Changing Teacher Behavior: A Description of Three Experimental Programs.

Three experimental programs were designed to examine whether the present content of teacher education affects the behavior of teachers in the classroom. The first study, "An Experimental Study of Professional Education for Secondary Teachers," conducted between 1965 and 1967, examined the proposition that valid content in teacher education could best be achieved by providing selected laboratory experience and content designed to produce functional behavior. The data obtained from independent observers, student teaching grades, and the Common Examinations section of the National Teacher Examination indicated that the experimental group showed more desirable and less traditional behavior than the control group. The second study, "Teaching Experience as a Modifier of Teaching Behavior," was primarily a follow-up study of the first project and was completed in 1969. It examined the changes in teaching behavior exhibited during student teaching and during the last 3 weeks of the first year of teaching. Results showed that certain teaching behaviors are significantly modified by experience. The third study, "The Integration of Psychoanalytic Child Psychology with Elementary Teacher Education," receives only limited treatment because the final report has not yet been written, and no extensive or specific conclusions can be made from the data presented. (MBM)