Effects of a Minimal Intervention on Teacher Behavior and Student Achievement

Abstract

Results from recent classroom-based experiments suggest that teacher behavior can be modified and student achievement improved through minimal interventions where (a) teacher training is carried out in correspondence course fashion and (b) comprehensive classroom observations are not conducted. This experiment represents such an intervention, carried out in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classrooms of 32 volunteer teachers. The experimental group teachers received through the mail a series of teacher training packets containing recommendations for teaching practices derived from the results of four large-scale correlational studies of teaching. Before and after training, classroom observations were conducted for 2 hours on two occasions. Analyses indicated that the intervention did not effect significant change in training-related teaching practices or end-of-year student achievement. Discussion of these results addresses factors that probably mediate treatment implementation and, consequently, effects on student achievement in research of this kind.