A Computer Investigation of Verbal Characteristics of Effective Classroom Lecturing

One important method of communicating knowledge to the student is the classroom lecture. Although much research has been devoted to the evaluation of teaching methods, the educational psychologist can not confidently specify many teacher behaviors which contribute to or interfere with effective explanation in the ordinary classroom. To advance understanding of this important teacher activity, a program of research was undertaken by Gage and his associates (Gage, Belgard, Dell, Hiller, Rosenshine, and Unruh, 1968), and a sizeable body of data were collected. 1, 2