Listening and Non-Listening Behaviors in the Classroom: An Observational Study
U.S. Office of Education An index of children's listening and non-listening behaviors in the classroom yielding an interrater reliability of .92 was developed. This was used to examine the effects of grade (2, 4, G), sex, school (public, private), and subject matter (mathematics, language am) on listening in the classroom. The study tested several hypotheses: (a) the proportion of time spent listening will increase monotonically by grades; (b) private school children will exhibit a higher proportion of listening behavior than public school children; (c) subject matter which involves higher symbolism and abstract reasoning will elicit a greater proportion of rime spent listening; and finally (d) no sex differences would be observed. A four-way mixed-effects Greenhouse-Geisser (1959) analysis of variance was performed. The results of the analysis of variance supported the hypothesis that the main effects of subject matter = 94.06, p < ,0001, MLA = .57, Mu = -77) and grade (P2.m = 3.68, p < .05, M3 = .70, M4 = .Gl;Ms = .71) are important in listening. For this sample, sex and school were nonsignificant. The significant interactions included: school by grade (Fz.so = 3.75, p < .05), school by subject matter (K.M = 14.80, p < .001), grade by subject matter (P2,aa = 5.59, p < .01), school by grade by subject matter (P2..0 = 6.93, f~ < .Ol), and school by grade by subject matter by sex (P2.38 = 5.73, fi < .0 1 ) . Mean proportions by appropriate variables for significant interactions are found in the table.