Experimental Teaching

Abstract

The impact of an experimental teaching format on teacher beliefs about effective instructional practice was investigated. Teachers were required to use frequent curriculum-based measurement to test their a priori hypotheses about the relative effectiveness of three different strategies with a subgroup of students. All strategies were designed and selected by the teachers. In afl, effects of 12 strategies were compared to baseline. The effects of strategy testing on teacher beliefs and knowledge were examined by contrasting experimental teachers with volunteers and nonvolunteers. The results indicate that the experimental teachers became less dogmatic in their beliefs about effective teaching strategies and were more inclined to accept the premise that teaching strategies are scientific hypotheses to be tested.