Analyzing and developing effective instructional behaviors for allied health educators.

This article discusses interaction alaysis, a procedure for objectively recording and analyzing the verbal interchange between instructors and students, which can aid instructors in setting goals for improving their instruction. The following questions are addressed: Why should instructors study their own behaviors? What conditions are necessary for studying one's teaching behaviors? What is interaction analysis? How does one implement interaction analysis? How does one interpret the results of interaction analysis? What does research indicate about interaction analysis? The authors mention the well-known Flanders System of Interaction Analysis, and outline the use of a simpler system, the System for Coding Interaction with Multiple Phases (SCIMP), developed by Townsend.