Thirty-six different teachers were videotaped teaching 596 lessons in a special room. Lessons were seen as signal systems to participants. These signal systems were characterized as varying along the dimensions of continuity, insulation, and intrusiveness. Using task involvement as the criterion, the most successful lessons are those in which there is a continuing and protected signal system (as in individual construction). Lessons of average success are those with a continuous input from a constant source (books, records, teacher demonstrations). The least successful lessons are those dependent upon discontinuous inputs from other children (role play, group construction) and those having high intrusiveness (gross motor activity, loud musical instruments).
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