Abstract
It was the prupose of this study to develop an observational instrument that allows researchers to sample the verbal behaviors of elementary grade reading teachers. More than 1200 minutes of reading instruction from 9 teachers in two Central Texas school districts were videorecorded. One teacher's videorecordings were used for training and measurement purposes. The remaining videorecordings were used to test the reliability of the developed instrument. Specifically, a training program was developed, including a training manual, and four observers were trained to use the instrument. These four observers were each randomly assigned to code the instruction for two of the videorecorded teachers. More than 7,600 verbal behaviors were counted. Analysis of the data included assessment of observer agreement for two conditions of coding: item -by-item and continuous. Agreement procedures included interobserver, intraobserver, and criterion-related agreement for all observers. In addition, expert jurors were asked to assess for some aspects of validity, including content, construct, and face validity. Results of analysis showed that strong levels of agreement could be established for item-by-item coding conditions, and that moderate levels of agreement could be obtained for continuous coding conditions. Jurors agreed that developed instrument could be useful for the intended purpose. Conclusions and implications of these findings for educational practice are discussed, and questions for future research are posed.
Clark, Gregory David (1988). An observational study of teachers' explanation during reading instruction. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -770883.