Expert University Teachers: Thinking, Knowledge and Practice Regarding Effective Teaching Behaviors.

Abstract

This study of exemplary university teachers sought to identify their thinking and knowledge about effective teaching dimensions and strategies, the effective strategies that they actually used in class, and the relationships between their thinking and knowledge about effective teaching strategies and their actual use of these strategies. Two instructors in each of two departments (literature and psychology) at a research university in Israel were interviewed, videotaped in class, and rated by their students as to their highand low-inference behaviors. All instructors showed that they knew many effective teaching strategies, though there was a significant number of strategies that they used without being aware of it, and there were a few strategies that they knew of but did not use in class. Findings suggest that the main dimension of clarity and a small set of strategies are essential for effective teaching, but beyond this set, high performance on either organization or interest/engagement is not a necessary condition for excellent teaching, and each teacher achieves his/her excellence in a different way using different effective teaching dimensions and strategies. (Contains 39 references.) (Author/SM) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ******************************************************************************** Expert University Teachers 1 EXPERT UNIVERSITY TEACHERS: THINKING, KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE REGARDING EFFECTIVE TEACHING BEHAVIORS Nira Hativa, Rachel Barak, Etty Simhi Tel Aviv University SCOPE OF INTEREST NOTICE The ERIC Facility has assigned this document for processing to: In our judgment, this document is also of interest to the Clearinghouses noted to the right. Indexing should reflect their special points of view. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, April 1999. Prof. Nira Hativa, School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel Email: nira@post.tau.ac.il Fax: 972-3-640-9477