PHYSICS PROBLEM SOLVING

Episodes and Interaction Analysis
For the last forty years, many instruments have been devised to analyze classroom
interactions. The emphasis has been almost entirely on the teacher-student interaction.
This emphasis arose out of a need to understand what happens in the classroom. It was
thought that in order to prescribe instructional materials or strategies, the teacher-student
relationship had to be observed and understood. While this dissertation research is
concerned with student-student interactions in groups, it is important to understand the
limitations of interaction analysis as found in the teacher-student research.
One of the best known instruments was the Flanders System of Interactional
Analysis. It endeavored to provide a measure of the degree to which a teacher's verbal
behavior in the classroom was student-centered. Other interaction scales included the
Roark Dimensions of Psychological Distance, Hill Interaction Matrix, and the Teaching
Strategies Observation Differential. These instruments have three things in common (1)
they focus on a limited aspect of classroom behavior, (2) each one has a bias, and (3) they
measure only what actually occurred in the classroom (i.e., statements) without making
any qualitative judgments (Amidon and Hough, 1967; Stanford and Roark, 1974).
In general, all classroom observation instruments, schemes, or techniques focus
on exact, prespecified behaviors on the part of the teacher or the student. Because the
observation instruments are linked to specific behaviors, they often tally verbal
statements made by the student or the teacher. One might, for example, define categories
such as elaborating, explaining, or defending, and then classify student statements into
those categories. Typically, a researcher would then count the number of times a student
gave the teacher an explanation, and perhaps evaluate the validity of the explanation.