TO DETERMINE IF A TEACHER'S INCIDENTAL IMITATION OF THE VERBAL BEHAVIOR PATTERNS OF HIS SUPERVISOR INFLUENCES HIS OWN CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR AND IF CERTAIN TEACHERS ARE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE THAN OTHERS TO THIS INFLUENCE, THE MINNESOTA TEACHER ATTITUDE INVENTORY AND THE PRELIMINARY SITUATION TEST (AN INSTRUMENT DESIGNED TO MEASURE THE PREFERENCE FOR INDIRECT VERSUS DIRECT RESPONSES) WERE ADMINISTERED TO 193 GRADE 1 THROUGH 9 TEACHERS. INDIRECT VERBAL BEHAVIOR IS DEFINED AS THAT WHICH EXPANDS THE STUDENTS' FREEDOM OF ACTION, WHEREAS DIRECT VERBAL BEHAVIOR RESTRICTS ACTION. ON THE BASIS OF SIGNIFICANTLY SIMILAR SCORES ON THESE INSTRUMENTS, EACH OF TWO TREATMENT GROUPS (GROUP A AND GROUP B), APPROXIMATELY EQUAL IN AGE, SEX, LEVEL OF TRAINING, AND NUMBER OF YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, ENGAGED IN A DISCUSSION PERIOD IN WHICH ALL THE CONDITIONS WERE IDENTICAL EXCEPT FOR THE VERBAL BEHAVIOR OF THE EXPERIMENTER (SIMULATED SUPERVISOR), WHERE GROUP A WAS PREDOMINANTLY INDIRECT, AND GROUP B PREDOMINANTLY DIRECT. THE TAPED SITUATION TEST (14 TAPE RECORDED EPISODES OF A SIXTH-GRADE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASS) WAS THEN ADMINISTERED AND THE TWO GROUPS WERE ASKED TO RATE, ON A FIVE-POINT SCALE, THE APPROPRIATENESS OF TWO INDIRECT AND TWO DIRECT RESPONSES THE CLASSROOM TEACHER MIGHT HAVE MADE TO SITUATIONS IN EACH EPISODE. GROUP A'S RESPONSES WERE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE INDIRECT, VERIFYING THE HYPOTHESIS THAT A SUPERVISOR'S VERBAL BEHAVIOR PATTERNS MAY AFFECT THE TEACHER'S BEHAVIOR. (AW)