Preferred classroom behaviors of elementary teachers in American sponsored overseas schools

Abstract

The objectives of this study were (1) to provide descriptive data pertaining to the perceptions of both administrators and elementary teachers of specific teaching behaviors which have been identified as important in public schools in the United States in order to determine their importance and use in overseas schools, (2) to ascertain the possible presence and extent of differences in perceptions of importance of these behaviors among and between administrators and teachers, (3) to ascertain the possible presence and extent of differences in the perception of actual use of a behavior by the teacher versus the ideal expressed by rating its importance, and (4) to compare the extent of differences in perceptions between subjects located in different geographical areas of the world. To accomplish the purposes of this study mailings were made to the larger of the accredited American sponsored overseas schools. The final sample consisted of 40 administrators and 136 teachers representing all of the five geographical regions established by the Office of Overseas Schools. They were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning the importance of 21 selected classroom teaching behaviors. Results indicated that all of the selected behaviors had mean ratings closer to major importance than minor importance on a 25 point scale. The rank order correlation between rankings by administrators and teachers was significant at the p < .005 level as was the rank order correlation between the teacher rankings of importance and frequency of use. Analysis of variance indicated that there were no significant differences by geographical area. All of the teaching behaviors that have been identified as important by researchers in United States public schools were also identified as important by both teachers and administrators in overseas schools. One can then conclude that if preservice teachers are indeed being prepared in these behaviors, they will have a performance knowledge base for making informed professional decisions in overseas schools.