Research on Teacher Thinking

A relatively new approach to the study of teaching assumes that what teachers do is affected by what they think. This cognitive information processing approach is concerned with teacher judgment, decision making, and planning. The study of the thinking processes of teachers-how teachers gather, organize, interpret, and evaluate information-is expected to lead to understandings of the uniquely human processess that guide and determine teacher behavior. This view of teaching developed as a logical outgrowth of approaches to research on teaching that emphasize teacher behavior. The teacherbehavior approach has contributed a great deal to our knowledge of what teachers and students do in classrooms and how this behavior relates to student learning and attitudes (see Rosenshine 1971; Dunkin and Biddle 1974; Medley, in press). But if the results of such research are to be applied by individual teachers in their classrooms, adaptations will have to be made. Each class consists of a unique combination of personalities, constraints, and opportunities. Teacher behavior that is sensible and effective in one setting may be inappropriate in a second setting, and it is the individual teacher who makes decisions about appropriateness and defines the teaching situation. So, if research is to be put into practice-if the general case is to be applied in particular situations-then we must know

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