The Contextual Correlates of the Relative Expenditures of Classroom Time on Instruction and Behavior: An Exploratory Study of Secondary Schools and Classes

Abstract

Multivariate relationships are described between the proportions of classroom time observed in instructional and behavioral modalities and six potentially important contextual variable subsets. Canonical regressions and correlations were computed between each contextual variable subset and the proportions of observed time measures both between schools and within schools (at the classroom level). The magnitudes of resultant relationships were not great. Comparatively speaking, however, important differences emerged between (a) analyses at school and classroom levels, (b) junior and senior high school classes, (c) contextual variable subsets, and (d) the sizes of associations with instructional and behavioral time. It is recommended that future “quantity of schooling” studies include time spent on discipline and control (as well as on task) and be both substantively and analytically sensitive to both school and classroom effects.