In this section, we describe the methods used to develop our framework of Instructor Talk, including: 1) identifying a course for analysis, 2) defining instances of Instructor Talk, 3) developing categories of Instructor Talk, 4) measuring interrater reliability of the framework, and 5) analyzing quantitative data.
Future studies of Instructor Talk will no doubt uncover additional categories of Instructor Talk, those that both promote and inhibit desired student outcomes.
Despite similarity at the level of category usage for three of the five categories of Instructors Talk, Instructors A and B differed significantly in the quantity of Instructor Talk used per class session.
There were at least six instances of Instructor Talk identified in every class session analyzed, with at least two distinct categories of Instructor Talk represented.
In addition to identifying potential new categories of Instructor Talk, analysis of additional instructors would allow for correlation studies to begin to identify the types of Instructor Talk most beneficial for minimizing student resistance, enhancing instructor immediacy, and improving student learning for all students.
What follows are some choice candidates in the categories of office talk, a field ripe for phrase picking, and professional parlance, the terminology tossed around by marketing mavens who are in the know.
Transcripts were analyzed using a grounded theory approach to identify emergent categories of Instructor Talk.
Both instructors used all five emergent categories of Instructor Talk at some point during the semester.
Table 1 shows the five categories of Instructor Talk identified in a semester-long introductory biology course.
Both instructors used all five categories of Instructor Talk, and 14 of the 17 subcategories were commonly used, as well.
