Research on teacher behavior has looked at teacher styles, teacher-student interactions, teacher characteristics, teacher competencies, and teacher effects. That research has now evolved to the point that teacher standards are being created.
Although much remains to be learned about successful teaching, research has identified some teacher behaviors that seem to be effective and influence student performance.
Recent research on effective teaching has shifted from the process of teaching to the products of teaching.
The classic, important research on teaching prior to the 1970s was the work of A. S. Barr, Ned Flanders, and David Ryans. These researchers focused on teacher styles, teacher-student interactions, and teacher characteristics—that is, the process, or what happens in the classroom or the behavior of the teacher.
In the 1970s and 1980s the research on teaching was based on the work of Jere Brophy, Carolyn Evertson, N. L. Gage, Thomas Good, Donald Medley, and Barak Rosenshine. Their research tends to focus on teacher effectiveness and on the products or results of teaching. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the research began to focus more on the value-added by a teacher in terms of student achievement.
As the 1990s unfolded, two basic trends influenced research on teaching. One was a focus on the nature of expertise in teaching and how expert and novice teachers differ in approach and in seeing and analyzing classroom events. The second trend prompted different forms of investigating teaching that were based on language and dialogue: metaphors, stories, biographies, autobiographies, expert opinions, and voice.
