Student Behavioral Change through Teacher Behavioral Change

Abstract

Traditional learning theory argues that active participation by students in the learning process increases the likelihood that learning will in fact occur [16, pp. 53-51; 1, pp. 12]. One type of participation is the spoken interact ion that takes place between the student and the professor in the classroom. This includes questions asked by the professor in the classroom. This includes questions asked by the student and student responses to questions posed by the professor. Eliciting such participation is always an item of concern for the faculty member, and this concern is heightened in certain types of classroom environments. For example, high enrollment classes are inherently inhibitive to faculty-student classroom interactions, regardless of the subject matter under consideration. The time constraint and the physical setting work against it, and the professor is less likely to be aware of the motivational sets of individual students [12].