Aligning Mathematics Teacher Work Sample Content with Selected NCTM Standards: Implications for Preservice Teacher Education

Teacher Work Sample Methodology has been described as an alternative means/set of procedures for assessing teacher effectiveness in producing student learning that are more authentic than traditional means of teacher certification. To investigate the degree to which the methodology aligns with state/national standards, 50 work samples produced by student teachers at Western Oregon University between fall 1991 and spring 1999 were analyzed to determine: (1) the efficiency of Teacher Work Sample Methodology in moving state and national standards, for example, the NCTM standards, into the classroom; and (2) the extent to which Teacher Work Sample Methodology promotes alignment of standards, content, instruction and assessments of instruction. The research found that a majority of the student teacher work samples demonstrated weak alignment or no alignment between stated instructional objectives and selected NCTM Curriculum and Evaluation Standards (Problem Solving, Communication, Reasoning, and Connections). However, in most of the work samples, more than half of the pre/post-assessment methods (performance, knowledge) were aligned with the instructional objectives.     

Teacher Testing and the Improvement of Practice

Previous approaches to teacher testing have been criticized for poorly representing the knowledge base for teaching, for oversimplifying teaching decisions, and for lacking criterion-related validity evidence supporting their use. A new generation of teacher assessments has been developed in the United States through the efforts of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and a corollary organization of more than 30 states. These performance-based assessments use videotapes of teachers' practice, examples of lessons and assessments, samples of student work, and analyses of classroom events and outcomes to provide evidence about teaching. Early research on the effects of these assessments suggests that they may be more valid measures of teacher knowledge and skill and that they may help teachers improve their practice. The stimulus to teacher learning appears to occur through task structures that require teachers to learn new content and teaching strategies as part of their demonstration of performance and through the processes of required reflection about the relationships between learning and teaching.     

Teacher anxiety,teacher effectiveness,and student anxiety

The relationships between teacher anxiety while teaching, student anxiety, and student perceptions of teaching effectiveness were examined. The teachers were 19 nurse educators and the students were 72 student nurses in Sydney, Australia. The teachers taught a lesson selected at random and completed a state anxiety questionnaire before the lesson began and, again, after the lesson in terms of how they felt while teaching. After the lesson, the students completed an assessment of the teacher's effectiveness and a questionnaire to record the anxiety levels experienced while being taught. Teacher A-State while teaching was found to be closely related to student perceptions about lesson organization, teacher affect, and teacher confidence. Teacher A-State while teaching was also found to be significantly related to the level of A-State experienced by the students while being taught.     

Teacher self-efficacy according to Turkish Cypriot science teachers

This study examined the self-efficacy of Turkish Cypriot science teachers working at high schools in Northern Cyprus. The study sample was 200 science teachers who participated in the survey. The Teacher Self-efficacy (TSE) Scale was used as a data source. It was observed that the science teachers’ efficacy beliefs about student engagement in class; instructional strategies; and classroom management did not change depending on their years of teaching experience, and branch of science. Moreover, the teachers’ school level and faculty from which they graduated were significant predictors of their self-efficacy for student engagement and instructional strategies, but gender was not a significant predictor of teacher self-efficacy.     

Opportunities for Teacher Learning During Enactment of Inquiry Science Curriculum Materials: Exploring the Potential for Teacher Educative Materials

The development of curriculum materials that are also educative for teachers has been proposed as a strategy to support teachers learning to teach inquiry science. In this study, one seventh-grade teacher used five inquiry science units with varying support for teachers over a two-year period. Teacher journals, interviews, and classroom videotape were collected. Analysis focused on engagement in planning and teaching, pedagogical content knowledge, and the match to teacher learning needs. Findings indicate that this teacher’s ideas developed as she interacted with materials and her students. Information about student ideas, task- and idea-specific support, and model teacher language was most helpful. Supports for understanding goals, assessment, and the teacher’s role, particularly during discussions and group work, were most needed.     

Teacher learning on problem-solving teams

Problem-solving teams address student difficulties. Teams comprised of teachers, specialists, and administrators identify the student problem, develop individualized interventions, and assess student change. Teacher experiences of teams are understudied. In a prospective, mixed-method study conducted in the United States, 34 teachers were followed through the team process. Interview coding showed that 60% of teachers reported they gained new intervention skills. Yet, 40% of teachers reported no professional benefits. Logistic regression showed that differences in teacher learning were partially explained by teachers' negative or positive expectations at the outset of the team. The expectancy effects have implications for teacher professional development.     

Teacher use of evidence to customize inquiry science instruction

This study investigated how professional development featuring evidence‐based customization of technology‐enhanced curriculum projects can improve inquiry science teaching and student knowledge integration in earth science. Participants included three middle school sixth‐grade teachers and their classes of students (N = 787) for three consecutive years. Teachers used evidence from their student work to revise the curriculum projects and rethink their teaching strategies. Data were collected through teacher interviews, written reflections, classroom observations, curriculum artifacts, and student assessments. Results suggest that the detailed information about the learning activities of students provided by the assessments embedded in the online curriculum motivated curricular and pedagogical customizations that resulted in both teacher and student learning. Customizations initiated by teachers included revisions of embedded questions, additions of hands‐on investigations, and modifications of teaching strategies. Student performance improved across the three cohorts of students with each year of instructional customization. Coupling evidence from student work with revisions of curriculum and instruction has promise for strengthening professional development and improving science learning. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 1037–1063, 2010     

Student teachers’ participation in learning activities and effective teaching behaviours

Teacher learning is essential to the teaching profession, because it has been strongly linked to improved teaching practices and teacher quality. The source for teacher learning is initial teacher education, a crucial phase in the learning-to-teach continuum. To gain insight into this influential period for student teachers’ long-term professional lives, this exploratory study investigates student teachers’ participation in learning activities and explores whether it is connected to their own effective teaching behaviours in a school-based teacher education setting for secondary education in the Netherlands. The results indicate that student teachers vary in their self-reported learning and that this learning relates positively to observations of their effective teaching behaviour. These findings have several implications for teacher education programmes that aim to enhance the likelihood that their student teachers will become career-long learning professionals.     

Student Views of Teacher Actions in Science Classrooms Designed to Meet Current Reforms

Science/Technology/Society (STS) as a reform effort has been active in Iowa for three decades. A program called Iowa Chautauqua has evolved over the four decades to promote K-12 STS teaching in Iowa’s 300 school districts. This is a study of how teachers have become Teacher Leaders of the reforms and lead other teachers who enroll as new teachers and schools each New Year. All were involved with Action Research projects each year while also assisting graduate student teams who serve as research associates. In this study, students were asked to identify specific teacher actions that were designed to make student learning more successful. The study examines general student views of teacher actions as well as specific examples of how students interact with the teacher and how the teachers encourage greater student/student involvement. The results show success with STS and how it defines science and affective actions of teachers in classrooms. Student views of Teacher Leaders, new Chautauqua teachers, and Control Teachers with no STS or Chautauqua experiences provide ways of recognizing successes of current reform efforts.     

Development and evaluation of a Chinese version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI)

Teacher–student interpersonal relationships play an important role in education. The Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) was designed to measure students’ interpersonal perceptions of their teachers. There are two Chinese versions of the QTI for student use, and that inherited the weaknesses of the previous English versions, such as items that focus on class behaviour, instead of teacher behaviour, or that include conditionals and negations. The present study aimed to develop an improved Chinese version of the QTI which is conceptually parallel with the original QTI and with the use of optimal item wording. The process contained several steps, including expert panels and student and teacher interviews. New items were also created based on the Chinese secondary classroom context, rather than only using translations of English items. The final version of the Chinese version of the QTI presented in this paper was evaluated with a sample of 2000 students from 4 secondary schools in mainland China who rated a total of 80 teachers. The resulting version of the Chinese QTI had adequate validity and reliability, and it distinguished clearly between teachers. The predictive validity was supported by the relation between the students’ perceptions of their teachers and their academic emotions in class. Although further improvement of the instrument is recommended, it can be used to study interpersonal teacher behaviour in China and to help to improve Chinese teachers’ teaching practices.     

Teacher learning as boundary crossing: a case study of Master Teacher Studios in China

ABSTRACT

Teacher professional learning is shaped by multiple contexts in a complex way. Previous studies mainly focused on teacher learning in school-based contexts, and rarely explored how teachers learn across schools and in other situations. Adopting the framework of boundary crossing learning, this study examined the processes of teachers’ professional learning when they participated in Master Teacher Studios in mainland China. Through the qualitative case study approach, this study summarised four learning mechanisms: seeking common ground and reserving differences, growing through formal and informal coordination, exposing the gap and reflecting one’s limits, and transforming practices that incorporate one’s teaching ‘soul’. Further, intrapersonal, interpersonal and institutional factors that contribute to teacher learning as boundary crossing are discussed.     

The Impact of Teacher Study Groups in Vocabulary on Teaching Practice,Teacher Knowledge,and Student Vocabulary Knowledge: A Large-Scale Replication Study

The purpose of this replication study was to examine the impact of the Teacher Study Group (TSG) professional development in vocabulary on first-grade teachers' knowledge of vocabulary instruction and observed teaching practice, and on students' vocabulary knowledge. Sixty-two schools from 16 districts in four states were randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions. A total of 182 first-grade teachers and their 1,811 students formed the sample. Treatment teachers received the TSG professional development from October to March. Teachers in the business-as-usual control condition received school/district professional development. A multilevel analysis was conducted to detect impacts. Significant impacts were found for teacher knowledge and observed teaching practice. No impacts were found at the student level.     

Accountability, Student Learning, and the Preparation and Licensure of Teachers: Oregon''s Teacher Work Sample Methodology

This article describes Teacher Work Sample Methodology (TWSM) as one piece of an in-place accountability system for the initial preparation and licensure of teachers that includes evidence of student learning. The underlying tenets of both the methodology specifically and the notion of accountability systems generally are explored from the perspective of using evidence of student learning. This discussion includes the argument that teacher do indeed influence student learning and thus can ethically be part of an accountability system. However, the author also argues that the teaching and learning context is important and must be taken into account within such systems. The author also describes why, especially at the preservice level, the notion of accountability is part of a broader social contract. Finally, the author argues that the aim of any accountability system should be to develop personal, professional responsibility rather than to develop an external hammer for performance. A summary of the differences TWSM has made at the individual teacher level and within the institution, the state, and the nation generally is presented. The author concludes that the intended impact of the system—to develop personal, professional responsibility—has been largely achieved.     

教师专业发展方式论

本文论述了教师专业发展的三种方式：教师个体的自我学习、反思和研究,教师同伴的互助提高,专业人士的指点引领。三种发展方式的责任主体不同,显示的意义也不尽相同。教师个体的学习、反思、研究是教师专业发展的基础,显示了教师个体专业发展的自觉。教师同伴互助需要学校建设起良性的团队文化和教研文化,显示着教师职业的专业组织特点。专业人士的指点引领则更多依靠教师任职学校和教师培养培训机构、教育行政主管部门有计划、有组织的介入,它显示着社会为教师专业发展承担起了应有的责任。     

The Challenges of Supporting Equity Literacy Skill Development in White Teacher Candidates: A Self-Study of Two White Field Instructors

In classrooms, race-based bias, discrimination, and inequities result in unsafe and unproductive learning environments. Teacher educators are charged with helping preservice teachers develop racial literacy skills. This self-study explores the ways in which two White teacher educators recognize and attempt to manage challenges during field instruction of White teacher candidates. The teacher educator researchers explore their own Whiteness and use a racial lens to critique their practices. Post-lesson-debriefing conferences between teacher educators and their candidates are shared as illustrative vignettes to reveal instructors’ teaching challenges and failures. Implications for working with White teacher candidates, improvements to field instruction practices, student teaching curricula revisions, and programmatic changes are posited.     

教师自我表露教学效果的跨文化比较

以180名美国和509名中国师范生为研究对象,采用自编《教师自我表露教学效果问卷》调查和比较中美师范生对教师自我表露教学效果的理解。结果表明,中美师范生认为教师自我表露有助于师生关系的建立和师生之间的交流,对学生的学习具有积极的作用,并有助于促进学生的课堂参与。在"师生关系与师生交流","学生的学习效果"和"课堂参与"三个维度上,美国师范生的得分均显著高于中国师范生。建议在我国教师教育和培训中,注意引导师范生的自我表露意识,建议教师使用积极的自我表露,尽量避免消极的自我表露,采用与教学内容相关的自我表露,并控制自我表露的时间和内容,意识自我表露的数量,真正发挥自我表露作为教学工具的作用。     

Effects of active‐learning experiences on achievement,attitudes, and behaviors in high school biology

Active‐learning labs for two topics in high school biology were developed through the collaboration of high school teachers and university faculty and staff and were administered to 408 high school students in six classrooms. The content of instruction and testing was guided by State of Texas science objectives. Detailed teacher records describing daily classroom activities were used to operationalize two types of instruction: active learning, which used the labs; and traditional, which used the teaching resources ordinarily available to the teacher. Teacher records indicated that they used less independent work and fewer worksheets, and more collaborative and lab‐based activities, with active‐learning labs compared to traditional instruction. In‐class test data show that students gained significantly more content knowledge and knowledge of process skills using the labs compared to traditional instruction. Questionnaire data revealed that students perceived greater learning gains after completing the labs compared to covering the same content through traditional methods. An independent questionnaire administered to a larger sample of teachers who used the lab‐based curriculum indicated that they perceived changing their behaviors as intended by the student‐centered principles of the labs. The major implication of this study is that active‐learning–based laboratory units designed and developed collaboratively by high school teachers and university faculty, and then used by high school teachers in their classrooms, can lead to increased use of student‐centered instructional practices as well as enhanced content knowledge and process learning for students. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 960–979, 2007     

Teacher perceptions and individual differences: How they influence rural teachers’ motivating strategies

This study examined the influence of high school teachers’ perceptions and individual difference characteristics on teachers’ use of motivating strategies in their classrooms. Participants were 75 teachers in 19 rural, public high schools. A mixed method approach was used. Quantitative measures included demographics, individual differences, perceptions, and motivating strategies, analyzed as correlations and regressions. Qualitative measures included generative self-report of motivating a student, and semi-structured interviews, which were open coded and then axial coded to identify themes and issues. Peer-related environment stood out among teacher perceptions predicting student motivation. Teacher support and efficacy predicted motivating strategies, but teacher perceptions of student goals and causes of lack of motivation did not. Teachers admit that they lack knowledge and efficacy for motivating students. Findings can inform teacher education, professional development, and administrative support for teaching effectiveness.     

大学英语教师的教学效能感与课堂提问行为关系研究

教师自我效能感是指教师相信自己有能力对学生的学习产生积极影响的一种知觉和信念。国内外的研究表明:教师的自我效能感与教师的教学行为存在着密切关系。通过调查大学英语课堂中高低效能感教师课堂提问的特征,比较高低效能感教师在大学英语课堂中提问的话语量、问题类型、交互调整方式及反馈方式等方面的异同,希望能对大学英语师资培养的改进有所启示。