Inflight decisions of expert and novice health teachers

The interactive or "inflight" decision-making of nine expert health teachers and 10 student health teachers was examined over a two-year period. The method for accessing thoughts of the teachers was the stimulated recall interview which first involved making a videotape of the lesson being taught. After the lesson, the researcher played the videotape and the teachers stopped the tape whenever they could recall what they were thinking at the time. Each interview was audiotaped and responses served as data for this study. Overall, expert health teachers made more interactive decisions in the classroom across a larger number of categories. Specifically, experts remembered making significantly more decisions in the five categories of pupil, content, procedures, time, and materials. Expert health teachers also were generally more cognizant of lesson objectives, more likely to modify the lesson, and better able to connect new material to students' prior learning. Recommendations for preservice and inservice professional development programs are offered.