ABSTRACT
A great deal of classroom research is now available to inform teachers' decision making about promoting student learning and motivation. This chapter focuses on elementary school, especially the early grades. It expresses that effective instruction in the early grades when students are mastering basic skills differs in important respects from effective instruction at higher grades when students are using these tool skills to master other content. The chapter focuses on the traditional public school setting in which individual teachers work with classes of 20–40 students at a given grade level. It explores how typical teachers working with typical students in typical schools during everyday activities can improve student learning and motivation. A cluster of student personality dimensions including confidence–inhibition, assertiveness–shyness, and field independence–field dependence interact with the teacher behavior dimensions of demandingness–supportiveness and a businesslike, impersonal style versus an emphasis on warmth and personalized interactions.
