Abstract
The problem. Much recent research on teaching has emphasized classroom climate, classroom focus (on the student as an active participant in instruction or on the instructor as an information giver), patterns of teacher-student verbal interaction, and cognitive levels of learning tasks. Though these are clearly relevant dimensions of instruction, their relationships to student learning have not been demonstrated definitively enough to provide a firm basis for the improvement of instruction. The unique contribution of this study to educational research literature was the analysis of instructional conditions (above) according to the degree of congruence between instructor and student assessment of their emphases in class. Procedures. Fourteen instructors in second semester freshman English at Texas A&M University comprised the teacher sample. One class of each instructor was randomly selected for this study. Since classes were computer-scheduled without regard to student characteristics, the 348 students are believed to be representative of the whole university's freshman population. The Class Activities Questionaire (CAQ) was administered to classes during the fourteenth week of the semester. Parallel Class Activities Questionnaire (PCAQ) forms were given to instructors two weeks later. The CAQ assessed cognitive levels and affective conditions receiving emphasis in class by relatively low-inference student judgments. By the PCAQ, instructors assessed each individual student along the same dimensions as those of the CAQ, with parallel items, thus providing the basis for comparing instructor and student perceptions of emphases. ...
Denham, Alice McCreary (1974). Effects of congruent perceptions on student achievement in freshman English classes. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -170233.