Teacher Decision Making

a) empirical (research) articles on teacher decision-making, and b) theoretical articles on teacher decision-making.

Teacher Decision-Making: Empirical Studies

McNair and Bruce (1979) examined teacher decision-making for a sample of ten elementary school teachers. In particular, the study was focused on determining those concerns which teachers held regarding their instructional efforts. Methods included videotaping teachers at six different periods of time during the school year, having teachers review these videotapes and recall what they were thinking about at the time the tape was made. Regarding areas of concern, McNair and Bruce (1979) reported that findings showed that:

In order of significance, the concerns...were: content of the lesson, procedures, time, and materials. Concern with pupil learning, attitudes and behavior accounted for nearly forty per-cent of the total, and concern with learning tasks, facts, and ideas for nearly thirty per-cent. Concerns were relatively stable acros

. . .
king pressure regarding proper placement of low ability students but little decision-making pressure about proper placement of high ability students (Combs, 1984). 7). Decisions/judgments about student achievement are based on information related to students' existing achievement levels, problematic behavior, levels of motivation and work habits---all judged within the personal and idiosyncratic framework of the individual teacher (Shavelson & Stern, 1981). 8). Groupings cause teachers to make decisions about the collective rather than the individual (Shavelson & Stern, 1981). 9). Teachers view their decisions as more complex than they, in fact, are (Shavelson & Stern, 1981). 10). Teacher decision-making skills can be improved by role-taking and guided reflection training, especially in the areas of making more interactive decisions, monitoring student behavior more frequently, considering more instructional alternatives and weighing alternatives significantly more often (Parker, 1984). 11). Most teachers allow book publishers to set instructional guidelines; that is, they go by guidelines provided in classroom texts and workbooks and do not take personal responsibility for supplementing texts or presenting instructional acti
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Shavelson Borko, Ward Borgers, Shavelson Stern, Yinger Clark, Bennett McNamara, Theoretical Quible, McNair Bruce, Evaluation Conclusions, Duffy McIntyre, Theoretical Views, teacher decision-making, decision-making skills, school teachers, model teacher, stimulated recall, elementary school, elementary school teachers, information-processing model, instructional activities, model teacher decision-making, quible 1975, shavelson stern, teacher decision-making skills, stimulated recall methodology, mi michigan university,
Approximate Word count = 6520
Approximate Pages = 26 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Teacher Decision Making