Investigating the Pedagogy of Poverty in Inner-City Middle Level Schools

Abstract

While there have been several criticisms of the instructional approaches used in middle level classrooms, there have been very few empirical studies examining classroom instruction in inner-city middle level schools. In this study systematic classroom observations were conducted of 90 middle level teachers and 356 six- and eighth-grade students from 16 inner-city middle level schools. Data from these observations indicate that students are typically involved in whole-class instruction and not interacting with either their teacher or other students. Students rarely selected their own instructional activities, and they were generally very passive in the classroom, often just watching or listening to the teacher, even though they were found to be on task about 94% of the time. Teachers typically focused on the content of the task or assignment, responded to students' signals, communicated the task's procedures, and checked students' work. Teachers were observed spending very little time interacting with students regarding personal issues, encouraging students to succeed, showing personal regard for students, and showing interest in students' work. These results are discussed in the context of conceptual and theoretical work on effective classroom instruction for young adolescents.

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