The purpose of this study was to investigate the validiy of critical indicators of teaching effectiveness for preservice student teachers in special education. Critical indicators are behaviors that can be used to make decisions about the effectiveness of student teachers. In this study, the relationship between behaviors of preservice student teachers and ratings of their teaching effectiveness by a panel of observers is investigated. Ten preservice teachers (nine female and one male) completing their student teaching in the area of emotional disturbedlbehavior disorders participated in the study. Teachers were observed using the Pupil Observation Procedure form. The observation form is designed to sample both student and teacher behaviors, and focuses on behaviors that occur during instruction. Videotaped sections of participants' lessons were shown to eight raters who judged the effectiveness of each preservice teacher. Pearson product-moment correlations were calculated to determine the relation between teaching behaviors and teacher effectiveness. The highest obtained correlation was between the amount of off-task time observed in the classroom and teacher effectiveness ratings. In addition, moderate correlations were obtained between intrusive behavior and positive teacher responses and teacher effectiveness ratings. To further examine the relationship between teaching behaviors and ratings of teacher effectiveness, profiles of most effective, moderately effective, and least effective teachers were created. Results of the study are interpreted within the context of research on the development of teacher expertise.
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