PROBLEM SOLVING, TEACHER-PUPIL INTERACTIONS AND THE EXPECTANCY PHENOMENON

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how differences in teacher conceptual style effect their classroom behavior. Based on Elkind's conceptual shift experiments (1966), twelve teachers were asked to discover a relationship between twelve paired words and pictures. The expected relationship could only be found by changing an initial conceptual set. Teachers were also asked to record characteristics looked for in successful students and ranked their students by these criteria. This ranking enabled observations to be made of teacher classroom behavior with the Brophy - Good Dyadic Rating Scale.;The results indicated that only certain classroom behaviors of teachers were related to their problem solving style. Teachers with a rigid problem solving style demonstrated that their pupil interactions had only a limited relationship to perceived differences in student abilities. Teachers with a flexible problem solving style also demonstrated that their pupil interactions were only minimally affected by perceived differences in student abilities. The results point in the direction of suggesting that teacher susceptibility to the expectancy phenomenon may only be somewhat related to differences in teachers' problem solving styles.