
IntheClassroom

122

terialsandgroupingsinMrs.Lisa'sclassroomgenerallynecessitated

tionopeningalessoninGeoffrey'sclassroomsincethevarietyofma-

Set-uphereinvolvedmorethanthedirectiveorillustra-

musicroom.

orevengoingtoanotherplaceinthebuildinglikethelibraryor

theroom,rearrangingdesks,pullingdownshadesorprojectionscreens,

aspassingoutmaterials,directingstudentstocertainlocationsin

Thisincludedsuchthings

timewasalmostalwaysinvolvedinset-up.

Inbeginninganactivity,

classroomincludedthreemajorcomponents.

ThegeneralstructureorsequenceofanactivityinMrs.Lisa's

ferentfromthestructureofGeoffrey'slessons.

ferencesrequireastructureforMrs.Lisa'sactivitiesthatisdif-

Thesedif-

students,Mrs.Lisawasteachingfirstandsecondgraders.

Third,whereasGeoffreywasteachingjuniorhigh

usedbyMrs.Lisa.

oriented,asopposedtothemanysmallgrouporindividualactivities

Second,Geoffrey'slessonsappearedtobelargegroup

heractivities.

teachingfromtexts,whereasMrs.Lisausedmorevariedmaterialsin

First,Geoffreydidmostofhis

Geoffrey'sclassroominseveralways.

ActivitiesinMrs.Lisa'sclassroomdifferedfromlessonsin

"epilogue"occurredintheformofastudyperiodorhomework.

ofsummaryorwithanassignmentoftextquestions,andfinally,an

Third,thelessonclosedwithsometype

ing,orteacherquestioning.

sontookplace,involvingsuchthingsasreadingfromthetext,recit-

Next,thebodyoftheles-

anillustrationbasedoncommonexperience.

entry,involvingsometypeofdirectivesuchas"turntopage254"or

First,alessoninitiallyinvolvedsometypeofopeningor

lesson.

activities,SmithandGeoffreyproposefourphasesorepisodesofa

Intheiranalysisofdailylessonsas

 
Structureandsequence.

123

Althoughmostactivitiesfollowedthis

set-up,lesson,andtake-down.

NearlyallofMrs.Lisa'sactivitiesincludedthethreephasesof

abreaksuchasrecessorlunch.

orparticipantsleadingintotheset-upphaseofanotheractivityorto

take-downphaseinvolvedsomerearrangementorregroupingofmaterials

Inallactivities,the

sheets,folders,orbooksandputthemaway.

activities,thisalsoinvolvedhavingoneortwostudentscollectwork-

Inmostgroup

orworkbooktothebookrackorreturningtoone'sseat.

Forothers,itmightonlyinvolvereturningone'stext

undertaking.

activitiessuchaS'cooking,art,orchoicetime,thiswasoftenamajor

Forsome

Thethirdphaseofanactivitymaybecalledtake-down.

toGeoffrey'slessons.

Alsoabsentwastheassignmentofquestionsorhomeworkcommon

son.

vityratherthanbysummarizingorotherwiseformallyclosingtheles-

directivefromMrs.Lisatoproceedintothethirdphaseoftheacti-

Moreoftenthannot,thelessonwasclosedbya

inreadingormath.

mightbemonitoringthegroupasawholeorworkingwithonegroupas

Duringthesesessions,Mrs.Lisa

sessionsinworkbooksorfolders.

Often,however,thelessoninvolvedprivatework

Geoffrey'slessons.

haviorsuchasreading,reciting,andquestioningthatdominated

Forwholeclassorteacher-runactivities,thelessonmayinvolvebe-

Oncetheactivityissetup,thesecondorlessonphaseoccurs.

activity.

theproceduresthatthestudentswereaccustomedtofollowinginan

thatthestudentshadbeengivenortoprovideaddendaorchangesin

set-upalsoinvolvedgivingdirectionsfortheuseofthematerials

Inmanyactivities,

morecomplexpreparationsthanOpeningatextbook.

124

Itwillbediscussedinmoredetailin

measureactivitycomplexity.

9Teacherroleisintroducedhereasawaytoconceptualizeand

thesectiononinstructionalmoves.

 

signedforuseinclassroomobservationinstruments.

analysisoffieldnotesinthisstudythancategoriesprimarilyde-

Itwasfeltthatitwouldbeeasiertousethistypeofsystemforthe

toanalyzefieldnotesandwrittenaccountsofclassroominteraction.

nitionswerechosenprimarilybecausetheyweredevelopedforanused

1972;MorineandMorine,1973;Perkins,1964),Gump'scategorydesig-

proposed(e.g.,AmidonandHunter,1967:Fishburn,1966;Lundgren,

Althoughmanyotherconceptionsofteacherrolehavebeen

Figure5.6.

Definitionsofthesecategoriesareprovidedin

andnon—in-activity.

director,recitationleader,instructor-demonstrator,reader,tester,

Theyincludewatcher-helper,participant,action

tern"(Gump,1967).

vityaremodeledafterGump'scategoriesof"teacherleadershippat-

ThecategoriesusedtodefineMrs.Lisa'srole(s)duringanacti-

rolesdemandedbytheactivityincreases.

thatactivitiesbecomemorecomplexfortheteacherasthenumberof

Itwashypothesized

Lisawouldneedtotakeonduringanactivity.

ororientations,thatMrs.

9

intermsofthenumberofdifferentroles,

plexityaffectedMrs.Lisa'splanningdecisions,complexitywasdefined

Sincethisstudywasconcernedabouthowcom-

terials,andsoforth.

typesandcomplexityofstudent-teacherinteractions,complexityofma—

numbersofteachermoves,numberofstudentbehaviors,

differentways:

Thecomplexityofanactivitymightbecharacterizedinmany

complex.

basicsequence,somehadverysimplestructureswhileothersweremore

125

Definitionsforteacher—rolecategories(afterGump,1967)

Figure5.6

 

Tusuallybusywithanotheractivity.

lessonphase;Tnotkeytopupilaction.

tentlyattendingtoactivityduring

Tnothelping,notclearlyandconsis-

NotinActivity

8.

testingiscoded"tester."

"watching"butallteachersupervised

Monitoringmayinvolve

writtenform.

Tcangivequestionseitherorallyorin

Tester

7.

Treadstopupils.

Reader

6.

onlyasmallpartoftheteachingeffort.

brieflytocheckthemout,butthisis

pupilquestions;mayquestionpupils

Mayanswer

notaskforcontributions.

Does

Doesnotuserecitationformat.

something,whatthefactsare,etc.

Ttellsorshowsstudentshowtomake

Instructor-Demonstrator

5.

modeofteaching.

askingforstudentinputisprominent

inrecitationformatifquestioningor

Codeactivitiesnot

swers,mayquiz.

Tasksforreciters,commentsonan-

RecitationLeader

4.

isnotsupplyingthecoreaction.

action,ismakingdemandsfordoing,but

Tiskeyto

asmasterofceremonies.

throughoutlessonphase,canleadoract

Tgivesdirectionsormanagesactivity

ActionDirector

3.

pateswithstudentsinactivity.

Tisnotleadingactivity,butpartici-

Participator

2.

callyinvolvedwithactivityaffairs.

Ifatdesk,isatleastperiodi-

desk.

Maycirculate,standatback,orbeat

helpingaworkinggroupofindividuals.

Tiswatchingover(monitoring)or

watcher-Helper

1.

(T=Teacher)

 

126

role)aremoredemandingontheteacherduringplanningandduringthe

thatcomplexactivities(activitiesinvolvingmorethanoneteacher-

Itseemsreasonabletopostulate

ofrolesobservedineachactivity.

SeeTable5.2foracompletelistingofthenumber

oneteacherrole.

duringtheactivity;theremainingtwenty-sixactivitiesinvolvedonly

roles,andonlyeightactivitiesinvolvedtwodifferentteacherroles

involvedthree

occurredinthisperiod,onlythreeactivitiesever

Ofthethirty-seventypesofinstructionalactivitythat

Figure5.6.

periodinwintertermwerecodedusingthecategoriesdefinedin

room,thelessonphasesofactivitiesduringarepresentativethreeweek

ToassessthecomplexityoftheactivitiesinMrs.Lisa'sclass-

(1967)analysisofclassroombehaviorsettings.

tionofstudentbehaviorinteacherbehaviorwasillustratedinGump's

Thisreflec-

individualorgroupworknotcenteredaroundtheteacher.

thenonecanassumethatthestudentsareinvolvedinsomesortof

andinthesamemanner,iftheteacher-roleisthatofawatcher-helper

moststudentsarefunctioningasparticipantsinarecitationsession;

functioningasarecitationleader,itisreasonabletoassumethat

Forinstance,iftheteacheris

mirrorimagetotheteacher'srole.

Onecanconceiveoftypesofstudentbehaviorasakindof

sametime.

tionofteacher-rolealsoreflectsstudentbehavioroccurringatthe

Second,theno-

andonethatcanbeeasilyidentifiedinfieldnotes.

Teacher-roleinvolvesamorewholisticunitofbehavior

ferentunits.)

andBiddle,1974,forareviewofthesedif-

(SeeDunkin

orventures.

unitofteacherbehaviorthanverbalorpedagogicalmoves,utterances,

First,teacher-roleseemedtobeamoremeaningful

severalreasons.

Teacher-rolewaschosenasameasureofactivitycomplexityfor

127

5

623

8

Totals-15

R—Reader

-WatcherHelper

WH

NA-NotinActivity

-RecitationLeader

RL

ID-Instructor/Demonstrator

ActionDirector

AD—

T-Tester

P-Participant

WH/WH/WH/WH/WH/WH/WH/WH/WH/WH/WH/WH

RL/RL/RL/RL/RL/RL/RL/RL/RL/RL/RL/RL

SnoopySnews

FindMistakes

NA/NA/NA/NA/NA/

StationWork

AD/AD/AD/

PassOutPapers

NA/NA/NA/NA/NA/NA/NA/NA/NA/

Gym

NA/NA/NA/

Music

ADpWH/

FieldTrip

Directions

.

IDPAD/

Cooking

NA/NA/NA/NA/NA/NA/NA/

ChoiceTime

AD/

ChangeJobs

BlockPatterns

Assembly

ArtwithArtTeacher

ArtinRoom

IDRL/RLID/

ScienceUnit

RL/

WeeklyReader

SnoopyBooks

ADRLID/RLWHID/IDRLAD/

SocialStudiesUnit

P/P/

WordContest

T/T/

SpellingTest

wu/wn/

SpellingFolders

AD/AD/AD/

SpellingBee

IDwu/

PencilPals

OrangeSuitcase

RL/RL/RL/

Mindbender

WH/WH/

LetterWriting

ID/ID/ID/

HandwritingWorkbooks

wnRL/

Decoding

ADWH/WH/

CreativeWriting

Calendars

WH/WH/

MathWorkbooks

ADWH/RLAD/RLT/WHID/

MathUnits

T/T/T/T/T/T/T/T/

MathQuizzes

ADWH/

MathGames

P/P/

U.S.S.R.

R/R/R/R/R/R/R/R/R/R/R/

StoryReading

WHAD/WHAD/WHAD/

ReadingLab

RLR/RL/RL/RL/

ReadingGroups

ReadingFolders

PhonicsWorkbooks

Library

I

l

1

H

H

 
  +
+ 

 

 

 

H

H

H

H

w

w

H

H

H

H

m

H

w

H

H

H

H

N

H

H

H

N

N

H

N

H

N

H

H

N

H

H

H

2

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

WHPADRLIDRTNA___ 
andRoles  

Activity

Roles

F

of

TypicalNumber

Teacher-rolesobservedinactivitiesduringarepresentativethree

weekperiodinwinterterm.

.Table5.2

feger,1974;HarnischfegerandWiley,1976:Berliner,§E_31,,1976).

(See,forinstance,WileyandHarnisch-

gagedtimeortimeontask.

discussionsofclassroomlearningtofocusonallocatedtimeanden—

Recently,ithasbecomepopularin

lengthoftimeanactivitylasts.

Thedurationofanactivitysimplyreferstothe

Duration.

tworoles,andonlyfourpercentinvolvedthreeormore.

onlyinvolvedoneteacher-rolewhileonlynineteenpercentinvolved

thatapproximatelyseventy-sevenpercentofMrs.Lisa'sactivities

Usingthisdefinitionofcomplexity,itwasfound

ofteacher-roles.

ityofanactivitywasdefinedbythedemandsputonMrs.Lisainterms

Thecomplex-

set-up,lesson,andtake-down.

madeupofthreephases:

Tosummarize,activitiesinMrs.Lisa'sclassroomusuallywere

thistwelve-weekperiodweresimpleactivities.

Thus,seventy-sevenpercentoftheactivityoccurrencesduring

cent.

activitieswithtworolesonlybringsthetotaltotwenty-threeper-

Includingcomplex

complexactivitiesinvolvingthreeteacherroles.

vityoccurrencesduringthisperiod,onlytwentyorfourpercentwere

Ofthe481acti-

placeontheaverageofbetweensixandseventimes.

ofeleventimes,andactivitiesinvolvingthreeteacher-rolestook

Activitiesusuallyinvolvingtwoteacher-rolesoccurredontheaverage

teacher-roleoccurredontheaverageoffourteentimesduringtheterm.

Ascanbeseen,activitiesthatinvolvedonlyone

showninTable5.3.

Theresultsofthesecalculationsare

weekperiodofwinterterm.

quencyofcomplexandsimpleactivitieswascalculatedforthetwelve-

Totestthis,thefre-

lessfrequentlythanmoresimpleactivities.

thesedemands,thenonemightpredictthatcomplexactivitiesoccur

Ifoneoftheaimsofclassroomorganizationistosimplify

activity.

129

thethree-weekperiodusedforidentifyingactivitiesassimpleor

acalculatedonlyonthethirty-sevenactivitiesthatoccurredduring

complex(seeTable

 

14.26

371

26

Simple

11.25

90

20

complex

Complex

 

Activity

Occurrences

Activities

ofRoles

role

per

of

of

Number

Teacher-

Occurrences

Number

Number

of

Total

MeanNumber

Frequencyofcomplexandsimpleactivitiesduringatwelve-weekperiod

ofinstructioninwinterterm.

a

Table5.3

130

Ifoneusesthe

notaccountedforintheteachers'allocations.

Thiserrorisoftenrelegatedtotransitiontime

partoftheteacher.

timeandactualactivitytimeisduetopoorplanningorerroronthe

ontaskbehavior,theyassumethatthedifferencebetweentheallocated

Whenresearchersexaminetime

theset-upandtake-downtimeinvolved.

areallocatingtimeforanactivity,theyareincludingsomenotionof

beendocumented,itseemsreasonabletoconjecturethatwhenteachers

Thoughithasnot

thathasbeenreferredtohereasthelessonphase.

notmakethedistinctionbetweenthecompleteactivityandtheportion

Mostcontemporarystudiesoftimeallocationandtimeontaskdo

Mrs.Lisa'sactivitiesrarelydeviatedfromthescheduledtime.

Forthesereasons,thedurationof

carriedacrosstheseboundaries.

forMrs.Lisa'sactivities,anditwasrareforanactivitytobe

framedbytherecessandthelunchbreakprovidedfairlyrigidframes

Also,thefourinstructionalblocks

herexperiencehadtaughther.)

timesandnotcrowdingactivitieshadbeenoneofthemajorthingsthat

timesincasualconversations,sheremarkedthatprovidingforthese

(Several

tivitiestofallshortofortogooverthescheduledtime.

Becauseofthis,itwasrareforac-

wasbuiltintotheactivities.

schedule,itwasarrangedsothatadequateset-upandtake-downtime

Second,insettingupthe

IVforadescriptionofthisprocess.)

(SeeChapter

whenMrs.Lisasetupherweeklyschedulefortheterm.

First,timeallocationsforactivitiesweremadetoalargedegree

Twofactorsmakethispossible.

agetimespentineachactivity.

servedinthisstudy,althoughitispossibletoapproximatetheaver-

reportacomparisonofallocatedandengagedtimeforeachactivityob-

Thefieldnotesrecordedinthisstudywerenotofsufficientdetailto

131

rolesweremathunits,creativewritinganddecoding(twentyminutes).

Theshortestactivitiesinvolvingtwoteacher

previousorientation.

Mrs.Lisashiftedorientations,sheusuallydidnotswitchbacktoa

Once

ashiftingbackandforthbetweenroleswasrarelyencountered.

Incodingteacher-rolesforTable5.2,

shifttoanotherteaching-role.

OnceMrs.Lisawasorientedacertainway,shedidnotquickly

ing.

inactivitiesinvolvingmultipleroles,therewasnotrapidroleshift-

Thisseemstoindicatethatwith-

simpleaveragedonlytwentyminutes.

tionofforty-fivemdnutes,whilethetwenty-sixactivitieslabeled

Thetwelveactivitieslabeledcomplexhadanaveragedura-

Table5.2.

theaveragedurationofsimpleactivitiesusingthedesignationsin

Theaveragedurationofcomplexactivitieswascontrastedwith

downbysubjectmatters.

Table5.4providesasummaryofactivitydurationsbroken

minutes.

fifteentothirtyminuterange,averagingalittleovertwenty-five

MostofMrs.Lisa'sactivitieswereinthe

andfromthefieldnotes.

timeswerecomputedfromMrs.Lisa'sweeklyschedules,herplanbook,

These

allocatedtimeforeachactivityispresentedinFigure5.7,

Theapproximate

Mrs.Lisaadheredcloselytoherplannedactivities.

equipmentfailure,surpriseassemblies,andsoforth,butgenerally

Ofcourse,therewereunexpectedoccurrencessuchasfiredrills,

boardrarelydeviatedfromactualtimespentinMrs.Lisa'steaching.

vitiesintheweeklyscheduleorinthedailyscheduleontheblack-

Usingthisbroadernotionofanactivity,timeallocatedtoacti-

transitiontimeisabsorbedbytheset-upandtake-downphases.

Thisisbecausewhathasbeentraditionallycalled

almosttozero.

broadernotionofanactivityproposedhere,transitiontimedrops

132

ApproximateallocatedtimesforactivitiesinMrs.Lisa's

Figure5.7

classroom

15min.

WordContest

-10min.

SpellingTest

15min.

SpellingFolders

-15min.

SpellingBee

-20min.

writing

RemedialHand-

-30min.

PencilPals

-15min.

Treat

-15min.

OrangeSuitcase

-10min.

StationWork

-20min.

Mindbender

2min.

-

-15min.

Roll

-15min.

LetterWriting

Recess

-20min.

WOrkbooks

-15min.

PassOutPapers

Handwriting

-30min.

-20min.

Music

Movies

min.

U

I

inSchedule

FindingMistakes

-20min.

HolidayParty

-20min.

Decoding

-30min.

Gym

15-30min.

CreativeWriting

2-4hours

-

FieldTrip

-20min.

Calendars

-15min.

Directions

-40-90min.

Cooking

 
WritingSkills

5-20min.

-

ChoiceTime

-15min.

ChangeJobs

5min.

-

BlockPatterns

-30min.

MathWorkbooks

-20—40min.

Assembly

-20-30min.

MathUnits

ArtwithArtTeacher-60min.

-10min.

MathQuizzes

-20-50min.

ArtinRoom

-50min.

MathGames

 
Miscellaneous

 

Math

-50min.

ScienceUnits

-30min.

U.S.S.R.

Science

30min.

ReadingLab

-20min.

SilentReading

15min.

ReadingGroups

20min.

ReadingFolders

-20min.

WeeklyReader

-15min.

Read-a-Story

5min.

-

SnoopySnews

20min.

PhonicsWorkbook

-20min.

SnoopyBooks

-45min.

Library

50min.

SocialStudiesUnits

-30min.

BookReports

SocialStudies 

Reading

133

bNotincludingcookingandfieldtrips

aRoundedtonearestminute

 

min.

26

AllActivitiesb

min.

20

min.

50

min.

24

min.

18

min.

27

min.

25

 

Miscellaneousb

Science

SocialStudies

WritingSkills

Math

Reading

 
MeanDuration

a

 
SubjectMatter

Meandurationofactivitiesbysubjectmatterarea.

Table5.4

134

Lisaspecifiedthisbehaviorbeforeanactivitybegan,althoughin

Insomeactivities,Mrs.

behaviorwasspecifiedineveryactivity.

Acceptableandunacceptablestudent  
Acceptablestudentbehavior.

teachingtimesscheduled,andtherestofheractivitieswereconducted

asawholeclass.

Mrs.Lisahadnoindividual

forremedialhandwriting(onegroup).

writingskillsactivitygroupingwasforspelling(fourgroups)and

Theonly

(samegrouping)andformathquizzes(differentgrouping).

Inmath,studentsweregroupedformathunitsandworkbooks

ders.

groups,readinglab,bookreports,phonicsworkbooksandreadingfol-

Studentsweregroupedforreadinginreading

tainskillsorconcepts.

fromonegrouptoanotherastheyimprovedorhaddifficultywithcer-

thefirstsessionofanactivity,althoughMrs.Lisadidmovestudents

dividedintoseveraldifferentgroups,thiswasusuallydonepriorto

Whenstudentswere

wholeclassandsomeincludedonlyafewstudents.

Someactivitiesincludedthe

largelybydecisionsaboutgrouping.

Theparticipantsinanactivityweredetermined

 
Participants.

wordstoagroupdecodingofasentencewrittenontheboard.

accompaniedthetaskshiftfromindividualcodingofone'sownspelling

Indecoding,theroleshift

fromworkbook-tapetaskstoreadinggames.

teacher-rolesoccurringinreadinglabaccompaniedtheshiftintask

Forinstance,theregularshiftin

sameuntilthetaskwasover.

Rolesshiftedwithtasksandremainedthe

taskswithinactivities.

rolesisthatMrs.Lisa'sroleshiftsseemtoberelatedtoshiftsin

durationandcomplexityandthelackofshiftingbackandforthbetween

Onereasonforthispossiblerelationshipbetween

(fiftyminutes).

Theshortestactivityinvolvingthreeroleswassocialstudiesunits

135

wasindicatedbytherarityofhavingtodisruptanactivityto

term,Mrs.Lisa'ssuccessinelicitingappropriate(desired)behavior

Bywinter

someoneisspeaking,andpayingattentiontoinstructions.

freedomtoleaveone'sseat,talkinginturn,listeningpolitelywhen

Thesewerethegeneralnoiseleveloftheclassduringanactivity,

entinthebehaviorsMrs.Lisamostoftenmentionedtothestudents.

Theseemphasesareappar-

beingpolite,cooperative,andindependent.

Thisinvolvessuchthingsas

"responsiblecitizens"intheroom.

goalsforherstudentsrevolvearoundhelpingthestudentstobecome

ManyofMrs.Lisa's

somethingwiththeminthewinterandspring."

herownwords,"Ittakesallfalltogetthekidstowhereyoucando

In

ingthestudentstheirrightsandobligationsineachactivity.

Muchofhertimeandenergyduringfalltermwaswrappedupinteach-

andappropriateformsofinteractionwasacknowledgedbyMrs.Lisa.

theimportanceofteachingorlettingthestudentslearnacceptable

Interactionwithinactivitieswasnotafocusofthisstudy,but

behaviorindifferentculturalgroups.

turnsatspeakingandhowdifferentteacherrolesaffectappropriate

work(Phillips,1972;Schultz,1976)hasfocusedonhowchildrenget

Muchofthis

volvedinsocialinteractionssuchasgroupdiscussion.

terpretandpredicttheshiftingrightsandobligationsofthosein-

Thishasinvolvedanexaminationofhowchildrenlearntoin-

room.

contextof"participationstructures"(Phillips,1972)intheclass-

Ineducation,thishasbeenexaminedinthe

petence"(Hymes,1974).

bysociolinguistsandanthropologistsasataskofgaining"socialcom-

acceptablebehaviorforspecificsocialsituationshasbeenportrayed

Thislearningof

othersstudentslearneditthroughtrialanderror.

136

Itisimportanttonote

recitationleaderorinstructor-demonstrator.

helperoraction-directorthanamoreteacher-centeredrole,suchas

Mrs.Lisamoreoftentookamorestudent-centeredroleasawatcher-

Thefrequencyoftheteacher-rolesinTable5.5indicatesthat

notesduringotherweeksrevealedalmostnodeviationsintheseroles.)

(Aspot-checkofthefield

herorientationsthroughoutwinterterm.

ingthisperiod,onecanconfidentlyassumethattheserolesrepresent

BecauseoftheapparentstabilityofMrs.Lisa'srolesdur-

Table5.5.

teacherrolesinactivitiesduringthisperiodissummarizedin

Thefrequencyofvarious

thatMrs.Lisahadinvariousactivities.

sibletogetsomepictureofthevarietyandfrequencyoforientations

rolescalculatedtodeterminethecomplexityofanactivity,itispos-

Fromthetabulationsofteacher-

onherinteractiveteachingbehavior.

instructionalstrategiesorstyle,nodetailedanalysiswasconducted

SincethisstudywasnotprimarilyinterestedinMrs.Lisa's

roles.

instructionalbehaviorwasrepresentedearlierintermsofteacher—

cludedacombinationofseveralormanyofthesemoves,Mrs.Lisa's

Sincemostactivitiesin—

tion,monitoring,evaluation,andfeedback.

instructionweregivinginstructions,questioning,presentinginforma-

SomeofthemovesmostapparentinMrs.Lisa's

inmanydifferentways.

Withinanactivity,theteachermayperform

atachievingsomeoutcome.

Thisbehaviorischaracterizedasinstructionalmovesdirected

tivity.

theothercomponentnecessarytotheparticipationstructureofanac-

Mrs.Lisa'sbehaviorinanactivityprovided

 
Instructionalmoves.

look,orawordwouldterminateundesirablebehavior.

understoodbythestudentssothatsimplecuessuchasagesture,a

Appropriatebehaviorseemedtobewellenough

disciplineastudent.

137

aSeetextforanexplanationofhowthiswasestimated.

 

22.7

20

2.7

3.1

4

7

3.2

10

27.8

23.1

0.2

17.2

13

17

11

18

5

3

1

6

8

11

6

14

Not-in-Activity

Tester

Reader

Demonstrator

Instructor-

RecitationLeader

ActionDirector

Participant

Watcher-Helper

 

(Gump,1967)

Time

Teacher-Role

Role

ofTime

of

of

Percent

Percenta

Frequency

FrequencyofMrs.Lisa'steacher-rolesduringathree-weekperiodof

instruction.

Table5.5

138

timesreportedforGump'steachersandmaybeasmuchafunctionof

Thisisfairlycloseto

structingorleadingarecitationsection.

studentactioninanactivityasoppostedto23%spentactivelyin-

Thirty-fivepercentofMrs.Lisa'stimewasspentdirectingorwatching

asaparticipant,instructor,demonstrator,reader,andtester.

Mrs.Lisaspentlesstimeasarecitationleader,butspentmoretime

fourroles,whereasMrs.Lisa'srolesaremuchmoreevenlydistributed.

isthatGump'steachershave91%oftheiractivitiesconcentratedin

AnobviousdifferencebetweenGump'steachersandMrs.Lisa

Table5.5.

teachersspentintheteacher-rolesislistedinthethirdcolumnof

Thepercentoftimethese

classroomdayandteacherandpupil"acts."

graphs,andamultifacetedcategorysystemobserving"segments"ofthe

teachersfortwo-dayseach,usingspecimenrecords,time-lapsephoto-

Gump(1967)observedsixthird-grade

similarnotionsofteacher-role.

ingthisperiod,acomparisoncanbemadewithanotherstudyusing

Byestimatingthepercentoftimespentineachteacher-roledur-

anaveragetimewasused.

Foractivitydurationswherearangeoftimewasgiven,

rateenough.)

timeintheactivity,butforestimationpurposes,itshouldbeaccu-

(Thisassumessomewhatincorrectlythateachrolehadequal

ofroles.

involvedmorethanonerole,thetotaltimewasdividedbythenumber

Foractivitiesthat

rencesduringthethree-weekperiod(Table5.2).

propriatedurationoftheactivity(Figure5.7)bythenumberofoccur-

teacher-role,eachroleoccurrencewasweightedbymultiplyingtheap-

Toprovidearoughestimateofthepercentoftimespentineach

butonlythenumberoftimeseachrolewasidentifiedinanactivity.

thatthesecountsdonotindicateamountoftimespentineachactivity

139

themorpagescouldbetornout-afrequentconsiderationwith

notthematerialswereconsumable(whetherthestudentscouldwriteon

theattractivenessandworkmanshipofthematerials,(3)whetheror

text,ditto,workbook,manipulatables,games,films,orkits),(2)

Thesefactorsare(l)theformatofmaterials(e.g.,

ingaloud.")

offactorsthatrepeatedly"surfaced"indiscussionsandinher"think-

orweightingofthesecues,andthislistisbasedonconsiderations

(Nodesignwasimplementedthatproducedanestimateoftheimportance

werefrequentlyusedwhenMrs.Lisajudgedtheusefulnessofmaterials.

TeacherPlanningShell,eightfactorsor"cues"wereidentifiedthat

teachingmaterialsandthroughmorecontrolledobservationinthe

ThroughdailyobservationsofMrs.Lisa'sjudgmentandselectionof

junctionwithsomematerials,thesedecisionswerecloselyintertwined.

tentofherinstructionwasnearlyalwaysdeliveredthroughorincon-

Sincecon-

activity-relateddecisionsMrs.Lisamadeinherplanning.

.Decisionsaboutcontentandmaterialswerethemostfrequent

taughtandhowitwouldbepresented.

periodsofinstructionnecessitatednewdecisionsaboutwhatwouldbe

majorcomponentofMrs.Lisa'sweeklyanddailyplanningsincemost

Thesetypesofdecisionswerea

shewouldprovideforthestudents.

contentthatwouldbecoveredduringalessonanddecidewhatmaterials

Withinthisframework,Mrs.Lisahadtodeterminespecific

vities.

ofanactivitywassetbythesubjectmatterorientationofmostacti-

Thegeneralcontent

tifiedinthisanalysiswascontentandmaterials.

Theseventhactivitycharacteristiciden-

 
Contentandmaterials.

thenatureofteachinginearlyprimarygradesasaparticularteach-

ingstyle.

140

Seven

functionascontrolledbehaviorsettingsinherteaching.

asstructuralunitsinplanninghasbeendescribedaswellastheir

Theroleofactivities

structionaltechnology-teachingbyactivities.

Thusfar,thischapterhasdescribedoneaspectofMrs.Lisa'sin-

Summagy

mostprominentinMrs.Lisa'splanningisprovidedinthenextchapter.

Asomewhatmorecompletepictureofwhenthesecueswere

described.

study,therelativefrequencyandimportanceofthesefactorswerenot

Becauseofthescopeandnatureofthis

studyofteacherjudgment.

mentsofcontentandmaterialscouldbeasubjectofamoredetailed

Eachofthecuesidentifiedasbeingrelatedtojudg-

andactivities.

tialthatthecontenthadforintegrationwithothercontents,lessons,

tentwithhergoals(andthedistrictobjectives),and(7)thepoten-

presentation(e.g.,lesson,film,ortask),(6)the"fit"ofthecon-

knowledge,strategy,etc.),(4)meaningfulness,(5)lengthofcontent

orderofcontentpresentation,(3)emphasisofthecontent(skill,

(1)difficultylevel,(2)sequenceand

Theseinclude:

ofMrs.Lisa.

aboutcontent,sevenmorefactorswereidentifiedasfrequentconcerns

Inmakingdecisions

materialsortoborrowideasandmakeherown.

thenitwasnotuncommonforMrs.Lisatocombineseveraldifferent

Ifmaterialsfailedtomeetherstandardsintoomanyareas,

content.

wouldbeenoughmaterialsforagrouporforthewholeclass,and(9)

terials,(7)theset-uptimeinvolvedforher,(8)whetherornotthere

(6)whetherarecordingorevaluationsystemwasprovidedwiththema-

serveherpurposes,(5)theclarityofinstructionsforthestudents,

workbooks),(4)whethertheycouldbeeasilymodifiedoradaptedto

141

performanceprograms.

undertakenbyMarchandSimon(1959)wheretheyrefertoroutinesas

Themostextensivetreatmentofroutineswas

businessorganizations.

routineshavebeenrarelystudiedandusuallyonlyinthecontextof

However,theroleandfunctionof

actionandbehaviorarerepetitive.

tinesareanefficientandcommonmodeofOperationinsituationswhere

Rou-

tionistocontrolandcoordinatespecificsequencesofbehavior.

Routinesareestablishedprocedures,orprograms,whosemainfunc-

tines.

todealwiththemanyactivitiesusedintheclassroom,namely,rou-

ThepurposeofthissectionistodiscussamechanismMrs.Lisaused

fiedasthebasicstructuralunitofMrs.Lisa'splanningandteaching.

Inthefirstpartofthischapter,activitieswereidenti-

vironment.

thecomplexityandtoincreasethepredictabilityoftheteachingen-

ItwassuggestedinChapterIthatplanningfunctionstoreduce

 
RoutinesinTeaching
PartII:

secondpartofthischapter.

activitiesandtosimplifytheplanningtaskwillbediscussedinthe

AmechanismusedbyMrs.Lisatoestablishandregulatethese

ning.

orterm,andnotallofthesedecisionswerepartofheron-goingplan—

aboutsomefeaturesweremoreprominentatcertaintimesoftheyear

Decisions

abouteachofthefeaturesofanactivitymentionedabove.

Mrs.Lisa'splanningforinstructioninvolvedmakingdecisions

scribedasconcernsinMrs.Lisa'splanning.

featuresofinstructionalactivitieshavebeenidentifiedandde-

142

wasdevotedtoteachingstudentsthestructureandsequenceof

Mrs.Lisasaidthatmuchoftheclassroomtimeinthefall

degree.

AllactivitiesinMrs.Lisa'sclassroomwereroutinizedtosome

componentsofanactivityaspossible.

ofactivitiesusedinherclassroomwasbyroutinizingasmanyofthe

ThewayMrs.Lisawasabletomanagethelargenumber

imposingtask.

componentsforeveryactivityduringagivendayorweekwouldbean

Tomakeadecisionabouteachofthese

(7)contentandmaterials.

pants,(5)acceptablestudentbehavior,(6)instructionalmoves,and

(1)location,(2)structureandsequence,(3)duration,(4)partici-

componentsofactivitiesinMrs.Lisa'sclassroomwereidentified:

Earlierinthechapter,seven

planningandteachinginherclassroom.

establishingactivityroutinesthatMrs.Lisasimplifiedthetasksof

Itwasprimarilyby

ordinatethecomponentsofclassroomactivities.

Activityroutinesfunctiontocontrolandco-

 
Activityroutines.

Eachoftheseroutineswillbediscussedinturn.

tines,(3)managementroutines,and(4)executiveplanningroutines.

(1)activityroutines,(2)instructionrou-

planningandteaching:

wereidentifiedinMrs.Lisa's

Fourdifferenttypesofroutine

 
TypesofTeachiggRoutine

lection,organizationandsequencingofroutines.

planningforMrs.Lisalargelyinvolveddecisionmakingaboutthese-

Thus,

abilityandreducingthecomplexityoftheteachingenvironment.

routinesfunctionedasthemajormechanismforincreasingthepredict-

Inthisclassroom,

teacher'sthinkingandplanningforinstruction.

Routinesplayamajorroleinclassroomorganizationandinthe

143

workbookandthenwalkstothefrontoftheclass.

tellsthemthatthey'reonpagefourteenintheir

She

gettoyourseats,quietforachange."

saystothewholeclass,"Let'sseeifyoucan

eralkidsareshss-ingeachother,andMrs.Lisa

Sev-

Thekidsgobacktotheirseats.

itup."

beginstotalkandMrs.Lisatellshimto"zip

Ed

namesandhandsoutthehandwritingbooks.

Mrs.Lisagoestotheplatform,callsthekids'

9:15

2/2/77

instructionalmoveswerepartofanestablishedroutine.

structure,theduration,acceptablestudentbehavior,andtheteacher's

mosttwomonthsapartillustratethedegreetowhichthesequenceand

Thefollowingdescriptionsoftwohandwritinglessonsdoneal-

book.

groupactivitydoneatthestudents'seatsusingthehandwritingwork-

Thiswasalarge

9:30duringwinterterm,handwritingtookplace.

Tuesday,wednesday,andThursdaymorningsfromapproximately9:15to

On

Anexampleofawellroutinizedactivityishandwriting.

teaching.

littleornotimewasspentdealingwiththemduringplanningor

establishedandunderstoodbyboththeteacherandthestudents,and

Theothercomponentsoftheactivitieswere

contentandmaterials.

Lisa'splanningandinteractivedecisionmakingdealtprimarilywith

sothat,formostreading,math,andwritingskillsactivities,Mrs.

theactivitiesinMrs.Lisa'sclassroomwerewellroutinized-50much

Bythebeginningofwintertermwhenthisstudybegan,mostof

standingofthesefeatures.

ofanactivitywasnotdependentonthestudent'sawarenessorunder-

instructionalmovesweretheteacher'sresponsibility,andthesuccess

Componentssuchasduration,contentandmaterials,and

changed.

andparticipantsforactivitieswereeasilylearnedandoftenwere

Location

activitiesandacceptablestudentbehaviorineachsetting.

144

Lisafinishedandheadstothefrontoftheroom.

Mrs.

theirseatsandbeginopeningtheirbooks.

Thekidsreturnto

turntopagethirty-eight.

thehandwritingbooksandtellsthekidstheycan

kids'namesandastheycomeup,shepassesout

Mrs.Lisathencallsthe

onSuzie'sexplanation.

Mrs.Lisaskimsthroughthearticleandelaborates

Universityisusingsolarheatingtoheatit.

andshowsapictureabouthowthehatcheryatState

Shecomesuptotheplatform

uptotheplatform.

ThekidsfinishandMrs.LisaasksSuzietocome

9:04

3/29/77

ished,shewillpickuptheirfolders.

Mrs.Lisatellsthekidsthatwhenthey'refin-

throughthefoldersthatMrs.Lisahadgivenher.

Sandysitsdownontheplatformandglances

9:28

onthelineandonlytwoiftheycannotfitthree.

Shethentellsthemtowritethreethings

swerit.

question,andthencallsonvariouskidstoan-

ShecallsonDonatoreadthesecond

ofthem.)

shesaidthattherewasn'troomtowriteallfour

(InlookingovertheseonMonday,

choosetwo.

swers(fouranimals)andMrs.Lisatellsthemto

Thekidsgivefourcorrectan-

toanswerit.

Thensheasksthekids

readthefirstquestion.

ShecallsonTomto

havetoansweronthispage.

therearetwoquestionsthatthey'regoingto

Shetellsthekidsthat

thefrontoftheclass.

Mrs.Lisathenwalksbackto'

withthemtoday.

folderstoSandyandexplainswhatshe'sdoing

Shegetsthereading

towriteoneoftheirown.

andtellsthekidstotracethelettersandthen

Mrs.Lisawalkstothebackoftheroom

room.

Sandy(theaide)entersthe

onthenextpage.

Shetellsthemtoputtheirinitialsandthedate

9:23

theairisnotblowingstraightintotheroom.

shadesonthewindowsthatshe'dopened,sothat

Shethenwalkstothewindowandpullsdownthe

ontowrite"akangaroo,afox,andazebra."

Shegoes

they'regoingtowritesomethingelse.

remindsthemtoputacomma,notaperiod,since

Shewrites,"Wesawawalrus,"and

workbooks.

Thekidscopyitintotheir

tenceontheboard.

linestheblackboardandthenwritesthesen-

She

Thensheexplainshowtodotheexercises.

askstheclasstoreadthesentenceonthepage.

She

malsinthepicturesintheirworkbook.

Mrs.Lisaasksquestionsabouttheani-

class.

overandopenstwowindowsatthefrontofthe

Shethenwalks

ofthepageandthedate2/2.

Shetellsthemtoputtheirinitialsonthetop

145

Thistableindicates

Lisa'sclassroomisillustratedinTable5.6.

TheextenttowhichotheractivitieswereroutinizedinMrs.

thekidsfinish,SuzieandDonapickupthebooks.

As

seewhattheycomeupwithfortheirendings.

kidsthatshe'llbeinterestedtoreadtheseto

Mrs.Lisatellsthe

saidthatshe'sfinished).

finished,tohandtheirbookstoSuzie(whojust

Mrs.Lisatellsthekidsthatifthey're

spelling.

she'llhelpthemiftheyneedhelpwiththeir

andpenciloffherdeskandtellsthekidsthat

Shethengetsapad

tenceshastoendwith23.

tellsthekidsthatthelastwordintheirsen-

Mrs.Lisa

withthelastwordinthephrase(cat).

theboardandthenwritessomewordsthatrhyme

Shewritesitupon

canfinishitontheirown.

partoftherhymeonpagethirty-nineandthenthey

Shetellsthekidstocopythefirst

thenextpage.

onestheywantandthenthey'llwritearhymeon

Whendone,Mrs.Lisatellsthekidstochoosethe

9:20

andalsotwelvetorhymewiththelastword(lake).

Thekidsgeneratetwelvetorhymewiththisword

theirlinessincethiswordislonger(light).

togettwowordsrhymingwiththefourthwordon

Shetellsthemthattheymayonlybeable

words.

Forthenextword(tree)thekidslisttwelve

thewordsontheboardforeachwordinthebook.

shewouldlikeforthemtowriteatleastthreeof

Shetellsthemthat

goesontothenextword.

Shewritesdownsixofthem,andthen

herthese.

word(sun)andthekidsraisetheirhandstogive

Shethengoestothenext

havequiteachoice.

she'sgoingtostopthereandsaysthatthekids

wordsforthefirstone(day),Mrs.Lisasays

Afterseventeenrhyming

providedintheworkbook.

Thekidswritetwoorthreeinthespace

board.

thekidssaythem,Mrs.Lisawritesthemonthe

they'redoingtodayasksforrhymingwordsandas

Thelessonthat

thengoesuptothefrontboard.

She

oftheotherworkbooksandgivesittoher.

backtothebookcaseandtearsthepagefromone

Shegoes

withherlastweekwhenshewasgone.

thatitwasprobablyintheworkthatshesent

Mrs.Lisagoesoverandlooksatitandsays

page.

Loissaysthatshedoesn'thavethat

blackboard.

Mrs.Lisagoesupandlinesthefront

tohim.

Andysaysthatit'shis,andMrs.Lisagivesit

Afteraboutthreeseconds,

lostawholesection.

Someoneseemstohave

theyhavepagesixty-one.

andasksthekidstochecktheirbookstoseeif

Mrs.Lisaseessomeworkbookpagesonthefloor

146

 

470045l4

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**-activitiesdesignatedas

non-routine

established.

oncetheweeklyscheduleis

thatareroutinizedor"set"

+-indicatesfeaturesofactivities

StationWork

PassoutPapers

**FieldTrip

**Cooking

ChoiceTime

ChangeJobs

BlockPattern

ArtinRoom

**Science

++

WeeklyReader

**SocialStudies

+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+
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¥

SnoopySnews

SnOOpyBooks

WordContest

SpellingTest

SpellingFolders

SpellingBee

PencilPals

OrangeSuitcase

Mindbender

LetterWriting

HandwritingWorkbooks

FindMistakes

Decoding

CreativeWriting

Calendars

MathWOrkbooks

**MathUnit

MathQuizes

MathGames

U.S.S.R.

StoryReading

ReadingLab

ReadingGroups

ReadingFolders

PhonicsWorkbooks

Library

 

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Routinizationofactivitiesintheweeklyscheduleforwinterterm.

Tadile55.6

147

flectedlessoftheroutinizationoftheactivityandmoreofits

Thelessonphaseofanactivityre-

longerforMrs.Lisatosetup.

Non-routineactivities,asaresult,took

materialstobeused.

location,structure,acceptablestudentbehaviors,andthecontentand

hand,moretimehadtobespentspecifyingandexplaingsuchthingsas

turesofnon-routinedactivitieswerenotknowntothestudentsbefore-

Sinceasmanyasfivefea-

ing)wereestablishedinallactivities.

ataminimum,thedurationofanactivityandtheparticipants(group—

Table5.6showsthat

noveltyorlackofroutinizationofanactivity.

numberofteacherandstudentbehaviorsinthisphasereflectedthe

Anincreaseinthe

visibleduringtheset-upphaseofanactivity.

Routinizationorlackofroutinizationofanactivitywasmost

thatwouldbecoveredduringanactivity.

wereused,planningdecisionsmightinvolvetheselectionofpages

Incasesinwhichtextsorworkbooks

thatthestudentsmightneed.

uallyonlyhadtodealwiththecontentofthelessonandanymaterials

tinizedactivitiesrequiringweeklyordailyplanning,Mrs.Lisaus-

Whatthesepatternsindicateisthatforrou-

vitiesscoredfive).

terialsandstructureoftheactivitytobeleftopen(thetwoacti-

leftopen(thesixteenactivitiesscoredsix)orforcontentandma-

5.6),themostcommonpatternwasforthecontentandmaterialstobe

whosefeatureswerenotcompletely"set"(ascoreofseveninTable

Forroutinizedactivities

unitactivities,cooking,andfieldtrips.

cludemathunitactivities,socialstudiesunitactivities,science

Thesein-

activities.

fewersetfeaturesaredesignedasnon-routine

Activitieswiththreeor

oncetheweeklyschedulewasestablished.

foreachactivitythenumberoffeaturesthatwereroutinizedor"set"

148

mainedagroupofcomplexactivitiesthatwasstillnotroutinized

However,bywinterterm,therere-

soweremanycomplexactivities.

Allsimpleactivitieswereeasilyroutinizedand

goriestwoandfour.

astheschedulebecameestablished,mostactivitiesmovedintocate-

year,allofheractivitiesfellintocategoriesoneandthree,and,

Thiswouldmeanthatatthebeginningofthe

teachingaspossible.

mandsonherplanning,andteachingbyroutinizationasmuchofher

sizeabasicgoalinMrs.Lisa'splanningofstrivingtoreducede-

OnewaytoaccountfortheemptycellinFigure5.9istohypothe-

simple/non-routine.

Bywinterterm,noactivitiescouldbeclassifiedas

plex/routine).

vitiesfallintocategoriesthree(complex/non-routine)andfour(com-

Theremaining30%oftheacti-

activitiesfallintothiscategory.

Twenty-sixor70%ofthe

thesimple/routinecategory(categorytwo).

tivitiesillustrated,amajorityofMrs.Lisa'sactivitiesfallinto

Ofthefourtypesofac-

byFigure5.8ispresentedinFigure5.9.

inwhichMrs.Lisa'sactivitiesfallintothefourcategoriescreated

Theway

activitiesarecharacterizedbytheirshorterset-upphase.

characterizedbylongerandmoreelaboratelessonphaseswhileroutine

Complexactivitiesare

onthestructureanddurationofanactivity.

Figure5.8illustratestheeffectsofroutinizationandcomplexity

itsspecialfeatureswereneededaftertheset-upphase.

activitywasbetterunderstoodbythestudents,fewerremindersabout

Asan

ingsomefunctionsoftheset-upphaseintothelessonphase.

Mrs.Lisaoftenhadtorepeatinstructionsduringthelesson,carry-

Thiswasduetothefactthat

theactivitybecamemoreroutinized.

However,therewassomeshrinkageinthelessonphaseas

complexity.

149

F
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DistributionofMrs.LiSa'sactivitiesondimensionsof

Figure5.9

complexityandroutinization

(16%oftotal)

Pencilpals‘

Decoding

Creativewriting

Mathgames

 

(14%oftotal)

Fieldtrips

Cooking

Mathunitactivities

activities‘

Readinglab

Socialstudiesunit

Library

Scienceunitactivities

   
Complex/Non-routine

Complex/Routine

4.

3.

 

(70%oftotal)

codedinTable6

Restofactivities

Noactivities

   
Simple/Non-routine

Simple/Routine

2.

1.

151

planningforandteachingunitsinmath,socialstudies,andscience

thisamountedtowasthatbythemiddleofwinterterm,Mrs.Lisawas

What

werequicklymetinthefallandthefirstpartofwinterterm.

Also,mostofthescienceandsocialstudiesobjectives

thematerials.

andthoughtherewerekitsandmaterialsavailable,thereweregapsin

IVdiscussedthematerialsusedinscience,socialstudies,andmath,

Chapter

lished,preparedmaterialsthatwouldmeettheseobjectives.

posedbyhavingobjectivessetbythedistrictandnothavingpub-

saidthattheunitformatwasbasicallyinresponsetothedilemma

She

taughtinthisformat,Mrs.Lisagavethefollowingrationale.

Whenaskedwhyscience,socialstudiesandmathwere

andspringterms.

decisioncommittedhertomoreplanningfortheseareasduringwinter

This

tinized,butMrs.Lisachosetoteachthemusingaunitformat.

Alloftheseactivitiescouldhavebeenrou-

arealltaughtinunits.

Onefactorthatthesethreeactivitieshaveincommonisthatthey

Lisa'steaching,mathwashighonherlist.

AlthoughscienceandsocialstudieswereofalowerpriorityinMrs.

andmathunitactivitiesoccurringalittleovertwotimesaweek.

studiesactivitieseachaveragingalittleoveroneoccurrenceaweek

wereregularlyoccurringscheduledactivitieswithscienceandsocial

Figure5.2showsthattheseactivities

ismoredifficulttoexplain.

Thepresenceofscience,socialstudies,andmathunitactivities

highcomplexityseemedtokeeptheseactivitiesoutofcategoryfour.

Thus,lowfrequencycoupledwith

needoreasywaytoroutinizethem.

isdifferent,andtheseactivitieshappensorarelythatthereisno

Eachcookingactivityandfieldtrip

categoryareeasytoexplain.

Thepresenceofcookingandfieldtripsinthis

(categorythree).

152

Further,itislikelythat

andvarietyofmovesforanyoneteacher.

Itmakessensetohypothesizethatthereisafinitenumber

(moves.)

Withineachrole,thereareseveraldifferentbehaviors

behavior.

rolewasofferedasameaningfulunitinwhichtocharacterizeteacher

Inthefirstpartofthischapter,teacher-

figurationsandsequences.

teachingthatovertimehavebeendevelopedandoccurinregularcon—

Theseroutinesareineffectstrategiesorstylesof

tionalmoves.

proceduresestablishedbytheteachertocarryoutspecificinstruc-

Instructionalroutinesaremethodsand  
Instructionalroutines.

andthestudents.

preparingunitsofspecialimportanceorofspecialinteresttoher

objectivesandbecauseofMrs.Lisa'swillingnesstospendextratime

becauseofthelackofpreparedmaterialsthatwouldmeetallofthe

Science,socialstudies,andmathunitactivitieswerenotroutinized

Theonlyfairlystandardcomponentswereparticipantsandduration.

units,Mrs.Lisahadtomakedecisonsaboutmostactivitycomponents.

Inplanningactivitiesforthese

socialstudies,andmathunits.

Thiswasprimarilyplanningforscience,

thatwerenotroutinized.

duringwinterandspringtermswastakenupbyplanningforactivites

MostofMrs.Lisa'splanningtime

andmanagementwhenbeingtaught.

wereroutinizedandrequiredlittleplanningandlittletimeinset-up

Tosumup,bywintertermmostofMrs.Lisa'sactivities(86%)

timeinplanningfortheseareas.

sonswerethebasicreasonsforMrs.Lisa'swillingnesstoinvestmore

Thiscommitmenttotheimportanceorinterestoftheseles-

teaching.

thoughtthestudentswereespeciallyinterestedin,and(3)sheenjoyed

that(1)shethoughtthestudentsespeciallyneededtoknow,(2)she

153

groups,instructionsweregenerallygivenonlyonce,andMrs.Lisa

Insmall

andoftenoneofthestudentswasaskedtorepeatthem.

Inlargegroups,instructionswereusuallygiventwoorthreetimes

Mrs.Lisa'smethodforgivingisntructionsdifferedwithgroupsize.

Asanotherexample,

minuteorsoandglanceatthestudents'papers.

tenceortwoontheboard,shewouldwalkaroundtheclassroomfora

AfterMrs.Lisahadwrittenasen-

theblackboardontotheirpapers.

andSnoopybookswherethestudentswereoftencopyingsomethingoff

largegroupactivitiessuchashandwritingbooks,spellingfolders,

Forinstance,Mrs.Lisausedthesamemonitoringroutinefor

similar.

Thiswasmostcommonacrossactivitiesthatwere

ferentactivities.

ManyofMrs.Lisa'sinstructionalroutineswereusedwithindif-

androleswereroutinizedaswell.

Thus,astheactivitywasroutinized,theteacher'smoves

modified.

toring,reviewing,andquestioningthatwereestablishedandrarely

movessuchasgivinginstructions,demonstrating,instructing,moni-

Mrs.Lisahadalargerepertoireofinstructional

activityroutines.

Lisa'sclassroom,instructionalroutineswereestablishedcomponentsof

SinceinstructiontookplacemainlywithinactivitiesinMrs.

instructionalactivities.

teacher-rolesthatareroutinelyemployedinconjunctionwithspecific

routinescanbecharacterizedaspatternsofmovesforcarryingout

Giventhesebasicconceptions,instructional

somemovesoverothers.

rolescanbeportrayedascollectionsofteachingmovesemphasizing

Thus,teacher-

repeatedwithinmanydifferentactivitiesorroles.

tosimplifyplanningandpreparation,successfulbehaviorsormovesare

154

Sincemostmanagementroutinesdidnotinvolvethewholeclass,

somecases,thetimeandlocationatwhichitistobecarriedout.

accomplished,thestepsandsequenceinwhichitistobedone,andin

Proceduresspecifywhatistobe

nents:proceduresandparticipants.

Managementroutinesincludetwomajorcompo-

morningorafterlunch.

leavingtheroom,cleaninguptheroom,andstartingschoolinthe

transitionbetweenactivities,passingoutorcollectingmaterials,

room,managementroutinescontrolledandcoordinatedsuchthingsas

InMrs.Lisa'sclass-

haviornotassociatedwithspecificactivities.

duresforcontrollingandcoordinatingclassroomorganizationandbe-

Managementroutinesareestablishedproce-

 
Managementroutines.

carriedoutaspartoftheinstructor-demonstratorrole.

instructing,demonstrating,monitoring,andevaluatingwereroutinely

strate,thendoseveralfiguresasaclass),andthespecificmovesof

somebasicdeliberationaboutherinstructionalstrategy(e.g.,demon-

paperfolding)activityforhersocialstudiesunit,therewasonly

Forinstance,whenMrs.Lisaplannedtheorigami(Japanese

task.

formedasanestablishedresponsetoaspecifictypeofinstructional

Mrs.Lisa'sinstructionalmoveswerehighlyroutinizedandwereper-

Basedonthesetwoobservations,itseemsthat

moveswereapparent.

Whennewactivitieswereimplemented,fewneworunusualinstructional

theinstructionaltaskitselfratherthanhowitwouldbetaught.

foranewactivity,mostofMrs.Lisa'sattentionwasdirectedtowards

Whenplanning

Lisa,usuallyonlywhenanactivitywasnotgoingwell.

DecisionsaboutinstructionalmoveswererarelymentionedbyMrs.

reliedonwatchingeachstudent'sworktodeterminewhetherthein-

structionshadbeenunderstood.

155

Toavoidthetalking,shoving,and

ortogohomeaftershcool.

roomtogotoanotherroominthebuilding,togotorecessorlunch,

usedsinceitwassetintomotionwhenevertheclasswasleavingthe

Thiswasfrequently

amanagementroutineinMrs.Lisa'sclassroom.

Theroutineestablishedforleavingtheroomisagoodexampleof

setting.

tributedtothesmoothfunctioningoftheclassroomasalearning

ThisnotonlysimplifiedtheteachingtaskforMrs.Lisa,butalsocon-

complexbehaviorsequencesoftenbyonlythementionofseveralwords.

setupbythejobsystemenabledMrs.Lisatosetinmotionrather

Themanagementstructure

toastudenttheprocedurefordoingajob.

havingtodomanythingsherselfandfromhavingtostopandexplain

ThisroutinizationofbasicmanagementneedsfreedMrs.Lisafrom

timesduringtheday,butotherswerecarriedoutasneeded.

Somejobswereonlydoneatset

tingthestudentstothispoint.

However,Mrs.Lisasaidthatmuchoffalltermwasspentget-

Lisa.

jobentailedandcouldcarryitoutwithlittleguidancefromMrs.

Bythetimeofthisstudy,nearlyeverystudentknewwhateach

als.

attendancesliptotheofficeorhelpingcollectandpassoutmateri-

chairsonthesmallgrouptablestohelpingjobssuchastakingthe

rangedfromclean-upjobssuchaserasingtheboardorputtingupthe

These

forajobinvolvingsomemanagementaspectoftheclassroom.

cussedinthelastchapter,eachweekeverystudentwasresponsible

Asdis-

Lisa'sclassroomwastheassignmentofjobstothestudents.

ThemostprominentframeworkformanagementroutinesinMrs.

tocarryouttheroutine.

individualsorgroupsofindividualswerespecifiedasparticipants

156

couldquicklychecktoseeifeveryonehadturnedinhisorherwork.

tem,Mrs.Lisahadallofthecompletedassignmentsinoneplaceand

Asaresultofthissys-

filesthatMrs.Lisakeptnearhertable.

studentswererequiredtoturntheirworkintotheir"work-done"

Tosimplifyhergradingprocedures,forinstance,

activesetting.

minimizedtheworkshehadtodoinboththepreactiveandinter-

Lisaestablishedmanyroutinesnotassignedtospecificstudentsthat

Mrs.

Notallmanagementroutinesinvolvedthestudents'jobs.

dentsinaline.

outtheadditionaldemandsbroughtonbyhavingtomonitorthestu-

Moreimportant,thisprocedureaccomplishedMrs.Lisa'spurposewith-

popularjobs,andthestudentsenjoyedbeingexcusedinthismanner.

BoththeLineLeaderandTapperwere

ratherthanasalargegroup.

filteredoutoftheroomoneatatimeoringroupsoftwoorthree

Theeffectofthiswasthatthestudents

sheappearedtobeready.

ingtoeachofthestudentsandtappingeachontheheadwhenheor

Thisinvolvedwalk-

leavetheroom,theTapperbeganhisorherjob.

AftertheLineLeaderhadbegunto

LineLeaderwasfirstinline.

stanceswhentheclassdidlineup(forexample,onfieldtrips),the

Leaderwasthefirstpersonwhocouldleavetheroom,andinrarein-

TheLine

Thesetwowordssettheroutineinmotion.

later"Tapper."

door,Mrs.Lisawouldfirstsay"LineLeader"andthenseveralseconds

classwastoleavetheroom,ratherthanaskingthemtolineupatthe

Whenthe

LeaderandExcuser(morecommonlyreferredtoasTapper).

EachweektwostudentschoseorwereassignedtothejobsofLine

uptoleavetheroom,Mrs.Lisadevelopedthefollowingprocedure.

pushingthatsheusuallyhadtocontendwithwhenthestudentslined

157

Whengoingoutside,Mrs.Lisawouldexcusethestudents

ingtheroom.

Therugalsoservedasa"staging"areaforleav-

overtheschedule.

gularfocusforintroducingactivitiessuchascallingrollandgoing

Inthismanner,therugprovidedaninformalandre-

tobeginclass.

Bythetimeofthisstudy,studentsautomaticallywentovertotherug

thatinthemorningandafterlunch,schoolwouldbeginontherug.

Itwasestablishedatthebeginningoftheyear

dinatedactivity.

Therugwasanothermanagementroutinethatcontrolledandcoor-

glanceattheboard,Mrs.Lisacouldquicklydeterminewhichstudents

wereinvolvedinthevariousactivities.

ciatedwithhavingtoomanystudentsdoingoneactivity;andwitha

Thisprocedureminimizedtheproblemsasso-

choosesomethingelse.

Ifallthenailswereoccupied,astudenthadto

theirnametags.

tivitybyputtingupnailsonwhichstudentswererequiredtoput

Lisausedthisboardtoregulatethenumberofstudentsdoingeachac-

Mrs.

tiesthatwereavailabletothestudentsduringchoicetime.

timeboardwasabulletinboardneartherugthatlistedtheactivi-

Thechoice

interactivesettingarethechoicetimeboardandtherug.

TwoexamplesofroutinesthatsimplifiedMrs.Lisa'sjobinthe

butethemtothedesks.

students,shedidnothavetocarrythemaroundtheroomanddistri-

andeasilyaccessible:andwhenworkbookshadtobereturnedtothe

lookthroughaparticularbookforplanningpurposes,itwasquickly

Whensheneededto

aroundtheroomtoobtainorreturnstudentbooks.

studentsgetandreturnbookstothisrack,shedidnothavetowalk

Byhaving

filecabinetwherestudenttextsandworkbookswerekept.

Apracticethatsimplifiedplanningandgradinginvolvedthebook

158

executiveplanningroutines.

determinedtoagreatextentbytheefficiencyandappropriatenessof

Thesoundnessandoriginalityofplanningmaybe

processofplanning.

theplannerdealwithcertainplanningtasksbyhelpingtomanagethe

Executiveplanningroutineshelp

Gagné's(1970)modeloflearning.

samewaythatcognitivestrategiesactivateandguidelearningin

Theyactivateandguideplanningprocessesinthe

1972;Gagné,1974).

tivecontrolstructuresinmodelsoflearning(LindsayandNorman,

Executiveplanningroutinesfunctioninasimilarwaytoexecu-

zingofotherroutines.

tinesserveasmeta-routinesformanagingthesequencingandorgani-

Inotherwords,executiveplanningrou-

trolandcoordinateplanning.

Theseroutinesoccurwithintheteacher'sheadandfunctiontocon-

tasksandresultsfromexperienceinnumeroussimilarsituations.

systemofestablishedthoughtpatternssetoffbyspecificplanning

Executiveplanningroutinesarea

 
Executiveplanningroutines.

teachingsettings.

ducesthedemandsontheteacherinboththepreactiveandinteractive

dinatesstudents'behavioroutsideofactivities,and,assuch,re-

managementroutinesfunctionasthegluethatholdstogetherandcoor-

Theseexamplesillustratehow

andregularlyinMrs.Lisa'sclassroom.

ThereweremanyothermanagementroutinesthatOperatedsmoothly

ments.

thestudentsweretogetherforanylastminuteremindersorannounce-

Thisminimizedwanderingaroundtheroom,and

untilthebellrang.

theircoats,theyweretocomebackintotheroomandwaitontherug

Whentheyhadgotten

severalminutesearlytogototheirlockers.

159

otheractivitiesforthistime,theuseofroutinesreducesthetime

andintheeveningsoronweekends-andsinceplanningcompeteswith

necessarilytakeplaceontheteacher'stime-—beforeandafterschool

Sincemostplanningmust

evaluated,decidedupon,andmanipulated.

haviorandthusreducesthenumberofcharacteristicsthatmustbe

Theroutinizationofactionfixescertainaspectsofbe-

routines.

Onemethodtocopewiththesedemandsisbydeveloping

anyonetime.

findmethodstodecreasetheamountofinformationtobeprocessedat

mentimposemanydemandsontheteacher,anditbecomesnecessaryto

plexityandunpredictabilitythatcharacterizetheteachingenviron-

Thecom-

andenergyfrommanyplanningandimplementationdecisions.

teacherflexibilityandeffectivenessbyfreeingtheteacher'stime

Itisproposedherethatwhenusedproperly,routinesincrease

usingsuchaplanningstrategywillbediscussedinthissection.

Theresultsof

selection,organization,andsequencingofroutines.

thatMrs.Lisa'splanningchieflyinvolveddecisionmakingaboutthe

Itwasproposed

tinesinMrs.Lisa'steachinghasbeendiscussed.

Thusfarinthischapter,theprominanceofactivitiesandrou-

 
TeachingfiRoutinesandPlanning

tersVIandVIII.

andthedecisionprocessesthattheyinvolveisundertakeninChap-

Furtherdescriptionoftheseroutines

toanestablishedprocedure.

planning,althougheachweekthisplanningwascarriedoutaccording

forweeklyplanningwasdifferentfromtheroutinefordailyorunit

Theroutine

differentplanningtasksinconsistentandregularways.

TheseroutinesbecamevisibleasMrs.Lisarepeatedlyapproached

160

teachingroutinecangreatlyreducetheneedforplanning.

inghasmanypotentialpitfalls,itservesasanexampleofhowa

Thoughtextbookteach-

oftheteachertothatofthetextbookauthors.

proachtoteachingsubordinatestheautonomy,initiative,andjudgment

Third,thisap-

dayperspectivesregardingthegoalsofinstruction.

Second,textbookteachingtendstoresultinday-to-

toinstruction.

forsignificantinnovationsormodificationsoftraditionalapproaches

containedinthematerialsthemselves,thusreducingtheopportunities

theteacher'srolebecomesmainlythatofaprocessorofinformation

First,

warnsofthreepossibleconsequencesofusingthisroutine.

However,inhisanalysisoftextbookteaching,Hudgins

alltimes.

ceduralclarityforthestudentsandafirmfocusonwhereoneisat

Furthermore,itprovidespro-

materialsareonhandandspelledout.

Iteasesthepreparationrequiredoftheteachersincethe

teaching.

SmithandGeoffreypresentseveraladvantages.ofthistypeof

someclassrooms.

teachingcouldvirtuallyeliminatetheneedforpreactiveplanningin

Coupledwithsomewelltestedmanagementroutines,textbook

lesson.

thematerialstodictatethestructure,sequence,anddurationofthe

closelyatextbookandteachers'manual,ateachermightalsorelyon

Byfollowing

textorsimilarmaterialtoprovidecontentandmethod.

byHudgins(1971)andreferstothepracticeofrelyingheavilyona

TextbookteachinghasbeendiscussedbySmithandGeoffrey(1968)and

canbeillustratedbyageneralroutinecalledtextbookteaching.

Thedegreetowhicharoutinecanreducethedemandsonplanning

andenergyexpendedforplanning,thusfreeingtimeandenergyfor

otheractivites.

161

Onewaythey

effectivenessintheinteractivesettingaswell.

managepreactiveteaching,buttheyincreaseteacherflexibilityand

Teachingroutinesarenotonlyanefficientandeffectivewayto

 
TeachingRoutinesandInteractiveTeaching

effort.

evaluatingstudentworkandformaintainingafocusonindividual

Inthesamemanner,routinesmadepossibleadequatetimeforquickly

vitiesthatincreasedtheinterestandinvolvementofthestudents.

allowedhertospendmoretimedevelopingcreativematerialsandacti-

boundandrestrictedbyestablishedwaysofdoingthings,routines

Ratherthanbecoming

flexibilityandeffectivenessofherteaching.

Tosummarize,Mrs.Lisausedroutinesasatooltoincreasethe

mance.

devotemoretimeandenergytoevaluatingindividualstudentperfor-

theactivitiesthemselveswerewellroutinized,Mrs.Lisawasableto

Since

inkeepingtrackofindividualprogressinmathandreading.

needs,andbywinterterm,muchpreactiveteachingtimewasinvolved

tiesalsofreedtimefordiagnosingandprescribingforindividual

Routinizationofactivi-

fordevelopingcreativewaystopresentit.

ofactivities,moretimewasavailablefordecidingoncontentand

Becauseoftheroutinization

tion,andacceptablestudentbehavior.

routinization,butrathersuchthingsasparticipants,sequence,dura-

Asdiscussedearlier,contentwasnotthefocusofher

similarways.

teaching,althoughactivityroutinesdidreducedemandsonteachingin

TextbookteachingasdescribedabovewasnotapartofMrs.Lisa's

162

overtheintercom,firedrills,mishapsintheclassroom,andby

terruptionsarecausedbymessengers,otherteachers,announcements

In-

theclassroomandtheteacher'sabilitytocontroltheclassroom.

lengestothestabilityofthesocialandorganizationalstructureof

Interruptionsarecommoninmostclassroomsandareconstantchal-

islarger,lesstimeandeffortisrequired.

fortmaybeexpandedtoregainthelostground;butifthatsubsystem

Ifthatsubsystemissmall,thenmuchtimeandef-

stablesubsystem.

cedureisinterrupted,thesystemwillusuallybreakdownintoitsmost

Ifacomplexpro-

plexsystems,especiallythosepronetointerruption.

Thisparableillustratestheimportanceofstablesubassembliesincom-

tionoftheman-hoursittookTempus(pp.90-91).

partsofhiswork,andheassembledhiswatchesinonlyafrac-

sembledwatchinordertoanswerthephone,helostonlysmall

Hence,whenHorahadtoputdownapartlyas-

thewholewatch.

bly;andasystemoftenofthelattersubassembliesconstituted

assemblies,again,couldbeputtogetherintoalargersubassem-

ersubassembliesofabouttenelementseach.Tenofthesesub-

Buthehaddesignedthemsothathecouldputtogeth-

ofTempus.

ThewatchesthatHoramadewerenolesscomplexthanthose

tofindenoughuninterruptedtimetofinishawatch.

moretheyphonedhimandthemoredifficultitbecameforhim

Thebetterthecustomerslikedhiswatches,the

theelements.

itimmediatelyfelltopiecesandhadtobereassembledfrom

assembledandhadtoputitdown-toanswerthephone,say-

Tempushadsoconstructedhisthatifhehadonepartly

each.

Thewatchesthemenmadeconsistedofabout1,000parts

Whatwasthereason?

hisshop.

pered,whileTempusbecamepoorerandpoorerandfinallylost

However,Horapros-

customerswereconstantlycallingthem.

garded,andthephonesintheirworkshopsrangfrequently-new

Bothofthemwerehighlyre-

manufacturedveryfinewatches.

Thereonceweretwowatchmakers,namedHoraandTempus,who

latesthefollowingparable:

Whentalkingaboutevolutionofcomplexsystems,Simon(1969)re-

roomorganization.

accomplishthisisbyfunctioningasstablesub-assembliesofclass-

163

broughttotheclassroomwasfreedomandflexibilityforMrs.Lisa.

Amajorresultofthestabilityandpredictabilitythatroutines

timewasspentinset-upandmanagement.

Anotherwayofstatingisisthatmoretimewasspentontaskandless

ofthiswasmoretimespentoncontentandlesstimespentonprocedure.

Theresult

supposedtobedoingandhowtheyweresupposedtodoit.

thatreducedthedemandsonthestudentstofigureoutwhattheywere

Routinesprovidedanorderandstabilitytotheclassroom

activity.

dentstopredictwhatwouldbeexpectedofthemasparticipantsinan

Routinesalsoallowedthestu-

wouldbedoingforthenextfewhours.

tiesformorningorafternoon,studentshadagoodideaofwhatthey

Byknowingthescheduleofactivi-

roomenvironmentforthestudents.

increasingthepredictabilityandreducingthecomplexityoftheclass-

Anotherfunctionofroutinesintheinteractivesettingisthatof

studentstoldthesubstitutewhattheyweresupposedtodonext.

Lisaonceremarkedthatthelasttimeasubstitutetooktheclass,the

TheroutinesweresowellknownthatMrs.

alsoknewwhatwastocome.

forthewholeactivity,andtheynotonlyknewwhathadbeendone,but

Theyhadasufficientoverviewoftheprocedure

quenceoftheactivity.

hadterminatedbecauseoftheirknowledgeaboutthestructureandse-

Mrs.Lisaandthestudentswereabletopickuptheactivitywhereit

Afteraninterruptionwasover,both

bliesofclassroomorganization.

Thiswaslargelyduetothestabilityofactivityroutinesassubassem-

InMrs.Lisa'sclassroom,littletimewaslostduetointerruptions.

directthestudentsbacktotheirs.

tialformuchlosttimewhiletheteacherreturnstohisorhertaskto

Afteraninterruption,thereisthepoten-

innumerableotherintrusions.

164

165

Since most activities were stable and predictable, she was able to

make impromptu changes or deviations

to topics of interest to the

students without destroying the orderly function of the activity.

Dif-

ferent groups could be assigned to aides or parent volunteers, more

time could be spent with individuals as problems arose, and new teach-

ing methods could be explored within the context of otherwise stable

activities.

Many routinized activities no longer required continuous

monitoring or supervision and Mrs. Lisa could use the time for giving

feedback to individual students or could run more than one activity

at once.

In short, the less time that was tied up in management, su-

pervision, or monitoring of the group, the more time Mrs. Lisa could

devote to individualized attention or instruction.

Chapter Summary

 

In this chapter, activities and routines were presented as two

central aspects of Mrs. Lisa's planning and instruction.

Activities

were first discussed as basic structural units of planning and action

in Mrs. Lisa's classroom.

The role activities played as controlled

behavior settings was discussed next, including the way future task

environments were shaped to conform with the teacher's perceptions and

purposes.

Seven features of instructional activities were discussed

that were presented as foci for teacher decision making and planning.

The second half of the chapter was devoted to teaching routines.

It was proposed that for Mrs. Lisa, planning chiefly involved the se-

lection, organization, and sequencing of routines.

Activity routines,

instructional routines, management routines, and executive planning

routines were each described and illustrated, and the function of

166

routines as means for increasing teacher flexibility and effectiveness

in planning and instruction was discussed.

CHAPTER VI

A STRUCTURAL MODEL OF PREACTIVE PLANNING

The purpose of this chapter is to present a structural description

of Mrs. Lisa's preactive planning.

This description is "structural" to

the extent that it attempts to discern the arrangement of basic ele-

ments underlying Mrs. Lisa's preactive planning.

The chapter will

focus on a model depicting five different levels of planning, corree

sponding to five different time periods for which planning is conducted.

Planning at each level will be discussed in terms of four descriptive

aspects of planning:

(1) planning goals, (2) information sources, (3)

form of the plan, and (4) criteria for judging the plan's effective-

ness.

Finally, the connections and interactions between planning

levels will be described.

This chapter adds another important piece to the description of

Mrs. Lisa's planning.

Chapter IV described the environment in which

planning and teaching took place.

Chapter V discussed activities and

routines as the basic units or elements of her planning.

This chapter

will undertake a description of the structure of Mrs. Lisa's planning.

Overview of the Model

 

Rationale

It is assumed that planning is a rational, that is, an orderly,

intelligible activity, and, as such, that it can be described and

understood.

The focus of this study was on describing the decision

167

168

processes that are regular features of Mrs. Lisa's planning.

As the

study progressed, it became apparent that Mrs. Lisa's planning had sig-

nificant structural as well as process characteristics.

The nature of the teaching task requires planning in a variety of

forms and circumstances.

The complexity of teaching requires that

some organizing and sequencing take place ahead of time.

The unpre-

dictability of the task makes the elaboration and revision of plans

over time a necessary and unavoidable job.

To accomodate these demands,

Mrs. Lisa uses several different types of planning.

The identification and description of these different types of

planning are important for several reasons.

First, by identifying dif-

ferent types of planning and how they interact, it may be possible to

identify strategic research sites for further and more detailed study.

This may allow future research to be more efficient and productive by

specifying times during teaching when certain types of planning most

consequential fbr educational programs are likely to be observed.

Second, a structural analysis of planning may provide insight

into decision processes in planning.

It is likely that the way in

which planning decisions are made reflects the configurations and re-

lationships of different planning types.

Demands imposed by the struc-

ture of planning may also be exposed in this type of analysis.

One

possible structural problem created by different types of planning is

the coordination of planning activity across levels or types of plan-

ning.

A third reason a structural analysis of planning is important is

that if different levels of planning can be identified, the nature of

planning should be different at each level.

If this is true, then it

169

may have important implications for teacher training.

If planning is

no longer characterized as a unitary skill or as a set of skills for a

specific purpose or setting, then it is possible that teachers may

be poor planners at one level but not another, or may even ignore one

type of planning.

Awareness of the different tasks that make up the

total planning activity may increase the efficiency and productivity

of teacher planning.

Levels of Planning

 

Five basic types of planning activity were identified in Mrs.

Lisa's work.

Because of their hierarchical organization and f6cus on

different spans of classroom activity, they are referred to as levels

of planning.

The five planning levels portrayed in the model are (l)

yearly planning, (2) term planning, (3) unit planning, (4) weekly plan-

ning, and (5) daily planning.

Although planning may occur in the in-

teractive teaching setting, it was not a focus of this study and is

not a part of the model.10

Figure 6.1 illustrates the five basic

levels of the model plus two other levels--institutional planning and

planning for next year--which interact with preactive planning and

which will be mentioned briefly.

 

10Planning has been defined in this study as a process of prepar-

ing a framework for guiding future action.

The focus of this study has

been on the preparation of this framework prior to teaching when the

students are not in the classroom.

It is reasonable to assume that

this framework can is often modified as a result of things that take

place once the students are in class.

Thus, "interactive planning"

most likely involves revision of plans rather than planning dg_novo.

The study of interactive planning is also complicated by methodo-

logical problems.

These problems are common to the study of any inter-

active teaching decision and involve such issues as the consciousness

of the decision, its observation, the inconvenience to the teacher of

reporting the decision as it occurs, and so forth.

For these reasons,

170

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171

As mentioned above, each level in the model has as its focus a

different scope or span of activity.

Yearly planning is concerned with

general materials, pupil placement, and sequencing and organizing teach-

ing for the whole school year. Term planning centers on activities that

will occur within the twelve weeks before the next vacation.

Unit plan-

ning refers to the planning involved in developing an instructional unit

for a specific subject matter.

This unit will take place over a period

of several weeks within a term.

Weekly planning focuses on activity

that will occur as part of the schedule on Monday through Friday, while

daily planning involves the last minute modifications or preparations

to be made during the day or before school starts the next day.

Four of the five levels of planning in this model were directly

observed during this study.

Since this research was conducted during

the winter and spring terms, there was no opportunity to observe plan-

ning at the beginning of the school year.

Information on this type of

planning was obtained through interviews and through recall stimulated

by using Mrs. Lisa's plan book to recreate her planning before school

started and at the beginning of the year.

The basic structure of the model was developed through observation

and interviews during the study.

This was further corroborated by Mrs.

Lisa's description of her own planning.

Towards the end of the study,

Mrs. Lisa was asked to list and characterize the types of planning she

does.

The following list and description of planning types was gener-

ated without any knowledge of the model being developed:

 

it was felt that preactive planning might initially be a more fruitful

and less difficult area to study.

172

1.

long range--basic ideas for social studies, science

 

units--some fOr math and reading--basic structure of

what will be done but not specific time.

2.

Term-~planning on a term basis for social studies and

science and for movies.

3.

Monthly--deciding on basic units for social studies,

science, and math.

I decide on what I need librarian

to get or what movies I need.

4.

Weekly--use teacher's plan book--specific units and '

time element added-~mOre detailed.

5.

Daily--put schedule on board, getting actual materials

out.

6.

Immediate--on the spot planning--changes if needed,

time fillers.

Descriptive Dimensions

 

To describe and differentiate planning at each of the five levels

in the model, four dimensions of the planning process will be discussed.

These include (1) planning goals, (2) information sources, (3) form of

the plan, and (4) criteria fer judging planning effectiveness.

These

dimensions have been adopted from a study of the planning process

(Dror, 1963) aimed at identifying the main facets of planning in the

areas of administration and policy science.

Four primary facets of

planning were identified by Dror:

(l) the general environment of the

planning process, (2) the subject matter of planning, (3) the planning

unit, and (4) the form of the plan.

Dror's planning facets were designed to describe planning in an

organizational framework (usually towards the top) and by groups of in-

dividuals.

Since Mrs. Lisa's planning was done individually and with

close contact with the "subject matter" of planning (materials, stu-

dents), many of Dror's categories were inappropriate for a description

173

of her planning.

For this reason, the most relevant aspects of Dror's

taxonomy were selected and grouped into the four categories of goals,

information sources, form of the plan, and judgment criteria.

The description of these four aspects of Mrs. Lisa's planning at

each level is based on several data sources.

For the most part, Mrs.

Lisa's planning goals were obtained through discussion and interview

and through observation of her on-going planning.

Infbrmation about

the sources of information used in her planning were obtained through

observation and through the pupil and activity judgment tasks explained

in Chapter III.

The form of Mrs. Lisa's plans were observed during the

study, and the description of her criteria for judging planning effec-

tiveness was based on observation and interview as well as on the

analysis of past plans.

To summarize, the structural model to be presented and discussed

in this chapter represents Mrs. Lisa's preactive planning at five

levels:

yearly planning, term planning, unit planning, weekly plan-

ning, and daily planning.

The planning at each level will be charac-

terized by five descriptive dimensions of planning.

First, Mrs. Lisa's

goals for planning will be discussed.

Second, the primary information

sources used in planning will be described.

Third, the discussion will

attend to the form the plan takes: and finally, the criteria that Mrs.

Lisa uses to judge the effectiveness of her planning will be described.

The next five sections are devoted to discussing the five levels of

activity observed in Mrs. Lisa's planning focusing on these four di-

mensions.

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Level V - Yearlnglanning

Yearly planning involves the development of plans whose scope is

the whole school year.

Mrs. Lisa does most of her yearly planning dur-

ing the summer vacation and in the first few weeks of school.

This

planning is done mainly at home, but since Mrs. Lisa tutors students in

her own classroom for about half the summer, she does have easy access

to all of her resource materials and does some of her planning there.

Planning Goals

 

Mrs. Lisa's major goals in yearly planning are to establish the

general content of her instruction for the school year and to outline

the basic sequence in which the content will be presented.

Establish-

ing the content involves generating ideas for activities and coordina-

ting them with the district performance objectives and the materials

and resources potentially available for teaching.

At this point in her planning, Mrs. Lisa's academic goals are

fairly general and are framed by the district objectives.

(These ob-

jectives were briefly discussed in Chapter IV and are outlined in Ap-

pendix C.)

In Mrs. Lisa's words, "Objectives are a framework for

teachers to feel their way through teaching."

For nearly all subject

matter areas, she tries to teach so that as many objectives as possible

are met.

Mrs. Lisa tries to hit all the objectives in science and so-

cial studies.

She used the parent conference form objectives rather

than the more detailed statements in the objectives handbook.

Quite

a bit of effort was spent in the summer combining the objectives in

these areas for both grades and then deciding which objectives should

be covered without repeating too much or covering the second-third

175

grade teachers' materials. In writing skills, Mrs. Lisa feels that many

of the objectives are too difficult for her age level and cannot pos-

sibly be mastered.

Because of this, she is more concerned with intro-

ducing topics than pressing for mastery.

Mrs. Lisa uses the reading

objectives only to "give her a feeling" where the students should be by

the end of the year.

Overall, Mrs. Lisa's teaching is not strictly

guided by the district objectives, but she does want to be in a posi-

tion where she can say that she is teaching the content specified for

students at those grade levels.

As a result, the district objectives

act as a "frame" for her planning.

Yearly planning is important for ordering or reserving certain

instructional resources.

This is especially true fbr films.

The

county has a media center that supplies films and other resources to

all districts in the area.

Reservations for films must be made in the

late spring or early summer for the next year because of the amount of

coordination involved in serving all of the schools.

Mrs. Lisa uses

many films in her social studies, science, and writing skills instruc-

tion.

Thus, in order to coordinate the arrival of the films with her

teaching, she must have a general notion of when specific units or les-

sons will occur during the year.

Early sequencing also becomes impor-

tant for reserving the kits for social studies that are shared by the

schools in the district.

A consequence of not ordering films early

(and a pattern followed by some teachers at Byron School) is that films

have to be used when they arrive for other teachers.

This checking the

film list and using what is in makes it hard to tie films into subject

or unit being studied and was often used by some teachers to fill time.

The consequence of not reserving social studies kits early was not

176

getting them when wanted and having to schedule units around the avail-

ability of specific kits.

The necessity for scheduling or ordering materials in the spring

is not the sole motivator for yearly planning, but it is a major one.

It is certainly the reason that Mrs. Lisa's yearly planning takes place

so early.

Without these restrictions, it is likely that yearly plan-

ning would be done later in the summer.

A major factor that seems to motivate Mrs. Lisa's yearly planning

is her "need" to have an overview of the year to provide her with a

picture of how both her instructional objectives and the district

objectives will be covered during the school year.

This overview pro-

vides a feeling for the overall balance and sequence of the year's

instruction as well as pointing out times and instances where more

specific planning will be needed.

Information Sources

 

There are four basic sources of information used by Mrs. Lisa in

her planning.

Three sources are external and one is internal.

The

external sources are pupils, materials and resources, and the teaching

environment.

The internal source is her teaching experience.

There are two major pieces of information about her students that

Mrs. Lisa uses in her yearly planning.

The first is the general num-

ber of first graders and the number of second graders she will have in

the fall.

She receives this number late in the spring and it affects

her yearly planning in the following manner.

If the count she receives

shows that she has more students at one level than the other, she has

a general idea about the general age, maturity, and academic level of

177

the majority of her students.

Mrs. Lisa may then decide to spend more

or less time on specific subject matter areas or units as she begins to

anticipate the student interest and needs.

This impression is modified,

if need be, in the first few weeks of school, but beforehand it may in-

fluence her general selection and sequencing of instruction.

The second major piece of information about pupils that influences

her yearly planning is the number of last year's first graders returning

to her classroom as second graders.

This affects her planning a great

deal in areas such as science, social studies, and writing skills, since

Mrs. Lisa does not want to repeat the same units or activities if a

large number of her students participated in them the year before.

This year Mrs. Lisa had eight first graders return, and next year she

will have twelve.

This repetition of students forces her to develop

what amounts to a two-year curriculum in the subject-matter areas af-

fected.

The major cue for Mrs. Lisa regarding materials and resources in

her yearly planning is availability.

When selecting and sequencing con-

tent, she is concerned whether materials such as kits, texts, workbooks

and films are available that are related to the content to be taught.

In considering availability, Mrs. Lisa considers how adequately materi-

als meet her general goals for presenting the content, the durability

and workmanship of the materials, and whether the number of texts or

workbooks available is sufficient.

Further aspects of materials to

which Mrs. Lisa attends are difficulty, attractiveness, specific skills

taught, and interest value for the students.

In addition, she checks

out whether the materials are consumable (not to be reused next year--

so pages can be written on or torn out) and whether they contain some

178

type of recording or evaluation system.

Many of these decisions are

made late in the spring when materials such as workbooks, ditto mas-

ters, and texts are being ordered as well as during the summer when she

considers the resources available in the classroom or in the school.

When planning for the year, Mrs. Lisa considers one primary source

of information from the general teaching environment:

the curriculum

guidelines set by the district.

As mentioned in Chapter IV, the dis-

trict influences Mrs. Lisa's planning through setting performance ob-

jectives for each grade level and through the adOption of specific

curriculum packages to be used in certain subject matter areas.

The

manner in which the performance objectives influence Mrs. Lisa's yearly

planning was mentioned earlier when talking about yearly planning

goals.

These objectives serve basically as a framework for selecting

content to be taught and rarely represent a more detailed influence

even at lower levels.

Programs adOpted by the district in science,

social studies, and spelling are major influences since they present

the available content to be taught, and Mrs. Lisa must decide what and

when specific activities or units are to be presented in the classroom.

The final major source of information Mrs. Lisa uses in her yearly

planning is experience.

Mrs. Lisa draws heavily on past experience

both for selecting content and for sequencing.

Knowledge about what

content has proved to be influential or important in student learning

affects her choices, and knowledge based on sequencing content in

various ways in the past influences her decisions about the general

sequence of instruction for the year.

At this level of planning, ex-

perience becomes an important influence, since the students, one of

the most important sources for modifying plans, are not yet present.

179

Meanwhile her knowledge based on teaching at the same grade level in

the same school for several years provides the best estimate of what

content and sequence will be appropriate for her new students.

Form of the Plan

 

At the yearly level, Mrs. Lisa's plans take the form of very gener-

al outlines and lists of content and activities for each subject mat-

ter area.

For each major subject matter area--reading, math, science,

social studies, and writing skills--a spiral notebook is used for

planning.

In each notebook, Mrs. Lisa lists the content she wants to

cover during the year and then begins to outline on a weekly basis the

content and activities she would like to use in her instruction.

The

detail of the outlines varies widely across subject matter areas; ex-

amples of these plans are in Appendix F.

Since much of the content and-sequence of reading is dictated by

readers and workbooks, Mrs. Lisa's early planning consisted solely of

a list of possible reading activities such as reading lab, phonics

books, book reports, and silent reading.

In writing skills, Mrs. Lisa

first listed the content to be covered for each grade level based on

the district performance objectives.

Next, she listed for the first

thirty-three weeks, word sounds and parts of speech to be covered each

week.

The next page in the notebook consisted of a list of activity

ideas such as "word of the week" ("Mindbender"), verbal directions,

"code," "rhyming," and "make small words" (later named "word contest").

In science, Mrs. Lisa listed the general science objectives for

first and second grades.

She then recorded the lessons from both the

first and second grade manuals that would cover these objectives.

180

After that, she entered activities for the first thirteen weeks and

the units to be covered in winter and spring terms.

Mrs. Lisa's early social studies planning included a weekly list

of mindbender words and topics to discuss when doing Snoopy books.

Next, movies were listed and earmarked for certain months under the

general topics of feelings, economics, cities, others, and countries.

After that, lessons were laid out on a weekly basis including such

activities as Duso, Snoopy books, states to be discussed as part of

the United States unit, and other units such as nutrition, Japan, eco-

nomics, and mapping.

For winter and spring terms only, unit names were

indicated every few weeks.

The math planning at this level took the form of listing the units

to be undertaken on a monthly basis.

Cuisennaire rods were used for

math instruction from September to December.

Topics to be covered were

greater than-less than, grouping, addition, subtraction, missing ad-

dends, fractions, and patterns.

For winter and spring terms, units

were entered by month:

January--time, February--metrics, March--graph-

ing, April--money, and May--review.

For each unit, several possible

activities were listed.

Also recorded were movies that might be ap-

propriate in certain months.

Criteris for JudginggPlanning Effectiveness

At this level of planning, Mrs. Lisa's main criterion for judging

planning effectiveness is the comprehensiveness of her resulting plans.

This criterion is more structural than functional and involves her

impression of the completeness of the overall "picture" of the year in

each subject matter area.

Comprehensiveness involves the degree to

181

which Mrs. Lisa's content or instruction covers the district objectives

in each area as well as the extent to which the general sequence of

content and activities is specified.

This level of planning is in-

tended to bring Mrs. Lisa to the point of having a general idea of

what content she will be teaching in each month of the school year for

each subject matter area.

It also provides her with an idea of what

special materials or resources she will need to arrange for or reserve

early in the year.

In short, Mrs. Lisa strives to have a general yet

comprehensive idea of what content she will be teaching, the sequence

in which it will be taught, and some ideas about activities that she

may use to teach it.

Level IV - Term Planning

 

Term planning is the next level of planning Mrs. Lisa engages in

after yearly planning.

Based on Mrs. Lisa's self report, fall term

planning did not really begin until the third week of school when she

had a more complete picture of her students.

The first week of school

(just Thursday and Friday) was spent orienting students to the school

and classroom by involving students in many different short activities

such as art projects (e.g., making locker decorations), story reading,

movies, and doing some simple handwriting dittos.

During these acti-

vities, Mrs. Lisa began observing and trying to determine student

abilities on basic skills such as following directions, working as a

group, physical coordination, drawing, cutting, and so forth.

She was

also trying to identify students with certain fears and the pupils'

general ability to make decisions for themselves.

The second week of

school continued this general assessment, but Mrs. Lisa began testing

182

the students in more detail.

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morn-

ings, Mrs. Lisa tested the students using testing packets she had de-

veloped herself.

On Monday, she tested the students on handwriting

(capitals and lower case letters), knowledge of beginning and ending

word sounds and sight word knowledge (using Dolch words).

On Tuesday

mornings, she tested general reading abilities, more handwriting, per-

ception and eye-hand coordination, and basic math skills (simple addi-

tion and subtraction, missing addends, time, money, and measurement).

On Wednesday, she tested for discrimination ability and perception

(figure-ground discrimination, matching figures).

Each of these pack-

ets took about thirty minutes to administer.

Also, during the second

week, Mrs. Lisa observed the students' memory ability (using memory

blocks), their ability to describe objects, themselves, and their

families, coordination skills (during gym), and listening skills.

She also gave some individual students the Boetell Reading Test and

listened to every student read orally.

Based on these two weeks of

observation and assessment, Mrs. Lisa was ready by the third week of

school to begin the students on a regular schedule and begin assigning

them to groups.

It was at this point that term planning for the fall

really began.

Planning for winter term took place in December and

over the winter break.

Planning for spring term was completed just

before or during spring break.

Plannigg Goals

 

Mrs. Lisa's term planning involves two major activities.

First,

she lays out in more detail the content she wants to cover in the

next three months.

This is especially important in science, social

183

studies, and math where much of her teaching will be done by units.

Since more than one unit is taught during the term, the approximate

length of each unit must be determined and dates must be specified to

arrange for any special materials she may need.

For those subject

matters such as reading and writing

skills where teaching is done on

a daily and weekly rather than a unit basis, content priorities are

established and activities are generated.

Most of this is accomplished

as part of the second major activity of Mrs. Lisa's term planning, the

establishment of a weekly schedule.

The purpose and function of a weekly schedule in Mrs. Lisa's

teaching was discussed in Chapter IV and will not be repeated here.

To summarize, the weekly schedule as it is established each term re-

flects Mrs. Lisa's subject matter priorities for the term, content

priorities within subject matters, and the basic methods that will be

used in teaching.

This is done primarily by allocating time to various

instructional activities on a weekly basis.

It is at this level of

planning that the activity ideas generated earlier are elaborated to

determine whether they can function adequately to present Mrs. Lisa's

subject matter content and achieve her skill development goals.

If so,

then the activity is given a slot in the schedule.

The weekly schedule for the term is not fixed prior to the begin-

ning of the term.

After two or three weeks when the students have had

time to adjust to the schedule, Mrs. Lisa reevaluates the format and

may make some revisions.

Most of these revisions involve moving acti-

vities to different time periods, rather than adding or deleting acti-

vities.

This is due to the fact that most problems that occur in the

184

schedule are timing and scheduling problems rather than the "failure"

of an activity.

In the fall, an additional task of term planning is the grouping

that Mrs. Lisa does for reading and spelling.

After testing student

reading abilities, Mrs. Lisa decides how many reading groups she will

have and initially assigns students to groups.

Group composition may

change as she obtains a more complete picture of individual abilities

by working directly with the groups or as students rapidly improve or

fall behind the other group members.

Once reading groups were estab-

lished, their composition rarely changed.

This seemed primarily due

to the large differences in reading groups.

(Each group was reading

at least a grade level apart.)

The grouping for spelling was based on a pretest on the district

spelling list.

Since differences between spelling groups was not as

great as between reading groups, students were moved more frequently

from one group to another.

By the beginning of March, one group

caught up with the group just ahead of it, and Mrs. Lisa combined them

into a new larger group.

Grouping in math was done on a unit basis

and will be discussed under unit planning.

Information Sources

 

As opposed to yearly planning, term planning benefits from direct

' experience with the students.

It is for this reason that Mrs. Lisa

waits until the third week of school to do her fall term planning.

The first two weeks involve mainly orientation to the classroom, pre-

testing, and group projects to provide Mrs. Lisa with the information

she will need to group students properly and to decide which learning

185

activities will be most effective.

Knowledge about the students' aca—

demic abilities provides Mrs. Lisa with the information she needs to

make decisions about content and sequencing for the term.

To decide

on activities, she uses information she has gathered about attention

spans, listening and perceptual abilities, cooperation, and likes and

dislikes of the students during the first two weeks of school.

When making decisions about activities and the weekly schedule for

the term, Mrs. Lisa gathers several pieces of information from the more

general teaching environment.

As the schedule is worked out, she must

consider times when the students will be out of the room for gym,

reading lab, music, art, and library.

Times for these activities are

determined during the first week of school and Mrs. Lisa's schedule

must work around them.

Also Mrs. Lisa must consider times when her

aide or parent volunteers will be available to help her in the class-

room.

Another general restriction she must consider is the amount of

time she has for teaching between breaks in the day caused by recesses

and the lunch period.

Form of the Plan

 

The two major activities of term planning each take a different

form.

The elaboration of content for the term is done in the same

spiral notebooks in which the basic yearly planning is done.

This in-

volves filling in the content that will be presented each week or

specifying the beginning and ending dates for specific units.

The

weekly schedule for the term is worked out on a sheet of paper that

Mrs. Lisa will put in her plan book and use as a guide for her weekly

planning.

Examples of those plans can be viewed in Appendix F.

Prior

186

to making up the schedule, Mrs. Lisa has listed the activities she

wants to fit into this term's schedule.

When she sits down to arrange

the activities, she also has available last term's activities and a

list of times when aides are available.

She then arranges and rear-

ranges activities on her worksheets until the schedule conforms to her

expectations.

The steps taken in Mrs. Lisa's spring term schedule

planning this year are presented in Appendix G.

Criteria for Judging Planning Effectiveness

 

The effectiveness of her elaboration of the content lists is

judged in the same way as was the more general yearly planning.

Mrs.

Lisa is mainly concerned at this point with comprehensiveness of her

list and that she has a basic idea of what content she will be teach-

ing each week.

This aspect of term planning is successful if it re-

sults in a more detailed specification of what will be taught during

the next three months.

The schedule is initially judged using several criteria.

First,

Mrs. Lisa wants to include the activities she thinks should be a part

of her weekly routine.

Second, the schedule should be so arranged

that she can have help from aides for those activities needing more

than one adult.

Third, she wants to develop a schedule which includes

a balance of academic and non-academic activities as well as times in

the classroom and times out of the classroom.

Finally, she wants a

schedule that accounts for the age, maturity, and stamina of her cur-

rent students.

 

187

Level III - Unit Planning

 

Nearly all of the major planning decisions in science, social

studies, and math are made at this level of planning.

Prior planning

in these areas had consisted mainly of deciding which topics might be

good to treat at various times during the year.

It is not until this

level that decisions are made about specific content, materials, and

activities.

After the term schedule is established and most activities

are functioning as routines, unit planning becomes a major focus of

Mrs. Lisa's planning and the most time-consuming planning activity in

which she is engaged.

Mrs. Lisa begins planning for a unit during the

month prior to its scheduled beginning.

Most unit planning is done

at home where materials can be spread out and left undisturbed until

the unit is pieced together.

PlanninggGoals

 

Mrs. Lisa's primary goal in planning units for social studies and

science is the development of a sequence of well organized learning

experiences that present the subject matter content in a comprehensive

manner and at an appropriate level for students of this age.

As a re-

sult, much of her planning time is involved in gathering all the ma-

terials available to her on a specific topic and then generating as

many activities as she can based on the materials.

These activities

are then organized and sequenced to present the content of the unit in

a meaningful manner.

In unit planning for math, Mrs. Lisa's focus shifts from activities

to content and grouping.

Though special large group

or whole class

activities may be used to present certain concepts, most math content

188

is presented on an individual or small group basis.

Prior to begin-

ning a unit, Mrs. Lisa usually gives a pretest to assess each student's

knowledge of the topic.

Based on these results, she then arranges the

students into homogeneous groups.

Once the groups are established,

Mrs. Lisa lists the content that each group will cover.

In most cases,

this chiefly involves listing worksheets or pages in the math workbooks

that each group will do.

A secondary goal of Mrs. Lisa in much of her unit planning is the

development of activities to integrate more than one subject matter

area.

Nearly all social studies and science activities integrate an

aspect of writing skills such as spelling or creative writing.

Ex-

amples of such activities include cutting out pictures of foods from

various food groups, glueing them on a sheet of paper, and labeling

them as part of the nutrition unit in social studies or drawing a dino-

saur of one's own creation and writing a story about it as part of the

dinosaur unit in science.

Social studies and math were integrated,

for example, in a unit on money.

Students learned about economics

and practiced their math by comparative shopping for groceries and by

keeping individual checking accounts at a fictitious bank.

Information Source

 

By the time Mrs. Lisa begins any unit planning, she has a good

idea of the abilities of her students in specific subject matter areas.

This information allows her to set the difficulty of the content to

be presented at a fairly accurate level for the group.

Since all ac-

tivities in science and social studies units are done as a large group,

Mrs. Lisa also pays attention to the students' attention spans, their

189

ability to work together as a group, and their interests when she

selects or creates activities.

In addition to the information she generally gathers about instruc-

tional materials, Mrs. Lisa pays special attention in unit planning to

the length of a lesson, the time required for set-up, the format

(media) of the material, the degree to which materials or activities

are modifiable, and the "integrativeness" of materials and activities.

Since programs and kits are available in science and social studies,

they provide a major source of information and materials.

The district performance objectives are an influential source of

information since they serve as a framework for deciding on what skills

and content should be covered in a unit.

The objectives supplement

Mrs. Lisa's knowledge about the students' ability levels when she is

deciding on the content for the unit.

Mrs. Lisa does not, however,

get out the objectives and match her activities to them.

Rather, her

knowledge about their general content serves as a general influence in

her planning.

The spatial arrangement of the room and the facilities

available become an additional factor to consider when doing large

group activities or when considering activities requiring that materi-

als be left out for a long period of time or that have special light

or heat requirements as in some science activities.

Form of the Plan

 

Unit plans for science and social studies usually take the form

of activity or content lists and outlines.

When Mrs. Lisa previews

potential materials for a unit, she keeps notes on the content covered

and possible activities that come to mind.

She may also have an

190

outline of the organization and sequencing of topics within the unit.

After all the materials have been previewed, Mrs. Lisa selects activi-

ties and begins sequencing them.

Often, the sequencing is done as she

begins fitting the specific activities into the times set aside in

the weekly schedule for science and social studies.

Math unit plans

are usually in the form of lists of page numbers or dittos to be pre-

sented.

When the students are grouped, Mrs. Lisa makes a separate

list for each group.

Sometimes topics and activities are specified

in Mrs. Lisa's plan book.

Examples of these plans are presented in

Appendix F.

Criteria for JudgigggPlanning Effectiveness

 

Since a unit is a smaller piece of the curriculum than is a term

or a year, Mrs. Lisa can have a more detailed picture of the organiza-

tion, sequence, balance, and flow of instruction than at more general

levels of planning.

These characteristics become more detailed and

tangible and are major cues in Mrs. Lisa's evaluation of her plans.

The comprehensiveness of the unit and the fit with her general concep-

tions of the district objectives also function as judgment criteria at

this level, but potential student reactions and performance begin to

play a more influential role than at higher, more abstract levels.

When activities are specified on a lesson by lesson basis in her

plan book, she is able to visualize the unit in the most detailed form

it will take until it is taught in the classroom.

As such, Mrs. Lisa

can get an impression of each activity.

Before becoming a part of the

unit, these activities have usually been judged to be balanced between

passive experiences such as watching a film or listening to Mrs. Lisa

191

and more active experiences such as drawing, writing, and discussing.

They also have been judged meaningful and interesting to the students

and seem capable of presenting several basic ideas to the students in

a manner that allows them to practice using the concepts or principles.

In short, Mrs. Lisa uses potential student involvement and enthusiasm

as often as she uses potential learning outcomes as criteria for judg-

ing planned activities at the level.

Level II - Weeklnglanning

 

Life in Mrs. Lisa's classroom is most visible on a weekly basis.

This is largely due to the weekly schedule she establishes and the

resulting routines.

Planning also functions most visibly on a weekly

basis in Mrs. Lisa's classroom.

This may be because weekly planning

is recorded in the teacher plan book--where one might first look for

signs of teacher planning.

It may be due also to the fact that weekly

planning is done at school, whereas more long-range planning is done

at home or during breaks.

Since Mrs. Lisa's classroom functions most

regularly on a weekly level, weekly planning becomes the "nuts and

bolts" planning that maintains regularity and continuity while being

responsive to day-to-day changes.

Weekly planning begins two weeks

before teaching and is elaborated and modified up to the day of in-

struction.

Planning Goals

 

The major goal of weekly planning is to lay out the week's activi-

ties within the framework of the established weekly schedule while

adjusting for interruptions to the schedule and responding to specific

needs of the students.

Mrs. Lisa is dedicated to the importance of

192

regularity and predictability of daily and weekly activities in which

the students are involved.

The schedule is established with great

care to provide an optimal organization, sequence, and balance, and to

reflect her instructional priorities for the term.

Because of this

effort, Mrs. Lisa strives to adhere to the schedule as closely as pos-

sible.

Since the schedule rarely runs as planned, a large part of

weekly planning involves modifying the week's activities while main-

taining continuity and regularity in activities judged most crucial to

student progress.

This may involve rescheduling an important activity

to another time or dropping a scheduled activity to insert a special

activity.

Since weekly planning is done two weeks in advance, the

schedule can usually be rearranged to accomodate special activities or

interruptions without losing an important piece of the curriculum.

When rearrangement must occur, the goals of balance, variety, and so

forth that were important in her original planning remain just as im-

portant in any replanning that is done.

Since most activities occurring on a weekly basis become well

routinized after several weeks in the schedule, Mrs. Lisa's weekly

planning rarely has to be concerned with components of activities other

than content and materials.

Advanced weekly planning allows her to

prepare or collect needed materials well in advance of teaching and

to specify basic content in order to maintain continuity and momentum

in a certain area.

To maintain this continuity while addressing any

special or individual student needs, Mrs. Lisa must closely monitor

student performance.

This becomes most important for reading, writing

skills, and those math activities not taught on a unit basis, since

they run throughout the whole term without the closure provided by

 

193

unit organization.

Mrs. Lisa is most concerned with monitoring and

checking the students' understanding of materials and mastery of any

skills being taught in "fundamental" areas such as reading, writing,

and math.

If she finds that an individual or group of students is

having consistent difficulties, she will either spend some individual

time with them or schedule another lesson to review the same topic.

It was not uncommon for Mrs. Lisa to set back the lessons she had

scheduled for the following week to make room for this type of acti-

vity.

A secondary though important purpose of weekly planning is to

facilitate Mrs. Lisa's advanced planning for special activities in the

room.

Mrs. Lisa keeps a note card in her planning book to keep track

of information that should be included in her weekly letter to parents.

When she does her weekly planning, she often jots down notices or re-

minders about special activities that she will include in her next

letter.

In this manner, advanced weekly planning allows her to com-

municate special information to the parents which will facilitate the

smooth functioning of activities in the classroom.

To summarize,

weekly planning presents the challenge to Mrs. Lisa of maintaining the

"status quo" of the schedule while at the same time being sensitive to

and adapting to constraints on time as well as to special needs of the

students.

Information Sources

 

The main source of information about the students to which Mrs.

Lisa attends in her weekly planning is their performance in activities

in the preceding days and weeks.

This influences her decisions about

194

what activities may be passed over as a result of time constraints and

what subject matter areas need increased attention.

Institutional

constraints are important cues in weekly planning because of the in—

fluence they have on the schedule.

When Mrs. Lisa begins arranging the

activities for a week, the first thing she looks for is whether there

are any scheduled interruptions in the week caused by professional

development days (for which the students are absent), holidays, assem-

blies, field trips, and so forth.

Two other factors she considers are

whether there is a special day such as Saint Patrick's Day or Valen-

tine's Day occuring during the week and the position of the week with-

in the term.

If, for instance, the week is toward the end of the

term, the schedule may have to be mofified to accomodate the comple-

tion of units or special activities that should not be carried over to

the beginning of the next term.

The major aspect of materials and resources that Mrs. Lisa attends

to in her weekly planning is their availability.

She is mainly con-

cerned about the curtailment of a certain resource such as an aide or

one of the resource teachers and whether or not scheduled materials

such as films or kits have arrived.

One reason that Mrs. Lisa plans

in advance is so that these factors can be taken into account and any

necessary schedule adjustments can be made.

Form of the Plan

 

Weekly planning is done in a standard plan book provided to all the

teachers in the district.

The book supplies enough pages so that each

week can be laid out on two facing pages.

Each page provides a row

for each day of the week and three blocks for each day.

If two facing

195

pages are used, there are three blocks available for the morning

schedule and three blocks available for the afternoon schedule.

Mrs.

Lisa uses the middle blocks of each page for indicating recess: thus,

she arranges her schedule into four instructional blocks analogous to

the four teaching periods in a school day.

(Refer to Figure 4.3 on

page 88 for an illustration of these four periods.)

Mrs. Lisa's weekly plans consist of listing the activities which

will occur in the teaching periods for each day.

For some activities

times are indicated and occasionally notes will be included specifying

page numbers or special activities.

The activities are written in

pencil so that as things come up which influence the schedule, acti-

vities may be added or deleted or moved to another place in the sched-

ule.

Several of Mrs. Lisa's weekly plans are presented in Appendix F.

Criteria for Judging Planning Effectiveness

 

The effectiveness of weekly plans is judged according to the com-

pleteness of the plans, the degree to which the weekly schedule has

been adhered to, and the flexibility of the plan to allow for time

constraints or for interruptions and special activities.

Mrs. Lisa

also looks for the continuity that scheduled activities provide with

unit lessons and on-going activities and the degree to which the

schedule is responsive to special student needs and to opportunities

for special activities presented by holidays or special community or

school days.

In short, the effectiveness of Mrs. Lisa's weekly plan-

ning is judged in the same manner as planning at other levels, by the

fit between her goals for planning and the actual products and out-

comes .

196

Level I - Daily Planning

 

Daily planning refers to the planning that is chiefly concerned

with the next day's activities.

Mrs. Lisa's daily planning takes

place for the most part after school on the preceding day, although

some preparatory activities may have been carried out over the last

few days.

Last minute preparations or revisions may also take place

in the morning before school or during breaks in the day.

In Chapter II, planning was defined as a process of preparing a

framework for guiding future action.

To this level this framework has

consisted of lists, outlines, and schedules.

At the daily level, the

framework produced by planning also becomes the physical arrangements

and preparations made by the teacher.

This physical framework in-

fluences action by increasing the efficiency of the teacher's instruc-

tion by reducing the number of things the teacher has to deal with

prior to initiating an activity.

Planning Goals

 

Mrs. Lisa's daily planning seeks to accomplish four major pur-

poses.

The first is to arrange the classroom in order to facilitate

the smooth running of the next day's activities and in order to reduce

the number of things she will have to worry about or be involved with

during her teaching.

This involves activities like writing the sched-

ule on the small chalkboard, setting up the station work assignments,

gathering together and setting out materials, and writing assignments

or problems on the chalkboard.

The second purpose of daily planning is to specify those components

of activities not yet decided upon.

Because of the routinization of

197

of classroom activities, the only decisions that are commonly made on

a daily basis are those pertaining to content and materials.

In

cases where materials are closely linked to content, decisions about

both of these components are often made in the several preceding days.

This is because of the time involved in creating or arranging for

many materials.

The most frequent content decisions made at the daily

level are in reading and in handwriting.

Since most of the instruc-

tion in these areas is done in texts and workbooks, the only decision

left to be made at the daily level is the selection of pages to be

covered in tomorrow's lesson.

The third goal of Mrs. Lisa's daily planning is to fit the day's

schedule to last minute intrusions and to the attitudes and working

abilities of the students.

This last minute fitting and adjusting of

the schedule is necessarily done before school or at breaks during

the day.

This may be done as a result of a notice about a fire drill

or assembly cancellation received in her box in the morning or as a

result of Mrs. Lisa's judgment about potential student interest or

involvement in a specific activity.

The fourth purpose of Mrs. Lisa's daily planning is to prepare the

students for the day's activities.

Mrs. Lisa's belief that it is im-

portant that the students are able to predict what is going to happen

during the day was mentioned earlier, and it is largely for this rea-

son that the schedule for the morning and afternoon activities is put

on the small chalkboard and reviewed with the students soon after

calling roll.

198

Information Sources

 

Two pieces of information that Mrs. Lisa is especially sensitive

to at the daily level are clarity of instructions and set-up time.

Clarity of instructions in texts or workbooks will make a big dif-

ference in the smoothness of activities, especially when the instruc-

tions refer to seat work to be done while Mrs. Lisa is with other stu-

dents.

This is usually checked closely so that she can make additional

comments before the activity begins.

The set-up time of an activity

also influences the smoothness of transition between activities.

Mrs.

Lisa tries to assess this as accurately as possible so that advanced

preparations can be made and so that as little class time as possible

is consumed by this chore.

The student cues Mrs. Lisa attends to during the day also influence

her daily planning.

A rough evaluation of what the day will be like

is often made based largely on the way the students come into the

classroom in the morning.

Mrs. Lisa feels that this is tied closely

to the weather and often said, "When the barometer is up, so are the

children: and when the barometer is down, the children are, too."

In other words, when the weather is clear and sunny, Mrs. Lisa expects

to receive less work from the students: and when it is cloudy or

rainy, the children are usually quieter and work better.

In addition

to this initial judgment in the morning, Mrs. Lisa pays attention

throughout the day to the students' interest, involvement, and enthu-

siasm related to activities.

If these factors are low in the morning

and a heavy academic activity is scheduled for the afternoon, Mrs.

Lisa may substitute a less demanding activity.

Mrs. Lisa tries to

anticipate the attention levels and change-of—pace needs of the

199

students in her normal schedule, but occasionally last minute revi-

sions are necessary.

Form of the Plan

 

Daily planning takes two forms.

The most obvious form is the

schedule that is written on the small chalkboard.

This schedule is

put up every morning and afternoon as a list of the day's activities.

Examples and more detailed discussion of the daily schedule were pre-

sented in Chapter IV.

The second form that daily planning takes in Mrs. Lisa's classroom

is the preparation and arrangement of materials and facilities in the

room that guide and facilitate teacher and student actions during

activities.

These planning activities were mentioned earlier and in-

clude writing assignments on the board, rounding up materials for an

activity, setting up the room in a certain manner, and so on.

Criteria for Judging Planning Effectiveness

 

Unlike higher levels of planning, Mrs. Lisa's judgment of the

effectiveness of daily planning includes both structural and functional

criteria.

The structural criteria apply to the planning that occurs in the

afternoon of the preceding school day or in the morning before school

begins.

Planning is judged as effective if all the last minute pre-

parations and decisions about content, materials, facilities and

schedules have been made.

Mrs. Lisa's almost compulsive need to have

everything prepared before the students enter the room is the reason

for the long hours that she keeps after school and the amount of work

that she does at home.

When talking about her daily planning, Mrs.

200

Lisa said, "If I don't get it done at night (in the afternoon), I'm

afraid I won't have it ready in the morning, so I tend to take a lot

(pf materials) home."

The functional criteria used by Mrs. Lisa relate largely to "how

the day went."

The major cues that she uses to make this judgment are

how noisy the students were during the day, and the involvement, in-

terest, and enthusiasm communicated to her as the students participated

in various activities.

Mrs. Lisa feels it is possible to influence the

day by either overplanning or underplanning.

She feels overplanning

can often restrict her spontaneity and flexibility in teaching, and

that underplanning leads to long transition times and to unnecessary

chaos in activities.

Although higher levels of planning play an in-

fluential role in how activities come across in the classroom, it is

only at the daily level that planning is judged by its outcomes.

The

evaluation of activities in the classroom are eventually stored and

fed back to higher levels of planning, but the effectiveness of plan-

ning at these levels is rarely judged as a result of the outcomes pro-

duced by activities later in the year, term, unit, or week.

Connections Between Levels of Plannigg

The previous sections of this chapter have described Mrs. Lisa's

planning at five different levels.

These descriptions have portrayed

aspects of her planning that are unique to each level, but have not

been concerned with an important feature of the model, the connections

and interactions of different planning levels.

It is the purpose of

this section to describe these connections and pinpoint times at which

interaction is most likely to occur.

Rather than examining each level

201

with its connections to the other levels separately, the discussion

will focus on various times during the school year when interaction is

most likely to be seen.

Six planning times have been identified that

involved the most visible interaction among the different levels of

Mrs. Lisa's planning.

They are:

(1) the beginning of the year, (2)

the beginning of the term, (3) the third week in the term, (4) the

beginning of unit planning, (5) when the weekly schedules are planned.

and (6) at the end of the school day.

These connections are illus-

trated for fall term in Figure 6.2.

The beginning of the year provides opportunity for observing

interaction among several levels.

As Mrs. Lisa gets to know the stu-

dents better in the first few weeks of school, her yearly planning is

elaborated and modified.

When this is taking place, fall term planning

is also being laid out and a weekly schedule is developed.

This plan-

ning does not react significantly with daily and weekly planning until

the third or fourth week since the activities of the first few weeks

are fairly standard orientation and diagnostic activities that Mrs.

Lisa always uses in the first few weeks of school.

At the beginning of the term, one is most likely to see interaction

between yearly and term planning.

As the next term is laid out, yearly

plans are consulted for general sequence and content.

Since the week-

ly schedule for the term is only tentatively arranged at the beginning

of the term, the third week in the term provides interaction among

daily, weekly, and term planning.

At this time, the schedule may be

modified since Mrs. Lisa feels the students have had enough time to

adjust to it and problems in the schedule are not merely related to

student adjustment.

Modifications are based on actual classroom

202

YEARLY

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PLANNING

PLANNING

UNIT

PLANNING

WEEKLY

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DAILY

PLANNING

 

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INTERACTION BETWEEN YEARLY, TERM, AND WEEKLY PLANNING

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TERM AND BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE NEXT TERM

INTERACTION BETWEEN WEEKLY. UNIT. AND TERM PLANNING

AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH WEEK

INTERACTION BETWEEN UNIT AND TERM PLANNING

AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH UNIT

INTERACTION BETWEEN WEEKLY AND DAILY PLANNING

DURING DAILY PLANNING

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Figure 6.2

Interaction between levels of planning (illustrated for

fall term).

203

outcomes and on problems Mrs. Lisa may have encountered in her weekly

or daily planning.

When unit planning is beginning, interaction often occurs with

term planning.

The planned length of the unit and the number of peri-

ods set aside during a week influence the scope and length of the unit.

Unit planning also interacts with weekly planning as the unit activi-

ties are being fitted into the weekly schedule.

Weekly planning also

requires connections with term planning as Mrs. Lisa integrates the

week's activities with her goals and priorities for the term.

At the end of the school day, when most daily planning occurs, one

is most likely to observe interaction between daily and weekly plan-

ning.

Daily planning is usually a function of what has been specified

for the week.

It is also possible that the plans for later in the

week may be modified as a result of the day's activities.

Each of these six times that have been briefly characterized may

be thought of as potential research sites at which to examine Mrs.

Lisa's planning in more detail.

It is at these times that planning is

most explicit since several planning levels are interacting.

Although

it would be unreasonable to assume that other teachers plan in identi-

cal ways as Mrs. Lisa, these times when her planning is most active

and visible might serve as guides to strategic research sites in

other teachers' planning.

Chgpter Summary

 

The purpose of this chapter was to outline and discuss a structur-

al model of preactive teaching.

This type of analysis is important as

a means to identify strategic research sites, to provide additional

204

information about decision processes, and to describe the nature and

the degree to which planning activities differ.

The structural model

of Mrs. Lisa's planning identified planning at five levels:

(1)

yearly planning, (2) term planning, (3) unit planning, (4) weekly plan-

ning, and (5) daily planning.

Each of these levels was discussed

based on goals of planning, sources of information, form of the plan,

and criteria for judging planning effectiveness.

Finally, the connec-

tions and interactions among levels were discussed for six strategic

times during the year.

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CHAPTER VII

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PLANNING I:

DATA FROM OTHER FIELDS

Simon (1957 b) distinguishes three phases of decision:

intelli-

gence, design, and choice.

Intelligence includes processes for scanning

the environment to see what matters require decision.

Design involves

processes for developing and examining possible courses of action.

Choice includes processes for choosing among courses of action.

Rational models of planning have as a rule concentrated heavily

on Simon's third phase of decision and ignored the other two phases.

Observations of Mrs. Lisa's planning decisions indicated processes

related to choice, but these processes did not seem to be as prominent

as processes related to problem formulation (intelligence) and design.

Because of this, theories and research related to the functioning of

these latter processes were examined and eventually served as a concep-

tual basis for developing a theoretical model of teacher planning.

This model will be presented and discussed in the next chapter.

The

main purpose of this chapter is to present and discuss research from

fields other than education that bear on the question of what psycholo-

gical processes underly deliberative thinking.

This chapter reviews three areas of research and theory which in-

fluenced the final form of the planning model.

The prominence of rou-

tines in Mrs. Lisa's planning suggested the importance of reproductive

thought components in planning.

The theory of Selz and de Groot's ap-

plication of his ideas to chess thinking acknowledge the role that

205

206

reproductive thought plays in complex problem solving and decision acti-

vities and has provided many apparent parallels to Mrs. Lisa's planning

processes.

The prominence of efforts concerned with designing and

creating materials and activities in Mrs. Lisa's planning prompted an

examination of studies of designers and artists in other fields.

Get-

zels and Csikszentmihalyi's (1976) work analyzing creativity in artists

and the recent work on problem formulation and work strategies in archi-

tectural design provided additional insights into the decision pro-

cesses observed in this study.

Reproductive Components of Thought

In this study, planning is conceived of as the process of develop-

ing a framework to guide future action by means of problem solving and

decision making.

Planning, like other forms of problem solving, is by

no means a unitary process.

It involves various components, materials,

and operations.

One component of human problem solving that has long

been a subject for experimentation and discussion is the role played

by past experience (Birch and Rabinowitz, 1951; Maier, 1930, 1931,

1945; Wertheimer, 1959).

The classical distinction between reproduc-

tive and productive thinking is based in part on the differing roles

that past experience may play in each type of deliberation.

On the one

hand, reproductive thinking is characterized as the solution of pro-

blems by means of the existence of stimulus equivalences in the pro-

blem situation and in the previously mastered situation (Maier, 1945).

In other words, reproductive thinking is the process of arriving at a

solution by directly applying previous learning.

On the other hand,

207

productive thinking (Wertheimer, 1959) involves the repatterning and

restructuring of past experience is meet current demands.

The planning process primarily involves productive thinking; that

is, most of the situations or problems to which planning is applied are

new and unique.

However, it may be that reproductive factors such as

knowledge and intuitive experience play an important role in informa-

tion processing related to planning.

Two researchers who have directly

addressed the function of reproductive methods in problem solving are

Otto Selz and Adriaan de Groot.

Each of their theories will be dis-

cussed focusing on the contribution of past experience to their charac-

terizations of human problem solving and decision making.11

The Theory of Selz

 

Otto Selz was a member of the Denkpsyghologie group led by Kulpe

 

at the University of Wurzburg at the turn of the century.

He has been

judged by some as the most important yet most generally underrated

psychologist of the wurzburg school, and only small portions of his

work have been translated from the German (see Mandler and Mandler,

1964, for a portion).

Because of this dearth of information on Selz's

work, the following discussion relies heavily on de Groot's interpreta-

tion of Selz's theory and research.

 

11The work of Selz and de Groot is discussed in some detail in this

chapter for the following reasons.

No substantial translations of

Selz's work exist in English, and the German versions are out of print.

De Groot remains the primary interpreter of Selz; however, the work

that contains his review of Selz's theory as well as his own theory of

chess thinking (de Groot, 1963) is also out of print.

208

General theory.

Most of Selz's work aimed at developing a con-

 

ceptual model of directed thought.

In his theory, thinking is charac-

terized as one continuous activity and described as a "linear chain of

operations."

In this mdoel, each succeeding operation is determined by

the outcome of the proceeding operation.

In general, the course of

thought process is determined by three factors:

(1) the repertoire

of "solving operation dispositions" available

to the subject, (2) the

features of the problem (including a "goal") as perceived and conceived

by the subject, and (3) the subject's "determination" or intention to

solve the problem.

This third factor is the motivational factor that

initiates and sustains the process and Selz's model is assumed to be

valid only when this conscious determination exists.

The mechanism that maintains the chain of mental operations in

Selz's theory is based on the concepts of "general linkings" and the

"schematic anticipation."

General linkings are Selz's replacement for

classical notions of association.

An association is supposed to link

a mental disposition to concrete images.

Selz's general linkings are

of a more abstract nature and are supposed to link problem situations

with general solving methods.

Since these linkings are acquired for

the most part by learning and are of an individual nature, Selz refers

to them as thought habit dispositions.

These abstract general linkings direct the thought processes.

Each next step is determined by the situation resulting from the pre-

ceeding step.

The mechanism that "fuels" the process and keeps it

going is referred to as schematic anticipation.

A determined solution

process begins with the starting of a goal.

In setting this goal, Selz

209

assumes that there is an accompanying schematic anticipation of the

consequence of reaching the goal.

In other words, the goal-as-

attained is anticipated in some incomplete, schematic form.

Further-

more, this schema is accompanied by some gap that is to be completed

'and an experience of tension corresponding to the open gap.

Thus,

"This schematic anticipation, with its gap and tension, is considered

to be the starting point for the further course of the thought pro-

cess"

(de Groot, 1965, p. 58).

The concept of schematic anticipation is very general and fundamen-

tal to Selz's analyses.

The presence and dynamic function of antici-

patory schemata are as much a part of complex problem solving activi-

ties in productive and creative goal settings as they are of simple,

reproductive tasks.

This will become more evident in the following

discussion of those methods of problem solving proposed by Selz to be

"the most general" or the most applicable to the largest variety of

problems.

The most general solving methods.

The distinction between

 

reproductive thought and productive thought was apparently of funda-

mental importance to Selz since he published a separate book on each

topic (Selz, 1913, 1922).

Although de Groot says that the distinctions

between the two modes of thinking were not laid out clearly, Selz's

use of the two terms is similar to later use by Maier, Wertheimer,

and others.

Reproductive thinking, according to Selz, refers to those

methods by which relational facts that are present in memory are ac-

tivated and reproduced to solve a problem.

Productive thought occurs

in situations where no previously

210

formed knowledge complex can provide an immediate answer to a problem.

Selz's "most general solving methods" refer to the latter mode of

thinking.

Selz distinguishes between two types of methods within productive

thought.

Methods used for finding of means (Mittelfindung) refer to

 

the most general heuristics used in problem solving, invention, crea-

tion, and so forth.

Methods for means application (Mittelanwendung)

 

include such general solving methods as ordering, trying out, and

checking.

Since the understanding of means application methods is

less problematic and will be mentioned later, the focus here will be

on those methods used for means finding.

Means finding in directed productive thought.

The simplest way

to solve a problem is to actualize or call up means-ends connections

already existing in memory.

This reproductive process is very impor-

tant in productive thought, according to Selz, and is characteristic

of processes he refers to as the "method of determined means~

 

actualization."

Three cases of means actualization are differentiated

 

by Selz:

(l) purely cognitive actualization, (2) automatic actuali-

zation of means, and (3) routine actualization of means.

Purely cog-

nitive actualization occurs in those instances where one has the Eggf

scious know-how to proceed but lacks application experience using

those means.

In this case, one can at any time actualize a solution

to a problem, but only on the basis of cognitive acquaintance with

the means-ends relationships.

Automatic actualization of means occurs when one possesses an auto-

matic solution complex for solving the problem.

These complexes are

211

are learned "automatically" as a result of experience, and when a ques-

tion such as "How do you do it?" is asked soon after the behavior, it

cannot be easily answered.

The best examples of automatic solution

complexes are motor skills.

If, for example, a baseball player is

asked to explain how a fly ball is caught, he is usually at a loss for

a verbal explanation of the perceptual and motor skills involved in the

task.

This also holds true for some intellectual skills, and the same

response may be encountered when asking similar questions to an ex-

perienced chess player, physician, or teacher.

The third method of means actualization that Selz discusses is

routine actualization of means.

This refers to situations where one

has not only the knowledge of a method for a solution but also has

direct application experience.

Although also based in experience,

this method is different from automatic means actualization in that

one is able consciously to report the method used.

If one does not possess the necessary know-how

to solve

a problem, then it becomes necessary to find new means to

produce new results.

Methods for finding new means in productive

thought are discussed by Selz under the heading of "determined abstrac-

 

tion of means" and are the second main type of directed productive

 

thought activity.

In general, means abstraction refers to methods

used for constructing new means-ends connections previously unknown

to the problem solver.

Selz is unclear in his explanation of how this

abstraction occurs, although the direction of the process is supposed

to be determined by a corresponding schematic anticipation of the re-

sult of the abstraction, that is, of a solving method that may be

successfully applied to the problem.

The three subtypes of determined

212

means abstraction enumerated by Selz are (1) reproductive abstraction

of means, (2) coincidental abstraction of means, and (3) immediate

abstraction of means.

Reproductive abstraction of means occurs in situations where one

knows or has experienced a specific means-ends relationship but has

never really hit upon the idea of using that means as a way to reach

that specific end.

This is often difficult to distinguish from purely

cognitive means actualization.

De Groot explains the difference in

the following manner.

The individual is cognizant of a relationship

such as "A leads to B" (A --9 B) but the serviceability of using A to

attain B has never dawned on him.

The schematic anticipation in the

form of "a means x is sought in order to attain B" activates the com-

plex A --) B and at the same time activates the complex's property--

"A can be used as a means to attain B."

De Groot says that this men-

tal operation is reproductive since it is based on the actualization

of a memory complex, but the realization that A leads to B is new

knowledge.

In later situations where this knowledge is needed, it

would most likely be produced as a result of routine means actualiza-

tion since the previously acquired awareness of the means-ends rela-

tionship is retained.

The second method of means abstraction is coincidental means ab-

straction.

This occurs in situations where one has searched for means

to reach a certain goal with no success.

At some later time when one

is still under the influence of the uncompleted task, an accidental or

coincidental perception of the relationship may lead to the realiza-

tion that a certain means may be used to reach the temporarily for-

gotten goal.

Selz says that this type of actualization is most common

213

in situations where one is strongly involved, if not obsessed, with

solving the problem.

Even though there is no active motivation or

determination functioning at the moment, there is a relatively strong

"determination disposition" that is easily activated.

As a result of

perceiving the partially related event or means-ends structure, the

problem and the uncompleted schematic anticipation are activated and

the means is seen as a way to reach the desired goal.

Selz explains

this phenomenon by suggesting that once a task has been temporarily

abandoned and then reactualized, the schematic anticipation appears

in a less detailed and more general form.

If the specificity of ori-

ginal schematic anticipation had prevented the discovery of a specific

solution and the specifying conditions are not all necessary, then the

reduction of restrictions and the dropping out of unnecessary details

and conditions increases the space in which a workable solution can

be found.

This notion of "inner coincidences" was used by one of Selz's stu-

dents, Julius Bahle, to explain the phenomenon of inspiration, speci-

fically musical composition.

Bahle (1939) showed that in composers,

there often exists an extraordinarily strong motivation or disposition

to produce works according to a certain style.

This disposition may

often generalize into a "plan" of expressing some particular feeling

or fundamental experience in music.

These "productive experiences" as

Bahle called them produce very strong determination dispositions that

may be easily activated by some chance thought, perception, or image.

In addition to setting the stage for these internal coincidences, Bahle

also found that composers often tried to arrange their outer environ-

ment to encourage such fruitful occurrences.

This was done by keeping

214

to certain schedules, following special food and drink habits, working

in certain climates and locales, and so on.

Thus, by "living with a

problem" and by arranging the outer environment to facilitate certain

perceptions and mental experiences, it may be possible to increase the

probability of inspirational and creative moments.

The third method of finding new means to solve a problem is called

immediate means abstraction.

This occurs as a result of a "structural

insight" into the nature of the task.

Insight here is used in the

true Gestalt sense of the word since the means are "read" from the

structure of the task either during the original perception or after

some immediate restructuring.

De Groot says that this type of actuali-

zation is most frequent in situations such as practical, geometric,

or chess problems where visual structures or schema play a strong role.

He does concede, however, that this also can occur in the absence of

these visual structures where one is able to perceive some logical,

causal, or other structure in the task.

He also states that the de-

gree to which this method may be applied by an individual is a func-

tion of the amount of experience.

"Experts" in some field who imme-

diately see how to proceed after inspecting the problem provide one

example of this method.

In this case, the materials structure them-

selves, so to speak, and this immediate abstraction process may play

an important role in influencing the direction of further problem

solving.

One of the major questions arising from Selz's mechanistic con-

ception of productive thought is how does it account for creativity?

If thought is conceived of as a determined chain of solving methods,

each of which is reproductively actualized and set off by the results

215

of the proceeding method, how are new results produced?

The first

part of Selz's answer relates to the methods of means actualization

and abstraction.

He makes the point that even though the methods of

means actualization are using old means, they lead to new results

simply as a result of applying old means to new materials.

And even

though the three methods of means abstraction are actualized by repro-

ductive processes, their application to the immediate problem is new

to the problem solver.

The previous discussion of composer inspira-

tion is an example of this process working.

The second part to Selz's answer about how his theory accounts for

creativity is‘related to his third main method for directed productive

thought--"productive utilization of previously abstracted means-ends

relationships."

This method draws further attention to the activities

of a creative individual when not at work solving a specific problem.

Selz found that these individuals often methodically build up their

creative power.

De Groot discusses the way in which mental producti-

vity is developed outside of specific problem solving situations.

First, of course, the repertoire of solving methods in a par-

ticular field is built up by learning processes, both from

books and by experience.

Theoretical study leads to cogni-

tive mastery of means that can then be applied through "cog-

nitive means actualization,” while experience "in the trade"

continually extends and differentiates the subject's arsenal

of automatic and routine actualization methods (p. 68).

A "creative" individual may go beyond these steps, according to Selz,

by imposing on himself a permanent motivation or "set" to build up and

improve his repertoire of solving methods.

This set may permeate all

aspects of the person's activities, so that means are collected and

stored from every context and situation in which the person finds

himself.

De Groot proposes that his process may become particularly

216

important to artists who often draw on personal experience for a source

of inspiration since, "They are liable to develop the set to look for

and then to store materials and expressive means which they may find

potentially useful, regardless of whether specific creative plans are

in mind"

(de Groot, 1965, p. 68)-

To summarize, Selz portrays productive thought as the task of find-

ing appropriate means to provide solutions to problems for which one

has no immediate solution.

The heuristics used to accomplish this

are grouped under the rubric of methods for the finding of means.

The

two most general methods for means finding are means actualization and

means abstraction.

Means actualization refers to methods where means-

ends relationship already exist in memory and are merely actualized or

called up to solve the problem.

In this case, the solution itself is

not immediately available, but means to reach the goal are available

in some form.

The second general method, means abstraction, occurs in

situations where one does not possess the know how to solve a problem

and must search for new means.

Under each of these methods, three sub—

types of methods are proposed:

purely cognitive, automatic, and rou-

tine actualization of means and reproductive, coincidental, and imme-

diate abstraction of means.

The third general method for means find-

ing is called "productive utilization of previously abstracted means-

ends relationships," and refers to the activity of collecting and

storing means for possible use at some later, undetermined time.

This

latter method along with the method of coincidental abstraction of

means were used to illustrate how Selz's theory can account for crea-

tive thought.

217

Linking of solving methods.

According to Selz, the complete

thought process is comprised of a sequence of operations resulting from

strictly lawful combinations and linkings of solving methods.

One

might then ask what initiates, controls, and terminates this process?

In a general form, problem solving is conceived of as a series of

alternating phases of "abstraction" (the finding of subgoals in a task)

and "realization" (the application of appropriate means).

Transitions

from "a-phases" to "r-phases" (a -—9 r) are simply determined by

finding a and then applying means r.

The transition from r to a

(r --9 a) does not, hwoever, automatically proceed from the completion

of the previous operation.

To explain this r --9 a transition, Selz

offers the notion of a "determination to realize the composite opera-

tion."

According to this concept, there is a higher order motivation

to complete the task which activates a new abstraction and its corres-

ponding realization phase.

This return to higher order goal or to

the main problem is proposed as the mechanism for stimulating comple-

tion of the whole task.

The process just described where the sequence of operations is

determined by previous successful operations signalling following op-

erations is referred to as "cumulative linking."

The other major form

of linking that occurs is called "subsidiary linking."

Subsidiary

linking occurs when the next solving method to be activated takes the

place of one that has just failed to obtain the goal or subgoal.

This

Operation implies a return to the original task where the schematic

anticipation of the goal-as-attained will necessarily be modified

based on the knowledge one now possesses about how not to proceed.

218

Although Selz speaks about trying to reach the same goal, the goal set-

ting is in reality somewhat modified as a result of experience.

The question of which solving methods will be actualized at a

given point in the problem solving process is based on a strict deter-

ministic formulation.

First, it is determined by the specific system

of general linkings--both cumulative and subsidiary--in the individual.

Second, it is based on cues in the current stage of the problem situa-

tion.

General linkings between solving methods and specific problems

are determined by individually acquired reaction dispositions each of

which is linked to specific types of internal and external situational

stimuli.

Phase structure and Bahle's work with musical composition.

The alternating phase structure mentioned in the previous section

becomes especially important in more complex situations and with more

complex tasks.

It also becomes more visible.

De Groot reports that

such a phase structure has been reported by all investigators who have

worked with protocols of actual thought processes.

Although this type

of phase alternation was traceable in Selz's relatively simple tasks,

this motion was more thoroughly elaborated and illustrated in Bahle's

work with musical composition.

As mentioned earlier, Julius Bahle was a student of selz in the

early thirties.

Although Selz's influence on his work is rarely ac-

knowledged in his writings, Bahle's studies are viewed as a direct

outgrowth of Selz‘s work.

Bahle chose to analyze musical composition,

more specifically song writing, using fascinating and ambitious experi-

mental method that is described by de Groot:

219

After some highly interesting laboratory experiments, Bahle

(1930) sent eight carefully selected poems to a large num-

ber of well known composers.

He then requested them to put

one or more of the poems to music and, additionally, to make

daily protocols on the progress of their work.

In order to

facilitate the latter task and, in particular, in order to

furnish the composers with the point of view from which such

an uncommon task had to be carried out, he enclosed an ela-

boarate instruction...as well as a questionnaire.

The ques-

tions referred to the composer's motives in choosing a cer-

tain text, possible phases in his developing the composition,

etc.

Moreover, the composers were requested to turn over

all sketches and notes which they had made during their work.

As a result of the skillful choice of the poems in addition

to the carefully worded questions and instructions...Bahle's

experiment by correspondence (Fern Experiment) became a great

 

success.

No less than 32 composers cooperated,together pro—

ducing a wealth of valuable data.

Some of the participants,

it is true, could not be inspired by any of the eight poems,

so they instead reported on a song composition using a text

of their own choice.

The materials collected in this way

were compared with historical data from letters and bio-

graphies and worked into an integral conception of musical

composition (pp. 79-80).

Bahle used a more relaxed theoretical model than did Selz and did

not insist on the same mechanical, "reflexoidal" characteristic of pro-

ductive thought processes.

The creative process is described as a

"methodical activity structure" that stressed a high degree of organi-

zation but was not as mechanistic as Selz's "system of specific rela-

tions.“

Bahle (1936, 1939) showed that the process of composing a piece of

music begins with a schematic anticipation of the completed work (the

goal-as-attained) that is very abstract and general and often includes

hardly any musical notes.

As a result of attempts at solving subpro-

blems (or "specific work problems," as Bahle calls them) or the main

problem, the total goal conception (de Groot's term) is gradually modi—

fied until the anticipatory schema applied in successive goal settings

is gradually filled out.

In this manner the outcomes--both successes

220

and failures--of each solving method not only contribute to the com-

pletion of the problem, but also to the shaping of the goal as concep-

tualized.

De Groot states that, "The characteristic feature of this process is

alternation and interaction between the anticipations on the one hand

and the results of attempts at subproblems on the other" (p. 75).

Bahle confirmed Selz's notion of the influence of the anticipation on

the realization or elaboration of the subproblem (the a --9 r transi-

tion mentioned earlier).

He showed that the specific work problems

established by the composer directed and determined the following ela-

borative phase.

He also showed the reverse influence; that is, the

effect on the outcomes of specific elaborations of specific work pro-

blems, or in Selz's terms, the schematic anticipation that is to

govern the next phase.

Bahle's work illustrated the pronounced in-

fluence of successful and unsuccessful elaborations and completions

on changing the structure of the goal conception to such a degree that

he labelled this interaction between anticipations and results "the

principle of creative form-making."

By observing a task which occurs over a much longer period than

those examined by Selz and one for which the goal is self set, Bahle

was able to highlight the importance of goal changes as a result of

subproblem elaborations.

This notion of problem development was also

reflected in the work of Karl Dunker (1945) when he said that, "What

is really done in any solution of problems consists in formulating the

problem.more productively."

In addition, Bahle also showed that linkings between solving me-

thods do not always function as immediately as in Selz's tasks.

This

221

is especially true for subsidiary linkings.

Bahle found that pauses

were quite common during creative activity setting the stage for pro-

cesses such as coincidental means abstraction.

This notion of "crea-

tive pauses," as Bahle called them, became important elements in his

theory to the extent that he considered them regular parts of the pro-

cess as a whole, forming "meaningful links in the methodological acti-

vity structure."

Thought and Choice in Chess;

de Groot's Theory

 

In the late 1930's, Adriaan de Groot, a student at the University

of Amsterdam, who, in addition, was an international class chess play-

er, took up the problem of describing the thought processes under-

lying the skilled chess player's choice of a move.

In his own words,

"Why do masters find the good moves that patzers overlook?"

The sim-

ple experiemental method that he used was to present his subjects with

an unfamiliar board position taken from an actual tournament game and

ask them to find and play the next move as if they were participating

in the game.

While doing this, he asked them to "think aloud" during

the process, giving as complete a rendering of their thought processes

as possible.

Twenty-two subjects were used in his studies ranging

from grand masters (including two world champions) down to "second

class"12 players.

De Groot's goal was to arrive at a general descrip-

tion of the structure and dynamics of chess thinking as a basis for

theory formation.

 

12Equivalent to a class C rating on the United States Chess Federa-

tion scale.

222

The basic framework adopted for de Groot's research was Selz's con-

ception of thinking as a hierarchically organized, linear series of

directed operations.

De Groot's work also served as a test of Selz's

theory in a more elaborate and complex task situation.

Two aspects of

de Groot's findings will be discussed in this section as a way of sum—

marizing his theory.

First, the phase structure that was found to be

prominent in chess thinking will be described, and, second, general

methods of chess thinking will be discussed.

Phase structure of chess thinking.

De Groot found that the

 

basic structure of chess thinking is made up of the alternation be-

‘tween phases of direct analysis (elaboration) and phases involving

integration, abstraction, and restructuring.

There are three general

phases that he discusses:

phases of orientation, elaborative move

phases, and trasitional phases.

The orientation phase is the first phase to be visible in

de Groot's move selection problems.

This is the subject's first ex-

posure to the board position where he considers the position, orients

himself to it, and lets the problem "sink in" and become structured

for him.

De Groot has also called this the phase of problem formula—

tion since it is at this point when the subjective "problem" is

formed and concretized by the subject.

Once the subject begins exploring possible moves, he enters an

elaborative move phase.

This phase is characterized by the working

through and analyzing of the move to some degree until a preliminary

result regarding the feasibility of the move can be reached.

After

the orientation phase, chess thinking is characterized by the subject's

223

examining a large number of moves one after another.

That is, there

is a string of elaborative move phases involved in each choice of move

problem.

It is also possible that there is more than one elaborative

move phase devoted to examining one possible move.

This is especially

true in processes of longer duration which de Groot calls "reinvesti-

gation of the same solving prOposition."

A move possibility is rarely selected in isolation from a more

general goal or plan that a player has in mind.

It is usually a part

of or a means for reaching a more comprehensive "board goal."

These

general goals direct the player's strategy for a certain period of

time and, for this reason, are referred to as plans.

Plans are part

of the "total goal conception" that the subject develops early in the

orientation phase.

The total goal conception is the complete formula-

tion of the problem developed by the subject that includes not only

the problem structure, but also notions of difficulty and solvability,

methods that may be applicable, dispositions, intuitive and emotional

preferences, and so on.

Like Selz's schematic anticipations, the

total goal conception is characterized by incompleteness since it

refers to notion of the goal-as-attained.

De Groot found that the transitions from one elaborative phase to

another do not always occur immediately, nor are all elaborative

phases devoted to calculations and direct investigations of move pos-

sibilities.

For this reason, he talks about a third aspect of chess

thinking called "transitional phases."

In this phase, thought is less

rigid and more "open-minded" and is characterized by reflecting, inte-

grating, and abstracting.

The function of these phases is to inte-

grate the operations that have preceeded and to prepare for the next

224

investigations.

Transitional phases are most common, according to

de Groot, when there is no longer available any pre-established, di-

rect connection from the result of an investigation to the next ela-

borative method or when as a result of continuous negative results one

runs out of subsidiary methods at one level.

When this occurs, one is

forced to return to a more fundamental problem and reevaluate further

action.

It is during this transition phase that the problem (goal con-

ception) may be reformulated as a result of abstracting new possibili-

ties and relationships from results thus far and by integrating and

restructuring this new information.

In short, transitional phases

perform the same functional purpose as Selz'a Mittelfindung methods;

 

that is, they are involved in finding new means or in this case new

moves, new plans, new approaches to and views of the problem, new sub-

programs, and so forth.

General methods of chess thinking.

De Groot defines a solving

 

method as a "typical problem transformation."

In other words, he

felt that,

Whenever a particular transformation is found to occur

predictably in a number of solving processes (protocols)

that result from Aufgabenl3 of a distinct, definable

type, the transformation can be called a solving method

(p. 280).

De Groot agreed with Selz (1924) that

Every directed thought process up to the attainment of the

goal or to the subject's abandoning his solving attempts can

be described as a chain of sequentially corresponding solv-

ing methods that are cumulatively or subsidiarily linked

(p. 11).

 

13Aufgaben refers to the general task in a problem situation.

225

Three frequent and general methods of chess thinking that will be dis-

cussed in this section include "plan formation," "progressive deep-

ening of the investigation," and "trying out."

Plan formation.

De Groot defines plans as incompletely defined

long-term schemes for action.

These schemes serve as concrete, stra-

tegic goals to guide the following investigations, in contrast to the

subject's general mating or drawing purpose.

Plan formation generally

takes place in the first phase of chess thinking and has mainly a

directive and selective function.

A plan functions as an aid to the

choice of move decision by organizing and delimiting the group of

"considerable moves" (moves stated by the subject as worth consider—

ing).

In this manner, the problem is transformed by narrowing the

moves to be considered.

Another problem transformation that occurs in the plan forma-

tion is grouping changes.

What begins as a multiple choice problem

is reduced to a binary choice problem by dividing the "considerable

moves" into two groups:

those moves fitting into the plan, and those

moves are not fitting into the plan (or possibly fitting into another

plan).

As a result, the problem is simplified and transformed since

only what fits into the plan need be investigated.

A third transformation that may occur as a part of plan formation

in a more general sense is "stipulating the order of investigation."

This refers to ordering of Operations in advance on either a condi-

tional or unconditional basis.

This ordering is, however, to be dis-

tinguished from Other "ordering" operations that proceed routinely and

226

automatically as a way of investigating possibilities during elabora-

tive move phases.

Progressive deepening.

Progressive deepening refers to a process

of investigation that is characteristic of many lengthy and difficult

choice-of-move problems.

It refers to the analysis of a certain move

or plan that takes place in a series of successive phases of reinvesti-

gation.

This process includes two aspects.

First, the investigation

broadens itself by growing new branches containing new considerable

moves or countermoves.

Second, it deepens itself by repeatedly

taking up the move or plan and calculating its results more

thoroughly.

The exact form of the investigation is not predetermined, but

rather it is what de Groot callls a "conditionally composite opera-

tion."

These types of operations usually proceed by the following

format:

If a calculation leads to satisfying results, other varia-

tions are tried out (attempts at strengthening) while the

same plan and first move are retained; if the variations

fail, other first moves are tried out; if those also fail,

the entire direction of the investigation is changed (an-

other plan) (p. 263).

This process can be illustrated in de Groot's four phases of deepening:

l.

The First Phase of Orientation orients the play to pos-

siblities for moves in a general direction and to general

consequences of moves.

2.

In the Phase of Exploration, the player beings trying

 

out (rather than investigating) possibilities by cal-

culating a few sample variations a few moves deep.

'

If these prove unsatisfactory, then they are tempo-

rarily set aside.

3.

The Phase of Investigation involves a deeper search

for possibilities that are more sharply defined.

Move

227

variants are calculated and they are calculated more

deeply and exhaustively.

4.

The Final Phase of Proof is made up of checking and

 

recapitulating as the player strives to develop a sub-

jectively convincing argument to support or reject a

certain move or plan.

Progressive deepening is not always a voluntary or pre-planned

process.

De Groot has called progressive deepening a subsidiary method

since the subject hopes that a satisfactory move will be found in the

first or second investigation, and he will not have to investigate

further.

This can be seen in early phases of deepening where the sub-

ject quickly circulates several promising moves hoping to make further

investigation unnecessary.

It is usually the case in more difficult

problems that further investigation must be carried out, but sometimes

early calculations will succeed.

The importance of progressive deep-

ening and its prominence in difficult problems may, therefore, be due

to its orientation towards economical thought.

Trying out.

In chess thinking, trying out as a mental operation is

a very important method in thinking and decision making.

If the entire

thought process is envisioned as an "empirical though investigation"

(de Groot, p. 293), then trying out serves as a general method to de-

termine the worth of various moves or plans.

In some decision making

situations, variations and alternatives may be tried out by actually

doing them.

In chess, however, this luxury does not exist, and trying

out can take place only in thought.

Trying out as a method can be distinguished from the process of

trial-and-error in several ways.

When using the method of trying out,

228

one always exhibits a clear sense of direction.

The process is usually

put forward in the format of "If...is tried, then ...will result."

The

word i£_implies that one is working within a well defined goal setting

(schematic anticipation) trying to check out fairly specific expecta-

tions.

This specific orientation towards direction, selection, and

evaluation that is set up by anticipations does not exist in trial-

and—error processes.

Another basis for distinction is that trying out takes place in

constant interaction with problem development.

Therefore, as a result

of trying out, much more specific types of information flow back to the

subject than in trial-and-error.

De Groot states that in trial-and-

error processes, there is only room for good and bad experiences; but

in trying out, the subject gains information about the problem in the

form of qualitative results and generalizations, evaluative refine-

ments, and structural and causal "insights."

Trying out takes place

in the form of a complex, organized process where every next move must

be chosen from a group of considerable moves based on an idea or plan

that is, in turn, part of a specific goal conception.

Thus, trying

out as a method is based on partial insight into the problem and occurs

in cases where the subject has certain vague anticipations about the

result.

De Groot specifies three possible functions of trying out.

The

first function of this method is to aid the subject in hitting on a

solution for a main or subproblem.

If an attempt is successful, then

the method can lead directly or indirectly to a solution.

Second,

trying out can function to increase the information on the problem.

It does this by specifying and concretizing the problem, by adding new

229

information and experiences to the total goal conception, and by fur-

ther defining the group of considerable moves.

The third function of

trying out is the discovery of new means.

It is in this capacity that

Selz describes trying out:

The trying out of several solution possibilities is a gen-

eral operation for the finding of means.

It must be ap-

plied by (animal and) man whenever it is impossible via

determined immediate means-abstraction to discover struc-

turally based solving methods and where firm empirically

based correspondences are not yet at hand (Selz, 1922,

p. 645).

‘

Trying out also favors the occurrence of insight (coincidental means

abstraction) and serendipity through trying various calculations and

modifications.

Summary

This section has focused on two theories of productive thinking

that emphasize the importance of reproductive thought components.

Selz depicts problem solving as a hierarchically organized, linear

series of directed thought operations energized and directed by a

schematic anticipation of the goal-as-attained.

The most general solv-

ing methods were described as various ways to actualize or abstract

means from.memory.

In this manner, productive thought is portrayed as

a determined chain of solving methods each of which is reproductively

actualized or abstracted and set off by the results of the proceeding

method.

This theory was elaborated by Bahle's work on thought in musical

composition and by de Groot's work on chess.

By looking at longer,

more complicated processes, a characteristic phase structure was de-

scribed in which thought progresses as an alternation between phases of

230

direct analysis and elaboration and phases involving integration, ab-

stracting, and restructuring of the schematic anticipation (Selz),

specific work problem (Bahle) or total goal conception (de Groot).

Thus, problem solving is portrayed as a process that involves problem

formulation and development as well as problem solution.

These general

solving methods--p1an formation, progressive deepening and trying out—-

that de Groot had found important in chess thinking were then dis—

cussed.

Each method was described as involving a transformation of the

problem as well as reproductive thought processes.

Problem Finding in Art:

the Creative Process

Thinking, especially decision making, is too often equated with

rationality and characterized as systematic deliberation based on

specific laws of logic and inference.

This is particularly true of

rational models of planning portraying the process as one primarily

involving choice among specifiable alternatives based on the outcomes

of each alternative and the objectives of the decision maker.

In this

study, Mrs. Lisa's planning did not function according to this descrip-

tion.

It followed much more along the lines of a creative process,

where efforts were not aimed at solving a structured problem, but

rather focused on fashioning new problems.

For this reason, planning

was viewed as a process of problem finding and development, in addi-

tion to a process of problem solving and decision making.

In the previous sections of this chapter, problem formulation re-

peatedly appeared as an important process in productive thinking.

The reworking and reformulation of schematic anticipations and goal

conceptions were shown to be crucial aspects of problem solving in

231

tasks as apparently divergent as selecting a move in chess and creat-

ing a musical composition.

What was overlooked in these studies was

how the problem was first discovered or found.

This is primarily due

to the fact that these researchers were concerned with problem solv-

ing and thus supplied their subjects with the problem.

There are many situations where no problem exists or where the

problem is so generally stated that one's first task becomes that of

"finding" the problem.

This is especially common to areas more gener-

ally regarded as creative, such as art and music, but it is common to

science as well.

In his text on physics, Albert Einstein makes the

following point:

The formulation of a problem is often more essential than

its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathetical

or experimental skill.

To raise new questions, new pro-

blems, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires

creative imagination and marks real advance in science

(Einstein and Infeld, 1938, p. 92).

The only systematic investigation of problem finding that exists

today has been done by Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi (1976).

In this

study, they chose to investigate creativity in artists by examining

how they discovered and formulated the problems on which they chose to

work.

This work will be discussed here in three parts.

First, Getzels

and Csikszentmihalyi's general theoretical framework and the problem

situation used for the study will be presented.

Next, the behavior

observed in the problem finding situation will be described; and fin-

ally, the relationships between problem finding and creativity will be

discussed.

232

Problem Situations

 

The general conceptual framework adopted by Getzels and Csikszent-

mihalyi for this study is that of viewing the creative process as a

response to a problematic situation.

As such, the main elements of

creativity are the same as those of other problem situations and in-

clude the phases of (1) problem formulation, (2) adoption of a solu-

tion method, and (3) reaching a solution.

Based on these three struc-

tural elements of problem situations, Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi de-

veloped an analytical model of various problem situations and their

related cognitive functions.

This model is illustrated in Table 7.1.

At one extreme of possible problem situations are "presented pro-

blem situations" (type-case 1).

In this situation, the problem has a

known formulation, a known (routine) method for solution, and a recog-

nized solution.

The only task remaining is for the individual to

follow the established steps for finding the solution.

The primary

mode of thought is memory and retrieval, since "all the problem solver

has to do is plug the given data into a known formula to find the

solution that is already known" (p. 81).

In type-case 2, the situation is the same except that the method

of solution is also unknown to the problem solver.

The primary task

of the individual becomes that of reaching a solution matching the one

already known by others.

Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi illustrate

this type-case with Wertheimer's classic problem, "How would you go

about finding the area of a parallelogram?"

Since the answer is not

known by the individual, his mode of thought must switch from memory

to reasoning.

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234

The third case type, at the other extreme of problem situations,

is what is called "discovery problem situations."

Here the problem has

neither a known formulation, a routine method of solution, nor a re-

cognized solution.

At this extreme, only the "dilemma" is presented,

and the problem to be solved must be discovered and identified by the

individual.

It is in this situation that the individual must become a

"problem finder."

Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi specified three steps involved in

becoming a problem finder:

(1) one must feel that there is a challenge

needing resolution in the environment, (2) one must formulate his

feeling as a problem, and (3) one must attempt to devise appropriate

methods for solving the problem (p. 81).

An additional difficulty

occurs in this type of problem situation.

Since the problem has been

discovered and solved by the individual, there is no predetermined

standard to which the solution may be compared.

The only way that the

solution can be accepted or rejected is on the basis of a critical,

relativistic analysis.

It is this type of analysis that is at the

heart of art criticism.

The central question that Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi formulated

for study was:

"Is there a significant relationship between the pro-

blem finding behavior of fine arts students and the aesthetic value,

especially the originality, of the drawings they produce?"

The speci-

fic situation in which they chose to examine problem finding was the

preparation for and drawing of a still life.

The study was conducted at the School of the Art Institute of

Chicago with thirty-one fine arts students.

Each was asked to select

from a constant arrangement of twenty-seven objects, arrange them any

235

way he wanted, and then draw the arrangement.

The study was conducted

in an empty room at the Institute that had been fitted with all the

materials and paraphernalia normally available in an artist's studio.

During the selection, arrangement, and drawing processes, an observer

kept a running record of the students' behaviors, and photographs of

the work were taken periodically.

At the end of the period, the stu-

dent was interviewed to assess the reality of the situation and to get

a subjective account of the artist's experience during the experiment.

Problem Finding

 

Problem finding in this study was observed in two stages:

the

problem formulation stage which refers to the student's behavior be-

fore beginning his drawing, and the problem solution stage that begins

once a drawing is started.

During the problem formulation stage of

the experiment, three types of behavior were observed and quantified:

(1) number of objects manipulated (out of twenty-seven available),

(2) uniqueness of objects chosen (based on a score corresponding to

the rank order frequency of which each object had been used by the

sample as a whole), and (3) exploratory behavior during selection and

arrangement (based on the amount of active manipulation and experi-

mentation with an object before putting it into the arrangement).

Three behavior dimensions were also observed during the problem

solution stage of the study.

The first dimension was the openness of

the initial structure of the problem.

This was measured by calcula-

ting (based on timed photographs) the percentage of the elapsed time

for the whole exercise used to composed the final structure with its

essential elements.

The lower this time, the sooner the structure of

236

the problem is set or "closed."

In other words, "high openness" was

characterized by a large proportion of time devoted to problem composi-

tion.

The second behavior observed was the amount of exploratory acti-

vity during the drawing stage.

A higher score was given on this di-

mension if the subject changed paper or medium, or changed or rear—

ranged the objects.

The third behavior observed at this stage was the

number of changes introduced in the structure or content of the pro-

blem while drawing.

Higher scores resulted from behavior such as

changing perspective, magnitude, or position and adding or deleting

visual elements or objects in the drawing.

In addition to the two stages of observation, information was

gathered at what was called the "solution evaluation stage" by ques-

tioning the artists when their drawings were finished.

This focused

on their concern for problem finding in general and each of the stages

of formulation, solution, and evaluation.

Problem Finding and Creativity

 

At the conclusion of the study, each student's drawing was rated

by five selected artists based on judgments of overall aesthetic value,

originality, and craftmanship.

The correlations between these ratings

and the scores assigned to the problem finding variables observed in

the experiment are reported in Table 7.2.

As can be seen in Table 7.2, judgments of overall aesthetic value

and originality of the drawings are significantly related to problem

finding behavior observed at the problem formulation stage and to the

artist's reported concern with problem finding.

Drawings of students

237

Table 7.2

Correlations between ratings on three dimensions of product evaluation

and the problem-finding variable scores (Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi,

1976).

Process

Aesthetic

Overall

Dimensions of Product Evaluation

 

Variables

Value

Originality

Craftsmanship

 

Problem

Formulation

-

(total score)

.40C

b

.54

.28

Problem

Solution

(total score)

.26

.38C

.12

Concern with

Problem

Finding

(total score)

.41C

Total Problem

Finding Score

(grand total)

.47b

b

.56

a

.65

d

31

d

.31

 

ap‘<.0005

bp4<.oos

Cp < .025

dp (.05

238

who prior to drawing handled many objects, selected unique objects,

and explored them in great detail were judged higher in originality

and overall aesthetic value.

The work of students who explored ob-

jects in greater detail was also judged higher in craftmanship.

Since

consistent relationships were found between behavior during the problem

formulation and problem solving stages and the judgment of the quality

of the product, the time spent on the arrangement and drawing task was

calculated to estimate the effects of spending more time on the task.

The results of this analysis showed that time spent on the problem

formulation stage of the experiment was significantly related to the

judged quality of the product (correlation with overall aesthetic

value equals .46 ( p (.01) and correlation with originality equals

.53 (p‘<.005».

Time spent working on the drawing, however, was not

significantly related to its judged worth.

Two general conclusions were put forth as a result of this study.

First, problem finding (including the discovery, formulation, and en-

visagement of the problem that proceeds problem solving) is central

to the creative process and is related systematically to the quality

of the creative product.

Second, a subjective concern for problem

finding, especially at the problem formulation stage, is related to

the originality of the product.

The results of this study support the notions of problem solving

that ascribe importance to discovery, formulation, development of the

problem.

The influence of these processes has been shown in the work

of Selz, wertheimer, de Groot and others and has now been shown to be

of central importance to more open, creative problem situations.

239

Teaching might be characterized as an instance of this latter

problem situation (type-case 3 in Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi's pro-

blem situation classification), where only the general "dilemma" is

passed to the teacher and he or she is responsible for formulating and

developing the problem situation to the point where it can be dealt

with by problem solving methods.

If this is so, then planning becomes

the major site for this process, and the characterization of planning

as merely problem solving or decision making may overlook problem

finding as a crucial and central function of the planning process.

Reasoning in Architectural Design

 

Introduction

 

In the introduction to this chapter, Simon's (1957 b) three phases

of decision-~intelligence, design, and choice-~were described.

It was

said that most models of planning have emphasized the choice phase of

decision to the neglect of the other two phases.

Because of this,

successive sections of this chapter have reviewed theories and re-

search that have’placed greater emphasis on the aspects of problem

finding, problem formulation, and design.

It is the purpose of this

section to review research on problem solving and decision process in

a task environment where design is the primary purpose.

Architectural

design has been chosen since a growing body of research has been de-

veloping since the early nineteen sixties to analyze and externalize

the thinking processes of designers.

There is no clear distinction between the act of designing and

the act of planning.

Design has been defined as "to conceive the

idea for and prepare a description of a proposed system, artifact, or

240

aggregation of artifacts" (Archer, 1970).

This definition, though

not mentioning planning, sounds remarkably similar to the definition

of planning used in the present study.

Other definitions are more ex-

plicit in their connections.

For instance, design is "the act or art

of making plans, schemes, patterns, (and) models" (Nadler, 1970).

In

architecture, design has been traditionally associated with the pro-

cess of drawing up plans for a building.

This was also the source for

the traditional definitions of planning discussed in Chapter II.

For

all practical purposes.the words pl§g_and design may be used inter-

changeably,and the only basis for distinction may be that design is

preferred in architecture because of its popular connotation of being

related to visual drawings, sketches, patterns, and blueprints.

The conception of the design process has changed radically with

progress in the building industry.

Traditionally, it was accepted

that architectural design was composed of three design processes:

(1) "disposition" (generally called composition), (2) proportion

(i.e., study), and (3) construction (the execution of the design)

(Gaudet, 1904).

Even by the beginning of the twentieth century, the

developments in building technology and programmatic requirements

for building made the notion of developing and completing detailed

"composition" prior to interaction and collaboration with engineers

and contractors impractical and nearly impossible.

More recently, the

design process has been portrayed as a morphological and evolutionary

process characterized by iterative and cyclical features.14

 

14See, for instance, the Royal Institute of British Architects'

Handbook of Architectural Practice and Management, 1967.

241

As the research and theoretical focus has turned to the indivi-

dual designer, design has been portrayed as a process of problem solv-

ing and decision making.

The degree of rationality attributed to this

process, however, differs widely across theorists.

Jones (1970) de-

scribes these differences by grouping theorists according to three con—

ceptions of the designer:

the designer as magician, the designer as

computer, and the designer as self-organizing system.

The designer as

magician refers to “black box" theorists who characterize the design

process as a creative, "irrational" and partly unconscious process

(e.g., Osborn, 1957; Gordon, 1961; Matchett, 1968; Broadbent, 1966).

The conception of designer as computer is based on the assumption

that the design process is rational and explicit and that the human

designer is able to operate with full knowledge of what he is doing

and why he is doing it.

In other words, the designer is portrayed as

a human computer,

...a person who operates only on the information that is

fed to him and who follows through a planned sequence of

analytical, synthetic, and evaluative steps and cycles

until he recognizes the best of all possible solutions

(Jones, 1970, p. 6).

It is this approach that underlies nearly all of the computer simula-

tions of design process, but it is also the process assumed by many to

be operating in human designers (e.g., Archer, 1970).

The third approach, the designer as self-organizing system, is

one proposed by Jones that falls between the "black box" and "glass

box" theories.

Jones sees both of these models as having the effect

of widening the area of search for the designer beyond his capabilities

and purposes.

He replaces "blind" search of the alternatives with an

"intelligent" search that "uses both external criteria and the results

242

of partial search to find shortcuts across unknown territory."

This

process is based on a notion of strategy control that accurately models

the strategy itself and the external situation that the design is in-

tended to fit.

It is this last approach (designer as self-organizing

system) coupled with elements of the first approach (designer as magi-

cian) that will be discussed in this section.

The peculiar mix of creativity and reason necessary for effective

designing or planning is perhaps accurately captured by defining the

process as a series of rationalizations, or as the father of modern

architectural rationalism called them, "inspirations rigorously ana-

lyzed by reason" (Viollet-le-Duc, 1863).

Thus, the designer first

visualizes some relationship of forms (a problem) intuitively and then

strives to justify it in relationship to the constraints imposed on

the finished design.

Collins (1971) characterizes this process as

analogous to playing the role of all the participants in a legal trial:

All the time design—decisions are being made, the archi-

tect must be the advocate supporting a particular solu-

tion, the advocate opposing this particular solution,

the witnesses testifying both for and against its adop-

tion, and the judge who makes the final decision (p. 81).

If this analysis of the design process is correct, then the crucial

decision process in design is not that of choosing among alternative

designs, but rather that of deciding whether or not to reject the de-

sign that one has visualized and formulated.

In other words, the

quality of creative talent may be measured by the variety of formula-

tions that one is capable of thinking of, but the quality of decision

making depends on the criteria that are used for rejecting an idea as

undesirable or unworkable.

243

This formulation of the design process points to two basic ac-

tivities whose description is crucial to an understanding of planning

and design.

The first is the "inspiration" or problem formulation pro-

cess, and the second is the evaluation and solution process.

Re-

search and theory related to each of these processes will now be de-

scribed.

Problem Formulations

 

Most problems confronting designers are what are called ill-

defined problems (Eastman, 1969; Reitman, 1964; Simon, 1973).

In

these types of problems, no problem specification is given or agreed

upon, no formal language with precise solution operations are avail-

able, and the goals to be achieved and the restrictions on the problem

are open to interpretation.

Moreover, no systematic test is available

for deciding whether a form is acceptable as a solution.

This type of

problem is the same at Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi's (1976) "discov-

ered" problem situations (type-case 3).

In these situations, only the

general dilemma for the design process is supplied, and it is up to

the designer to discover and formulate the specific design problems.

The formulation of the problem provides three needed elements for

the problem solver.

First, it provides a design goal.

This is usual-

ly in an ambiguous form similar to what de Groot calls a goal concep-

tion.

This may involve general criteria that may be met by more than

one design state or form.

Second, the problem formulation defines the

problem space in which the problem solver will search for a solution.

The third element the problem formulation provides is the set of

244

criteria for judging a solution as workable.

This is largely due to a

specification of a "goal-as-attained" (a part of the goal conception).

In one of the few experimental studies of problem formulation,

Baer (1976) defined the process as "mappings of an amorphous collec-

tion of different types of statements given by the task into a parti-

cular internal representation chosen at an early moment."

The main

task of problem formulation as he described it was to encode the goals

of the task into an internal representation through processes of "re-

cognition," "construction" and "adaptation."

These processes take

place in the following pattern.

First, the designers search the pro-

blem to recognize possible goals.

These goals may then be transformed

to goals of a specific type (for example, goals expressed in spatial

terms) and may then be ordered.

Next, the primary goals are evaluated

as suitable candidates for action (some type of initial design) and

any preconditions, restrictions, and returns on action are calculated.

If these are met and seem sufficient, initial designing ("construc-

tion”) takes place.

The results of the action are then incorporated

into the problem space and a new state of the problem is present.

Subsequent steps involve another cycle of defining goals, acting on

them, and further transforming the problem.

In this manner, the pro-

blem formulation process is made up of a step-wise filtering process

followed by intermediate solving processes to delineate the problem

further.

Baer also found that designers "chunked" the problem to deal

with parts of the design and used hierarchies in representations grad-

ually to increase the detail of the formulation.

Overall, this process sounds very similar to the phase structure

prOposed by de Groot to describe problem solving, where thinking is

245

made up of an alternation between phases of direct analysis (elabora-

tion) and phases involving integration, abstraction, and restructuring

of the problem (goal).

It may be that the processes involved in goal

transformation and development during the problem solution stage are

merely continuations fo the processes responsible for goal formulation

in ill—defined problems.

This argument will be pursued further in the

next section on solving methods.

Solving Methods

 

There have been many more studies of the problem solution pro-

cess in architectural design than of the problem formulation process

(see Eastman, 1968, 1969, 1970 a, 1970 b, 1972, 1973; Henrion, 1974;

Krauss and Myer, 1968; Mohr, 1972; Moran, 1970).

Most of these

studies have been detailed analyses of one or two designers solving

architectural design problems or case studies of actual deliberations.

Most of these studies of the design process have emphasized pro-

cesses of problem formulation and transformation.

Eastman's (1970 a)

study of space planning (arranging fixtures within a limited space to

meet certain constraints) found design proceeding through steps of

problem definition (including both goals and constraints) and problem

transformation.

This process was described as the production of a

series of information states, where each new transformation requires a

new operation.

In another article (Eastman, 1970 b), these operations

were described as search strategies incorporating either "generate-and

-test" processes, "means-ends analysis," or "planning."

These strat-

egies will be taken up in more detail later in this discussion.

246

In a case study of design, Krauss and Myer (1970) found a similar

process structure.

They propose that the essence of the design pro-

cess involves (l) the construction of forms relating to the relevant

data and constraints, (2) the reevaluation of the problem and possible

solutions in light of several different sets of criteria, and (3) re-

formulating the problem to correspond to this changing program (set of

constraints).

Rusch (1970) argues that this interplay of problem for—

mulation and transformation can be explained in terms of productive

and reproductive thought.

By content analysis of a series of graphic

representations (a series of lithographs of bulls by Picasso), he pro-

poses that these two modes of thought play different roles in the de-

sign activity.

Decisions derived through incremental activity (pro-

ductive thought) function to clarify the form of the design (problem

formulation) and decisions derived through reorganization (reproduc-

tive thought) function to keep the problem solver on course towards a

final solution (problem transformation).

Processes of problem formulation and transformation have also

been incorporated into computerized models of the design process.

Moran (1970) proposes a model of the designer that uses different

kinds of representation or language (systems of symbols and syntactic

rules for generating well-formed statements) to express different as-

pects of the problem.

The assumption is that as a designer thinks of

a problem in different ways, different slants or problem formulations

may be generated.

To be useful, these different languages must be

based on information already in memory so that there can be a mapping

of symbols onto concepts in memory.

An additional assumption of the

model is that problem representations are primary influences on

247

problem solution since operations performed on different representa-

tions are the primary sources of new information.

In this manner, the

problem formulation stage is integrated with the problem solution

stage by processes involving representation --9 operation --9 reformu-

lation.

In his PSP (Problem Solving Process) model, Manheim (1970) dis-

tinguishes between processes that generate actions and processes that

choose among them.

This first process is called search, and the se-

cond process is grouped into three operations--prediction, evaluation,

and choice.

At the heart of his model is a goal formulation and revi—

sion process similar to those mentioned earlier.

As new actions are

generated (through search), they are examined and evaluated usually

resulting in a modification of the goal.

Thus, the analysis proceeds

as a parallel evolution of a set of actions and a set of goals until a

satisfactory design is reached.

Three search strategies are proposed by Eastman (1970 b) as

characteristic of problem solving in architectural design.

The first,

"generate-and-test," involves trying every possible alternative until

one is found that is satisfactory.

This is considered to be an algori-

thmic method (that is, it guarantees an eventual solution) and has

been shown to model the decision processes of some designers in sim-

ple situations or at the beginning of a solution sequence (Eastman,

1969).

Means-ends analysis is a common decision process which relates

possible operations (means) to criteria or goals to be achieved (ends).

In its most common variant, means-ends analysis is applied to an al-

ternative generated by some other strategy.

It can also be used to

248

identify appropriate operations for generating the initial operation

(see Eastman, 1970 b, for further discussion of these two variants).

Means-ends analysis has been found to be a common heuristic process in

design problems and is included as part of more complex search strat-

egies.

One such strategy, and the third strategy discussed by Eastman

(1970 b) is "planning."

Planning as a search strategy has the follow-

ing qualities:

1.

The problem structure is analyzed to find those ele-

ments that are most closely related (subsets of the

problem).

2.

Planning involves search of an abstract problem space

to provide a guide for problem solving.

This guide

functions by structuring the problem based on one

type of relation (problem representation).

3.

The search strategies for solving the limited rela-

tionships of the problem considered in planning are

the same as those used in other apsects of design.

This includes generate-and-test, means-ends analysis,

and even planning (itself).

4.

Once the planned aspect of the problem is resolved,

it is used as a guide to generate the fully specified

problem (paraphrased from Eastman, 1970 b, pp. 145-147).

Eastman also discusses two types of planning.

"Bottom-up" plan-

ning involves the aggregation of the basic elements of the design

until the single design unit at the top is reached.

In most cases of

design, however, this situation does not exist.

What is usually known

is the complete design unit (the general problem) at the top of the

theoretical hierarchy.

The seCond mode of planning thus becomes the

decomposition of the problem from the top-down.

"Top-down" planning

is the typical situation facing designers.

It is primarily based on

past experience, and, because of this, it has been criticized.

Since

249

in reality, experience is not based on a complete analysis of aggrega-

tions of activities, the basis for a specific composition cannot be

validated.

To remedy this problem, Alexander (1964) offers an alter-

native procedure for decomposition and Eastman (1970 b) argues that

for any well defined system, there are procedures available for aggre-

gating basic elements in a "bottom-up" manner.

To summarize, planning

as a search strategy Provides a method for delimiting the combina-

torial possibilities of a problem.

By factoring out for preliminary

analysis critical aspects of the problem, it focuses on particular

problem representations that are most likely to provide a solution.

In concluding this section, two additional aspects of the design

process that have shown up in research should be mentioned.

Through-

out this discussion, the crucial role that problem representation and

formulation plays in the design process has been emphasized.

It has

been repeatedly implied that the greater the ability to create dif-

ferent representation the more productive is the design process.

The

importance of multiple representations of the probelm has been further

illustrated by Eastman's (1970 a) study of space planning.

There he

found a clear correspondence between the kinds of constraints consid-

ered by a designer and the representations used.

Thus, more success-

ful designing was accompanied by a greater variety of ways of repre-

senting the problem.

This implies that more effective design (or

planning) may be facilitated by representing the problem in a variety

of ways such as words, numbers, flow diagrams, sections, perspectives,

and plans.

It is still unknown, however, whether this use of multiple

representations may be facilitative in design activities that are not

of such a visual nature as architectural design.

250

Another aspect of the design process touched on in this section is

the effect of past experience (or reproductive thinking).

It was im-

plied that aspects of the design process such as representation have a

base in memory.

The exact role that experience plays in the effective-

ness of the process has not been thoroughly studied.

One finding that

supports the importance of experience was also reported by Eastman

(1970 a).

He found that those designers who relied upon direct retriev-

al from memory for generating problem constraints were more effective

("far superior," in his words) designers than those who relied solely

upon external cues for generating constraints.

Although most of the

designers seemed to generate constraints randomly from memory, some

were found to have highly organized lists that were applied to speci-

fic aspects of the problem.

These results seem to indicate that the

reason more experienced individauls are more effective in this type of

task is because they bring more information into the situation and are

less at the mercy of the task for providing cues.

Summary

This section has looked to research and theory in the area of

architectural design to provide further insight into the aspects of

problem solving referred to as design or planning.

Design has been

portrayed as an evolutionary process characterized by interative and

cyclical features.

The design process has been described as a peculiar

mix of creativity and reason involving a series of "inspirations rig-

orously analyzed by reason."

It has been proposed that the crucial

decision or judgment process is rejection of unworkable alternatives

rather than choice among several alternatives.

251

Two basic processes of problem formulation and problem solution

have been discussed.

The research seems to indicate that the distinc-

tion between the two may not be psychologically meaningful since both

processes seem to be characterized by a series of problem formulations,

solutions, and problem transformations.

As such, the design process

is quite similar to the problem solving processes proposed by Selz,

Bahle, and de Groot.

Three search strategies that are common in de-

sign were described with special emphasis on planning as a search

strategy.

Finally, research findings were reported fortifying the

theorized importance of multiple representations of design problems

and of information, representation, and strategies brought to design

problems by experienced practitioners.

In the next chapter the theory and research in the areas of pro-

blem solving, problem finding, and design will be combined with empiri-

cal observations from this study to formulate a theoretical model of

the planning process.

CHAPTER VIII

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PLANNING II:

A PROCESS

MODEL OF TEACHER PLANNING

Introduction
 

Toward a Theory of Teacher Planning:

the Model's Purpose

The ultimate aim of research on teaching should be the develop-

ment of models and theories to:

1.

Provide the most parsimonious summary of actual or

anticipated research findings,

2.

Coordinate research so that many separate findings

support each other,

3.

Locate the most strategic or manageable propositions

for testing, and

4.

Provide a limited area in which to locate false pro-

positions, when a hypothesis fails to meet an empirical

test (Zetterberg, 1965, p . 161-166).

In addition to the description of one teacher's planning, it is a

purpose of this study to formulate a general model of teacher plan-

ning that may serve functions similar to those mentioned by Zetterberg.

As Snow (1973) suggests, there appear to be almost as many defi-

nitions of theory as there are people concerned with theory.

Snow

defines six different levels of theory ranging from formal axiomatic

theories to the development of formative hypotheses.

For the purposes

of this study, theory will be defined it its simplest sense--as a

symbolic construction designed to bring generalizable facts into

252

253

systematic connection (Snow, 1973) or as Zetterberg (1965) defines

it--an interrelated set of propositions.

There are almost as many definitions of model as there are of

theory.

The word m9g§1_has been used interchangeably with theory at

one definitional extreme and has been used to refer to a deductive sys-

tem constructed to interpret the calculus of a theory at the other.

In this chapter, the term will be used to refer to a system of rela-

tionships used to promote theorietical development.

To be more speci-

fic, a model will be defined as a well developed descriptive analogy

that functions to help visualize phenomena that cannot be easily or

directly observed (after Snow, 1973).

Using these definitions, the possibility of developing a model of

teacher planning seemed within closer reach than a theoretical repre-

sentation.

Given the lack of previous theorizing on teacher informa-

tion processing, a sufficient set of propositions about planning or

decision making is not yet available to attempt the development of a

formal theory.

In light of this situation,

a model of teacher plan-

ning is the first step towards theory development.

The purpose of

this chapter is to set forth a general model of teacher planning.

This constitutes a first attempt at relating the various components of

the planning process, and its purpose is to promote theory development

by generating hypotheses about teacher planning.

One way to characterize this model further is to indicate what

it is not intended to be.

First, it is not intended to be a specific

representation of Mrs. Lisa's planning.

Her planning was one source

of data for developing the model, but not the sole basis.

Her plan-

ning can be represented by the model, but the specifics of her

254

deliberation are not represented in detail.

Thus, rather than being

a model of an individual teacher, speculations about teacher planning

in general are presented.

Second, the model is not intended to be a complete and detailed

picture of the planning process.

The major components of the plan-

ning process indicated in this and other planning studies are included

in the model; however, it is possible that there are other important

factors that have been overlooked.

In the same manner, the temporal

and interactive relationships between components (indicated by connect-

ting arrows in the illustrations) are not meant to exhaust all the im-

portant relationships in the planning model.

Also, no effort has

been made in many cases to describe in detail the processes indicated

by all the arrows in the model.

In short, the following discussion is

the result of efforts to generate a general model of teacher planning

for the purpose of moving from descirptions of planning toward a

theory of the teacher planning process.

Grounding of the Model

 

Glaser and Strauss (1965, 1967) distinguish between formal theory

based on logical specualation and "grounded" formal theory based on

data.

Before describing the process model of teacher planning, this

section will describe the data base or the "grounding" of this model.

Three sources of data serve as the basis for this model.

The

first source is the description of Mrs. Lisa's planning put forth in

this study.

This includes descriptions of the task environment for

her planning and teaching, her goals, and her general behavior in the

teaching environment.

This information is similar to that suggested

255

by Newell (1973) for studying human information processing.

He pro-

poses that to describe the methods a person is using to solve a pro—

blem<dr make a decision, one must have information about (1) his goals,

(2) the structure of the task environment in which he is functioning,

and (3) the invariant structures of his processing mechanisms.

For

the purpose of this study, it was assumed that Mrs. Lisa was con-

strained by the same process limitations found to be characteristic of

.other problem solvers, namely, serial information processing, limited

short-term or "working" memory, relatively long time required to trans-

fer information from short-term to long-term memory, and so forth.

The task environment for teaching was described in Chapter IV and

was characterized by complexity, unpredictability, immediacy, simul-

taneity, and multidimensionality.

Furthermore, the

planning

environment was portrayed as relative "ill-defined," with few

specific guidelines or prepared materials in many subject matter areas.

The third piece of information suggested by Newell, Mrs. Lisa's goals

for teaching and planning, was described in Chapters IV and VI.

The "methods" arising from these descriptions were discussed in

Chapter V and focused on Mrs. Lisa's teaching by activities and with

routines.

The "methods" used for planning also became more visisble

as a result of describing the task environment and goals for planning.

Planning was observed as taking place at successive levels of compre-

hensiveness and detail, at different times during the year or term,

and in various forms (Chapter VI).

Mrs. Lisa's planning process was

also observed as being characterized primarily by decisions focusing

on the formulation and elaboration of instructional activities over

time.

256

By the end of the field research, many things were known about

Mrs. Lisa's planning. It was known that most of her planning focused on

instructional activities.

Many of these activities were well routin-

ized, and by winter term Mrs. Lisa's planning time was taken up by

planning for social studies and science units.

Mrs. Lisa's planning

could be described at five levels and each level could be distin-

guished in terms of goals, information used, the form of the plan, and

the criteria for judging planning effectiveness.

Also, choice (the

selection among alternatives) was not a prominent activity in Mrs.

Lisa's planning.

Rather, it was characterized by the development and

elaboration of activities over time.

Furthermore, this elaboration

took place as activities passed from general to more specific levels

of planning.

Also prominent in Mrs. Lisa's planning was her reliance

on past experience--what seemed to work well or didn't work with pre-

vious classes.

The second source of data for this model came from other studies

of teacher planning.

Although these studies are few and somewhat lim-

ited, sone of their findings agreed with those of the present study.

Two findings of special interest to this model were the failure to

identify objectives as a primary object of teacher decision making

during the planning process (Zahorik, 1975; Peterson, Marx, and Clark,

1977) and the lack of well developed alternatives in teachers' plans

(Morine, 1976).

Both of these findings support the notion that teach-

er planning in practice is not characterized by processes advocated

by the rational planning model.

Rather than being dominated by deci-

sions about objectives and alternatives, these studies indicated a

greater concern for content and activities.

257

The third source of data for the model of teacher planning came

from research on deliberative thinking processes from fields outside

of education.

(This research was described in Chapter VII.)

The

basis for the utilization of this data as a source for the model is

"theory translation" (Snow, 1973).

Theory translation is the process

of borrowing or substituting a theory or part of a theory based on

analogies between two situations.

The similarities among the

situation in teacher planning and those of selecting a move in chess,

composing a musical or visual composition, or planning for space utili-

zation in a building suggested the usefulness of adopting concepts

from research on these latter processes.

The test for the usefulness of theory translation is that the

translations suggest new hypotheses which would not have been other-

wise available (Jacobson, Stimart, and Wren, 1971).

In this model,

theory translation has made two major contributions.

First, it pro-

vides some of the terminology for processes in the model (e.g., pro-

blem finding, problem formulation, goal conceptions).

Second, the

more detailed, controlled studies by these researchers supplies more

detailed descriptions of decision processes not directly observed in

this study.

Both these contributions to the model pass the test for

usefulneSs of theory translation by providing the model with concepts

and terminology that suggeSt a similarity of process in teacher plan-

ning of art, design, chess, and musical composition.

By supplying

the model with more detailed process descriptions, theory translation

has also added to the detail of the theoretical model which, in turn,

may promote more detailed and specific hypotheses to be tested in the

future.

258

General Features of the Model

 

The Model's Focus

 

The purpose of this model is to provide a theoretical description

of the decision processes involved in teacher planning.

The focus of

the model is on the individual, preactive, deliberative information

processing involved in planning from an initial idea to its implemen-

tation.

Planning in the preactive stage of teaching was chosen since

it is the site of most instructional planning.

The focus of the model

is on the processes of planning in order to shed light on possible

methods used by teachers in their planning.

The lack of knoweldge

about mental processes involved in actual planning (discussed in Chap-

ter II) makes the need for such a description apparent.

This model purports to describe the planning process in general.

Within the framework of the process, there are many judgments and

decisions that will not be described or modeled in detail.

Most of

these activities occur during the design stage of the model and in-

clude judgments about grouping, selection of materials, schedule re-

vision, and so forth.

These judgments are not modeled since their re-

presentation would be an enormous task and is beyond the scope of this

chapter.

There are two major types of planning decisions not discussed in

the context of this model.

The first are those planning revisions

that take place in the interactive teaching setting.

These decisions

were excluded because they were not observed in this study (see note

ten, page 169) and because a majority of the other work on planning

has focused on deliberation in non-interactive situations.

The

259

second category of excluded decisions are group planning decisions

such as those made in team-teaching situations.

Since these situations

greatly complicate the process by the addition of social variables such

as power, conflict, and conformity, and since these types of decisions

have not been examined by this or any other study of teacher planning,

these decisions are also not a concern of this model.

In short, this

model focuses on planning processes most central and dominant in

teaching, namely, individual, preactive planning.

Purposefulness and Rationality

 

Herbert Simon stated that behavior is purposeful in so far as it

is guided by general goals or objectives and that it is rational in so

far as it selects alternatives that are conducive to the achievement

of previously selected goals (Simon, 1957 a, p. 5).

Using this dis—

tinction, decisions observed in this and other studies of teacher plan-

ning may be called purposeful, but may not necessarily be called

rational.

In Chapter II, the rational model of planning was described.

Like all rational decision making models, it requires:

1.

The setting of goals,

2.

The formulation of alternatives,

3.

The prediction of outcomes (consequences) for each

alternative, and

'4.

The choice of one alternative based on its outcomes

and relation to the goals.

Mrs. Lisa's planning deviated from this process at each step.

Goals

were not always explicitly stated in advance or as the first step in

planning.

Alternatives were rarely formulated in detail with the

260

consequences laid out for each alternative.

Because of this, there

was little opportunity for choice among alternatives based on their

outcomes and relationship to her goals.

Obviously, the rational model of planning was not the process

followed by Mrs. Lisa in her planning deliberations.

This was not sur-

prising, since the rational model has not been shown to be characteris-

tic of practitioners in other studies of planning in the field.

In

Chapter II, the failure of the rational model to accurately describe the

planning process was illustrated in studies of urban and national plan-

ning.

The few studies of teacher planning reviewed in the same chap-

ter also cast doubt upon the accuracy of this model.

Zahorik (1975)

found decisions about objectives to be reported less frequently than

decisons about pupil activities or content and concluded that teacher

planning does not seem to flow logically from objectives as the ra-

tional model proposes.

Peterson, Marx, and Clark (1977) also found

thinking about objectives to be conspicuously absent.

In their study,

most of the teachers' time was spent thinking about content and acti—

vities and only .04 percent of their time was spent on objectives-

In addition to a low emphasis on behavioral objectives, Morine (1976)

found a lack of well developed alternatives as a product of planning.

This finding casts doubt on another aspect of the rational model,

namely, the formulation of alternatives.

It is likely that the rational model breaks down in all of these

instances for the same reason.

Its assumptions regarding thes sta-

bility and predictability of the environment, the amount of knowledge

available to the planner, and the information processing capabilities

of the individual planner are all violated.

If planning in practice

261

has not proved to be oriented towards goals, alternatives, and choice,

what are its basic characteristics?

One way to describe them is to

discuss the planning process within the context of the three phases of

intelligence, design, and choice proposed by Simon (1957 b).

Intelligence.

Simon referred to intelligence as those processes

 

for scanning the environment to see what matters require decision.

Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi (1976) refer to this process as "problem

finding."

In many decision making situations, the problem or the

decision to be made is well defined and stated.

In planning situations,

However, this is typically not the case.

Planners are often charged

with laying the framework that will serve as a guide for future action

and decision making.

For this reason, planning tasks are often stated

in general yet comprehensive terms.

For instance, city and national

planners are confronted with such tasks as, "Develop a comprehensive

plan for urban renewal in the downtown area," or "Construct a plan for

famine relief in this Asian country."

Teachers are confronted with

similar situations, though their planning may be more in response to

the requirements of the teaching environment (e.g., "The kids are

coming next week; what will I do?") rather than in response to a di-

rective to plan from the principal or school district.

This open-ended, general task definition which often confronts

planners requires that they not only be good problem solvers, but

also good problem finders.

Good and creative planning is as much a

result of skill and experience in defining and discovering the crucial

aspects in the general planning "dilemma? as it is a result of problem

262

solving ability.

For this reason, problem finding processes are em-

phasized in the first part (Stage I) of the model.

Design.

Simon defined design as the proceses for developing and

examining possible courses of action.

In the rational model, this

would be the process involved in the formulation and evaluation of

alternatives and their outcomes.

In many planning situations, however,

the resources and energy for laying out a number of well developed

alternatives are not available.

Much more typical of planning and

design is the formulation and development of one alternative until

it is acceptable as a solution or until it is rejected as unworkable.

This process may also involve the modification of one's goals as

further elaborations shed light on the feasibility of the desired end-

product.

Thus, problem solving goes hand-in-hand with problem formu-

lation and the final goal often does not emerge until the final

solution is achieved.

Using this notion, design is not a preliminary step to choice or

decision, but is the heart of the problem solving process.

Since much

of the planning behavior observed in this and other studies seemed to

conform to this notion, a central part of the model (Stage II) is

devoted to portraying this process.

Choice.

According to Simon, choice is the process of choosing

among courses of action.

It is this process that is at the heart

of the rational decision making and planning model, and it is

here that good or bad decisions are made.

Because of the impor-

tance of choice in

263

the rational model, this process has been the focus of most research

and theory in decision making.

Choice among alternatives was present in Mrs. Lisa's planning,

but it was by no means the focus or the cumulation of the planning

process.

When planning for activities, Mrs. Lisa often chose among

ideas or materials, but this was primarily in the problem finding

stage of planning and was only an initial step in planning.

Choice

seemed to be functioning in a similar manner in the studies reviewed

in Chapter VII.

For this reason, choice plays only a subsidiary role

in this model of teacher planning.

Design or Decision?

 

The relative emphasis of this model across Simon's three phases

of decision raises the question of whether or not planning as observed

in this study is a "decision making" process.

It involves the three

phases of decision; however, the emphasis of the process is not on

choice but on problem finding and design.

Given this emphasis, plan-

ning seems much more akin to problem solving than to decision making.

Problem solving implies the goal directedness and purposiveness of the

process, but does not imply that a solution will be arrived at through

choice.

In the broad sense, planning may be referred to as decision mak-

ing since one often speaks of "deciding on a solution" regardless of

whether the solution was arrived at through a process of choice or

-"design."

In the same manner, one would not say that the planning de-

scribed here is irrational because it does not conform to the rational

model.

This model of planning may involve as much reason and

264

understanding as other rational processes, and is a specific case of

what Simon calls limited or "bounded rationality."

Although the distinctions among decision, problem solving, ration-

ality, and.purposefulness are not always necessary or useful, they will

be retained here as a means for more precisely describing the planning

processes.

Using these terms, this model is a description of planning

as "purposeful problem solving" (or design) as opposed to planning as

"rational decision making."

Outline of the Planning Model

 

The general process model of teacher planning is illustrated in

Figure 8.1.

The model portrays three stages:

Stage I

- Problem Finding

Stage II

- Problem Formulation/Solution (Design)

Stage III - Implementation, Evaluation, and Routinization

Stage I is the first step in planning.

It is here that the

general planning task is translated into a specific planning problem.

The major process at work in this stage is the "discovery cycle."

This is the process through which problem finding occurs and involves

the interactions among the planning dilemma, teaching goal conceptions,

knowledge and experience, and materials.

The product of this cycle

is an "initial problem conception" to be further elaborated in the

problem formulation/solving stage.

Stage II is where most of the planning energy and time is in-

vested.

The primary process of interest in this stage is the "design

cycle."

It is through this cycle that the initial activity idea is

repeatedly elaborated and tested until a satisfactory solution hsfound.

265

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Stage III is where the activity is actually implemented and eval-

uated in the classroom.

This stage provides the teacher with informa-

tion on the workability of the activity with one's group of children

and may lead to further modification or even rejection of the activity.

If an activity is successful, it may eventually be routinized.

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perience with both successful and unsuccessful activities and routines

eventually is fed back to long-term memory where it becomes part of

the repertoire of knowledge and experience used in future planning.

These three stages of planning characterize the teacher planning

process "from idea to implementation."

The remainder of this chapter

will be devoted to describing and discussing in turn each of these

three stages and their respective processes.

Problem Finding
 

Introduction

 

It is usually the case that if one observes two teachers at the

same grade level in the same school, their classrooms will look dif-

ferent.

So will their teaching and planning.

This characteristic of

American schooling attests to the "openness" of the teaching task that

confronts most teachers.

Even in school districts such as Mrs. Lisa's

where exhaustive and detailed objectives are provided along with pre-

pared programs for teaching some subjects, large variations still ex-

ist.

The freedom and responsibility for molding a program of instruc-

tion geared to a unique set of students is primarily in the individual

teacher's hands.

This unspecified teaching task or "dilemma" requires,

as has been said earlier, that a teacher be as good a "problem finder"

as a problem solver.

267

In this model, problem finding refers to the process of becoming

aware of what specific problem needs to be solved within a general,

non-specified problem situation.

In the context of planning, problem

finding refers to the "discovery" of a potential instructional idea

that requires further planning and deliberation.

This idea is referred

to as a "problem" since at this stage in planning it is still not known

if this idea can be realized in the classroom and, if so, how it will

be done.

Since the instruction in Mrs. Lisa's classroom centered on

activities, the "problems" that surfaced in her problem finding were

usually ideas for activities.

Other "problems" that might be dealt

with during this stage include plans themselves or specific lessons.

Figure 8.2 illustrates in more detail the processes involved in

problem finding.

Here problem finding is portrayed as involving in-

teraction among the planning dilemma confronting the teacher (arising

from the general teaching dilemma), teaching knowledge and experience,

teaching goals, and the teaching materials available.

The sensing,

searching, generating, and manipulating of ideas based on these ele-

ments is referred to as theciiscovery cycle-

The result of this

cycle is the statement of a problem (idea) in the form of an "initial

problem conception" which becomes the basis for further elaboration

(planning).

Each of these components of problem finding will now be

discussed.

General Teaching Dilemma

 

The characteristic of ill-defined or "discovered" problem situa-

tions is that the problem to be solved is not presented and defined

for the problem solver; only the general task or "dilemma" is

268

 

 

 

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269

presented.

The general task for teaching is represented in the model

by the "general teaching dilemma."

One way of stating this dilemma is,

"Here is your classroom; here are your students; teach them."

Although

this is obviously an oversimplification, it may be closer than one

thinks to characterizing the "openness" in many teaching and planning

situations.

flflmzmodel portrays three major influences contributing to the

general teaching dilemma.

The first is the teaching environment and

its organizational influences.

This includes the physical characteris-

tics of the classroom and the school, and also organizational factors

that influence such things as whether or not a classroom is self-

contained, whether or not it is "split" across grades, and the number

of students in the class.

The length of the school day and the length

of lunch and recesses are also included under organizational influ-

ences.

Relationships with the principal and with other teachers are

further factors shaping the environment for teaching.

The second major influence on the general teaching dilemma is the

curriculum and resources available for teaching.

This involves the

curricular guidelines inherent in school or district objectives and in

student evaluation forms.

It also includes programs, kits, and mater-

ials supplied to the school for teaching certain subjects, resource

teachers available for teaching in certain subject matter areas (e.g.,

art or music), and aides available for helping in the classroom.

Pupil characteristics are the third major influence shaping the

general teaching dilemma.

Influential characteristics include pupil

background factors and judgments of student ability, maturity, atten-

tion span, ability to work as a group, and so forth.

A detailed

270

description of each of these three major influences in Mrs. Lisa's

classroom was presented in Chapter IV.

The Discovery Cygle

 

The fact that teachers vary in the materials and activities they

use in their classrooms even at similar grade levels in the same

school raises the question of where ideas and activities come from.

If they arise solely from the general teaching dilemma confronting

them, it would seem likely that teachers in similar situations would

be teaching in similar ways.

The discovery cycle is a means for accounting for the uniqueness

and originality of teaching.

It does this by including in problem

finding four other components:

the "planning dilemma," teaching knowl-

edge and experience, "goal conceptions" of teaching, and teaching ma-

terials.

One of the components (materials) is "outside" of the plan-

ner as part of the teaching situation; the other three (planning

dilemma, teaching goal conceptions, and knowledge and experience) are

within the planner.

Problem finding arises out of the interaction of

these four components.

Planning dilemma.

The planning dilemma is created as a direct

 

outgrowth of the general teaching dilemma.

As soon as one begins to

explore the general teaching dilemma, one finds that it is charac-

terized by complexity, immediacy, and unpredictability.

(See Figure

1.1 and the accompanying discussion.)

These factors make planning a

near necessity, and it is out of this need that the planning dilemma

is formulated. The planning dilemma might be stated in its most general

form as, "I've got to plan for this unit (or activity, lesson, etc.)."

271

The specificity of the planning dilemma may change as planning

proceeds over time.

In Mrs. Lisa's planning, changes in specificity

of the planning dilemma are most obvious across the levels of planning

discussed in Chapter VI.

Using social studies as an example, the

planning dilemma at the yearly planning level might be phrased as,

"Plan for social studies."

At the unit level, it might be more speci-

fically put in the form, "Plan for the nutrition unit," or more speci-

fically, "Plan for an activity using the four basic food groups."

In

this manner, the planning dilemma frames the problem finding process

at various levels of specificity.

This might be described in informa-

tion processing terms as a way of establishing the "problem space" for

problem finding.

It may also be that the establishment of the planning

dilemma is one of the functions of the executive planning routines men-

tioned in Chapter V.

Teaching goal conceptions.

Teaching goal conceptions are one of

 

the two goal components in this planning model.

The other is the

total problem conception that is part of the design cycle in the pro-

blem formulation/solution stage.

Both of these terms are modeled

after de Groot's notion of "Total Goal Conception: which refers to

a problem solver's anticipatory conception of the solution to the

problem, or the "goal—as-attained."

It includes all features of the

goal and the problem which are important to the problem solver at

a given point in the thought process.

272

The total goal conception was chosen as a model for the goal com-

ponents in planning for several reasons.

First, the schematic, incom-

plete character of the total goal conception that is gradually modi-

fied and elaborated during problem solving processes seemed accurately

to capture Mrs. Lisa's orientation towards goals and objectives in

planning.

Goals were not set in advance with subsequent planning

striving to achieve them as fully as possible.

Neither were goals or

objectives written out at any level of Mrs. Lisa's planning for acti-

vities.

Rather, initial goals, when elicited, were stated in vague,

general terms such as, "I'd like to use these books for a creative

writing activity," or "I want to do a social studies unit on Japan."

A similar orientation towards goals and objectives was also indicated

in planning studies by Morine (1976), Peterson, Marx, and Clark (1977),

and Zahorik (1975).

The second reason for using total goal conception as a model was

its comprehensiveness.

Using de Groot's definition, total goal con-

ception not only refers to the state of the main problem at a given

time, but also contains anticipations concerning difficulty and solv-

ability of the problem, methods possibly applicable to solution, as

well as notions of intuitive or emotional preference and dispositions

or motivations toward solving the problem.

In short, the total goal

conception includes both cognitive and affective expectancies for

solving the problem.

This comprehensiveness is theoretically important because it

broadens the notions of goals in planning from a purely cognitive

base to an intuitive and emotional base as well.

Also, it incorporates

273

a dynamic, motivational element into the model in terms of expectancies

and anticipations to realize the total goal.

It is reasonable to as-

sume, for instance, that the nature of goal and problem conceptions and

the constant interaction with them is a potent force in fueling the

planning process.

The third reason for modeling total goal conception is also theore-

tical.

De Groot operationally defined the total goal conception of a

problem.solver at a certain moment in the process of though as, "The

answer he would provide if interrogated at that particular moment about

his total goal conception" (1965, p. 75).

Thus, the state of develop-

ment of the total goal conception may be approached by stopping and

questioning the problem solver at any random moment in the process.

As de Groot acknowledges, this places a burden on the subject to intro-

spect about his total goal conception, and the detail and accuracy of

the report may depend on one's skill in introspection.

Recent critics

of introspection (e.g., Nisbett and Wilson, 1977) might further argue

that this method will result in a subjective "plausible theory" about

the state of the total goal conception rather than its actual condition.

Putting these arguments aside for the moment, the notion that the total

goal conception is accessible in thought may mean that it could be tap-

ped using methods such as "thinking aloud" which rely to a lesser ex-

tent on the problem solver's thinking about, judging, or theorizing

about his own thought process.

In fact, de Groot suggests that a more

concrete way of determining the total goal conception at a given point

might be to collect outlines, sketches, notes, and other work already

completed.

(Although no systematic and formal methodology was used,

it was through this method—~along with thinking aloud—~that many of

274

the features of Mrs. Lisa's planning described in this study were first

suggested.)

With de Groot's total goal conceptions as a basis, teaching goal

conceptions in this model refer

to anticipatory conceptions of what

effective teaching would look like for a specific group of students.

This includes conscious, explicitly stated goals and objectives (both

cognitive and affective).

It also refers to vague intuitions, dispo-

sition, or attitudes toward teaching that one may possess.

In short,

teaching goal conceptions include all the conceptions and anticipations

—-cognitive and affective, conscious and unconscious-~about what it

means to teach a specific group of students successfully.

During this

study, there was no systematic procedure for eliciting these goal

conceptions; however, Mrs. Lisa's stateable goals were collected and

are described in Chapter IV.

Teaching goal conceptions (along with the knowledge and experience

component of the model) serve as a guide to the problem finding process.

They shape the sensing, searching, generating, and manipulating activi-

ties of the process by acting as a filter for problem conceptualization.

Creative processes such as problem finding necessarily involve a lower-

ing of barriers to innovative and unusual interaction of thought ele-

ments.

This is a prerequisite to and a main feature of idea-generating

activities such as "brainstorming."

But since problem finding is a

directed problem conceptualization process taking place within a cer-

tain planning dilemma, this barrier lowering must be accompanied by

some mechanism for screening those problem conceptualizations that are

not worthy of further elaboration.

275

Within any planning dilemma there are an infinite number of poten-

tial problems (ideas, activities) that might be elaborated into instruc-

tional activities; not all of them, however, contribute to the instruc-

tional process as conceived by the teacher.

Teaching goal conceptions

contribute to the screening of problems by insuring that only problems

with potential contribution to the completion of teaching goal concep-

tions reach the level of "initial problem conception."

Earlier in this section, it was suggested that the incomplete, an-

ticipatory character of the goal or problem conceptions suggests a mo-

tivational role for teaching goal conceptions.

If this is so, then

teaching goal conceptions "fuel" the problem finding process in addi-

tion to guiding it.

The incomplete nature of the teaching goal concep-

tions creates a "disposition" similar to the "gap" and "tension" in-

herent in Selz's schematic anticipation.

Getzels and Csikzentmihalyi

suggest a further motivational factor that is most likely seated in

the teaching goal conception.

They propose that "creating order where

none exists" is a general motivating factor for problem finding.

It

has been suggested in earlier chapters that Mrs. Lisa's high "need"

for order was a major factor behind her planning.

It may be that

dispositions similar to this function as motivational factors in pro-

blem finding.

Knowledge and experience.

De Groot summarizes a discussion of

ability in chess playing in chess by stating that:

...a master is a master primarily by virtue of what he has

been able to_Build up by experience; and this is:

(a) a

schooled and highly specific way of perceiving, and (b) a

 

276

system of reproductively available methods, in memory

(p. 308).

The influence of this "treasury of ready experiences" plays a major role

in the functioning of experienced practitioners;15 however, the role of

experience has been studied rarely in the context of decision making

and almost never in the context of planning.

De Groot suggests two aspects of experience that may be important

to teacher decision making in general and teacher planning in particu-

lar.

The first is the development of specific ways of perceiving the

teaching and planning dilemmas.

This skill is particularly important

in a visually spatial and geometrical game such as chess, but it is im-

portant in all forms of problem solving.

Experience makes possible and

increases the use of "immediate means abstraction" as described by

Selz, where one immediately abstracts ("sees") from the structure of

the situation what is going on and what needs to be done.

It may be

that the experienced teacher can perceive some logical or causal struc-

ture in a teaching or planning problem that is not apparent to the lay-

man or the novice pratitioner.

This specialized way of "seeing" may

also be an important factor in discovering certain features or possi-

bilities in problem finding situations.

In this sense, problem finding

may involve "reproductive" factors in what is primarily thought of as a

creative, productive endeavor.

The second aspect of experience suggested by de Groot is more ob-

viously reproductive.

This is the storehouse of "methods" available in

memory.

This involves both knowledge of specific means-ends

 

15See, for instance, Chase and Simon's (1973) research extending

de Groot's work on chess perception.

277

relationships and a repertoire of problem solving and problem finding

methods.

The greater this repertoire of knowledge and experience, the

less dependent the problem solver is on the problem or dilemma to pro-

vide information.

Because of the wealth of knowledge brought into the

problem situation, the experienced practitioner can rely on "routine

actualization" while the less experienced individual must build the

problem from the ground up.

Available in memory are both knowledge and intuitive experience.

Both are the result of learning processes, but they differ in that

knowledge can be explicitly stated, whereas intutitive experience can-

not.

De Groot distinguishes the two elements by stating that knowl-

edge (knowing that...) can be explicitly formulated and is retrievable

from memory by verbal cues, whereas intuitive. experience (knowing

how...) is only actualized by situations where it can be used.

De Groot concluded from his study of chess mastership that "the differ-

entiated system of thought habits" (routines) possessed by good play-

ers consists partly of knowledge, but largely of intuitive experience.

These findings suggest that intuitive experience may also play a cen-

tral role in teaching mastership.

The persistent referral to "what works," "what happened last

time," "what went wrong last year," and other such statements pointed

to the importance of knowledge and experience in Mrs. Lisa's planning.

In the planning model, knowledge and experience are included as a cen-

tral component in both the problem formulation/solving stage and the

problem finding stage.

Three major roles are proposed for knowledge

and experience in problem finding.

First, they provide a repertoire

of activities, routines, and ideas to serve as a basis for the initial

278

problem conception.

In this manner, memory serves as an internal source

of planning problems.

For example, it was common for Mrs. Lisa to

search through her materials files for an activity or worksheet she

remembered was successful last year.

Often in term planning, whole

activity routines were recalled to use with this year's class.

This

influence of experience on problem finding was especially apparent

when looking through Mrs. Lisa's plan books from the two previous

years, since many current activities were modeled after those used in

the past.

The second role knowledge and experience play in the discovery

cycle is directive.

They provide guidance to the methods of problem

finding by means of executive planning routines.

Although these rou-

tines should be more obvious in the design stage of planning, it makes

sense theoretically to propose that as a result of experience these

routines guide the problem finding process as well.

It is proposed

that this guidance takes place through the introduction of methods for

sensing, searching, generating, and manipulating problems during the

discovery cycle.

Specific problem finding methods were not directly

observed during this study, and to date, there have been no specific

studies of problem finding methods.

Because of this, the model goes

only so far as to prOpose that problem finding primarily involves the

sensing, searching, generating, and manipulating of problem conceptions;

that these problem conceptions originate chiefly from knowledge and ex-

perience and teaching materials; and that they are generated in the

context of a specific planning dilemma and the teaching goal concep-

tions.

279

The third role knowledge and experience play in the discovery cycle

is evaluative.

As mentioned earlier, knowledge and experience function

along with the teaching goal conceptions as a filter for potential pro-

blem conceptions.

An idea may not reach the level of initial problem

conception because it does not contribute to the completion of the

teaching goal conceptions.

It may also be rejected if the idea has

already been tried and has failed.

Rejection for the latter reason is

lesson common than for the former reason since the planning dilemma and

teaching goal conceptions are constantly changing and evolving.

An

idea may have failed in a previous situation, but may be entirely fea-

sible in the present one.

To summarize, knowledge and experience are portrayed in this model

as involving:

(1) learned and specific ways of perceiving a problem

situation, and (2) a system of reproductively available knowledge and

methods in memory.

In problem finding, knowledge and experience pro—

vide a repertoire of ideas (problems) that may serve as a basis for

initial problem conception, influence the direction of the problem

finding process by means of executive planning routines, or provide a

further screen to potential ideas by comparing them with the success

or failure of similar ideas in the past.

Materials.

The fourth major component of the planning cycle is

materials.

It is the only component of the discovery cycle that is

outside the planner.

Although technically a part of the general

teaching dilemma, materials comprise a separate component of

the model because it was the element of the general teaching dilemma

most frequently and routinely involved in planning.

280

This component includes not only the teaching materials provided

by the school or district, but also any potential source of teaching

ideas available to the planner.

Mrs. Lisa, for example, frequently

used articles or pictures from magazines, papers, and catalogues that

gave her ideas for activites or for new teaching materials.

She also

routinely gathered ideas and materials from discussions with other

teachers, in-service training, and so forth.

The sole function of materials in the discovery cycle is as a re-

source for problem conceptualization.

In the same way knowledge and

experience served as an internal storehouse or repertoire of ideas, ma-

terials serve as the external source.

Ideas generated by materials

sometimes immediately became part of Mrs. Lisa's knowledge and experi-

ence though others remained external.

They were sometimes written on

cards and inserted in her plan book for later reference, or, if they

might be more appropriate for next year, they were "stored" underneath

the plan book she kept open on her desk.

Mrs. Lisa seemed to be on a constant lookout for potential ideas.

She brought in materials from home and got ideas from discussions with

other teachers.

Problem finding was carried on constantly outside of

formal planning and took the form of a general attitude or "set."

This is similar to Selz's "productive utilization of previously ab-

stracted means-ends relationships" discussed in the previous

chapter.

He referred to a self-imposed, permanent motivation or "set"

to build up one's repertoire of solving methods.

This set was de-

scribed as permeating all aspects of the person's activities so that

281

means are constantly collected and stored regardless of whether specific

plans or problems are in mind.

This attitude or motivation seemed to

be pervasive in Mrs. Lisa's teaching, and it is proposed that this "pro-

blem finding set" is a further source of motivation for the discovery

cycle in this model.

(The other motivating factors proposed earlier

were the striving for completion of the teaching goal conceptions and

the creating of order where none exists.)

Initial Problem Conception

 

The product of problem finding is the initial problem conception.

This refers to the abstract, schematic idea (conception) seen as a

worthy prospect for further elaboration.

As mentioned above, the only

general constraints put on this idea are that it contributes to the

completion (fulfillment) of the teaching goal conceptions and that it

has not been tried and rejected in the present planning situation.

In

other words, it must be perceived as a worthy instructional idea that

has not recently failed.

These conditions are lax to increase the pro-

bability of creative ideas emerging from the discovery cycle and to

provide enough ideas as sufficient "grist" for the design cycle.

One

restriction the discovery cycle does not impose on the initial problem

conception is that it be realistic.

"Utopian" ideas are usually pared

down quickly in the early phases of the design cycle, although they

might serve as some recurring aspect of the teaching goal conceptions,

for example, an implicit "ideal classroom."

The specificity of initial problem conceptions is usually very low.

The job of the discovery cycle is to generate problems.

The job of the

design cycle is to formulate, elaborate, and specify them.

These

282

initial ideas may, however, vary in scope.

For instance, problem find—

ing within a planning dilemma like, "Think up some science unit for the

winter," will result in initial problem conceptions needing much ela-

boration; whereas a dilemma such as, "Plan for an activity introducing

the concept of a system," may result in ideas with more limited scope

and needing less elaboration.

At any rate, the function of the initial

problem conception is to bring ideas to a sufficient stage of awareness

so that a significant and promising problem can be further elaborated

in the problem formulation/solution stage of planning.

Summagy

The need for a problem finding stage in the model of teacher plan—

‘ning was defended by two arguments.

First, the general teaching dilem-

ma confronting teachers poses very few "presented problems."

Thus,

much of the planning carried out by teachers is not a product or a re-

sult of problem solving alone.

Second, a distinguishing characteristic

of teacher planning is the variety, uniqueness, and originality of re-

sults.

These are not a direct response to problems posed by the gen-

eral teaching dilemma, but are generated through some type of "crea-

tive" process.

Based on these factors, Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi's notion of

"problem finding" was applied.

Each of the components of the discovery

cycle was suggested by teacher behavior or through logical extension of

the requirements of the planning environment.

The planning dilemma re-

presents the general planning task posed by features of the general

teaching dilemma such as complexity, immediacy, and unpredictability.

The teaching goal conceptions are general teaching goals described

283

using a goal representation proposed by de Groot (1965).

Knowledge and

experience represent the teacher's repertoire of knowledge, skills, and

methods built up over years of teaching; and materials represent the

external source of ideas and problems for further planning.

The model proposes that problem finding results from the inter-

action of the four components in the discovery cycle.

The generality

of this study provided few clues about the actual methods involved in

problem finding; however, it is proposed that problem finding involves

processes of sensing, searching, generating, and manipulating (e.g.,

combining) ideas.

Three factors are proposed in the model as motivational influ-

ences in problem finding.

The first two seem to arise from teaching

goal conceptions.

They are (l) a "disposition" towards completion of

the teaching goal conceptions, and (2) a "need" for creating order out

of the "chaos" presented by the planning dilemma.

The third motiva-

tional factor suggested is a self-imposed "problem finding set" in-

volving a constant striving for building up one's repertoire of pro-

blem finding methods and resources.

The product of problem finding in the model is an initial goal

conception.

This refers to the awareness of a potential planning oro-

blem that is most likely stated in a vague, general form similar to

Selz's schematic anticipations.

The process of taking this initial

problem conception and elaborating, formulatinG, and solving it to

produce an instructional activity takes place in the problem formula-

tion/solution stage of planning.

This stage will be discussed next.

284

Problem Formulation and Solution

 

Introduction

 

The second stage in the model of teacher planning involves problem

formulation and solution.

The basic assumption made in this stage is

that problem formulation is an essential element in problem solving and

that the two processes proceed hand-in-hand.

The interweaving Of these

two processes is necessary because of the Openness of the planning pro-

blem situation.

Before a problem may be solved, it must first be dis-

covered and then formulated into a manageable stage.

Based on the characteristics Of the problem situation, problem

formulation and solution activities are protrayed as a design process.

The obvious parallels between the situations confronting teachers and

those confronting designers were presented in the previous

chapter.

In both types of problems, no problem Specificiation is given

or agreed upon, no formal language with precise solution Operations are

available, and the goals to be achieved and the restrictions on the

problem are open to interpretation.

There are many features of the design process that are character-

istic of teacher planning.

It is a process of conceiving, creating,

and forming some plan. scheme, or artifact.

It is a morphological and

interative process.

It involves a peculiar mix of creativity and rea-

son.

It involves analysis of one possibility at a time, and in such a

way as to require that the planner be "advocate, witness, judge, and

jury" (see Collins' characterization of architectural design, p. 242).

The primary decision process involves the rejection of an unworkable

idea rather than choice among alternatives.

285

Based on these apparent similarities, the problem formulation/solv-

ing stage of planning is modeled after design processes that have proven

to be characteristic of musical composition (Bahle), chess thinking

(de Groot), and architectural design (Baer, Eastman).

In all three of

these situations, problem solving has been characterized as a process

involving alternation between phases of problem development (elabora-

tion, construction) and phases of problem reformulation (adaptation

transformation).

In other words, findings suggest a general design

process made up of continual goal development involving a cycling be-

tween solution anticipations and the results of attempts at solving

subproblems.

The existence of these processes in three such apparently

disparate endeavors as playing chess, writing a song, and designing a

building adds credibility to the notion of a "principle of creative

form-making" (Bahle, 1939).

Four characteristics of Mrs. Lisa's planning were observed in this

study that suggested design processes like those described above.

The

first was the planning situation confronting Mrs. Lisa.

It was such

that there were few preplanned or prepared instructional materials or

activities from which she could choose.

This required that she search

for activities that would conform to district guidelines and her own

goals.

When found, they almost always had to be developed and adapted

to fit the characteristics of her classroom, most notably, the split

nature of her class.

For topics such as writing skills, few'materials

or activities were available in any form, so planning took on the form

of instructional development and design.

Even when preplanned materi-

als were available, a decision to use a unit format (e.g., in science

and social studies) required extensive new planning.

286

The second feature of Mrs. Lisa's planning that suggested a design

process was the absence of alternatives in her planning.

In early

stages of planning (i.e., the problem finding stage), alternatives were

sometimes generated as possible directions for unit planning, but there

was a conspicuous absence of fully elaborated and developed activity or

lesson alternatives as products of her planning.

Rather, Mrs. Lisa's

planning seemed to progress along a route that produced only one final

plan or activity.

Failure of this one activity or lesson in the class-

room almost always resulted in a change to a "filler" activity (e.g.,

choice time) rather than a switch to some preplanned alternative.

Failure at higher levels usually resulted in replanning rather than an

adoption of some alternative plan "waiting in the wings."

In other

words, Mrs. Lisa's planning seemed to be focused on the development of

one idea, plan, or activity at a time, and time and energy were not

diverted to the development of alternatives which might never be used.

This strategy makes sense in Mrs. Lisa's planning situation since

almost every new plan, lesson, or activity had to be built from the

ground up.

Developing alternatives that may never be implemented would

be an inefficient tactic since if not used now, there is no assurance

that they can be used in the future.

Time and energy are at a premium

in teaching, and such planning may be very inefficient.

The third feature of Mrs. Lisa's planning suggesting a design pro-

cess was the progressive elaboration of plans and activities over time.

This was an obvious feature of her planning and was required by the

complexity and unpredictability of the planning dilemma and by the ex-

tensive scope (in time) of the teaching and planning task.

It is ob-

viously not feasible to produce polished palns for teaching twenty

287

seven different learners over nine months.

The task requires that plan-

ning progress from general to specific, or as Chapter VI suggested,

from yearly to term, to unit, to weekly, and to daily planning.

Even the planning done on one level was characterized by elabora-

tion.

Unit planning, for instance, involved many steps to go from a

lesson idea to its final form.

Given that few of Mrs. Lisa's activi-

ties or lessons came prepared in final form (e.g., from a catalogue or

program), the necessity for elaboartion to achieve a workable product

was readily apparent.

The fourth feature that led to a conception of Mrs. Lisa's plan-

ning as a design activity was the lack Of specific, well defined goals.

Formally stated goals or Objectives were altogether lacking in Mrs.

Lisa's teaching.

When asked about her teaching goals, Mrs. Lisa could

only state them in general terms (see Chapter IV for a discussion of

these goals).

Since goals were not stated (or stateable) prior to

problem solving (planning), it was assumed that they were formulated

and elaborated as planning progressed.

At lower levels of planning

(especially weekly and daily), goals and problems were often fixed as a

result of routinization.

For this reason, the term and unit planning

levels first suggested a notion of goal development.

The model of this "design" stage of teacher planning is primarily

an outgrowth of the Selz-Bahle-de Groot theory of problem solving com-

bined with those features of Mrs. Lisa's planning observed in the

study.

The field study provided suggestions for major components in

the model; however, specifics of the processes are provided by the more

controlled and detailed studies carried out by other researchers in

analogous problem situations.

288

The Design Cycle

 

The primary mechanism of problem formulation and solution is ref-

fered to as the design cycle.

Here problem solving is portrayed as a

design process involving progressive elaboration of plans or activities

over time.

This process is illustrated in Figure 8.3.

The dominant feature of the design cycle is its phase structure.

The progressive development and solution of the planning problem takes

place as it cycles through phases of elaboration, investigation and

adaptation.

These phases are a synthesis of the elaborative, move,

and transition phases of de Groot and Baer's problem formulation pro-

cesses Of "construction" and "adaptation."

As a problem progresses

through the three phases of design, two major aspects of the thought

process are involved.

Elaboration and investigation draw on the plan-

ner's repertoire of problem solving methods (knowledge and experience),

and adaptation is based upon the planner's total problem conception.

There are two other important general features of the design cycle.

First, the process is serial in nature and only one problem is elabora-

ted at a time.

Elaboration, investigation, and adaptation continue

until the problem is "solved" or until it is rejected as unworkable.

The second feature is that the process happens over time.

The length

of the cycle can vary, however.

At its longest, the cycle may continue

across several levels of planning.

For instance, a unit activity might

be progressively solved over a period of several weeks.

At the other

extreme, the cycle may last only minutes if an initial problem concep-

tion requires only minor elaboration to become workable or if it is

quickly rejected after several cycles because of the discovery of a

major obstacle to its potential workability.

Thus, the design process

289

w

 

 

ADAPI‘ATION

 

   

INITIAL

PROBLEM

CONCEPTION

 

 

I

’

\

o
c
o
c

o

-
K
I
\

g

I

I

6

’ we

 

_
\

\

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1
‘

  

 

PROV IS IONAL

SOLUTION

 

Figure 8.3

The problem formulation and solution (design) stage of

teacher planning.

290

may occur in visible phases of elaboration punctuated by either the

measurable "creative pauses" observed by Bahle or by the less obvious

change of Einstellugg and process noted by de Groot in his transitional

 

phases.

Before describing each of the phases of the design cycle, a note

should be made about the consciousness of the design proceses.

In an

earlier discussion of the distinction between knowledge and experience,

the importance and prevalence of intuitive (non-verbalized) experience

was acknowledged.

It was also stated that de Groot attributed the

larger part of chess mastership to intuitive experience.

It is pro-

posed here that even though teacher planning is a much more verbal ac-

tivity than chess, the processes of planning are for the most part

carried out at an intuitive level.

This, however, is not to say that

they are unconscious (which assumes no awareness), but rather than the

proceses are usually difficult to report and describe verbally.

As with most skills, this lack of a ready analysis for the process

is to be expected, since the focus of an activity for the skilled prac-

titioner is not the process by which it is accomplished, but instead,

the product or outcome.

It is for this reason that the examination and

description of skilled behavior (both physical and mental) is so dif-

ficult.

The traditional method for treating this difficulty in infor-

mation processing psychology has been to collect verbal protocols from

practitioners by means of "thinking aloud," and then to build these

behaviors into testable theories of information processing.

Thus, con-

sciousness or the ability to provide verbal reports of thought pro-

cesses by the practitioner becomes unnecessary.

291

The elaborationgphase.

The elaboration phase is the construction

 

phase Of the design cycle.

Its function is to elaborate and further

complete the total problem conception by supplying detail to sub-

problems or to the total problem conception.

Elaboration takes place through two methods.

The first is the

recombination of thought elements or routines that already exist in

memory.

In Selz's terminology, this method involves the "reproductive

actualization of means."

It is proposed that for the experienced

teacher, this is the primary method of problem elaboration.

The reper-

toire of means-ends relationships built up through experience is heav-

ily relied upon for several reasons. Means-ends relationships accrued

through experience likely carry with them some record of success or

failure.

Thus, the planner has more reason to predict its success as a

solution.

Also, elements stored in memory are usually readily avail-

able.

This reduces the time and energy consumed by an elaboration

since it eliminates the search and effort involved in locating new

means.

Of Selz's three methods of means actualization, "automatic

means actualization" and "routine actualization of means" are the me-

thods by which elaboration is most likely to take place since both are

experience-based.

The second method of elaboration proposed by the model is the ad-

dition Of new elements or "means" not a part of the repertoire of ex-

perience.

This is referred to by Selz as "means abstraction."

Here

the problem requires that new means be found to produce new results.

This method is subsidiary to the first method of elaboration primarily

because of the additional "cost" involved.

It should nearly always be

292

more efficient to actualize a means reproductively than to become in—

volved in a search for a new one.

If, however, there is no appropriate element in memory and means

abstraction becomes necessary, it is likely that all three of Selz's

methods for means abstraction ("reproductive, " "immediate," and "coin-

cidental")may come into play.

The most intriguing of these possibili-

ties for this model is "immediate means abstraction."

In an earlier

discussion of knowledge and experience, it was suggested that experi—

ence produces not only a repertoire of reproductively available means

and methods in memory, but also a "schooled and highly specific way of

perceiving."

It is this perceptual ability that makes possible immedi-

ate means abstraction.

In this method, a solution is immediately

"read" from the structure of the problem situation.

This immediate

structural insight is a result of experience and provides a view of the

situation not available to the neophyte.

It is likely that for experi-

enced planners, this "structuring" of the materials occurs frequently

in new situations.

An additional source of new means lies outside of the planner.

This is the materials available for instruction.

As described in the

problem finding stage, materials can serve as an external source of

ideas.

This may be especially true in the design cycle if the initial

problem conception originated primarily from materials in the discovery

cycle.

Elaboration is carried out on either the total problem conception

or on specific subproblems.

In teacher planning, the latter situation

is more likely since the use of subproblems facilitates a more orderly

and efficient approach to the complex problems involved in teaching.

293

For example, the primary objects of Mrs. Lisa's planning were activi-

ties.

The most obvious subproblems of planning for activities are the

seven features of activities described in Chapter V.

When planning

new activities, elaboration could be directed at detailing the location

of the activity, its structure and sequence, the duration, the parti-

cipants, acceptable student behaviors, instructional moves, and the~

content and materials.

As the activity becomes routinized, fewer fea—

tures would need elaboration.

At higher levels of planning, the products of Mrs. Lisa's planning

were the plans themselves (outlines or lists of units, activities, and

so forth).

Two subproblems seemed to occur most frequently in this

planning.

The first was the generation of the components of the plan.

These were usually unit or activity names.

The second subproblem was

the structuring and sequencing of the components.

This occurred

through ordering activities or units or by fitting them into a simple

outline.

At the yearly and term planning levels, these subproblems

were divided further.

For instance, yearly plans for most subjects

were subdivided into terms.

Given that elaboration usually takes place on subproblems of the

total goal conception, the question arises about the determination of

the order in which they are taken up.

When plans themselves are the

Object of the design cycle, explanation seems fairly simple.

If compo-

nents of the plan and its structure and sequence are the two subprob-

lems of the task, the components will be taken up first since they are

the necessary elements for structuring and sequencing.

This problem,

however, becomes more difficult when an activity is the Object of plan-

ning.

The sequence in which the various features are elaborated may be

294

determined by the planner‘s goals.

Take, for instance, the two activi-

ty features of participants and instructional moves.

On the one hand,

participants might be considered first as a subproblem since the teacher

feels that instructional strategy should be directed by the grouping of

students.

On the other hand, the teacher might specify moves first

since it is felt that grouping should conform to the best way to teach

the activity.

It may be, however, that a precise knowledge of the or-

dering of these features is unnecessary.

Since the design cycle is an

iterative process directed toward completion of the total goal concep-

tion, it is reasonable to assume that a subproblem might be taken up

again as a result of the elaboration (or changing) of the total goal

conception at a later stage in the cycle.

For instance, participants

might be taken up first, but may need to be reexamined when the later

elaboration of the other features suggests an activity that might work

better with a different grouping.

(This reanalysis of subproblems will

be discussed further in the description of the adaptation phase of the

cycle.)

Evidence for the sequencing of Mrs. Lisa's elaboration was diffi-

cult to collect because of the high degree of routinization in her ac-

tivities.

Unit planning came the closest

to the creation of new acti-

vities, and even there, features such as duration, participants, and

acceptable student behavior were usually already established.

To de-

termine a sequencing of all the activity features, it would have been

necessary to be in the classroom in early fall when the activities and

routines were first being established.

Given the routinization of

Mrs. Lisa's planning, it seems logical to hypothesize a routine se-

quence for the elaboration for plans and activities.

If this is so,

295

directing this sequence may be a function of the executive planning

routines.

To summarize, the elaboration phase functions as the

construc-

tion site" of the design cycle.

Here, subproblems or the total pro-

blem conception is elaborated by means of the application of elements

or routines stored in memory (means actualization) or by applying new

features or elements (means abstraction) based on methods such as

immediate means abstraction or ideas emerging from new materials.

This

elaboration is usually carried out on subproblems of the total pro-

blem conception and in a regular or routine sequence.

The product of

the elaboration phase is a subproblem solution or the completion of

a facet of the total problem conception.

These elaborations are,

nevertheless, somewhat provisional since their feasibility or work-

ability has not yet been examined.

This is the purpose of the next

phase in the discovery cycle--investigation.

The investigation phase.

Following elaboration, the problem

 

moves to the investigation phase of the design cycle.

Here the ela-

borations are submitted to some form of analysis to determine the

success or failure of the solving attempts.

Investigation hasgtwo

primary functions.

First, it provides information about the work-

ability of the elaboration and its success or failure as a subproblem

solution.

Second, it provides new knowledge and information about

the planning problem based on the results of investigation.

This is

especially true of failures.

Here the analysis of the solution pro-

vides information about aspects of the problem not part of the

total problem conception and not anticipated in the previous

296

elaboration. ’This information may serve as a basis for a problem

transformation in the subsequent adaptation phase.

Investigation relies primarily on two thought components.

Like

the elaboration phase, this phase draws upon knowledge and methods built

up through experience.

Successful and efficient investigation methods

are developed to facilitate this "feasibility testing" in the same way

that solving methods are developed in the elaboration phase.

The total problem conception is the second component of thought

used in the investigation phase.

Whereas knowledge and experience pro-

vide the methods for investigation, the total problem conception pro-

vides the criteria.

The success or failure of an elaboration (or sub-

problem solution) is determined by its success in meeting the expecta-

tions established by the (schematic) anticipations that accompanied

the subproblem.

Thus, the schedmatic anticipation (a la Selz) provides

not only the motivation (a gap with its accompanying "tension") to

carry out the elaboration, but also supplies the criteria against which

to measure its success.

On the question of whether one must think of this investigation

process as one of "comparing" the expectancy with the outcome, de Groot

rejects the explanation as being too "intellectualistic."

Rather, he

prOposes that success or failure of an elaboration is analyzed with an

anticipated degree or level of satisfaction in mind.

This notion is

supported in problem solving studies by statements such as, "That's not

satisfactory," or, "That doesn't appeal to me, either."

De Groot sug-

gests further that this abundance of terms such as "(un)pleasant,"

"nice," "(un)satisfactory," "appealing," etc., speak for an interpre-

tation of the expectancy as a (temporary) level of aspiration, or in

297

Lewin's (1951) terminology:

as a quantitatively measured "quasi-need"

that must be filled.

De Groot also proposes a quantitative expectation in chess think-

ing based on an "objective" evaluation of the board position.

It is

doubtful that such a notion is tenable in teaching since, unlike chess,

there is no precedent nor basis for agreement on the value of any one

solution for a teaching or planning problem.

It is prOposed in this

model that the success or failure of an elaboration is solely judged

according to an "aspiration level" created by the schematic anticipa-

tion.

Independent of the aSpiration level used for investigation, the

duration and thoroughness of the investigation phase may vary immensely.

On the one hand, the analysis may proceed in an almost totally automo-

tic or routine manner.

Such a process may be directed by a component of

an executive

planning routine and might include a method like running

down a mental checklist.

On the other hand, the analysis may be more

conscious and deliberative.

Here the process becomes much more of an

"investigation"--exploring elements of the solution in more detail.

"Trying out" is one such method that was characteristic of Mrs. Lisa's

teaching.

"Trying out" is a general solving method suggested by de Groot

(see Chapter VII).

Here, trying out is regarded as an investigation

method and loses some of the meaning ascribed to the method in

de Groot's discussion of chess thinking.

There are, however, several

elements of his definition retained here.

First, trying out refers to

a method that occurs only in thought.

Although the actual physical

trying out is not forbidden in teaching as in chess, it may not occur

298

until much later in the planning process (Stage III).

In Mrs. Lisa's

planning, trying out as well as elaboration could take place on paper

or in physical planning activities (e.g., manipulating materials).

Second, trying out is distinguished from trial-and-error because it is

goal oriented (in this case, anticipation oriented) with a specific

direction in mind (i.e., testing a specific elaboration).

De Groot

suggests three functions of trying out as a solving method:

hitting on

a solution, increasing information on the problem, and further disco-

very of new means.

Only the second of these functions is characteris-

tic of trying out as an investigation method.

Hitting on a solution

is more likely to take place in the elaboration phase and discovering

new means should take place in the adaptation phase.

Trying out as evidenced in Mrs. Lisa's teaching mainly involved

checking out an elaboration by thinking through and anticipating its

outcomes in the classroom.

This involved a kind of projection of the

plan or more likely the activity onto her present class and teaching

situation.

This process is suggested by her frequent use of statements

such as, "That will never go," "That might work," or, "I can see right

now that that will never work."

The degree to which imagery or visua—

lization was a part of this process is unknown; however, very vivid

visualizations of plans have been informally reported.

As a general

investigative method trying out seems to increase greatly the effi-

ciency of planning.

Rather than having to test every elaboration in

the classroom or wait until planning has been completed, trying out al-

lows a fairly accurate testing of a solution by placing it in a "pro-

jection" of the future that is based on knowledge and experience.

299

This visualization process suggests another criterion for deter-

mining success or failure of an elaboration not mentioned previously.

Besides the aspiration level created by the specific anticipatory con-

ception of the subproblem, there is also the results of the "visualized

outcome."

The product of these visualizations may be just as valuable

and influential in planning as actual physical outcomes.

The success

or failure of this visualized outcome is also most likely judged in

relation to a subjective aspiration level.

This notion of investigation is very similar to Dewey's (1922)

definition of deliberation.

He says that deliberation is the dramatic

rehearsal in imagination of various competing possible lines of action.

An "experiment" is carried out by means of tentative rehearsals in

thought.

The major distinction between Dewey's deliberation and inves-

tigation as proposed here is that Dewey tries out various alternatives,

combining them and piting them against one another, while the investi-

gation phase of planning tests only one line of action at a time.

The

important similarity between these two components is their function.

They both provide a means to investigate action without the possible

consequences of direct contact with the environment.

To sum up, the investigation phase of the design cycle supplies

the results of elaboration to the total problem conception.

If the

elaboration phase is the construction phase of design, then investiga-

tion is the phase of inspection and quality control.

The model pro-

poses that investigation relies on knowledge or experience to supply

the methods of investigation and the total goal conception to supply

the criteria.

Analysis may range from automatic or routine checking

to more deliberate investigation.

"Trying out" is proposed as a

300

general investigation method and one that supplies information about

the success or failure of an elaboration by running it through a pro-

jection (visualization) of the situation for which it is planned.

The

results of investigation provide two pieces of information for the

total problem conception:

(1) success or failure of the previous ela-

boration, and (2) new knowledge about the planning problem.

Both

these pieces of information influence the problem transformation tak-

ing place in the adaptation phase.

The adaptation phase.

Adaptation is the phase of the design pro-

 

cess that completes the problem solving cycle.

It is in effect both

the beginning and the end of each cycle.

This is because the adapta-

tion phase is focused on the development and completion of the total

problem conception.

The total problem conception, like teaching goal conceptions dis-

cussed earlier, is modeled after de Groot's "total goal conception."

The total problem conception refers to the problem solver's anticipa-

tory conception of the solution to the problem, or the "goal-as-

attained."

It begins as a vague and general anticipation, and as a

result of elaboration, it is gradually specialized, differentiated,

transformed, and completed.

The total problem conception arises from the initial problem con-

ception which is the product of the problem finding process.

At the

beginning of the design process, they are essentially the same.

Soon

after being taken on as a problem, however, the initial problem concep-

tion acquires a more complete character.

In addition to being an ab-

stract idea (conception) with potential for elaboration, it becomes a

301

full-fledged problem with all the accompanying features.

These include

not only the conception of the main planning problem, but also antici-

pations about its difficulty or solvability, solution methods, notions

of intuitive or emotional preference, and any motivational dispositions.

Once the total problem conception is initially formulated, it be-

comes the source of specific work problems or subproblems to be ela-

borated (solved).

The results of this elaboration (either positive or

negative) are fed back to the total problem conception by the investi-

gation phase.

These results thus effect the total problem conception

by either completing a portion of it or requiring a new view Of the

problem because of unanticipated outcomes.

At any rate, the total prob-

lem conception is always changed as a result of an elaboration.

It

never looks the same after an elaboration (and investigation) as it did

before.

Hence, in Figure 8.3 the total problem conception is changed

and is different each time the cycle is completed (T1, T2, T3, etc.).

The adaptation phase functions similarlyito the transitional

phases in de Groot's theory of chess thinking.

Transitional phases

punctuate elaborative move phases by integrating what has preceded and

by preparing for the next actively organized investigations.

They are

characterized by "open-minded" thought processes such as reflecting,

integrating, and abstracting.

In short, "The subject's set or £227

stellung is more receptive, less actively organized; his thought acti-

vity is not so much deductive and systematic but rather inductive"

(de Groot, 1965, p. 112).

Transitional phases are characterized by

pauses in the thought process similar to Bahle's "creative pauses."

Here the problem solver returns from special subproblems to problems

302

of higher order and in some cases to the main problem.

It is in the

transitional phases that problem formulation and transformation takes

place.

The adaptation phase in this model functions in much the same way

as de Groot's transitional phase.

Whereas the other two design phases

are phases of elaboration, adaptation is a phase of integration and

transformation.

The main purpose of adaptation is to formulate and

develop the total problem conception which, in turn, directs elabora-

tion (problem solution).

Thus, adaptation involves two processes:

the

integration of what has preceeded and the preparation for what follows.

The integration of what has preceeded (elaboration and investiga-

tion) nearly always involves a return to a more general problem.

This

occurs because in most planning problems elaborations are carried out

on only a part of the main problem (e.g., a subproblem).

To provide

information to the main problem the results of the subproblem must be

analyzed in the larger context.

This integration of the part with the

whole allows the assessment of whether the previous elaboration has

contributed to the completion of the main problem.

Integration may

also promote differentiation and specialization as subproblem elabora-

tions detail and make concrete various aspects of the problem.

This

return to a more general problem‘allows abstraction.

Here new possi-

bilities may stand out against the concrete form of the problem thus

far; the results of elaboration may suggest new properties or rela-

tionships in the problem.

The second process of adaptation involves preparation for further

elaboration.

As mentioned above, the adaptation phase always involves

2

a problem transformation.

This may be an enrichment and completion of

303

the main problem or involve a more radical structural transformation.

Whatever the form, this transformation is the basis for further elabora-

tion which requires a freshly set, specialized subgoal.

The question

then arises as to the direction of this specialization or, in other

words, "What subproblem will be taken up next?"

It is suggested here

that further elaboration may be directed along one of two routes.

First, the new subproblem may involve a reinvestigation of the previous

subproblem (in the case of negative results) or it may involve a "deep-

ening" of the design process by further detailing the previous subprob-

lem.

In this manner, elaboration proceeds by progressively detailing

one portion of the main problem.

An example of this in unit planning

would be the continual elaboration of the first activity selected down

to a level of detail at which it could be implemented immediately.

The

alternative to this procedure would be to return to the more general

problem of generating activities once the first activity was generated

and put off further elaboration until all the activities for the unit

were selected.

This second route for elaboration involves a "broaden-

ing" of the design process.

This elaboration strategy employs a more

"balanced" problem elaboaration since all of the subproblems are taken

care of at one level before moving on to the next, more specialized

level of subproblems.

Of the two elaboration strategies, Mrs. Lisa's planning seemed to

conform more to the second alternative.

This was particularly apparent

across her levels of planning, but was also indicative of planning

within each level.

The "broadening" strategy seems to be the more ef-

ficient of the two since it minimizes the wasted time and energy spent

elaborating a portion of the main problem if the problem is transformed

304

to eliminate that portion.

The deepening strategy may, however, be

useful in moderation.

Here a subproblem might be elaborated several

steps before a return to a higher problem.

It is likely that the

choice of strategy in a particular situation is carried out as a

result of experience.

This process may be routinized so that subprob-

lem elaboration is guided by a component of an executive planning rou-

tine.

The nature of the total problem conception is such that it is

rarely rejected in its entirety.

Rather, it is transformed and modi-

fied until a workable solution is achieved.

This lack of "scrapped"

planning problems is primarily due to experience.

In the discussion

of the problem finding process, teaching goal conceptions and knowledge

and experience were portrayed as "filters" to the problem discovery

process.

Thus, ideas reaching the form of initial problem conceptions

have fairly good experience-based potential.

Once the idea is formu-

lated as a planning probelm, it is unlikely that so many unforseen re-

sults will take place to render the problem totally unworkable.

A

problem may be radically transformed, but continuity will exist in many

aspects of the total problem conception.

A problem is "solved" when it achieves the level of anticipation

or aspiration that makes up the total problem conception.

Since prob-

lem formulation takes place hand-in-hand with problem solution, the

final problem formulation is not achieved until the final solution.

Once these two processes finally converge, the design process is com-

pleted.

The fact that in most teaching situations the designer is also

the implementer may mean that the end-product of the design cycle is

305

only a provisionally acceptable solution which will only become final

as a result of success in the classroom.

To summarize, the adaptation phase of the design cycle is the

seat of problem formulation and develOpment.

Here partial results are

integrated and fitted into the total problem conception which is there-

by updated.

This implies a return to a more general problem that, by

means of reflection, abstraction, and specialization, serves as a

guide to the subsequent elaboartion.

This elaboration is, in turn,

integrated into the total problem conception and the continual process

of interaction between the whole (the total problem conception) and

its parts (subproblem elaboration) leads eventually to a provisionally

accepted solution.

Summagy

The second stage in this model of teacher planning is problem formu-

lation and solution.

The mechanism proposed for carrying out this

process is the design cycle.

In this cycle, problem solving is charac-

terized as a design process involving progressive elaboration of plans

or activities over time.

The design cycle contains three phases.

The

first, the elaboration phase, is the construction phase of the design

cycle.

Elaboration involves the detailing and solution of subproblems

by means of the application of elements or routines stored in memory

("means actualization") or by applying new features or elements ("means

abstraction").

These subproblem solutions are then fed into the se-

cond phase of the design cycle, investigation.

Investigation involves the analysis of the elaborations to deter-

mine their workability (success Or failure) as subproblem solutions.

306

It takes place by means of automatic and routine checking processes or

through mental "trying out" involving the visualization or projection

of the solution into the teacher's current teaching situation.

Based

on the results of this investigation, the third phase of the design

cycle, adaptation, takes place.

The adaptation phase is in effect at the beginning and end of the

cycle.

In this phase the development, transformation, and completion

of the total problem conception occurs.

Results of previous elabora-

tions are integrated into the total problem conception.

On the basis

of this transformed problem, new subproblems are generated for further

elaboration.

This cycle of elaboration, investigation, and adaptation

continues until the problem conception is completed and the state of

the solution meets the aspiration level set as part of the original

total problem conception.

The product of this cycle is a planning

problem solution (a plan, activity, schedule, etc.) that may be carried

out.

Implementation, Evaluation, and Routinization

 

Introduction

 

The focus of this model has been preactive planning for instruc-

tion.

The discussion thus far has been concerned with two central as-

pects of this process--problem finding and the design cycle.

The final

stage of the model is not preactive planning, as such, but it does

provide the final link in the instructional planning process.

There

are two other reasons for a discussion of this stage.

It reflects the

provisional nature of the results of the design process by proposing

an actual "trying out" of the solution followed by an evaluation.

307

Also, the results of this process feed back to and build up the reper-

toire of knowledge and experience which, in turn, becomes an important

component in subsequent planning.

The interaction among implementa-

tion, evaluation, and routinization which makes up the final stage of

teacher planning is illustrated in Figure 8.4.

The third stage of planning portrayed here holds mainly for plan-

ning for activities.

It is hypothesized that the other major product

of planning, plans themselves, do not generally follow this sequence.

The primary reason for this was discussed in Chapter VI.

Evaluation

of plans by Mrs. Lisa was rarely carried out on the basis of how they

worked out.

Rather, their success or failure was determined on a

structural basis beforehand; that is, on the basis of characteristics

such as comprehensiveness, balance, variety, and so forth.

Since

plans are merely a framework to guide future action (instruction) and

Mrs. Lisa's instruction was focused on activities, there was little

concern for the quality of the plans, per se.

The reason for this was

that quality was usually fairly well assured through experience so that

by the time of this study, plans that conformed to certain structural

criteria nearly always served their purpose.

In other words, planning

had become so routinized that its effectiveness was rarely consciously

scrutinized.

The exception to this was the weekly schedule estab-

lished during term planning.

This was, in fact, the only plan actual-

ly implemented in the classroom.

For the above reasons, the third stage of planning in the model

will be discussed within the framework of planning for activities.

The following description of implementation, evaluation, and

 

  

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309

routinization will be brief and schematic and rely heavily on examples

from this study.

Implementation and Evaluation

The final goal of instructional planning is the actual implementa-

tion of an activity in the classroom.

All planning is aimed at making

this moment as successful as possible for the students and the teacher.

Even though activities have been submitted to many cycles of elabora-

tion and mental "trying out," their success is not guaranteed until

they have been tried out in the classroom with the present group of

students.

For this reason, the solutions produced by the design cycle

are only provisional.

Regardless of experience, implementation Often

yields unexpected and surprising outcomes.

The types of outcomes that Mrs. Lisa attended to most in the

classroom were listed in the discussion of daily planning in Chapter

VI.

When asked how the day or how an activity had gone, Mrs. Lisa's

response typically focused on student involvement, interest, and en-

thusiasm rather than on learning outcomes.

Similar findings have been

reported by Jackson (1968) and Clark and Peterson (1976).

At first

glance, this finding seems alarming; however, Jackson Offers the fol-

lowing explanation:

The problem turns, it would seem, on the distinction be-

tween the teacher's primary concern and his ultimate con-

cern, on the thoughts and practices dominating his immedi-

ate actions with students, as contrasted with his hopes

and expectations concerning the long-term achievement of

individuals within his class.

Teachers, particularly in

the lower grades, seem to be more activity-oriented than

learning-oriented.

That is, they commonly decide on a

set of activities which they believe will have a desirable

outcome and then focus their energies on achieving and

maintaining student involvement in those activities.

Learning is important, to be sure; but when the teacher

310

is actually interacting with his students, it is at the

periphery of his attention, rather than at the focus of

his vision...

In some ways, the teacher's concern with the learning

of his students is similar to a mother's concern with

the nutrition of her children.

Most mothers surely de-

sire their children to develop healthy and strong bodies

and they understand the general relationship between the

quality of the food they provide and the status of their

children's health.

But in planning their meals, the nu-

tritional value of the foods they use is thought of, if

at all, in the very broadest terms.

Many other variables,

such as cost, convenience, esthetic quality, and ideo-

syncratic taste play a part in the selection and pre-

paration of the family diet.

Because of the adaptiveness

of humans, in most cases the result is a healthy family.

Like mothers, teachers have responsibility for de-

finite aspects of their students' growth.

They, too,

understand the overall relationship between their daily

activities and the acheivement of educational ends.

But

in their moment-by-moment decisions, the details of this

relationship, the process of learning per se, is not upper-

most in their minds.

Rather, they seem to be guided by

certain rule-of-thumb considerations that are constantly

being modified by the specifics of each classroom situa-

tion.

The result, if we can believe achievement test

scores and other indicators of academic attainment, is

"normal" educational growth for most students (1968,

pp. 162—163).

During or subsequent to implementation, activities are evaluated

in some manner.

In Mrs. Lisa's classroom, activities were not accept-

ed, rejected, Or modified based on one day's results.

They were typi-

cally given several days and sometimes several weeks before a final

judgment about their effectiveness was made.

Mrs. Lisa explained this

by saying that children of this age need several days to adjust and

adapt to changes or new situations.

Early problems with activities

(especially when the focus is on involvement, interest, and enthusiasm)

usually ironed themselves out as the students became familiar with the

activities.

Mrs. Lisa took this same attitude with new weekly sched-

ules and modifications were made only at the end of a two or three week

adjustment period at the beginning of the term.

311

Changes in unworkable activities are usually along these lines:

if an activity needed slight revision but is otherwise successful, modi-

fications are made.

This may only amount to a brief review via the

design process focusing on the deficient element or feature.

In the

model this is reflected by a looping back to the design cycle where

the problem is formulated, elaborated, and mentally investigated until

a feasible solution is reached.

This revision is then fed back to the

next activity session.

The other alternative for unsuccessful activities is rejection.

Here the whole activity is thrown out as unworkable.

This is usually

after the deficiencies have been unsuccessfully redesigned or when the

difficulties affect features that are not modifiable.

In Mrs. Lisa's

classroom, this was a rare occurrence.

This was probably due to the

amount of experience on which planning was based and the efficiency

and effectiveness of the design cycle in weeding out problems.

Only two activities were rejected by Mrs. Lisa after implementa-

tion during this school year.

The first took place in fall term and

was not directly observed in this study.

By means of a recall of fall

term based on Mrs. Lisa's plan book, information was, however, collect-

ed about this activity.

The activity was a social studies unit on the

states which, according to Mrs. Lisa, had been very successful the

year before.

The unit involved a series of lessons on each state cov-

ering such things as size, population, geography, and economics in a

very general manner.

Dittos were distributed on each state providing

space where short answers on these topics could be written.

The unit

was begun in the second week of schOol.

By the end of the third week,

Mrs. Lisa realized that it was too difficult (mainly too abstract) for

312

most Of her students.

She tried it one more time in the fourth week,

but in her estimation it failed again.

Based on these results, she

threw out the unit altogether and moved on to another unit.

The other rejected activity took place in winter term.

This was

an "optional" activity called the "word contest."

This involved the

voluntary deciphering of a scrambled word written on the small black-

board every Monday.

If a student could decode the word by Thursday

afternoon and turn in an answer by Thursday, a small prize was awarded.

After the second week, several students were complaining that other

students were telling each other the answer or were receiving help at

home.

After Observing this herself and finding entries in handwriting

other than the students', she decided to discontinue the activity.

The difficulties were so integral to the activity that no modifica-

tions could have been made.

Also, since the activity was not an in-

tegral part of her instruction, there were few qualms about rejecting

it.

This and the failure of the states unit were both "chalked up to

experience" as the arrow indicates in the model.

Routinization

 

Many activites that are successful in the classroom are further

changed by the process of routinization.

More accurately, they go

through a process of being "unchanged"; that is, their elements and

features are established to the point of becoming routine.

As men-

tioned in Chapter V, routinization functioned to lessen the planning

burden on Mrs. Lisa by reducing the number of activities or activity

features that needed to be planned on a regular basis.

Because of

this, most of Mrs. Lisa's planning during winter and spring terms was

313

devoted to social studies, science, and math unit planning--activities

for which she had chosen to spend more time, and on activities such as

field trips and cooking for which routinization was not feasible.

A

lengthy, if incomplete, discussion of Mrs. Lisa's routinization of

activities was offered in Chapter V and the reader is referred there

for more information on the routinization process.

In the planning model, routines established in the classroom be-

come part of the teacher's repertoire of knowledge and experience.

This illustrates an important link between current teaching and future

planning.

As activities take on a routine character in the classroom,

these established patterns of teaching may also take on a routine

character in memory.

Chase and Simon (1973) in an article entitled

"The Mind's Eye in Chess" suggest that the bulk of the chessmaster's

experience is represented by tens of thousands of visual patterns of

chess moves stored in memory.

As a "new" configuration is encountered

on the board, it calls up the same pattern from memory along with the

accompanying solution methods and strategies.

It may be that experi-

ence in teaching is in a similar manner constructed of a repertoire

of routines in memory called up (immediately abstracted) by specific

planning and teaching situations.

These routines (or "programs") may

then be implemented wholly or in part as solutions (elaborations) for

particular planning problems.

Thus, routinization of activities or

strategies serves not only a current purpose of reducing the planning

load, but also provides constructs in memory to simplify and improve

future planning.

314

Chapter Summa£y_

 

This chapter has been devoted to a theoretical model Of teacher

planning.

The purpose of this model is to propose a general represen-

tation of the components of the planning process that may function as

a basis for further theory and research on teacher planning.

The model

is grounded on observations of Mrs. Lisa's planning during the study,

on findings from other studies of teacher planning, and on theory

translated from models of planning processes in musical composition,

chess, art, and architecture.

The model's focus is on individual, preactive, deliberative plan-

ning for instructional activities.

It deviates from traditional models

of planning in that the emphasis is on the discovery and design pro-

cesses in planning rather than on choice processes.

The model portrays

planning as "purposeful problem solving" as opposed to "rational de-

cision making."

Three stages of teacher planning are represented in the model.

The first stage is called problem finding.

The need for this stage

arises from the nature of the planning problem situations; rather than

having problems presented to them, most planners must interact with the

planning dilemma and discover those problems needing specific planning.

The model protrays this process in terms of a discovery cycle.

Here

problem finding takes place as the teacher's goal conceptions, knowl-

edge and

notion of the planning dilemma, and the materials

available for planning interact.

The product of this process is an

initial problem conception worthy of further exploration.

The second stage in the planning process is called problem formu-

lation and solution.

The mechanism proposed for carrying out this

315

process is called the design cycle.

In this cycle, problem solving is

characterized as a design process involving progressive elaboration of

plans or activities over time.

The design cycle contains three phases.

The first, the elaboration phase, is the construction phase of the de-

sign cycle.

Elaboration involves the detailing and solution of sub-

problems by means of the application of elements or routines stored in

memory ("means actualization") or by applying new features or elements

("means abstraction").

These subproblem solutions are then fed into

the second phase of the design cycle, investigation.

Investigation in-

volves the analysis of the elaborations to determine their workability

(success or failure) as subproblem solutions.

It takes place by means

of automatic and routine checking processes or through mental "trying

out" involving the visualization or projection of the solution into

the teacher's current teaching situation.

Based on the results of this

investigation, the third phase of the design cycle, adaptation, takes

place.

The adaptation phase is, in effect, the beginning and end of

the cycle.

In this phase, the develOpment, transformation, and comple-

tion of the total problem conception occurs.

Results of previous ela-

borations are integrated into the total problem conception.

On the

basis of this transformed problem, new subproblems are generated for

further elaboration.

This cycle of elaboration, investigation, and

adaptation continues until the problem conception is completed and

the state of the solution meets the aspiration level set as part of

the original total problem conception.

The product of this cycle is

a planning problem solution (a plan, activity, schedule, etc.) that

may be carried out.

316

The third stage of the planning model involves implementation,

evaluation, and routinization.

In this stage the problem solution is

implemented and evaluated in the classroom.

If after a period of time

it is not workable, it is submitted to further planning (by the means

of a return to the design cycle) or on rare occasions is rejected.

Most successful activities become established in the classroom by means

of routinization.

Whatever the outcome of the plan or activity, it be-

comes part of the teacher's repertoire of knowledge and experience that

will play a major role in future planning.

CHAPTER IX

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

The three previous chapters have described three different aspects

of planning.

Chapter V discussed the "technology" of Mrs. Lisa's plan-

ning focusing on the role and function of instructional activities and

routines.

Chapter VI provided a view of the general structure in

which Mrs. Lisa's planning takes place.

In Chapter VIII, a general

model of preactive planning was presented portraying planning as a

problem solving process chiefly involving problem finding and design.

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the findings and re-

sults of this study and to present some implications for future re-

search and training.

The study will first be discussed in light of the

findings of the previous research on planning both in and out of educa-

tion.

Next, the methods used in the study will be reviewed focusing on

the usefulness of combining ethnographic and information processing

techniques to address research problems of this sort.

After that,

implications for future planning will be discussed along with a model

for guiding future research problems of this sort.

Last, the implica-

tions of this study for teacher training in planning will be mentioned.

Comparison of Results with Other Planning Studies

Of the five empirical studies of teacher planning mentioned in

Chapter II, three will be compared with the results of this study.

These are Zahorik (1975), Peterson, Marx, and Clark (1977), and Mor-

ine (1976).

(Zahorik, 1970, was concerned mainly with the effects of

317

318

planning on interactive teaching behavior, and results from Morine and

Joyce, 1976, are not yet in.)

To review, Zahorik (1975) found in a questionnaire study of 194

teachers that the kind of planning decision most frequently reported

concerned pupil activities and that decisions about content were most

frequently reported first.

He concluded form this that decisions about

behavioral objectives are not a particularly important planning decision

in terms of quantity of use, and based on this finding, that teacher

planning does not seem to follow the direction of the rational planning

model in which planning flows logically from the specification of ob-

jectives.

Similar findings were reported by Peterson, Marx, and Clark (1977)

in a study done at Stanford.

They Observed teachers spending the larg-

est proportion of their planning time deliberating about content (sub-

ject matter) followed by decisions concerning instructional processes

(strategies and activities).

Like Zahorik, they found decisons regard-

ing objectives conspicuously absent.

While Zahorik found half of his

teachers reporting decisions about Objectives, Peterson, Marx, and

Clark observed that only the smallest proportion of their teachers'

time was spent on objectives (.04%) even though a suggested list of ob-

jectives had been provided to them beforehand.

Findings of the present study seem consistent with the results of

these two studies.

The most prominent and frequent concern of Mrs.

Lisa's planning was activities (see Chapter V).

The distinctions made

among activities, content (subject matter), and materials made by Za-

horik and by Peterson, Marx, and Clark were not apparent in Mrs. Lisa's

planning. Content and materials were subsumed under activities as

319

features that helped define the activity.

Thus, activities did not

exist apart from some subject matter.

Part of this difference, may,

however, be definitional.

Both Zahorik and Peterson, Marx, and Clark

defined activities in terms of instructional process or strategy.

This

definition is much closer to the teacher instructional move feature of

Mrs. Lisa's activities.

In other words, the notion of an activity

used in the present is much broader than those used previously and in-

cludes features that have previously been treated as independent de-

cisions.

It may be that the notion of instructional activity developed

in Chapter V can provide a more useful framework for relating these

various planning judgments and subproblems.

The discussion of routinization in Chapter V may provide an expla-

nation for the additional findings in these two studies of the predomi-

nance Of content as a focus of planning.

Table 5.6 on page 147 showed

that, even in such a highly routinized classroom as Mrs. Lisa's, con-

tent and materials was

the feature of activities most frequently left

"open" and requiring planning at the weekly level.

For seven of her

routinized activities, content and materials was the only feature not

set.

Based on Table 5.6, content and materials could be viewed as the

most frequent subproblem that Mrs. Lisa had to deal with on a regular

basis.

This decision should become even more frequent for teachers

with less routinized teaching.

Except for the most highly routinized

activities, decisions about content and materials should always be

present.

The presence of other foci should vary with the level of

routinization.

Like Zahorik's and the Stanford study, behavioral objectives were

not a central part of Mrs. Lisa's planning.

Objectives were confronted

320

primarily in the form of district objectives for each subject matter

area and were only used as a guide or framework for deciding on acti-

vities.

There was no evidence in Mrs. Lisa's planning to support the

rational model of planning.

Based on these findings, planning was por-

trayed in Chapter VIII as a purposeful activity guided by teaching goal

conceptions and the specific problem conceptions, and no provision was

made for planning using behavioral objectives or specifically stated

instructional goals.

The third study to be mentioned for comparison purposes is Morine

(1976).

She collected written plans from thirty-eight teachers for two

experimenter-prescribed lessons (one in mathematics and one in reading)

which were taught to a group of twelve of their own students while the

rest Of the class was absent (under the supervision of a substitute

teacher in another room).

The written plans were evaluated according

to their specificity, format, the statement of goals, source of goal

statements, attention to pupil background and preparation, identifica-

tion of evaluation procedures, and the indication of possible alterna-

tive procedures.

In general, she found that most of the plans submitted by the

teachers were moderately specific outlines listing possible examples or

questions that the teacher might use in the lesson.

An outline form

was also popular in Mrs. Lisa's planning; however, at no level in her

planning were specific examples or possible questions written down.

This agrees with the follow-up notes or comments by approximately two-

thirds of Morine's teachers stating that their written plans submitted

for the two experimental lessons were much more detailed than usual

and that most of their regular planning was done in their heads.

The

321

degree of detail or specificity for normal plans was, however, never

elicited from the teachers.

The lack of specificity about instructional strategy in Mrs.

Lisa's "thinking aloud" while planning and the recurrent patterns in

her teaching were major factors leading to the proposal of the exis-

tence of instructional routines in Chapter V.

It appeared that general

"strategies" were routine while specific examples and questions were

partially routine and partially composed in response to the situation

at hand.

In this manner, Mrs. Lisa could have the security of a gen-

eral format to follow, yet be flexible to the uniqueness of each

teaching encounter.

Morine also found that when goals were stated by teachers, they

were non-behavioral goals.

The teachers not only selected from the

goals provided to them, but also tended to restate and develop origi-

nal goals.

As mentioned above, this non-behavioral orientation of

goals and the tendency to modify goals better to suit one's purpose

was also characteristic of Mrs. Lisa's planning.

Attention to evaluation procedures and to pupil background charac-

teristics was almost entirely absent from Morine's teachers' plans.

She stated three hypotheses to account for this finding:

1.

Since these were "one shot" lessons inserted into the

curriculum, teachers devoted less thought than normal

to these aspects;

2.

These aspects may be more difficult to get out Of the

teachers' heads and onto paper; or

3.

Teachers do not really devote much attention to these

aspects of instruction in their daily lessons.

This lack of visible attention to evaluation procedures was also

apparent in Mrs. Lisa's planning.

However, none Of the above listed

322

hypotheses seems to account best for its apparent absence.

The lack of

specified evaluation procedures in Mrs. Lisa's planning seemed to be

due to the built-in nature of her evaluation procedures.

Written work

was routinely evaluated and marked throughout the day (see discussion

in Chapter IV), and student progress in tasks not regularly producing

written products (e.g., reading) was monitored through regularly sched-

uled contact with all the students.

Because of this, special evalua-

tion features were rarely included in activities and a look at her

plans would reveal an apparent absence of a concern for evaluation.

Attention to pupil background characteristics was also not visible

in Mrs. Lisa's plans themselves, but they were readily apparent in her

planning process.

Chapter VI indicated that pupil characteristics were

an important source of information at all levels of Mrs. Lisa's plan-

ning.

In terms of the process model proposed in Chapter VIII, pupil

characteristics are an important part of knowledge and experience and

play a role in both problem finding and the design process.

Although

pupil characteristics are used to guide the process of planning, they

are not necessarily apparent in the product.

Pupil characteristics and other factors influencing planning might

be more visible if plans included several well develOped alternatives

for action.

Then the choice among alternatives might be based on the

presence or absence of certain aspects of the environment.

However,

in both Morine's and the present study, alternatives were rarely, if

ever, mentioned in the final plan.

Although only a small proportion

of Morine's teachers listed alternatives in their plans, most of the

teachers later indicated during an interview that they had thought of

alternatives during their planning.

Since only a few mentioned

323

alternative activities, it is assumed that most Of the alternatives

were "variations on a theme."

This lack of well developed alternatives as a product of planning

influenced the form of the model proposed in Chapter VIII.

A major

feature of the design process was that only one planning problem was

pursued at a time and only one solution was produced by the process.

Alternatives might be considered as subproblem elabortions, but they

would either be eventually rejected or incorporated into the total prob-

lem conception.

Morine's finding that materials and cognitive consid-

erations ("content") were reported most frequently suggests that these

two aspects are essential subproblems taken up during the design pro-

cess.

Had Morine's teachers been following a rational model of plan-

ning, one would have expected a much higher frequency of alternatives

reported in the plans.

Although the focus of Morine's study was not

process description, it can be inferred from the planning products and

the teachers' responses that few, if any, of the teachers were follow-

ing the rational planning model.

To date, no studies of the teacher planning process itself have

been conducted to which the results of this study may be compared.

In

the three studies just discussed, process can only be inferred from

products of planning or time spent in various planning endeavors.

Studies of planning outside of education have had little more to

Offer.

Case studies of national or city planning have revealed little

more than a lack of evidence to support the rational model.

Based on

this, theories such as Lindblom's (1959) "successive limited compari-

sons" or Etzioni's (1968) "mixed scanning" have been proposed but not

empirically tested (see Chapter II).

Individual planning itself has

324

only been systematically investigated in the area of architectural plan-

ning, and then only recently.

The similarities between this process

and teacher planning were discussed in Chapter VII.

It is Obvious from this discussion that research on teacher plan-

ning in general is in its infancy.

Research on the information pro-

cessing involved in teacher planning has been initiated only within the

last few years.

There is a great need for further research in this

area to test the results of this investigation and the models that have

been proposed.

Before addressing this question of the directions for

future research, several comments will first be made about the methods

used in this study.

Discussion of Method

 

In Chapter III, a description and rationale was presented for the

methods used in this study.

Two sources of naturalistic data--micro-

ethnography and process tracing--were discussed as well as more artifi-

cial tasks such as the Teacher Planning Shell simulation and several

judgment tasks.

Since one of the purposes of this study was to ascer-

tain the usefulness of these approaches for studies of teacher decision

making, the advantages and disadvantages of these methods as used in

this study will now be discussed.

The Ethnographic Approach

 

The observations and field notes made while functioning as a par-

ticipant observer in the classroom proved to be an indispensable compo-

nent of the study. They provided an overall view of the characteristics

of Mrs. Lisa's teaching situation that would not have been visible in

occasional visits to the classroom.

The observations presented the

325

necessary backdrop for analyzing and understanding the activities that

made up Mrs. Lisa's preactive planning.

The complexity and long-term

nature of the planning activity made observation over long periods of

time necessary to determine the regular patterns and organization of

planning deliberations.

There are several important aSpects of Mrs. Lisa's teaching and

planning that emerged only after extended periods of time in the class-

room.

One was the dominance of activities in Mrs. Lisa's teaching and

planning.

Another was the regularity of activities and the tendency

towards routinization.

A third aspect was the various levels of plan-

ning that occurred in her planning.

Random observations may have over-

looked infrequent yet critical planning activities at the unit and term

levels.

Finally, the elaboration process was apparent in planning only

after Observing plans evolve over time as they moved from higher to

lower planning levels.

Complete design cycles were difficult enough

to observe during the extended amount of time spent with Mrs. Lisa, and

it is likely that they would have been nearly invisible with less fre-

quent participation in the classroom.

Besides providing a comprehensive view of Mrs. Lisa's teaching and

planning activities, the ethnographic portion of the study also made

possible a detailed description of the environment and context of the

planning task.

The complexity, unpredictability, and immediacy of the

teaching environment proposed by the ecological psychologists was con-

firmed in Mrs. Lisa's classroom, and the functional value of planning

for c0ping with these factors was readily apparent.

The field observa-

tions also provided a description of the students, the classroom, the

curriculum, and the many other variables that shaped Mrs. Lisa's

326

planning environment.

In short, the ethnographic description of Mrs.

Lisa's teaching provided the long-term, detailed, and integrated look

at the task environment for her planning which made possible a sensible

description of the planning methods she used to function effectively

in a classroom situation.

As a further note, it must be mentioned that the relationship de-

veloped with Mrs. Lisa by participating in her professional life for

almost half a school year was an enormous asset to the study.

Many in-

sights into the structure, processes, and methods of her planning were

gleaned from comments made in an atmosphere of frankness and trust that

is not characteristic of most research on teaching.

Her willingness to

Open up and report her thoughts during most of the school day provided

revealing and important information about a complex social and psycho-

logical endeavor that would have been unavailable to an "outsider" in

the situation.

The major problem with the ethnographic approach in this study was

the difficulty in going beyond a behavioral level of description.

This

is not surprising since the method has been most successfully used to

study social rather than psychological phenomena.

The richness of the

teaching environment at the behavioral level tended to "overwhelm" the

process tracing analysis.

Often, when a more detailed description

would have been more appropriate, the behavioral description was still

used since it was difficult to recognize when it was appropriate to

"switch gears" and then actually do it.

Even though the complexity of

the situation required a great deal of behavioral description, it may

have been useful to focus in on specific planning processes at an

earlier time.

Had strategic research sites been identified earlier in

327

the study, more empirical support for the general process model pro-

posed in Chapter VIII may have been produced.

The Information Processing Approach

 

Whereas ethnography is a method most often used to look at pro-

cesses of greater scope than those observed in this study, process

tracing is a method that has traditionally been used to look at pheno—

mena of smaller scope.

Both methods, however, were "out of their

element" for similar reasons--ethnography because of an increase in

detail, and process tracing because of an increase in complexity.

The biggest Obstacle to the process tracing analysis was the ex-

treme complexity of the planning situation.

Process tracing has tra-

ditionally been used on fairly simple problems or on tasks that could

be completed in one session (with the exception of Clarkson, 1962).

Mrs. Lisa's planning departed widely from these situations in two ways.

First, the problems of planning were usually not "presented" but were

rather discovered in the planning situation.

This created an addi-

tional problem of identifying the problem being pursued and of knowing

when problems were first attempted.

Second, planning nearly always

took place over more than one session and was not a process that could

be "compressed" into one sitting, because it was not always apparent

how planning sessions fit together until later in the study when

larger patterns of the planning process were identified.

Also, the

long duration of many design processes made it difficult to trace a

plan from start to finish.

Because of these difficulties, the product

of the thinking aloud was not a process tracing representation in its

traditional form of decision trees or flow diagrams.

Rather, each

328

thinking aloud segment provided additional pieces of information that

eventually contributed to the final description of Mrs. Lisa's plan-

ning.

Although the process tracing analysis in this study did not re-

sult in the traditional representations, it did accomplish to a large

extent its intended purpose.

The thinking aloud process produced ver-

bal data about Mrs. Lisa's planning processes while they were occur-

ring in the natural situation.

This investigation thus became the

first study to attempt to "capture" and describe planning as it hap-

pened in the classroom over an extended period of time.

The thinking

aloud procedure allowed a look at normally covert mental processes

that were for the most part free of rationalization, theorizing, and

selféscreening.

The verbal reports were sufficient to provide insight

into the general directions and processes used in Mrs. Lisa's planning.

It may be that because of the complexity and duration of the planning

process, more detailed representations cannot be easily produced with-

out requiring the use of more obtrusive measures that intervene in the

natural process.

The Teacher Planning Shell and the Judgment Tasks

In addition to the naturalistic data collection strategies, sev-

eral mini-experiments were conducted.

The purposes of these tasks

were to provide more detailed and specific data about information to

which Mrs. Lisa attended regarding pupils and activities, and to at-

tempt a more controlled analysis of her planning processes.

The first of these purposes was the major goal of the three judg-

ment tasks:

the pupil sort, the activity sort, and the sociogram

329

analysis.

The pupil sort and the sociogram analysis supplied addi-

tional information about characteristics of the students to which Mrs.

Lisa attended and provided further insight into pupil behaviors and

qualities that she regarded as important as well as cues that she may

use during her planning.

This information was incorporated into the

descriptions of Mrs. Lisa's planning in Chapter VI.

The activity sort

supplied similar information about Mrs. Lisa's perception of activities.

Categories generated in all three of the judgment tasks served as

guides for later observations that tried to document the use of these

cues in her planning.

The second purpose listed above--attempting a more controlled

analysis of Mrs. Lisa's planning process--was the goal of the Teacher

Planning Shell. Little new information was supplied by this simula-

tion for two reasons.

First, the description of Mrs. Lisa's actual

planning obtained prior to the simulation was so complete that no new

information about the process arose in the simulation.

It did, how-

ever, serve further to confirm the field Observations.

Secondly, the

most comprehensive planning task (planning pilot lessons for a new so-

cial studies program) proved to be unrealistic to attempt in a single

setting.

Mrs. Lisa commented that normally a weekend would be spent

evaluating the materials and planning the lessons.

Her attempt at a

somewhat simplified task revealed no new insights into her planning

process.

A positive outcome for the Teacher Planning Shell was the com-

ments by Mrs. Lisa about the realism of most of the tasks and the ease

of identifying with and getting into the tasks.

This reported realism

and psychological fidelity of the simulation suggests that further

330

development to remedy some of the encountered problems might be worth-

while and may produce an effective tool for the study of teacher plan-

ning.

Conclusions about Method

 

The primary method of this study combined two data collection

strategies developed in different research traditions for different

purposes.

This combination produced representations that did not con-

form to the investigator's expectations or to traditional usage, but

the combined results seemed to produce valid and worthwhile results.

This attempt at describing human information processing in naturalistic

settings does show that even complex decision processes can be studied

and described in a field setting.

The sacrifice in detail and specifi-

city that may be necessary in studies of this type may be greatly out-

weighed by the value of obtaining a picture of human information pro-

cessing in situ.

Because of the necessary lack of control, this type

of study may be best suited for the generation of theory and models

that may be further tested by more detailed and controlled studies.

It

is possible that comprehensive field studies of this sort can provide

a basis for theory development that has been sorely lacking in research

on teaching to date.

Implications and Directions for Future Research

The primary goal of this study was to provide a detailed descrip-

tion of one elementary teacher's planning decisions as they occurred in

the classroom over an extended period of time.

A secondary goal of the

study was to present models of the planning process that might function

as a starting point for research and theorizing about the information

331

processing involved in teacher planning.

It is the purpose of this

section to state some of the questions raised by this study that might

be appropriate topics of further research.

The findings of this study imply that planning is an important, de-

liberative process in teaching, that it is amenable to fairly detailed

description, that it is a multi—faceted process occurring over several

levels of specificity and scope, and that it proceeds in a purposeful

manner differing from popular "rational" conceptions of planning pre-

scribed by many theorists and educators.

The results of this study

may be grouped into three parts:

(1) the "technology"of the teaching

process related to planning (Chapter V), (2) a structural model of pre-

active planning (Chapter VI), and (3) a process model of preactive

planning (Chapter VIII).

The following questions for future research

will be listed under each of these three topics.

The Technology of the Teaching Process

 

In Chapter V, Mrs. Lisa's technology of teaching was described in

the context of two especially salient practices:

planning and teaching

by activities and the use of teaching routines.

Future research might

address the following questions about the use of activities in planning

and teaching:

1.

How wideSpread is the use of activities as basic struc-

tural units in planning and teaching?

Are there other

elements or units that are also used?

2.

What is the variance in the types and numbers of acti-

vities used by elementary teachers?

3.

What features of activities are most salient in teacher

planning?

4.

How common is the set up—lesson-take down activity

structure identified in this study?

332

Questions that might be studied regarding teaching routines are:

1.

How prevalent is the use of routines among classroom

teachers?

2.

Can the four types of routines identified in this study

(activity routines, instructional routines, management

routines, and executive planning routines) be located

in the planning of other teachers?

Are there other

widely used routines that were not salient in Mrs. Lisa's

teaching?

3.

How common is the high degree of routinization that was

found to be characteristic of Mrs. Lisa's teaching?

Does the amount of routinization vary systematically

across grade levels or across teacher personality types?

4.

Can the presence of routinization be related to the

efficiency and effectiveness of preactive planning or

interactive teaching?

5.

Can degreeof routinization be related to specific outcomes

such as classroom stability, time on task, achievement,

or student satisfaction?

The Structural Model of Preactive Planning

The structural model Of Mrs. Lisa's planning portrayed her plan-

ning as taking place at five different levels.

At each level, four

aspects of planning were described:

(1) planning goals, (2) informa-

tion sources, (3) form of the plan, and (4) the criteria used for judg-

ing planning effectiveness.

Some of the major questions raised by

this model are:

1.. Can the planning levels identified in this study be

generalized to other teachers?

Are there other dis-

tinctions that are more common?

2.

Are the goals, information sources, format, and "good-

ness" criteria identified in Mrs. Lisa's planning simi-

lar to those functioning in the planning of other teach-

ers?

3.

Are there significant differences in the planning skills

involved in planning at different levels?

333

4.

Can strategic research sites similar to those identified

in Mrs. Lisa's planning be located in the planning of

other teachers?

The Process Model of Teacher Planning

The process model of planning described in Chapter VIII character-

ized planning as a purposeful, goal directed process involving problem

finding, formulation, and solution.

Three stages of the model were

discussed and research questions arising from the model will be listed

under the appropriate stage.

Problem finding.

Problem finding was characterized as a pre-

liminary planning process made necessary by the "openness" of the

teaching situation.

Since planning problems needing solving were not

always indicated by the environment, they had to be discovered by the

teacher.

This discovery process was portrayed as a cycle involving

the interaction among the teacher's general goal conceptions, her

knowledge and experience, her notion of the planning "dilemma" being

confronted, and the materials available for planning.

Questions for further research arising from the model of this pro-

cess are :

1.

To what extent can the teaching dilemma be characterized

as a "discovered problem situation"?

2.

What factors in the environment contribute to the general

teaching dilemma in other classrooms?

3.

Can the "planning dilemma" be identified as a component

of teacher perception functioning in Open planning situa-

tions?

How is it perceived?

What are its components?

Does it change across planning levels or over time?

Does it really function to "frame" the problem finding

process?

334

What are the components involved in a teacher's "teach-

ing goal conceptions"?

How specific are they?

How do

they change over time?

Can they be "tapped“ during the

planning process as de Groot suggests?

DO teaching goal

conceptions function as an initial screen to generate

ideas?

Does the disposition towards their completion

function as a motivational influence?

How do teacher knowledge and experience effect the

problem-finding process?

What gets stored in memory?

--activities?

--routines?

Do teachers differ in the

extent to which they rely on these factors?

Does re-

liance increase with experience?

Does experience pro-

vide "schooled and highly specific ways of perceiving"

problem situations as de Groot suggests?

What are

the relative roles of intuitive and conscious experi-

ence?

What are their functions in problem finding?

Do they perform an evaluative function similar to that

Of the teaching goal conceptions?

Do they provide

direction by means of executive planning routines?

What is the relative contribution of the materials

component to problem finding?

What external sources

of information and materials are drawn upon?

Do

materials serve additional functions than as an ex-

ternal resource for potential problem conceptions?

In what ways do the four components of the discovery

cycle interact to produce initial problem conceptions?

In what ways are problems sensed, searched for, generat-

ed, and manipulated?

What are the factors that motivate the problem finding

process?

Do such things as a disposition toward com-

pleting the teaching goal conceptions, a need for

creating order where none exists, and a problem finding

"set" seem to be apparent in other teachers?

Problem formulation and solution.

Problem solving in the model

 

h

was portrayed as a design process involving the progressive elabora-

tion of plans or activities over time.

Of the three phases of the

design cycle, "elaboration" is the first.

It involves the elabora-

tion, detailing, and solution of subproblems by means of the applica-

tion of elements or routines stored in memory or by applying "new"

features or elements as a solution.

These

335

subproblems are then fed into the second phase of the process, "inves-

tigation."

Investigation involves the analysis of the elaborations to

determine their workability as subproblem solutions.

This by and

large is accomplished through mental visualizations and rehearsal pro-

cesses called "trying out."

The results of these investigations are

then fed into the third phase, "adaptation," where they are integrated

into the total problem conception.

Based on this transformation, new

subproblems are generated for further elaboration.

This cycle of ela-

boration, investigation, and adaptation continues until the total pro-

blem conception is finally completed.

Questions for further research

arising from this stage of the model include:

1.

How valid is this notion of planning as a design pro-

cess for the planning activities carried out by

other teachers?

Is ther evidence for a gradual de-

velopment of goals (problems)?

Does the process pro-

ceed through the progressive elaboration, investiga-

tion, and adaptation of one problem (activity, plan)

at a time?

2.

What are the methods and strategies used to elaborate

planning problems?

What are the relative contributions

of experience and external sources?

DO methods change

with experience?

In what order are subproblems taken

up?

Are the features of activities (i.e., duration,

location, structure, etc.) common subproblems?

What

role do executive planning routines play in guiding

and directing the elaboration methods?

3.

What are the primary methods used for investigation

of elaborations?

How common is "trying out" as a

general method?

Do teachers vary in their ability

to visualize or mentally rehearse elaborations?

What

criteria are used for judging the success or failure

of elaborations?

Are there other products besides

knowledge of results and new information about the

problem that result from the investigation phase?

4.

What are the primary methods and mechanisms involved

in the adaptation phase?

Are there regular directions

or patterns to problem transformations?

Do teachers

have a preference for direction in generating sub-

problems (e.g., deepening vs. broadening of the

336

investigation)?

What criteria are used for judging

the arrival at a problem "solution"?

Implementation, evaluation, and routinization.

In this third

 

stage of planning, the problem solution is implemented and evaluated

in the classroom. If, after a period of time it is not workable, it

is submitted to further planning or, on rare occasions, is rejected.

Most successful activities become routinized over time and eventually

become part of the teacher's repertoire of knowledge and experience

influencing future planning.

Some of the primary questions that need

further study are:

1.

How do teachers differ in their mechanisms for evalua-

ting the success of activities in the classroom?

How do

their evaluation criteria differ?

How long will an

activity be tried before it is modified?

How many modi-

fications will be attempted before it is rejected?

What

criteria do teachers use for these judgments?

What are the mechanisms involved in the routinization

process?

How widespread is routinization among teachers?

DO teachers vary in the rate at which activities become

established?

How is the balance between stability and

flexibility maintained?

What components of routines are

stored in memory?

Are whole routines stored in a similar

manner to chess board configurations stored by chess

players?

A Model for Planning Research

 

Listed in Part II of Chapter VII were four benefits of the use of

theory in research stated by Zetterberg (1975).

There were to:

1.

Provide the most parsimonious summary of actual or

anticipated research findings,

Coordinate research so that many separate findings

support each other,

Locate the most strategic or manageable propositions

for testing, and

337

4.

Provide a limited area in which to locate false pro-

positions, when a hypothesis fails to meet an empiri-

cal test.

It was suggested at that time that models may serve in the same descrip-

tive, coordinating, and directive manner.

Thus far in this study,

several models and many different cognitive processes have been dis-

cussed as part of the teacher planning endeavor.

The model portrayed

in Figure 9.1 may be one way to illustrate and coordinate for further

research the components of the planning process that have been described

or proposed in this study.

The cube representing the research "space" was composed by com-

bining three dimensions of the planning process represented in this

study:

the five levels of planning represented in the structural model,

the three stages of the process model, and the cognitive components

involved in planning represented by Simon's (1975 b) three phases of

the design process--intelligence, design, and choice.

Intelligence is

expanded to include the perceptual and search processes of planning.

Design includes the memory and the generation, combination, and manipu-

lation processes.

Choice includes processes for choosing among courses

of action such as judgment and decision making.

It is feasible that future planning studies would choose a cell

or a slice of the model to investigate.

For instance, one might in-

vestigate choice involved in problem finding at the yearly level of

planning or one might study problem finding in general across all five

levels.

One might also, for example, choose to study unit planning in

general or select a certain planning stage or cognitive component to

examine.

As studies are completed, the model would provide a frame-

work for coordinating the results and for indicating processes not yet

338

 

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Term

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Levels

g£

Unit

Planning

Weekly

,

Daily

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V//;esign

 

k///

Choice

Ooggitive

Compgnents

of

Intelligence --

,

Planning

m o

:3

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s
«:3

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H-go
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Stages of Planning

Figure 9.1

A model for Planning research

339

investigated.

It is also likely that future studies would modify the

research space by adding or deleting aspects of each facet as the

characteristics of the planning of many teachers are described.

Implications for Teacher Training

 

The Current Status of Training for Instructional Planning_

Morine aptly summarized the current status of training for plan-

ning in most teacher education programs when she said that it begins and

ends with the writing of behavioral objectives (Morine, 1973).

This

statement accurately reflects the influence of the engineering or sys-

tems approach (previously referred to as the "rational model") on all

aspects of educational planning.

Since a thorough discussion of this

influence was presented in Chapters I and II, this model will be only

briefly alluded to here.

The rational model of educational planning was first proposed by

Tyler (1952) and was later developed by Taba (1962) and Popham (Popham

and Baker, 1970).

Four essential steps for planning are recommended by

this model:

1.

Specify objectives

2.

Select learning activities (based on objectives)

3.

Organize learning activities (based on objectives)

4.

Specify evaluation procedures (based on Objectives)

More recently procedures such as task analysis and re-teaching loops

have been added to the model based on training models (e.g., Glaser,

1964) and the model has become known under such labels as a "technology

of instruction" (Anderson and Faust, 1974) or as a "learning systems

approach to instruction" (Davis, Alexander, and Yelon, 1974).

340

In opposition to this "separate end-means" approach is what has

been referred to as the "integrated ends-means" approach (Zahorik,

1975).

The advocates of this approach, most notably McDonald (1965,

1973) and Eisner (1967) propose that teachers begin their planning by

first focusing on the learning activity that will be provided for the

student.

Since according to this view, objectives arise and exist only

in the context of teaching, they cannot be specified beforehand and

only become visible as students choose their own learning experiences

and pursue their own objectives.

Thus, goals can only be stated as

"expressive objectives" which describe the type of encounter that the

learner is to have, but not what outcomes are to be.

Thus, teacher educators have a choice between, on the one hand, a

view of planning that relies heavily on a rational and formal procedure

of stating behavioral objectives, analyzing the task and attempting to

Optimize the teaching and learning encounter and, on the other hand,

a view of planning that rejects this model as being too rigid, mechan~

istic, and unrealistic and proposes a more open, "expressive," state-

ment of instructional goals.

It is proposed here that the model of

planning described in this study offers a middle road between these two

views of planning.

A "Via Media":

Planning as Intuitive Design

The model of the planning process described in this study embraces

certain components of both the separate

and integrated ends-means

models while rejecting others.

The purposefulness (goal directedness)

of the rational model is retained, but its formal and mechanistic

qualities are rejected.

In the model of McDonald and Eisner, the

341

openness and expressive nature of the goals are accepted, yet their

notion that objectives only arise individually within the activity is

not included.

The result is a model of teacher planning that portrays

the activity as a progressive and sometimes intuitive process that be-

gins with a vague, incomplete conception of the goal to be obtained

(much like an expressive objective) and progresses through a systematic

yet possibly idiosyncratic process of elaboration and development until

a satisfactory solution is obtained.

In this view, planning is purposeful, yet the final outcome is not

determined before the process begins.

This gets around a major problem

of the rational model created by the unpredictability and constant

flux of the teaching environment, namely, the need to be able to pre-

dict ahead of time desirable and obtainable outcomes.

This model also

capitalizes on strengths of the integrated ends-means model.

It allows

for creativity and flexibility, reflects the complexity of the teach-

ing endeavor, and provides for such potentially important non-

instructional aspects of planning as the teacher's interest in the

sytlistic and artistic qualities of his or her performance.

The view of planning resulting from this study should not be con-

strued as a mere compromise between the two currently popular positions.

In fact, it is consistent with both the oldest and newest thinking in

curriculum planning.

For instance, the early work by Tyler and Taba

dealt with Objectives in a much more general, develOpmental, and fluid

context than is common today.

Goals and objectives represented roads

to travel rather than terminal points.

In reference to formulating

specific objectives, Taba (1962) states:

342

It must be noted that at the point of planning a unit,

probably neither the analysis of needs nor the formu-

lation of objectives can be complete.

Further clari-

fication of objectives is to be expected at other steps

of planning the unit (p. 351).

Thus, the use of the "total problem conception" as the goal component

in the model of teacher planning may be a return to original proposi-

tions about goals and objectives before they were rigidified into a

linear process by the instructional technology movement.

The present view of planning is also consistent with recent curri-

cular thinking by Schwab (1969). .He regards curricular and instruc-

tional planning as being in the realm of the "practical" (concerned

with choice and action) while rational planning is in the realm of the

"theoretic" (concerned with knowledge).

Rational planning with its

focus on objectives is too theoretical for practice; it provides too

little of the concrete matter required for practical deliberation and

is too difficult to carry out in its entirety.

The importance of practical deliberation is also suggested by

Dewey (1922).

His notion of deliberation as rehearsal (in imagination)

of possible lines of action involves a view of decision making that

integrates "reason" and "desire" (intuition).

Rationality, according

to Dewey, is not a force to evoke against impulse and habit.

It is

the attainment of a working harmony among diverse desires through de-

liberation.

This suggests a view of the planning process that is not

strictly bound by reason but that also includes intuitive components

(habits, desires).

This is very similar to the planning model proposed

in the present study with its emphasis on progressive elaboration

(through deliberation) and on the importance of intuitive knowledge

and experience ("desire") and routines ("habit").

343

Although this notion of planning as intuitive design is only in a

theoretical state, it does seem to have some value as a working hypo-

thesis about current practice.

It has been shown to be characteristic

of at least one teacher's planning activities and conforms to a "prin-

ciple of creative form making" that seems to be evident in similar de-

liberative planning tasks in other fields.

In contrast, empirical

studies Of planning have revealed a conspicuous lack of the use of be-

havioral objectives even after their presence in training programs for

over a decade.

Eisner's (1967) argument against instructional objec-

tives based on their disuse is persuasive:

"Educational objectives should be stated in behavioral

terms" has been elevated--or lowered-~to almost slogan

status in curriculum circles.

‘Yet, despite these efforts,

teachers seem not to take educational objectives seriously

4-at least as they are prescribed from above.

If educa-

tional objectives were really useful tools, teachers, I

submit, would use them.

If they do not, perhaps it is not

because there is something wrong with the teachers but be-

cause there might be something wrong with the theory

(Eisner, 1967, p. 253).

On Eisner's side of the argument, however, there seems to be little

empirical supportfor the effectiveness of the integrated endstmeans

model.

The results of stating objectives in a general form or waiting

for them to emerge from activities has not been studied.

Though the model proposed in this study seems to be a good work-

ing hypothesis about "what is" in teacher planning, the question Still

remains about "what should be."

Proponents of the rational model and

behavioral Objectives argue that planning is better when their model

is followed.

The position taken here is that normative models of

teaching and planning must be grounded On both the descriptive and the

theoretical.

Research needs to establish a dialectic between theory

344

and practice.

Neither source is sufficient as a basis for prescriptive

models of action.

Schwab (1969) argues that theory unrealistically

narrows the problem and deals with it abstractly.

This of little value

to the practitioner since he is not able to do this, but must Operate

with concrete instances in all their complexity.

One cannot take the

opposite stance and use current practice as the sole criteria.

A pro-

blem with most practice is that once it seems to be functioning satis-

factorally, other alternatives are rarely considered even though they

may be more efficient or effective.

Thus, theory and the wisdom of the

practitioner must supplement each other through means of practical

deliberation and reasoning.

Whereas the difficulty in making recommendations for teacher train-

ing based on this study involves the problems encountered when attempt-

ing to move from description to prescription, it appears that much of

the previous work in planning has involved prescription not buttressed

by description.

The strategy adopted in this study follows practical

reasoning in the Schwabian sense.

It is grounded on "what is," on

current practice that seems to be a successful adaptation to the de-

mands and realities of actual planning situations.

From here one may

effect changes to improve practice in small progressions and in coher-

ence with what is already known to be operating in the situation.

SuggeStions for Teacher Training

The lack of empirical eVidence in support of the prescriptive

models of teacher planning does not release these comments from the

difficulties of the description-to-prescription dilemma.

What "is" is

not always what "should be."

However, as mentioned in Chapter I, a

345

rationale adopted by this study is that models of planning based on

what is possible in the classroom will, in the long run, be more effec-

tive

than models borrowed from other fields that are too difficult or

complex for teachers to implement.

In other words, what "should be"

should be based on what is "possible."

The findings of this study re-

flect what is possible (and effective) for at least one experienced

teacher and evidence for the planning model from other fields suggests

that it may be possible for other teachers as well.

Nevertheless, the

following suggestions should be viewed in the context of the limited

(and eclectic) data base on which they are grounded.

Five suggestions for teacher training in planning are generated

by this study.

First, it is proposed that planning be emphasized as

an important teaching activity which may help the classroom teacher

deal with the complexity and unpredictability of the classroom teaching

situation.

It may be that planning is one activity in which a preac-

tive investment of time and energy can have enormous interactive pay-

offs.

It should be emphasized that planning does not necessarily re-

strict or predetermine all aspects of classroom activity, but rather

that it can increase teacher flexibility and spontaneity by decreasing

the number Of structural and behavioral concerns that a teacher must

consider and decide upon during class.

Second, the purposefulness of the planning activity should be

emphasized while tempering the mechanism and formalism associated with

behavioral objectives.

It may be that behavioral Objectives are bene-

ficial and feasible for some activities.

However, it may also be that

an attempt to follow the rational model for all teaching endeavors be-

comes an unworkable and discouraging approach for most teachers.

The

346

formality and tedium involved in specifying behavioral objectives for

endless activities may be the reason that the baby (goals) has been

thrown out with the bathwater (behavioral objectives) by many teachers.

This study suggests that planning is necessarily purposeful, but

that the specification of detailed Objectives is not always desirable

or possible given the openness and the dynamic quality of the teaching

task.

It may be that the creative and artistic qualities Of teaching

that have been quashed and silenced by the technological view of in-

struction may need to be resurrected and discussed with less embarrass-

ment in the future training of teachers.

The trend towards characteri-

zing teaching as a clinical activity suggests the importance of the in-

tuitive, artistic, and experiential aspects of the teaching process.

The third suggestion for teacher training is that the potential

effectiveness of teaching routines should be pointed out to pre-service

teachers.

Often the word "routine" carries with it a negative connota-

tion of inflexibility.

The description of Mrs. Lisa's teaching sug-

gests that routines can be effectively used in the classroom to improve

and simplify both planning and actual. teaching.

Routines can simplify

the planning task by reducing the need to plan each new activity from

"square one."

Routines can increase the effectiveness of in-class time

by increasing the stability of activities and reducing time lost to

interruptions.

They can also increase student time on task by increas-

ing the predictability of activities and possibly reducing the stu-

dents' anxiety about what will happen next and what will be expected

of them.

It is likely that routines are a common tool of experienced

teachers, but Hudgins (1971) is the only educator to encourage their

use to pre-service teachers.

347

A fourth suggestion for training resulting from this study is that

more time be spent on higher levels of planning.

Generally, most ma-

terials for planning skills training focus on lesson planning.

In some

cases, suggestions for unit planning are made.

However, even in stu-

dent teaching, unit and lesson planning are the only levels with which

pre-service teachers usually gain experience.

It may not be until the

first year of teaching that yearly or term planning is confronted, and

this skill may be only picked up through trial and error or through the

mercy of a more experienced colleague.

In fact, during the study, Mrs.

Lisa commented that the lack of training in these areas was a major

problem during her first year in teaching.

She also mentioned that

she has repeatedly seen this need in new teachers whom she has con-

sulted.

This need leads into the fifth suggestion for training, that of

providing more practice to new teachers at all levels of planning.

Simulations such as the Teacher Planning Shell might be an effective

means for accomplishing this.

Students could be given a simulated

class and asked to plan for different lengths of time.

Various aspects

of the environment could be changed and students would be able to see

how these modifications affect or should affect their plans.

A reper-

toire of teaching situations and problems could even be programmed into

a computer which could give students feedback based on the planning

decisions that they make.

This could be a valuable supplement to

student teaching experiences since students could gain some experience

dealing with the portions of the year when they were not in a classroom.

The planning model proposed in this study and research on planning in

other fields suggests that the greater the experience that the

348

practitioner gains and the more information that is brought into the

task, the more efficient and effective is the planning process.

Thus,

the more experience students can gain through simulations or actual

classroom practice, the easier and more effective their first experi-

ences may be.

Chapter Summary

 

The purpose of this chapter was to discuss the findings and re-

sults of this study and to present some implications for future re-

search and teacher training.

First, the results of this study were

compared with those of previous studies of teacher planning.

Mrs.

Lisa's emphasis and concern about activities, the absence of behavioral

objectives, the form of her plans, and the lack of specified alterna-

tives in planning were a few of the results of this study that agreed

with earlier findings.

Next, the methods used in the study were dis-

cussed.

The advantages and disadvantages Of the ethnographic analysis,

the process tracing analysis, and the simulation and judgment tasks

were each described in the context of the study.

After that, implica-

tions for future research were presented in the form of research ques-

tions regarding the technology of the teaching process, the structural

model of preactive planning, and the process model of teacher planning.

Finally, implications for teacher training were presented.

The model

of teacher planning described in this study was discussed in light of

current prescriptive planning models and five suggestions for teacher

training were offered.

CHAPTER X

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Summary

The major purpose of this study was to investigate teacher plan-

ning by means of a detailed examination and description of the decision

processes involved in one elementary teacher's planning during a five

month period of instruction.

The rationale for the study was based on

the fact that most studies of teaching have overlooked or ignored that

portion of teaching that occurs before students arrive at and after

they leave school.

Also, it has been suggested that this "preactive"

phase of teaching is where the teacher is most likely to be able to

function in the deliberative manner of a problem solver or decision ma-

ker.

It was hypothesized that planning may be one of the most impor-

tant activities carried out in the "empty classroom" and that it may

serve as the bridge that facilitates teachers' movement from the com-

plex and unpredictable environment of the classroom to effective and

efficient management of instruciton.

A review of the planning literature both in and outside of educa-

tion showed it to be dominated by theoretical and_prescriptive dicta.

Education seemed to have borrowed a rational model of planning from

economics and from national and city planning theories.

The same model

was Shown to be prescribed for all types of ecucational planning en-

deavors from comprehensive curriculum planning to daily lesson planning.

349

350

Empirical studies of teacher planning were shown to be few in number

and limited in scope.

To date, no study of teacher planning had at-

tempted to examine and describe teacher planning behavior in the class-

room over an extended period of time.

Also, none of the earlier

studies focused on the information processing involved in planning.

In

short, the potential importance of teacher planning for effective teach-

ing, the potential for portraying planning as decision making, and the

lack of knowledge about how experienced practitioners actually plan

were the central reasons for pursuing this study.

The superficiality and artificiality of previous studies of teach-

er planning indicated a need for an in-depth study of planning as it

occurred in the classroom over an extended period of time.

For this

reason, it was decided that one teacher would be observed and described

in as detailed a manner as possible.

The method chosen for doing this

involved a mixture of the participant observer strategy common to eth-

nographic studies in sociology and anthropology and the process tracing

strategy shown to be effective in studies of problem solving and deci-

sion making in the laboratory and in restricted field settings.

In

addition, several judgment tasks and a new simulation task, the Teacher

Planning Shell, were developed to attempt more controlled mini-

experiments in the field.

The teacher chosen for the experiment, Mrs. Lisa, was teaching in

a first and second grade combined classroom in a local school district.

This was her sixth year of teaching, three in special education and

three in a first/second grade split.

She was in her early thirties

and was highly regarded by her fellow teachers.

351

The study began in January and concluded in May of 1977.

During

the first three months of the study, the investigator was in the class-

room an average of four days per week.

During these days all aspects

of the teacher's day were observed and recorded as the investigator

"shadowed" her from 8:30 in the morning until she left school at 4:45

in the afternoon.

The fourth month of the study involved occasional

visits to the classroom while the data were being analyzed and while

the models were being formulated.

The fifth month involved several

more weeks of observation and the administration of the judgment tasks

and the Teacher Planning Shell.

The field observations showed Mrs. Lisa to be a very organized

teacher whose planning and teaching "technology" was dominated by in-

structional activities and teaching routines.

Activities were the

basic structural unit of Mrs. Lisa's planning and instruction.

They

functioned as controlled behavior settings that Mrs. Lisa could shape

to conform with her perceptions and purposes.

Action in her classroom

seemed to be either within these activities or related to their pre-

paration.

Seven features of instructional activities were identified

and used as a basis for describing the character of Mrs. Lisa's teach-

ing.

They included:

location, structure and sequence, duration, par-

ticipants, acceptable student behavior, instructional moves, and con-

tent and materials.

Teaching routines were portrayed as a dominant figure in Mrs.

Lisa's teaching, so much so that it was proposed that her planning

chiefly involved the selection, organization, and sequencing of rou-

tines.

Four types of routine

were identifed in Mrs. Lisa's teaching.

Activity routines functioned to control and coordinate the components

 

352

of instructional activities mentioned above.

It was found that by win-

ter term, eighty-six percent of Mrs. Lisa's activities were so routin-

ized that they required little or no planning and little set-up or

management effort when being taught.

Instructional routines were meth-

 

ods and procedures (strategies) established by the teacher for carrying

out specific instructional moves.

Management routines were estab-

 

lished procedures for controlling and coordinating classroom organiza-

tion and behavior not associated with specific activities.

Executive

planning routines were proposed as a system of established thought pat-

 

terns (cognitive strategies) set off by specific planning tasks and

used to call upon and implement the three other forms of routine.

Each

of these types of routine

was discussed as a means for increasing Mrs.

Lisa's teaching effectiveness and flexibility in both planning and in-

struction.

The findings of the study pertaining to decision making in plan-

ning were summarized by two models of the planning process.

The first

model was a structural model of preactive planning.

It portrayed Mrs.

Lisa's planning as occurring within a hierarchical structure composed

of five levels of planning, each having a different scope.

The five

levels portrayed in the model were:

(1) yearly planning, which is con-

cerned with sequencing and organizing teaching for the whole school

year, general materials,and pupil placement; (2) term planning, which

centers on activities that will occur within the next twelve-week peri-

od; (3) unit planning, which involves developing an instructional unit

for a specific subject matter; (4) weekly planning, which focuses on

activity that will occur as part of the schedule on Monday through

353

Friday; and (5) daily planning, which involves the last—minute modifica-

tions or preparations that must be’made before school starts the next

day.

For each planning level, the goals for planning, the information

sources, the form of the plan, and the criteria for judging plan effec-

tiveness were described.

Also, the connections and interactions among

levels were discussed for six strategic times during the year.

It was

proposed that this type of analysis is important as a means of identi—

fying strategic research sites for future investigation, to provide ad-

ditional information about details Of the decision process, and to de-

scribe the nature and degree to which planning activities differ.

The second model was a theoretical model of teacher preactive

planning.

The model had two major purposes:

(1) to describe and re-

present in a schematic form Speculations about the components of teach-

er's planning and their interrelationships, and (2) to serve as a ba-

sis for further theory and research on teacher planning.

The process model was grounded on three data bases.

The first

was the data collected in the field research portion of the study.

This source provided the unit of analysis and the basic characteristic

of Mrs. Lisa's planning process.

The second source of data was pre-

vious students of teacher planning.

The third source of data was psv-

chological studies of problem solving and planning conducted in similar

deliberative situations in mathematical problem solving, chess playing,

musical compositon, art, and architectural design.

These studies pro-

vided some of the terminology of the model and more detailed descrip-

tions of certain planning processes.

354

The focus of the model was individual, preactive, deliberative

planning for instruction.

It deviated from traditional models of plan-

ning in that the emphasis was on the discovery and design processes in

planning rather than on the choice processes.

In short, the model por-

trayed planning as "purposeful problem solving" as opposed to "rational

decision making."

Three stages of teacher planning were represented in the model.

The first stage was called problem findigg.

The need for this stage

 

arose from the nature of the planning problem situation:

rather than

having problems presented to them, most planners must interact with the

planning dilemma and discover those problems needing specific planning.

The model portrayed this process in terms of a discovery cycle.

Here,

problem finding takes place as the teacher's goal conceptions, her

knowledge and experience, her notion of the planning dilemma, and the

materials available for planning interact.

The product of this process

is an initial problem conception worthy of further exploration.

The second stage in the planning process was problem formulation

 

and solution.

The mechanism proposed for carrying out this process was

called the design cycle.

In this cycle, problem solving is character-

ized as a design process involving progressive elaboration of plans or

activities over time.

The design cycle contains three phases.

The

first, the elaboration phase, is the construction phase of the design

cycle.

Elaboration involves the detailing and solution of subproblems

by means of the application of elements or routines stored in memory

("means actualization") or by applying new features or elements ("means

abstraction").

These subproblem solutions are then fed into the

second phase of the design cycle, investigation.

Investigation

'355

involves the analysis of the elaborations to determine their work-

ability (success or failure) as subproblem solutions.

It takes place

by means of automatic and routine checking processes or through mental

"trying out" involving the visualization or projection of the solution

into the teacher's current teaching situation.-

Based on the results of

this investigation, the third phase of the design cycle, adaptation,

takes place.

The adaptation is in effect the beginning and end of the

cycle.

In this phase the development, transformation, and completion

of the total problem conception occurs.

Results of previous elabora-

tions are integrated into the total problem conception.

0n the basis

of this transformed problem,new subproblems are generated for further

elaboration.

This cycle of elaboration, investigation and adaptation

continues until the problem conception is completed and the state of

the solution meets the aspiration level set as part of the original

total problem conception.

The product of this cycle is a planning pro-

blem solution (a plan: activity, schedule, etc.) that may’be carried

out.

The third stage of the planning model involved igplementation.

 

evaluation, and routinization.

In this stage the problem solution is

implemented and evaluated in the classroom.

If, after a period of

time, it is not workable, it is submitted to further planning (by the

means of a return to the design cycle) or on rare occasions it is re-

jected.

For most successful activities, they become established in

the classroom by means of routinization.

Whatever the outcome of the-

plan or activity, it becomes part of the teacher's repertoire of knowl-

edge and experience that will play a major role in future planning.

356

The findings of this study, although of a different scope and em-

phasis, seemed to be in general agreement with those of earlier studies.

Mrs. Lisa's focus on activities, the absence of behavioral objectives

in her planning, the format of her plans, and the lack of specified

alternatives were several findings of this study that agreed with the

results of earlier investigations.

The models generated in the study

had no previous body of data or theory to which they could be compared,

but they did serve as a basis for many research questions to be pursued

in the future.

In evaluating the methods used during the study, it was

found that the techniques of ethnography and process tracing were not

perfectly compatible with the task confronting them, but that they did

function well enough to produce valid and useful results.

Finally,

based on the findings of this investigation, implications for teacher

training in planning were discussed which led to five suggestions for

future practice.

Conclusions

 

In Chapter I, nine research questions were posed as objectives for

this study to address.

The answers to these questions will be briefly

stated as a way of summarizing the results and conclusions of this

study.

The first five questions address process; the next four are

related to method.

1.

What different kinds of planning decisions does the teacher make?

Mrs. Lisa's planning decisions were shown to be primarily concerned

with activities.

The features of activities listed in Chapter V

represent subproblems concerned with location, structure and se-

quence, duration, acceptable student behavior, instructional moves,

357

and content and materials.

The structural model is another way of

distinguishing Mrs. Lisa's planning decisions.

Although the under-

lying process was essentially the same across levels, her planning

could be investigated in terms of categories, such as yearly plan-

ning decisions, term planning decisions, unit planning decisions,

and so forth.

What are the relationships, if any, among these decisions?

As

alluded to in the previous questions, planning decisions have both

structural and process relations.

Decisions about activity loca-

tion, structure, etc., are related as subproblems of decisions

about the structure of activities.

Decisions at different levels

of planning seem to be related by the hierarchical nature of the

planning structure.

Process relationships run throughout levels

and subproblems since it is hypothesized that the design process

is similar across levels and problems.

What information or cues are gathered to make planning decisions?

The information sources used by Mrs. Lisa at various planning

levels were described as part of the structural model in Chapter

VI.

In general, four major sources were tapped by Mrs. Lisa for

her planning decisions:

students, materials and resources, the

classroom and school environment, and her teaching knowledge and

experience.

Each of these sources was represented in Stage 1 (pro-

blem finding) of the process model in Chapter VIII and specific

cues were listed at each level in the structural model in Chapter

VI.

358

What is the major "unit" or element that the teacher thinks about

 

when planning?

It is obvious from this and previous discussions

 

thattthe "activity" dominated Mrs. Lisa's thinking in both planning

and teaching.

What are the general strategies and processes of the teacher's plan-

 

ninggand how might these processes be represented in a decision

 

mgggi?

Answering this question was the purpose of Chapter VIII

which produced a model of the planning process quite different

from previous models.

Planning was portrayed as a problem solving

process dominated by problem finding and an intuitive design pro-

cess.

How useful are ethnographic methods for studying classrooom deci-

sion making?

On the basis of this study, it can be said that the

 

intensive field observations that characterize this method played

an essential role in producing the results of this study.

This

mode of inquiry made possible the discovery and description of

aspects of the environment and Mrs. Lisa's planning behavior that

probably would not have resulted from a less intensive investiga-

tion.

What is the usefulness of "process tracing" methods such as Clark-

son's (1962) for modeling teacher decisions?

Expectations to pro-

duce detailed decision tree representations such as those produced

by earlier studies were disrupted by the complexity and duration

of Mrs. Lisa's planning decisions.

The "thinking aloud" procedure

used in this method was, however, very useful in producing verbali-

zations of has. Lisa's thoughts as they occurred in actual planning

decisions.

359

What are the advantages and limitations of various structured and

 

unstructured methods for collecting planning data in the preactive

phase ofgplanning?

Several informal data gathering techniques

 

proved to be very useful in this study.

As a collegial relation-

ship developed between the teacher and the investigator, these in-

formal methods were readily accepted by the teacher.

Informal

procedures that were not initially planned as part of the study

included the "stimulated recall" involving a restructuring of her

fall planning using her lesson book, the sociogram analysis task

mentioned in Chapter III, and Mrs. Lisa's diary of her planning

time spent at home.

These specific methods were supplemented by

numerous infOrmal interviews throughout the study.

It may be an

additional advantage of the ethnographic approach that as a re-

searcher becomes a participant in a social situation and begins to

develop relationships with the participants (the subjects), addi-

tional methods and tactics that are unobtrusive yet effective

become more easily visible.

How successfully can a "moderate fidelity" judgment or In-Basket_

gype task he used to supplement preactive and interactive class-

room data collection strategies?

The intensive data collection

that preceeded these activities may have biased the answer to this

question in this study.

Generally, these tasks provided no new

information about the planning process per se.

They did, however,

expand the infOrmation collected about pupil and activity charac-

teristics most salient to Mrs. Lisa.

The concept of the Teacher

Planning Shell seemed to be effective and, with some modifications

in the problems to be presented to the teacher, it is anticipated

360

that it could be a useful and efficient tool for gathering informa-

tion about teacher planning processes.

Finally, it is felt that the secondary goal of this study of formula-

ting question for further research through the generation Of hypotheses

and models has been acheived to an unexpected degree.

The complex

tapestry of planning and teaching that this study has only partially

represented has revealed many new ideas and questions that need to be

followed up by further study.

Also, notions of teaching as a fairly

simple, straightforward enterprise have been further dispelled by

revealing the intricacies of the teaching environment and the variety

of cognitive skills brought to bear by the experienced practitioner.

This provides support for the claim that research on teaching must

continue to examine the "wisdom of the practitioner" as it is developed

and functions during teaching in real classrooms.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

TEACHER PLANNING SHELL MATERIALS

TEACHER PLANNING SHELL-- INTRODUCTION

This is a simulation of teacher planning.

We are interested in

studying the planning that you are doing at the present time with your

present class.

Because of this interest, we will not do what most

simulations do; that is, put you in a situation with a simulated school,

classroom, and pupils.

Rather, we are going to give you problems that

might feasibly happen to you tomorrow, and we want to see how these

situations affect your planning.

Your main task in this simulation is to assume that the situations

we give you have really happened and that you have to deal with them

starting right now.

Think about what you would do this time of year

and with your current students.

We have chosen the problems that we

will give you because of the potential effect that they have have on

planning.

Some problems may be more feasible and realistic than others

for your current teaching situation, but you never know what may happen

next in teaching!

All of the problems will ask you to do some planning for a speci-

fic period of time.

We want you to plan as you normally do.

There are

no "correct" ways of planning that we are looking for, so feel free to

do as little or as much planning as you typically do.

The only thing

that you probably don't typically do when you plan that we want you to

do during the simulation is to talk out loud.

We call this "thinking

aloud" and all you have to do is verbalize the thoughts that come to

mind as you plan.

This is not as hard as it sounds, and we will pro-

vide a short practice eXercise for you before the first problem.

361

362

Remember, there are no "right" or "wrong" things to say or do when

you are planning and "thinking aloud."

We consider you an expert in

this area, and we are interested in learning all that we can from the

"practical wisdom" that you have picked up during your teaching career.

DO you have any questions?

363

Spring

TEACHER PLANNING SHELL--PROBLEM 1

You have just returned from your weekly staff meeting at which the

principal informed you that because of drastic cutbacks in the district

budget, they have decided to cut back money available for support staff

in schools.

Among other things, this means that as of a week from

Monday, you will no longer have an aide to help you in the classroom.

Please plan your activities for the first week that your aide is gone.

364

Spring

TEACHER PLANNING SHELL--PROBLEM la

It is after school.

You aide has just told you that they have

found a larger house across town, and she and her family will be moving

out of the district in two weeks.

The principal calls you down to

his/her office to tell you this news that you already know and informs

you that because of the time involved in hiring someone else, you will

be without an aide for at least two weeks.

Please plan your activities

for the first week that your aide is gone.

365

Spring

TEACHER PLANNING SHELL--PROBLEM 2

This morning before school, you were running Off some dittos for

your class and ran out of paper.

Upon checking the storeroom, you find

that there is no more ditto paper in the school.

You tell the secre-

tary and this afternoon the principal sends around a memo informing all

the teachers that because of poor calculations and over use of supplies,

the school has exhausted its budget for supplies.

This means that for

the remaining weeks of school, there will be no paper available for

running off dittos for your class.

Please indicate how you will ad-

just your plans because of this inconvenience.

366

Spring

TEACHER PLANNING SHELL--PROBLEM 3

For the last three or four staff meetings, the teachers at your

school have been discussing the need for improving the

 

curriculum in your building.

A committee of three teachers was ap-

pointed to look over available programs and has just recently reported

back recommending the

program.

As a staff, you

 

have decided that even though this program has been successful in other

schools in your district, it would be a good idea to pilot these ma-

terials before committing a lot of time and money to implementing it.

The staff has agreed to try out the materials in their classrooms for

a period of two weeks.

Given these materials, how would you plan to

use them during the pilot period?

367

b)

Number of classes at each level

Kindergarten

 

 

 

 

grade

grade

grade

grade

grade

grade

H
N
W
D
I
'
U
‘
O

 

 

Other (indicate splits or

 

other groupingsh_____

TOTAL NUMBER OF CLASSROOMS

c)

Classroom organization (check those that apply)

self-contained

team teaching

department

Joplin

non-graded

 

If more than one plan is checked, indicate your classroom

organization here

 

13.

School administrator

Briefly describe your principal (touching on such things as per-

sonality, educational knowledge, helpfulness, approachability,

supportiveness, etc.)

14.

Generally, how would you describe the other teachers with whom you

work closely?

(e.g., experience, knowledge, attitudes, etc.)

368

Spring

TEACHER PLANNING SHELL--PROBLEM 4

Early this morning you received a call from your principal telling

you that there was a fire at the school last night and because of

the damage there will be no school for today, but he would like you to

come in to help assess the damage.

Upon arriving at school, you find

that the fire has done extensive damage to several of the rooms, but

yours was fortunately not one of them.

Because of the extent of the

damage and the enormous clean up involved, it is decided to cancel

school for the rest of this week and all of next week.

Because of the

special nature of the problem, you have been told that this time will

be lost and not made up at the end of the year.

Please revise your

plans for the first week when you come back to school.

369

TEACHER PLANNING SHELL QUESTIONNAIRE

The following questions will help us in preparing for and inter-

preting your participation in this classroom planning simulation.

The

purpose of these questions is to provide us with some background infor-

mation about your school, classroom, students, and teaching.

We realize it would be an enormous task to ask you to relate all

of what you know about your current teaching situation.

It may be

helpful in deciding what information is most important if you imagine

this questionnaire to be your only communication with a new teacher

who will be taking over your job next week.

Please respond to every question.

All answers will be treated as

confidential and will be used for research purposes only.

 

PART I

Background Information

1.

Name

2.

Name and Address of School

 

 

3.

Sex (check one)

Male

 

4.

Age (check one)

Under 30

Female

 

 

30-39

 

40-49

 

50-59

 

Over 60

 

370

5.

Graduate training

.

Masters

Specialist

 

 

 

6.

Years of experience

At Kindergarten

 

At grade

At grade

At grade

At grade

At grade

At grade

H
a
w
n
‘
U
‘
O

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PART II

Neighborhood and school

7.

Ethnic composition of neighborhood

Percent White

Percent Black

Percent Chicano

Percent other__

 

8.

Type of neighborhood (check one)

New

Transition

Decaying

9.

Type Of dwellings (check one)

Primarily rental

10.

Locale

Primarily own homes

Primarily urban

Primarily rural

11.

In what ways is the community or neighborhood involved with the

school?

12.

School building

a)

Physical facilities

Old

Renovated

Modern

371

PART III

Class and Classroom

15.

Number Of pupils in your class

Boys

Girls

TOTAL

16.

How does this number compare to previous years?

(check one)

More

Fewer

Same

17.

Think of your class as a whole.

What kind of "group" is it?

18.

Describe briefly several of your present students who give you the

most difficulty in the classroom (your "problem" students).

(A

first name followed by "descriptive words" would be sufficient

for our purposes.)

372

19.

Describe briefly several students whom you would classify as

"good" or "successful" students.

20.

In the following space, sketch roughly the floor plan of your

classroom (e.g., general location of doors, windows, teacher's

desk, student desks, blackboards, reading centers, science or

art centers, etc.).

If several different layouts are used,

describe when and how you would make these changes.

373

21.

What restrictions do you feel in this classroom?

22.

What restrictions do you feel in other school facilities such as

the gym, library, etc.?

 

PART IV

Curriculum and organization

23.

Who primarily chooses the curriculum materials that you use for:

 

Reading?

Math?

 

 

Science?

 

Social Studies?

Language Arts?

 

 

Other______

?

?

 

_-—-———

 

374

27.

On the following weekly schedule, please fill in the activities

that occur during a typical week (also include those activitis

that are fixed, such as lunch, recess, library time, etc., specify-

ing when they typically begin and when they end).

We realize no

week is the same, but we are concerned with the general weekly

framework in which you work.

 

 

MONDAY

 

TUESDAY

 

WEDNESDAY

 

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

 

 

 

 

 

 

28.

Do you think that following a schedule or routine is important?

Why?

yes

 

no

 

375

24.

Please specify the materials that you are primarily using this

year.

 

NAME OF

USING

USING

SERIES OR

USING

WORK-

DITTO

OTHER?

SUBJECT

MATERIALS

TEXT?

BOOK?

MASTERS?

PLEASE SPECIFY

 

 

Reading

 

Math

 

Science

 

Social

Studies

 

Lan-

guage

Arts

 

Social

Emo-

tional

Other

 

 
 
   

 

 

 

376

25.

What human resources, such as aides, parent volunteers, special-

ists, etc., are available to you?

For what days and activities?

26.

What are the primary resources outside the classroom that you take

advantage of?

Estimate the number of minutes per week you use

each resource.

377

PART V

Planning and teaching

29.

What different "types" of planning do you do?

Please describe.

30.

How do you typically do your planning for each of the "types"

mentioned above?

a)

How far ahead?

b)

What format do you use?

(e.g., outline, detailed written

plans, etc.)

c)

When do you typically plan?

378

31.

Why do you plan?

What are some reasons for the types Of planning

you use?

379

32.

What restrictions or influences on your planning do you feel from

administrators?

33.

List from five to ten words that would describe your teaching

"style."

‘

34.

‘hat do you find to be the biggest rewards in teaching your pre-

sent class?

i

380

35.

What do you find to be the biggest frustrations in teaching your

present class?

 

THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING THIS QUESTIONNAIRE

If you have any further comments on any question or if you feel that

there are any important facets of your classroom planning and teaching

that we have overlooked, please use the space provided below.

APPENDIX B

JUDGMENT TASK RESULTS AND MATERIALS

f
-
u
W
"

 

Pupil Sort Dimensions Generated bngrs. Lisa

 

Dimensions

(listed in order generated)

Number of Levels

 

Neatness

Coordination

Imagination skills

Enjoyment of academic work

"Talkers"

Remembering "station tags"

Maturity

Organization

Like to read on their own

Reading during U.S.S.R. (assigned silent reading)

"Needing to be first"

Will succeed later in school

Academic potential

Reading comprehension skills

Sports interest

Math ability

Interest in how they do

Memory (remembering)

Empathy towards others

Tattlers

Ability to solve own problems

Reading ability

a
w
w
w
w
w
m
w
w
w
m
w
w
w
w
w
w
w
w
u
w
u

381

382

Activities Sorted by Mrs. Lisa during the

 

Activity Sort Judgment Task

 

Book reports

Library

Phonics workbooks

Holiday party

Movies (Friday

p.m.)

Read-a-story (student reading to class)

Treat

Reading folders

Reading groups

Reading lab

Silent reading (in readers)

Story reading (teacher reading to class)

U.S.S.R. (uninterrupted sustained silent

reading in library books)

Math games

Math quizzes

Math units

Math workbooks

Calendars (first of month)

Creative writing

Decoding (spelling)

Finding mistakes in schedule

Handwriting workbooks

Letter writing (classroom post office)

Mindbender

Newspaper (class newspaper)

Orange suitcase (grammar)

Pencil pals

Remedial handwriting group

Spelling bee

Spelling folders

Spelling test

Word contest

Social studies units

Snoopy books

Snoopy snews

Weekly reader

Science units

Art in room

Art with art teacher

Assembly

Block patterns (memory)

Change jobs

Choice time

Cooking

Directions (listening)

Field trip

Gym

Music with music teacher

Pass out papers (returning graded papers)

Station work

Bucket check (desk clean-up)

383

Activity Sort Dimensions Generated by Mrs. Lisa

Number of Levels

 

N
N
N
N
N
N

N
M

Dimensions

 

(listed in order)

Fun to teach

Activities that take long range planning

Activities done in fall

'

Activities done in winter

Activities done in spring

Activities planned in summer

Activities for which first and second grade

objectives need to be combined

Activities on which more time is spent

in the fall

Activities emphasized in winter

Activities emphasized in spring

Activities in schedule that are not a

necessity (there by preference)

Activities that would be included if

she taught third grade next year

Activities she would change next year

(because they didn't go as well as

she liked)

Activities she can "pull off the top of

her head" (not requiring planning)

Activities that she can be creative

with when teaching

Activities that a majority of the

students like to do

Activities affecting room arrangement

or requiring a special set-up

Activities for which films or film

strips are available

Activities done in the room

Activities for which planning is

influenced by students

384

SociogramgQuestions

 

What person would you choose to sit by?

Who would you choose to walk with on a field trip?

Who would you choose to sit with on a field trip taking a bus?

If you had one candy bar, who would you choose to share it with?

If you were playing "7-Up," who would you choose to tap on the

head?

If you were racing, who

would you choose to race against?

Who would you choose to

work with on a wOrd contest?

Who

would you

choose to

work with on your math?

Who

would you

choose to

work with on your reading?

10.

Who

would you

choose as

your two best friends?

11.

would you

choose as

your one best friend?

12.

would you

choose to

play with after school?

13.

in school

would you

like to be instead of yourself?

14.

would you

choose as

the quietest person in the class?

15.

would you

choose as

the most helpful person?

16.

Who

would you

choose as

the best liked person?

17.

Who would you choose as

the person most willing to share?

18.

What three people would

you choose to play with during recess?

19.

Who would you want on your team in kickball?

20.

Who would you choose to be a "teacher" to judge your work?

APPENDIX C

AN OUTLINE OF THE DISTRICT

OBJECTIVE BY SUBJECT MATTER.

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE LISTED

IN EVALUATION AND REPORTING FORMS

An Outline of the District

Objectives by Subject Matter

READING

A.

Attitudes toward reading.

1.

Possesses a positive self concept toward reading.

2.

Shows a willingness to perform assigned reading tasks.

3.

Pursues reading actively on his own.

R.

Reading Readiness

R.l.

VOcabulary

a.

Recognizes words.

b.

Uses pictures to derive word meanings.

R.2.

Perceptual Skills

a.

Uses auditory skills.

b.

Uses visual skills.

R.3.

Comprehension

Derives meaning from pictures and stories read aloud.

R.4.

Oral Expression

Exhibits self expression.

1.

Reading VOcabulary

Reads and uses vocabulary consistent with his grade

level.

2.

Comprehension

a.

Demonstrates literal comprehension of reading at his

grade level.

b.

Demonstrates interpretive and/or inferential

comprehension at his grade level.

3.

Word Attack

Phonetic analysis (Using phonetic skills to decode words.)

a.

Uses consonant sounds to decode words.

b.

Uses short vowel sounds to decode words.

c.

Uses consonant blends to decode words.

d.

Uses long vowel sounds to decode words.

e.

Uses consonant diagraphs to decode words.

f.

Uses vowel diagraphs to decode words.

9.

Uses "r" controlled vowels to decode words.

h.

Uses diphthongs to decode words.

385

386

i.

Uses silent letter combinations to decode words.

j.

Uses hard sounds of "c" and "g" to decode words.

k.

Uses soft sounds of "c" and "g" to decode words.

1.

Uses schwa sound to decode words.

4.

Structural Analysis (Using word structure to derive meaning)

a.

Identifies common word families to derive meaning.

b.

Identifies word endings to derive meaning.

c.

Identifies compound words to derive meaning.

d.

Identifies contractions to derive meaning.

e.

Identifies root or base words to derive meaning.

f.

Identifies prefixes and suffixes with root or base

words to derive meaning.

9.

Uses syllabication.

h.

Uses pertinent phonetic skills and structural analysis

to decode unknown words.

5.

Oral and Silent Reading

a.

Uses oral reading as a means of expression at his grade

level.

b.

Uses silent reading to comprehend reading materials

at his grade level.

c.

Uses appropriate rate with oral and silent reading.

WRITING SKILLS

Attitudes toward Writing Skills

1.

Demonstrates higher levels of self-confidence in his writing.

2.

Willingly accepts writing assignments.

3.

Pursues writing activities on his own.

Sentence Sense:

varies sentence length and structure correctly.

Punctuation:

Punctuates sentences correctly.

Capitalization:

Uses capital letters correctly.

Handwriting:

Demonstrates effective handwriting skills.

Word Usage:

Writes sentences which are in agreement.

Types of Writing:

Uses various types Of writing.

387

Writing Format:

Uses appropriate organization and form in written work.

Literary Devices:

Uses appropriate literary devices.

Word Structure:

Modifies root words.

10.

Proofreading:

Consistently proofreads and corrects his own.writing.

11.

Spelling:

Spells approximately 75% of functional words at his grade level.

MATH

Affective Outcomes:

Goals and attitudes to faciliate math

program.

1.

Demonstrates self-confidence toward math.

2.

Demonstrates willingness to complete required math

assignments.

3.

Pursues math activities on his own.

Sets

a.

Classifies objects into sets.

b.

Uses numerals to demonstrate understanding of numbers.

c.

Demonstrates initial understanding of basic set theory.

Place Value

Uses place value correctly.

Whole Number operations

a.

Adds numbers.

b.

Subtracts numbers.

c.

Multiplies numbers.

d.

Divides numbers.

e.

Solves story problems.

Fractions

a.- Demonstrates understanding of the meaning of fractions.

b.

Adds fractions.

c.

Subtracts fractions.

d.

Multiplies fractions.

Decimals

a.

Demonstrates understanding of the meaning of decimals.

b.

Adds and subtracts decimal fractions.

Measurement

a.

Uses tools to measure.

(Geometric)

388

b.

Uses tools to measure.

(non-Geometric)

Geometry

a.

Demonstrates an understanding of different shapes, points,

lines, congruency, and symmetry.

b.

Constructs geometric models.

Ratio and Proportion

Demonstrates an understanding of the use of ratio and

proportion.

Signs, Symbols, and Laws (Algebra)

a.

Uses signs and symbols correctly.

b.

Uses laws and function rules correctly.

10.

Graphing and Charting

Collects and records information using charts and graphs.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Understanding Self

1.

Awareness and/or acceptance of self.

Gives evidence of positive self concept. (A)

2.

Awareness of the unique qualities of human organisms.

a.

Recognizes physical similarities and differences among

organisms.

b.

Identifies human needs and feelings.

3.

Understanding influence of social and physical environment

 

on self-perception and behavior.

Social Environment:

3.

Human Interaction

a.

Identifies human interaction and resulting effects on

behavior.

b.

Distinguishes between positive and negative aspects of

groups.

c.

Demonstrates understanding of systems as Composed of

interactive subsystems that can be organized to meet its

goals.

4.

Socialization

a.

Demonstrates an understanding that individual and social

behavior is learned.

5.

Need for Structure or Organization

a.

Demonstrates understanding of the need for rules within

a social order.

389

b.

Demonstrates understanding that rules or laws contribute

to the well-being of both individuals and society in

general.

6.

Multi-ethnocentrism

a.

Compares and forms generalizations regarding cultural

subcultural similarities and differences.

b.

Generates examples of cultural/subcultural influence

and/or interdependency

7.

Acceptance Of Others

a.

Demonstrates he/she is sensitive to the feelings,

attitudes, and/or values of others.

(A)

b.

Demonstrates acceptance of others.

(A)

Physical Environment:

8.

Man's Use and Misuse of Environment

a.

Describes how physical conditions influence the way an

organism lives.

b.

Generates examples of how man's basic needs have been

met through manipulation of environment.

9.

Economic Choices

a.

Demonstrates awareness of making consumer decisions.

b.

Demonstrates understanding of factors influencing how

man meets his economic needs.

C.

Understanding influence g£_change on self-perception and social

behavior.

10.

Societal Change

Describes ways self perception and social behavior are

influenced by change.

D.

Demonstrates skills i2 communicating and/or processing social

 

science data.

ll.

Processing Information

a.

Communicates ideas effectively.

b.

Classifies information.

c.

Employs effective problem-solving strategies.

d.

Reads maps.

SCIENCE

Attitudes toward Science

1.

Demonstrates self-confidence with respect to science.

2.

Conveys enthusiasm for science activities.

3.

Pursued science activities on his own.

390

Observing

Observes and describes various life and physical phenomena.

Classifying

a.

Distinguishes between Objects or sets of objects

characterized by specific properties.

b.

Classifies organisms in certain fundamental ways.

Understanding basic science concepts

Demonstrates understanding of specific concepts in science.

Explaining

Presents explanations of scientific phenomena based on

direct observation.

Measuring

Demonstrates ability to use measuring and recording

instruments.

Inferring and processing of infOrmation.

a.

Cites evidence to support the conclusion that a given

phenomena has occurred.

b.

Forms inferences from direct observation and/or recorded

data.

c.

Forms and/or tests hypotheses.

d.

Plans and/or conducts exploratory activities.

Applying scientific skills

Applies knowledge of scientific processes to solve a

specified problem.

391

Performance Objectives Listed

 

In First Grade Evaluation and Reporting Forms

 

READING

Knows the sounds of the consonants

Uses beginning consonants to read words

Uses ending consonants to read words

Identifies words which rhyme

Hears and differentiates between short and long vowels

Uses ch, sh, th, wh, to sound out words

Recognizes compound words

Identifies and uses word endings (5, ed, ing)

Can read contractions

Is developing an appropriate sight.vocabulary

Uses context to identify words and meanings

Reads orally with expression

Comprehends reading material

Possesses a positive self-concept toward reading

Enjoys doing assigned reading tasks

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

 

Speaks distinctly

Writes simple sentences with correct punctuation

Forms letters legibly and correctly

Spells adequately at own level

Uses capital letters correctly

Listens attentively when others speak

MATH

Uses sets correctly for matching or comparing objectives

Uses place value correctly (ones and tens)

Adds 2-place numbers accurately (without borrowing)

Solves simple story problems

Knows basic addition facts through 10

Knows basic subtraction facts through 10

Shows understanding of halves and fourths with use of objects

Uses math signs correctly in completing number sentences

Measures lengths using standard and non-standard units (i.e.,

cuisenaire rods)

Identifies basic geometric shapes (circle, triangle, rectangle)

Graphs simple data in science and social studies projects

SCIENCE

Physical Science

sorts objects by properties

groups pictures of Objects

392

sorts Objects by material

arranges Objects or events in sequence

predicts and experiments

Life Science

identifies requirements for plant growth

describes events in an aquaria

identifies organisms and habitats

understands food webs

understands experiments

SOCIAL STUDIES

 

Identifies that all people have similar needs

Recognizes that some things are better done in groups

Identifies and relates feelings others might have in a situation

Identifies reasons for family and school rules

Understands functions of family members

Identifies simple geographic areas (farm, city)

Differentiates between simple wants and needs

Lists needs that money can buy and cannot buy

Identifies consumers and producers.

Identifies need for change in food, clothing, and shelter

Identifies the nature of familiar holidays or events

Groups ideas in a variety of ways

393

Performance Objectives Listed

 

In Second Grade Evaluation and Reporting Forms

 

READING

Uses short vowel sounds in word attack

Uses long vowel sounds in word attack

Reads and understands contractions

Identifies root or base words

Identifies one and two syllable words

Is developing an appropriate sight vocabulary

Uses context to identify words and meaning

Reads with fluency and expression

Comprehends material read orally

Cbmprehends material read silently

Identifies selection as real or make believe

Possesses a positive self-concept toward reading

Shows a willingness to perform assigned reading tasks

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

 

Communicates ideas clearly in writing

Speaks distinctly

Composes simple sentences with clear ideas

Uses capital letters correctly

Uses periods and questions marks correctly

FOrms manuscript letters legibly and neatly with reasonable speed

Spells adequately at own level

Listens attentively when others speak

Contributes to class discussions

MATH

Uses place value correctly (ones, tens, hundreds)

Adds 3-place numbers accurately (without carrying)

Subtracts 3-place numbers accurately (without borrowing)

Knows correct use of addition or subtraction in solving story

problems

Knows basic addition facts through 18

Knows basic subrtraction facts through 18

Shows understanding of 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 with use of objects

Measures lengths to the closest metric unit used (i.e., centimeter,

decimeter or meter).

Differentiates between even and odd numbers

Uses math signs correctly to complete number sentences

Graphs simple data in science and social studies projects

SCIENCE

Physical science

identifies interacting objects

394

keeps track of a system

identifies a system of interacting Objects

describes evidence of interaction

writes experiment reports

Life Science

describes animal growth and development

recognizes stages in life cycles

infers the meaning of biotic potential

categorizes organisms

SOCIAL STUDIES

 

Recognizes that people adapt to their environment in similar and

different ways

Identifies human interaction and resulting effect on behavior

Identifies group pressures involved in making decisions

Identifies behavior/customs influenced by family

Recognizes common geographic features:

mountains, rivers, etc.

Locates the United States and Michigan on a simple map

Tells how physical features of the environment affect organisms

Identifies reasons for school, family, or community rules

Identifies influences Which change one's life and family.

Compares life today with that of the past (family)

Gathers infOrmation by studying pictures and artifacts

Organizes data and draws conclusions.

APPENDIX D

LETTERS TO PARENTS

September 9, 1976

Dear

Welcome to the 1976-77 school year in Byron School!

The Public

Schools, Byron included,have been subjected to many changes in person-

nel.

Dr. Robert Simpson is the new Superintendent of Schools, with Mr.

Tom Summers becoming the Director of Instruction.

Our staff welcomes

Mr. Ed Thompson as our new teaching principal.

Mr. Thompson will be

responsible for part of our physical education program in conjunction

with his other duties.

He arrives here from Eastern School where he

held a similar position.

Besides Mr. Thompson, Byron has new kinder-

garten, first, fourth, and fifth grade teachers.

Our staff has been

reduced from 9 to 8 teachers this year; consequently, class sizes are

larger.

In order to establish a more workable relationship, I take this

Opportunity to become better acquainted by sharing a little of my

personal life with you.

Hopefully, in doing so, to answer some Of

your initial questions, and begin the school year with ease and

familiarity.

Success in education, to me, is active communication

between parent and teacher.

I attended State University, graduating in 1968 with a B.A. in

Social Work.

The fall of 1968, I entered City University, to obtain a

Master's of Social WOrk.

Subsequently, I became employed by Williams

Community Schools, as a school Social WOrker.

I returned to S.U. in

1969, to fulfill requirements for a teaching certificate and a Master's

of Education.

My husband, Bill, and I have been married seven years.

We live in a townhouse in the city.

My hobbies include sewing,

gardening, traveling, and biking.

For five years, the previous two with the first-second combination,

I have taught in Bryon School.

The first three years, I was employed

by the Special Services Department as a teacher for the emotionally

impaired and learning disabled.

Combination grades usually bring

understandable concern to parents.

To alleviate some of these con-

cerns, I will attempt to briefly explain my room organization and

management.

After two years with a combination, I feel very comfor-

table with it and, hopefully, make fewer errors.

The room functions

with structure and organization.

The reading and math programs are

individualized, with some large and small group activities incorpor-

ated.

As my background dealt with perceptual problems, I use per-

ceptual training materials with the children. Cooking projects assist

in giving academic subjects a realistic base.

This year, in contrast

to the previous years, the children will not be separated at any time

during the school day.

Other than music, art, and physical education,

I will teach the entire curriculum.

In order to achieve the objectives,

of the first and second grade science and social studies, I selected

the main concepts of both levels and combined them with my personal

materials for varied and interesting programs.

To avoid any rivalry

that may, and can, develop between the two grades, I will not address

the children by grade level.

At this time I would like to say welcome back to those parents

who were with me last year; glad to be working with you again.

To

those of you who are new, I am called "Mrs. Lisa" by everyone.

If you

395

396

wish to speak with me at any time, please feel free to call at school.

We can arrange a time; if I am busy, leave a message and a telephone

number, and I will try to call that day.

I will continue to write my

weekly Friday newsletter so it may well answer some questions.

For the previous two years, the primary wing has instituted a

daily "fuel up" time.

I would like to continue this policy, as I feel

the children, as young as they are, and as lengthy as the school day

is, really benefit from the additional nutrition.

Each child (Mon.-

Thurs.) is free to bring something, be it a sandwich, cookie, or fruit

to eat immediately after the afternoon recess (2:30), for approximately

ten minutes, during which time I will read a story.

All I request is

that you assist your child in the type and amount of the snack.

This

program will continue only until winter recess in December.

Fridays at 2:30 will be parent sponsored treat time.

I would like

to celebrate all birthdays on this day.

If your child's birthday falls

on other than a Friday, please sign up for the nearest Friday.

I made

a styrofoam birthday cake, so the children can blow out the candles.

Summer birthdays may be celebrated on the child's half year birthday

if you wish.

At the end of this letter is a Friday volunteer slip.

Please sign it, return the slip to me, and you will be contacted by

the room mothers.

Here's to another successful year at Byron School.

This letter is

lengthy, but, hopefully, beneficial.

Be seeing you soon.

"Mrs. Lisa" Hendricks

O

397

January 14, 1977

Hi--

Next week will be a busy, exciting one, filled with two extra

events.

On Thursday afternoon, January 20, we will vist the MSU

planetarium.

Mrs. Jones' room will join us.

We will leave at 1:10

and return at 3:00.

The show will cost 35¢ per child; please have the

fee to me by Wednesday, January 19.

On Friday, January 21, we will

have a vegetable soup luncheon.

The soup will be made with donations

from parents.

On the menu will be soup, crackers, celery, carrots,

dessert, and lemonade.

If your child desires to bring a sandwich to

supplement the menu, that will be fine.

As before, all the children

will remain for lunch (unless they choose not to), eat, play a couple

of games, and then go out for a little fresh air, or go to the art

program if they are participating in it.

Please fill out and return

the slip below to indicate if your child will remain for the lunch.

Our "mind bender" word for last week was sympathetic, and this

week's was confidence.

In math, we have continued working on telling time and began a

geometry unit.

We saw an excellent movie on lines, segments, rays,

angels, and slopes.

In science, we invented some systems, gave them titles, and began

recording our experiences--naming the interacting objects and citing

evidence to prove the interaction.

For writing skills, we are continuing to emphasize correct punc-

tuation (capitals, periods, and question marks) and the prOper sen-

tence structure.

we are writing our spelling words in sentences.

Have a pleasant week end.

Mrs. Lisa ©

 

[:]

Yes,

will attend the soup lunch.

398

April 1, 1977

Hi--

Be carefu1--it is April Fools' Day!

The children have many in-

teresting tricks in mind.

Yes, April, and,

hopefully, Spring, have

arrived.

For any of you going on vacation, a special note from an

envious teacher—-may it snow!

No, in reality, have a safe trip and

a pleasant time.

If you are going to a state other than Michigan,

could you bring back a daily newspaper from some town.

I would like

to use it for social studies.

On Thursday, April 14, Mrs. Jones' class and our will go to Wanda-

mere on an all day field trip.

we will leave at 10:30, with a sack

lunch (I will furnish lemonade) in a disposable bag, and extra nap-

kins, returning at 2:30.

We will eat there and then begin our trek

through the woods.

Needed:

50¢ and some comfortable clothes and

boots—-if it has been raining, it could be muddy.

Mrs. Grinell made some very nice crayon and paint pictures with

the children.

Kate Vale, with the able assistance of her high school

dramatics class, performed some very interesting skits with the

children, grades 1-3.

The children were divided into small groups and

then the high school class worked with each group.

The teachers

became the star performers!

I am pg; sending home a folder this week; most things were done

as a group.

We concluded our units on Japan and dinosaurs.

We also

finished various math projects, so when we return from Spring break,

we can begin all new concepts.

Have a pleasant vacation.

Mrs. Lisa

(over)

P. S.

After break we will begin a "read-a-story: time.

Instead of my

reading a story, the children will select a book, pre-read it, and

then read it to the class.

The children will choose a day on a sign-

up sheet.

I will remind them of their day in advance. I would appre-

ciate your assistance in helping your child select an appropriate book.

This is strictly a volunteer program.

Thanks I ®

399

March 18, 1977

Hi--

Hope you had a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Our mind bender

words were selected with the "green" in mind--shamrocks, shenanigans,

shillalahs, jig, toadstools, and leprechauns.

we also read some Irish

tales and legends of St. Patrick.

In our pencil pal exchange, we are learning to correctly address

an envelope and to properly write a letter.

To add to the fun, I have

the children select an envelope of their choice.

I am now meeting an

envelope shortage.

If you have any at home which you have no need of

(especially colored ones), please send them in and they will be greatly

appreciated and well used.

In math we are working with fractions.

By using the thought of

pie, cake, pizza, pancakes, etc., I am discovering the children are

rapidly learning to use fractions.

Mrs. Grinell designed mobiles with the children in art this week.

I thought the imaginations used by the children to create their in-

dividual mobiles was exciting!

The results are unique.

In social studies, we began a study of the Japanese culture and

family unit with an excellent movie about the life of a Japanese

school boy.

We received a very nice letter from Paige Nelson, one of our for-

mer students, now living in Germany.

She is attending a German

school.

She sent us some lovely pictures, her school schedule, and

some German money.

Mrs. Lisa

APPENDIX E

MRS. LISA'S DIARY OF WORK DONE AT HOME

Mrs. Lisa's Diary of WOrk Done at Home

3/7

Mondgyp

 

l.

8:00—-called one parent

2.

Did point slips

3.

Corrected papers

4.

Lesson p1ans--completed weekly plans for next two weeks so on

Friday I can plan for after spring break

9:30--done

3/8

Tuesdgy

 

8:00--two calls to parents

Corrected papers

10:30--done

3/9

Wednesday

 

one-half hour on point slips and plans

3/10

Thursdayp

 

two hours 9:00-11:00

(while watching "A Circle of Children" on T.V.) corrected some math

papers and did next week's planning

3/14

Monday

 

7:30--corrected math papers

Did point sheets

Started Friday letter

WOrked on movie sheet (sheet listing movies available to teachers)

lO:00--done

3/15

Tuesggy

 

two hours

1.

Called three parents

2.

WOrked on point slips

3.

went over movie sheet

4.

Wrote new (spring) schedule in plan book

3/16

Wednesday

 

1.

Planned movies for rest of year

2.

Looked over station work

3.

Got cooking things ready

(two and one-half hours)

3/17

Thursday

 

Point slips

Two parents called

(one hour)

400

401

3/19

Saturday

 

two parents called

(one hour)

3/21

Monday,

 

Point slips

two parents called

(forty-five minutes)

3/23

Wednesday

 

Point slips

Called two parents

Letters

(one hour)

3/24

Thursdgyp

 

Lesson plans

(one hour)

3/27

Sunday

 

Called three parents

Corrected papers

(one and one-half hours)

3/28

Monday

 

Called two parents

Corrected papers

Lesson plans

(two hours)

3/29

Tuesday

 

Called one parent

Corrected math papers

(one hour)

3/31

Thursday

 

Corrected papers

WOrked on letter

(two hours)

4/2

Saturday

 

Wrote Paige

Sorted and ordered previous station work dittos and all writing skills

dittos into correct boxes and by page numbers for next year

(two hours)

4/3

Sunday

 

1.

Wrote Paige and Mrs. Nelson

2.

WOrked on lesson plans for rest of year

a.

Math

b.

Social studies and science

0.

Writing skills

402

d.

Stations

(five hours)

4/4

Monday (Spring vacation)

 

At school for two hours (10:30-12:30) to clean out file cabinet, clean

out humidifier, and pick up back room.

4/8

Friday

 

Arrived at school at 11:30 and left at 4:15.

Did the following:

1.

Washed down the window ledges, cabinets, and desks

2.

0
.
(

.

Put up the rest of the bulletin boards

Went through the cupboards to sort out my own personal materials

from the school ones.

Arranged desks

Changed other furniture

Fixed up the art lab, origami, and Qubic

0

Put buckets out and clay in them

Emptied window display case

Generally looked things over to see if I liked it and if it made

b
m
m
d
m
D
\

sense to use

10.

Did minor things (to get ready for Monday)--Mindbender, schedule,

etc.

4/11

Monday

 

1.

Did survey I received--40 minutes

2.

Called four parents to set up conferences--one hour

3.

Called Mrs. Melville to change her aide time--fifteen minutes

4.

Went over lesson plans--one-ha1f hour

4/12

Tuesday

 

(two hours)

1.

Called two parents—-fifteen minutes

2.

Worked on graphs (for math)

3.

Looked over ordering materials (for next year)

4/13

Wednesday-

 

1.

Called three parents-~one-half hour

2.

Corrected papers-~one-half hour

3.

Ordering--two hours

4/15

Friday

 

(three and one-half hours)

1.

Did three parent conference write-ups

2.

WOrked on ordering

4/18

Monday

 

(two hours)

1.

Did one parent conference form

2.

Corrected Mindbender books

4/20 Wednesday

 

1.

Corrected papers

2.

Called two parents

403

4/24

Sunday ‘

 

l.

Called five parents to set up conferences--forty minutes

2.

Wrote up three conferences--two hours

3.

Corrected papers--fifteen minutes

4/25

Monday

 

1.

Corrected work--one-half hour

2.

Ordered movies (for next year)--three hours

4/26

Tuesday

 

1.

Ordered movies--two and one-half hours

2.

Filled out questionnaire--one-half hour

4/27

Wednesday

 

1.

Corrected papers--one-half hour

2.

Wrote up conference-~one and one-half hours

4/28

Thursday

 

(two hours)

1.

Worked on parent conference

2.

WOrked on IRT letter

3.

Worked on movie order

5/2

Monday

 

(two hours)

worked on parent conferences

APPENDIX F

THE FORMS OF MRS. LISA'S PLANS:

EXAMPLES FROM YEARLY, TERM,

UNIT, AND WEEKLY PLANNING

F.l

Yearly Planning Examples (from Mrs. Lisa's spiral notebooks)

Reading

1.

Reading lab

2.

Reading

L. A.

Silent reading each a.m. or p.m.

3.

Reading

Vowels

Reading game

4.

Reading

Orange suitcases

Phonics book

5.

Options:

Merrill books

Reports

Comprehension

Creative writing

1a

II

.

Days of week

Months

Mon.

Tues.

Jan.

II

Capitalization

Months

Days

Streets

Names

Sentences

Cities

Towns

States

I

V.

How?

Where?

What?

When?

Who?

Why?

Subject

Predicate

Describing words

Language Arts

 

404

405

Opposites

Add e-se

2%

I.

Subjects

Predicates

?

II.

J.R.

J.S.

S

February 6f 1976

E.‘Lansing, MI

can't,

Lynda's

III.

Capitals

Book Titles

Holidays

to, two, too

VII.

Letters

IX.

Root words

Ideas:

WOrd of the Week

Sounds

Verbal Directions

Code

Rhyme

Make small words

Math

 

-

Timed quiz

Sets

1.

Verbal

2.

written

Rods:

Sept.-Dec.

=

)

<

grouping - tens, ones

addition

subtraction

missing addends

fractions

patterns

 

406

stores & shopping

Jan.--time

Feb.--meansurement--metric

Mar.--graphing

temp.

days

favorites

Apr.--money

menus

catalogs

saving accounts

checking accounts

May---review

Movies:

Sept. to Dec.:

Addition--Sept.

Subtraction--2 mid-Oct.

Tens & ones--late Oct--Sets & #‘s

Fractions--Weird # & Fractions

Jan.--Lines

Feb.

Metric--Length

Volume

Weight

 

F.2

Term Planning Examples (from spiral notebooks)

407

Social Studies

 

Week

1.

Measure hands, feet, waist, lit. wt.

Book on self

Snoopy

2.

Book on Self

Picture of what you want to do

Snoopy

3.

U. S.--map of U. S. & begin studying states

largest to smallest--maps of world--locate U. S. & N. A.

Snoopy

4.

Snoopy

Duso

U. S.

Alaska

Tex.

5.

Snoopy--Holland

U. S.

Calif.

Duso

Mont.

6.

Snoopy

N. Mex.

U. S.

Ariz.

Duso

7.

Snoopy

Nev.

U. S.

Col.

Duso

8.

Snoopy

Wym.

U. S.

Ore.

Duso

Science

Week:

1.

Gliders

2.

# 2

(l)

l) Object--a thing

2) property--tells about a thing

3) sorting--grouping

3.

#11 (1) shells

#18 (1)

408

#18

(1)

#21

(l)

#2 (2)

buttons

#3 (2)

words

mystery property

mat. of the week

#21

(l)

#21

(1)

#4

(2)

#7

(2)

#7

(2)

#7

(2)

#9

(2)

#12

(2)

#12

(2)

#13

(2)

10.

#14

(2)

#14

(2)

11.

#15

(2)

#15

(2)

12.

#17

(2)

#18

(2)

13.

#18

(2)

#18

(2)

14.

Secret Ink

 

409

Soc.:

Ildeinish ear & eye

If

Nuitrition unit--

3(

Japan

4.

Economics

Sci.:

1.

Book--SCIS

QC

«Pianetss-no dinosaurs!

3.

Mystery powders?

4.

Plants--animals

5.

Mapping

Handwriting:

 

1.

Review letters

2.

Write words for writing skills

3.

Books

4.

Tongue Twisters

Math:

¢time--Jan.

<F-~.place value

vMeasurement-—Feb.

<:”"“\missing addends

?

«Fractions

Graphing--Mar.

Money--Apr.

410

F.3

Unit Planning Examples (from spiral notebooks)

Social Studies

 

Nutrition

Chocolate:

Large chart--

Where from?

Made?

Used in?

Vegetables:

Grown from?

dried?

Where?

ground, trees, plants

Milk:

Ice cream

 

Cheese

Food From

Food From

.

Don't Know

Plants

Animals

Gr Game--

Food News--fi11er

Dairy Farm

WOrds

Mural--make mural

Pies

Make cow puppet

Visit dairy & barns

Japan

1.

Clothes

2.

Eat with chop sticks--rice & drink tea

3.

Origami

4.

Pop-up Japanese books (4) in library

5.

Film strips (3)

6.

Movies

7.

Write Japanese

8.

Plant rice

9.

Use a map--see pp. 21 & 24 & 46

10.

Story--of twins-— pp. 53

Mapping:

1.

Draw ideal school

2. Map of room as you would have it

3.

City maps--make houses, cars, lights, trees

4.

Treasure hunt--

5.

Grid maps in hall

411

Math Units

 

Math plans--grp. l

1.

Review carrying

199-202

Both

233-237

263

265

266

279

Borrowing

171-188

213-218

240

269

270, 271

272-283

264

267

268

280

286

Graphing--late Apr.

Story problems

Multiplication

245-256

Other:

Money--

Math plans--grp. 2

Fractions

Level 8 post

tests

< )

9, 10, ll, 12, 42, 78

Grouping

81

Money

Carrying

Graphing

Math plans--grp. 3

Fractions

>'(

finish--Apr.

Graphing--late Apr.

Money

2 column - & + -—Apr.

Missing addends--115, 151, 155, 193, 194, 198

412

FA Weekly Planning Examples (from plan book)

GRADE OR CLASS

March 21-25, 1977

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APPENDIX G

SPRING TERM SCHEDULE

PLANNING PROTOCOL

SPRING TERM SCHEDULE PLANNING PROTOCOL

3/11/77

STEPS:

1.

Gets out 1 sheet of paper for a.m. and l for p.m. and puts days

of weeks across the top (sheets turned sideways).

Q - "So this will be a typical weekly format?”

A - "Yes, right now I'm.just putting it in to play around with

it.

I have no idea what it will look like...except that

I know that I'd like to try reading for a little bit in the

afternoon and...these are the things I want to put in it."

story hour

remedial handwriting group

tongue twisters and Bill Martin Books

mapping

Snoopy Books

revising reading for high kids

Finds list of things that she made up when she was doing winter

schedule to make sure she had all the things in the schedule.

She also gets out list of aide times.

Checks through activities:

mindbender - will continue

handwriting books - will continue

math quizzes - maybe a little extra

so 2nd graders can get

down math facts

silent reading - USSR plus one other

activity (may

incorporate into

reading groups)

group math - money and graphing

stations

vowel sounds, quizzes, orange

suitcase

post office - out

make works - out (will be done as a

spelling - will try to change

contest)

routine of deriting

wores; T-decoding;

416

417

Th-spelling bee.

Will

leave in spelling bee since

kids really like it.

decoding - may do it differently

snoopy books - wants to get back to

rhyming - ?

them

Weekly readers - still has them

coming

5.

Writes in activities she has to work around

MTWTH

10:10 - 10:30 - recess

MWF

F

10:30

gym

9:10 -

9:40 - music

MTWTH

2:10 -

2:30 — recess

W

T

T

2:30

9:20

2:00

library

reading lab

every other week - art

Looks at math and reading ("the biggest things")

Puts down USSR silent reading on Friday after lunch.

Looks at current schedule for reading times M, T, W, Th. a.m. -

reading.

Says, "Monday is a good day almost all day since

they aren't so extremely exhausted.

Tuesdays they aren't too

bad.

By Wednesday, they start pooping out in the afternoon.

That's something you have to remember and having any neatly

planned, hard academic activities on Friday is really dumb, so

that probably won't change a lot."

Says she could have reading Monday afternoon first thing.

Then says, "The other thing I have to keep in mind when I start

figuring that, is planning time for me.

Does it mean that I'm

going to have to spend my entire lunch hour preparing for that?

Also, correcting.

Am I going to spend a lot of time at night

then correcting this sort of stuff that I usually correct at

noon?"

10.

Initially tries reading Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning

(reading lab), Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning.

11.

Next checks her aide schedule to see how that fits in:

Monday a.m. - Sandy, Mrs. P.

Weds.

a.m. - Sandy, (Plus student aide all day)

Thurs. a.m. - Sandy, Mrs. S.

12.

Tries to decide whether she could handle it all on her own

Monday p.m. and Wednesday p.m.

Remembers she's supposed to have

a student aide all day Wednesday.

 

418

13.

Puts down reading as such:

Monday

- p.m.

Tuesday

a.m.

Wed.

- p.m.

Thurs.

- a.m.

14.

Next decides what reading to do on each day.

Thursday, because

of all the help (aide and parent volunteer) it would be to her

advantage to do book reports - puts it down on schedule.

Wednesdays - phonics books (tentatively); Mondays - wonders if

parent volunteer could come Monday p.m. rather than Monday a.m. -

puts it down anyway.

15.

Looks for second spot for silent reading - ponders Monday as a

time but decides to go on.

16.

Looks to fit in math; looks at Monday a.m.

Then looks at

30 minute slot after gym on Monday, Weds., and Fridays.

Puts down math for Monday, Tues., Weds., Thurs. for morning.

17.

Then looks at 30 minute slots after gym (11:00 - 11:30) on

Monday, Wednesday and Fridays so that she can have spelling the

same time every day but notices that she has four blocks on

Tuesday and Thursday.

"You don't want to use a half hour for

one thing and a half hour for another necessarily.

It

usually doesn't work out that well."

Q - "Why do you.want to have spelling the same time every day?"

A - "So it is consistent.

The more consistent it is, the better

I feel the kids know what is coming off and the better they

learn."

18.

Says the one time she does have open, except for Friday, the

period first thing in the morning.

That would be okay since

she says she's going to keep the spelling test where it is on

Friday (11:00 - after gym) because for one thing her aide is

here to help give the tests.

19.

Says all year she has had handwriting first thing every morning

since it is so important (especially Sept. to Dec., where

they often spent 45 minutes every morning on handwriting).

"Without the handwriting they can't do anything else."

But

she feels this is less important now and decides to write in

spelling each morning.

20.

She starts writing it in and says "there's only one problem - we

have a spelling bee."

She says that would be on Thursday

morning and she has down book reports for that morning.

"We

can't get the book reports done and have a spelling bee.

There

isn't enough time."

419

21.

Looks at having it the first thing in the afternoon but says

that they have art every other week and throws Tuesday off, and

library on Wednesdays.

Keeps her from having it right after

recess in the afternoon.

22.

Decides to put spelling bee down for first thing in morning

anyway and see what she comes up with.

23.

She notices hour after recess on Thursday and changes book

reports to there, since she'll have Sandy then also.

24.

She next looks at half hour blocks on M, W, and Friday and

puts down handwriting for that period.

25.

Remembers one other thing that she is "tied into” - on

Thursday afternoon she has to pass out papers.

"Because I'm

not about to do it (separate the week's work to go home)

myself" (brackets are mine).

26.

She checks her list to see what she still has:

vowel sounds and quizzes

says,

rhyming

"all reading type things"

weekly reader

She looks at placing these after spelling bee on Thursday,

then says "Um boy, being locked into aides (times) really

hurts too.

That's what got me all messed up last time."

27.

She next looks for a time to have the kinds read to the

class - after recess.

The best time for her is the after—

noon.

Sees they could do it Monday, Tuesday, and Friday or

M, T, Th, and Fri.

28.

She looks to see how many weeks they have left and counts 9.

9 times 4 is 36 but she then counts the number of interfering

activities such as p.d. days and counts up 32 possible days.

She says that would be enough time for everyone to read once

and for some to have a second chance so she decides to do it

4 times a week (M, T, Th, F) right after recess.

29.

She then puts down writing skills for Tuesday afternoon when

they don't have art.

This includes the Bill Martin Books,

Pencil pals and newspaper.

She says "That's an awful lot for

every other week for what's left.

Out of nine weeks that

means we only get 4 times, so I need another time besides

that.

I'll have to have it twice."

30.

She says Friday afternoon could be the other time and looks to

see how many Fridays they'll miss before end of school.

She

sees they only miss two so after silent reading on Friday

may be a good time.

420

31.

She checks list again and puts mindbender word down for

Monday during handwriting.

32.

She says she still has some big blocks of time because she

doesn't have much math in yet.

33.

She next says that she is uneasy about "wasting" Monday

morning on Math when they are so ready to settle down and

reading with so much more sense at that (time in the) morning."

34.

She starts to put reading on Monday morning but says she still

has spelling there.

Says spelling, depending on what she does

for an activity is 15 minutes long.

That would make it 9:20

and until 10:10 that would not make it (reading) very long.

She says though that's about all the time she has now, she

has after recess to finish up.

35.

She says, "Oh boy, this trying to squeeze in spelling is really

a problem."

She then considers the possibility of having

spelling not all at the same time:

Monday

- p.m. first thing

Tuesday - a.m. first thing

Weds.

- a.m. first thing

Thurs.

spelling bee in afternoon again.

She

then says "I should probably figure out what kind of activities

I want to do for spelling before I figure out when I want it."

36.

She says "The spelling bee takes the longest.“

Then says,

"I still think Monday morning is going to have to be reading

time...Anyway I look at it, it's the only thing that makes

sense since then I have Sandy and Mrs. Pat for aides."

So

she moves reading with book reports to Monday morning starting

at 9:05.

37.

She then looks at Monday morning schedule which would have

reading, recess, gym, then handwriting.

She says "hand-

writing would be a good activity (after gym) since it is kind of

quiet and settling."

She says from 9:05 to recess would give

her an hour and 5 minutes until recess and she thinks she

could get all of the reading and book reports done in that

period.

38.

She then goes to Monday afternoon.

She says she could have

spelling first thing, then she has two blocks of time left.

She considers putting math in after spelling, but says, "My

problem is that I always think of spelling as being a writing

skills or reading type thing...and I wonder how much (of a)

transition problem it would be to go from spelling into math.

One thing, I can anticipate the fact that they're not all going

to be done (with their spelling) at the same time.

So, it will

mean some of then having to wait after they finish their

spelling to start their math, if I wanted to do anything

421

as a large group or even in small groups."

39.

She then looks at last period in afternoon.

She says on

Wednesdays she has 15 minutes after library and looks at

putting spelling at 3:10 every day and come back from library

on Wednesdays 5 minutes early.

She then says, "That has

possibilities.

It depends what I want to put in here (pointing

to open periods on Monday and Tuesday afternoons after

recess).

Maybe I finally found a place for it."

40.

She says that would leave her those two open times for social

studies and science...or for something else.

41.

She then goes through complete Monday schedule:

reading (book

reports), gym, handwriting (mindbender), math, story, blank,

spelling.

She then puts down a math quiz and math facts before

math and then says "Is there anything else besides science

auui social studies that I'd rather fit in Monday because

Monday is usually such a good day for them?"

42.

She considers weekly reader then looks to see how much time she

really has there.

She says the story reading will probably

go until 2:45 since they are such slow readers, and it would be

2:50 before they could start on an activity.

"Twenty minutes

would be all I have here, so that's too short for any big

lesson."

So she decides to put weekly reader in there, saying,

"Let's see if that makes sense as we go along."

43.

She then looks at Tuesday morning and says she has a time open

before reading lab since she refuses to go up there for that

long of a time.

Then reading lab, blank, art or writing

skills, story, blank, spelling.

44.

She then looks for something to do before reading lab.

Considers decoding, rhyming, vowel sounds.

She then glances

over Wednesday's schedule, then finally puts in handwriting

books for that period.

45.

Lisa

then says that she feels she can cut math back to 3

times a week since there is not a whole lot that the kids

need to learn that they don't already know.

Since they

"hit it so hard" this winter (4 times/week).

She says, "We

can cover everything we need to 3 periods and still have time

left over" and says "when I'm thinking about math, I'm not

putting it as a top priority anymore; I'm putting more emphasis

on where they lack in reading and writing skills now."

She

says they need work on creative writing, vowels and sounding

out words rather than just reading in workbooks.

"So I'm

feeling the need to have reading a little bit more often and

math a little less.“

46.

She says silent reading after story on Tuesday would help

fulfill this need.

She says it's a completely different type

422

of reading activity from reading lab in the morning (where

they listen to tapes) and says "I don't want to have two of the

same type of activity in the same day."

47.

She decides to leave period open for Tuesday morning after

recess.

48.

She then looks at Wednesday's schedule.

She says she has

Sandy and an aide in the morning and could easily have reading

in the afternoon and have math in the morning and a short

activity after gym.

49.

She writes in math quiz then math (Sandy would be here for a

math group); then gym and leaves period after gym blank.

50.

She then goes to Thursday schedule.

She has reading after

recess and Sandy could read with a group and she could show

the orange suitcase before she arrives.

51.

She says that before recess may be a good time for math and

that would put two math periods back to back on Wednesday and

Thursdays.

She says that that makes sense to her since it

would give her the carry over from Wednesday to Thursday that

she doesn't have if the periods are far apart.

52.

She says that leaves a big block of time on Thursday afternoon

"which I need to get for science or social studies.

I haven't

gotten any in here yet."

She then sets aside time for doing

either science or social studies.

53.

She then reviews Thursday schedule as math quiz, math, recess,

orange suitcase and reading.

She says the one group she is

concerned about is the bottom reading group and this gives her

Monday morning, Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning to

read with them.

"I want to be able to read with them at least

three times a week.

Because without that kind of constant

reading with them, they are going to forget a lot.

They don't

know it well enough to go off on their own.

The 5 boys in

'Surprises' book still need to be read with at least twice a

week but I would like to give them the opportunity to read

once a week on their own because I know they're feeling that

everyone else is better than they are since everyone else

gets to read on their own and they aren't."

54.

She reviews Thursday afternoon as it is set:

Science or

social studies, recess, story, pass out papers and spelling

bee.

55.

She then moves to Friday's schedule.

She puts down music, add

up points, blank (since they won't be doing word contest in

class), recess, gym, spelling tests; p.m. - silent reading,

writing skills, recess, treat, clean up and movies.

"I really

feel that movie time is good for the kinds and it gives me time

423

also to put my head back together Friday afternoon."

She

says it also gives them a time to be with the class next

door (since they see them together).

56.

She then goes back to see where the gaps are:

Monday is full

Tuesday - after morning recess

Weds.

- after gym

Thurs.

- full

Fri.

- 15 minutes not full (in a.m. after

adding up points)

57.

She says she has 3 gaps and then looks to see what she has left

on her list.

58.

She sees Snoopy books and says "perfect" and puts in the 15

minute slot on Friday morning.

59.

She says she has left:

remedial handwriting group

rhyming (if she wants)

decoding

She says she could stick with using decoding in spelling.

60.

She says, "Here (Weds. morning) is half an hour and here

(Tuesday morning) is more like an hour."

She looks at them

for a minute and then says "Priorities.

I only have science

and social studies once.

Shame on me.

(you) see how much

priority I give that."

61.

She thinks about putting handwriting group in the slot after

gym on Wednesdays since she could take that group and the

student aide could take the rest of the group and do something

with them.

She also notices she has no station work in yet and

other kids could do station work or rhyming.

She says "It

has to be something the other kids won't miss out on doing.

It can't be something particularly enthusiastically fun cause

then they won't want to work with me.

Because they won't want

to work with me anyway since we really work."

62.

Decides to put down station work and keep in mind that she has

an aide since she might be able to do something completely

different in their stations.

63.

She then says that this could be a good time for the kids to

practice their math facts - do flash cards.

"No matter

how bad the aide would be she could handle that."

Lisa then checks through her class list to see how many kids

she'll have in the handwriting group - she counts 9 or

possibly 10.

That would leave the aide with 16 or 17 kids.

424

65.

Lisa then says the block of time on Tuesday morning could be

filled in with science or social studies.

66.

She then says "that will do it.

It will get in everything

in that I had planned and be stressing the things I feel need

stressing."

She then checks her aide times and says she'll

only have to change one of her parent volunteers from

Tuesday morning before reading lab.

67.

She then checks over reading periods again and switches

orange suitcase to Wednesdays and puts folders on Thursday.

68.

She then says "That looks pretty good to me.

You have to

try it out for 3 weeks to find out...since it takes a while

for the kids to adjust to a new schedule."

TOTAL TIME INVOLVED - 75 MINUTES

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