Research Linking Teacher Behavior to Student Achievement: Potential Implications for Instruction of Chapter 1 Students

Abstract

This article reviews research on teaching and considers its potential implications for compensatory education of low-achieving students from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds (e.g., target students for the Chapter 1 program). The emphasis is on process-outcome research linking teacher behavior to student-achievement gain, but research on cooperative learning methods, conceptual change teaching, the teaching of cognitive strategies, individualized and computerized instruction, adaptive education, and mastery learning is also considered. It is concluded that regardless of the setting (regular or special classroom), the key to achievement gain by low-achieving students is maximizing the time that they spend being actively instructed or supervised by their teachers. The educational programs likely to be most effective with these students are programs developed on the basis of general principles of good instruction rather than programs designed from the beginning as responses to special needs or learning deficits diagnosed in compensatory education students.