Utilizing Students’ Perceptions and Context Variables to Analyze Effective Teaching: A Process-Product Investigation

This study utilized a student self-report instrument. Our Class and Its Work (OCIVV), to capture data on eight classroom process variables: 1) Didactic Instruction; 2) Enthusiasm (teacher); 3) Feedback; 4) Instructional l ime; 5) Opportunity to Learn; 6) Pacing; 7) Structuring Comments; and 8) Task Orientation. The large sample size permitted stratification of the student data by the contextual variables of grade, gender and socio-economic status (SFS). The results from the analyses indicate several differences in the student perceptions of the process variables measured by the OCIW and underscore the importance of utilizing context variables in process-product studies. The analyses also indicate that several of these process variables significantly affect students’ academic achievement, even after controlling for the effects of students’ prior achievement.