Verbal Interaction of Students and Their Teachers in Junior High Classrooms

Abstract

Teachers’ and students’ verbal behaviors were investigated using the CVC system of classification in 72 classrooms of grades seven, eight, and nine in a rural and an urban school system. Trained observers observed classes during instruction in language arts, social studies, mathematics, and science twice during 2 weeks. The canonical correlation and redundancy analyses of 12 of the CVC cell percentages of teachers and students produced four significant canonical correlations ranging in value from .76 to .96. The total redundancy coefficients for the teachers’ and students’ factors were, respectively, .59 and .37. When the process and substance marginal categories were analyzed, respectively, one (.64) and two (.88 and .76), significant canonical correlations emerged. Canonical factor structures for the process data sets indicated that teacher-pupil verbal interaction was asymmetrically contingent. The substance level interaction appeared to be reciprocally contingent. Results are extended and related to the theory of instruction and behavior management.