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Impact of ability grouping on models of teaching used in middle school classrooms
Abstract
The school board of a Midwestern school district adopted a policy for the education of gifted students. The intent of the school policy was to provide unique learning opportunities for gifted students, and, in the middle schools resulted in separate classes for gifted and nongifted students in four subject areas--English, social studies, math, and science. Teacher expectancy theory suggests there ought to be different teaching behaviors in terms of expectations of students and instructional strategies used with different groups of students. One way to determine whether or not the teaching behavior is different in gifted and nongifted classes is to examine the models of teaching a teacher uses in the classroom. Models of teaching represent the vehicle for delivery of instruction in the classroom. Joyce and Weil (1986, 1996) organized these models into four families--Information Processing, Social, Personal, and Behavioral Systems. The purpose of this study was to find whether or not having a class composed of gifted students or a class composed of nongifted students made a difference in the various models of teaching used, as measured by frequency and duration of those models. Thirty-six teachers in nine middle schools were video-taped, one gifted class and one nongifted class for each teacher. Double repeated measures ANOVA were conducted to determine if there were differences with respect to both frequency and duration of use of the models of teaching. Results did not support the research hypotheses. There were no differences with respect to either the amount of time or the frequency of use of the models of teaching between the gifted and nongifted classes. The teachers did not differentially use, in frequency or duration, the families of models based on whether they were teaching gifted or nongifted classes. Secondary analyses did reveal significant differences among the families of models of teaching the teachers used in their classes in terms of both frequency and duration; however, this was unrelated to the grouping of the classes.
Subject Area
Curricula|Teaching|School administration
Recommended Citation
Taylor, Susette Larson, "Impact of ability grouping on models of teaching used in middle school classrooms" (1997). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9725137.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9725137