ABSTRACT
The Observational Research and Classroom Learning Evaluation (ORACLE) research officially began life in September 1975 as a Social Science Research Council programme entitled 'The Nature of Learning in the Primary Classroom'. The ORACLE observation instruments designed by Boydell were later modified for the full-scale study. Both instruments, the Teacher Record and the Pupil Record, used a time-sampling unit of 25 seconds. The main categories of the Pupil Record concerned the frequency of the pupil's interaction with the teacher or with other adults, the target's activity and location, together with the teacher's activity and location if the latter was not interacting with the target pupil at the time the observation was made. A further consequence of the decision that pupils would largely work individually concerned the nature of the curriculum. The PRISMS study, carried out eight years after the ORACLE field-work, showed very similar patterns in relation to these interactions.
