Instructional Behavior of Teachers when Teaching Different Learning Tasks

Abstract

This study investigated whether special education teachers exhibit different instructional behaviors when teaching concepts, teaching facts, or having children practice what has been learned. The instructional behaviors of teachers were recorded while they taught reading, mathematics, written expression, and spelling. Teachers did not present uniform behaviors across subjects. When teaching concepts in all subject areas, they consistently exhibited the teaching behaviors suggested by the literature as appropriate. An exception to this was the failure to present positive and negative examples when teaching concepts. Teachers did display some uniform behaviors across learning tasks, attempting to motivate students and elicit responses, and using feedback and reinforcement. Implications for teacher evaluation procedures for merit pay, as well as for teacher education, are discussed.