Author Description

Seen from the point of view of those engaged in the practical pedagogic-didactic training of future teachers, a system of analysis with reference to the act of teaching is particularly interesting if it can be used as an instrument for the evaluation of the teacher contact with the class. For this reason much space is given in this study to the system of didactic interaction analysis as developed by FLANDERS. Each of the categories which together form the abovementioned system is discussed separately and a number of alternative systems are considered. The FLANDERS system is based mainly on groupdynamic ideas regarding the role of the teacher as the leader within the classroom and it is concerned to a high degree with the way in which such phenomena - important both from a pedagogic and didactic point of view - as authority, goal-orientation, and social access function within the framework of the classroom. In FLANDERS' conception these phenomena are directly subject to the didactic strategies and tactics used by the teacher. FLANDERS introduces the in our opinion useful notion of flexibility as a category to describe the control of interaction structures exercised by the teacher. An important feature of the FLANDERS system is the possibility to transform the data obtained from direct observation into matrices. The technique to be used is explained in this study. In our opinion this technique can be applied successfully so as to give feedback to teachers with regard to certain aspects of their way of teaching.