Assessing individualized instruction in the classroom: Comparing teacher,student, and observer perspectives

In this article, we address the measurement of individualized instruction in the context of regular classroom instruction. Our study assessed instructional practices geared towards individualization in German third grade reading lessons by combining self-report data from 621 students, from their teachers (n = 57), and live observations. We then investigated the reliability of these different approaches to measuring individualization as well as the agreement between them. All three approaches yielded reliable indicators of individualized practices, but not all of them corresponded with each other. We found considerable agreement between students and observers, but neither agreed with teachers' self-reports. Upon closer examination, we found that students’ ratings only correlated with teacher ratings that were provided close to the timepoint of interest. This correlation increased when teacher measures were corrected for response tendencies. We conclude with some recommendations for future studies that aim to measure individualized instruction in the classroom.     

Reassembling teacher professional development: the case for Quality Teaching Rounds

Conventional professional development, while still in full swing in many places, has been widely maligned for its passive approach to learning, its failure to address local differences, and its often single-event format. While the corrective move to more collaborative models of professional learning has been heralded, few empirical studies to date have demonstrated impact on classroom practice or student learning outcomes. What is missing in both approaches, we argue, is a focus on pedagogy that guides teachers’ efforts at improvement. To address this absence, we elaborate our ‘reassembled’ approach to professional development, Quality Teaching Rounds. We argue that bringing together approaches to teacher development that privilege collaboration, community, and context with a substantive pedagogical framework will deliver more powerful professional development that makes a substantial impact on practice and produces measurable effects.     

Differentiated instruction in teacher education: A case study of congruent teaching

Teachers are supposed to use forms of differentiated instruction to anticipate the differences among their students. However, the adaptation of teaching to the diversity of the group often takes place with difficulty. Teacher education is blamed for not preparing student teachers adequately for differentiated instruction. Several authors suggest that congruent teaching in teacher education might be an adequate solution to this problem. This case study aims to investigate the (congruent) realization of differentiated instruction in teacher education using ethnographic tools. The results indicate that the observed teacher educator demonstrated limited forms of differentiation, largely without providing meta-commentary. Therefore, she is not a role model on the subject of differentiated instruction in the view of student teachers. These results are discussed in depth, and form a basis for further research and suggestions for practice in teacher education.     

High and low implementers of content literacy instruction: Portraits of teacher efficacy

This study used a teacher efficacy framework to describe the perceptions of high and low implementers of content literacy instruction in the context of a year-long professional development program. Interviews from middle and high school content teachers illustrated efficacy differences between teachers who demonstrated high and low levels of content literacy implementation. High implementers exhibited higher levels of general, personal, and collective efficacy, whereas low implementers exhibited lower levels of efficacy for literacy teaching. Although both high and low implementers perceived content literacy positively, high implementers were characterized by persistence in overcoming barriers associated with content literacy implementation.     

The classroom observation protocol for socioscientific issue-based instruction: development and implementation of a new research tool

Background: For the past decade, science educators have been exploring the use of Socio-scientific Issues (SSI) as contexts for science teaching and learning, and research indicates that doing so can support significant learning gains. However, research related to how teachers take up the practice of SSI-based instruction is far more limited, due in part to a lack of tools for use in this kind of research.

Purpose: The focus of this research is development and testing of a new classroom observation protocol specifically designed for SSI-based instructional contexts.

Design and methods: Development of this SSI-Observation Protocol (SSI-OP) took place in four distinct phases: review of existing protocols and SSI-based instruction frameworks, writing and revision of protocol items, initial testing of the draft protocol, and soliciting feedback from SSI experts.

Sample: Following the four stages of SSI-OP development, we progressed to a series of field tests. The field tests were conducted with three different samples. The first sample was an experienced (10 + years) high school biology teacher and one of her honors biology classes. The second sample consisted of seven Turkish Pre-service Science Teachers (PST) participating in a science methods course. The third sample included two Thai PST from a field experience course embedded within a teacher education program.

Results: The final version of the protocol addressed five dimensions of SSI-based instructional activities: focus of instruction, teaching moves, role of teacher, role of students, and classroom environment.

Conclusions: The SSI-OP could be used in a variety of ways for research including documentation of current practices, impacts of professional development and/or curricula on teaching practices, and changes in teaching over time. We offer the SSI-OP as a new tool with the potential to contribute to science teacher education and research that may advance the teaching and learning of science through SSI.     

Beginning literacy: links among teacher knowledge, teacher practice, and student learning

Although the importance of phonological awareness has been discussed widely in the research literature, the concept is not well understood by many classroom teachers. In the study described here, we worked with groups of kindergarten and first-grade teachers (the experimental group) during a 2-week summer institute and throughout the school year. We shared with them research about learning disabilities and effective instruction, stressing the importance of explicit instruction in phonological and orthographic awareness. We followed the experimental group and a control group into their classrooms for a year, assessing teachers' classroom practices and their students' (n = 779) learning. The study yielded three major findings: We can deepen teachers' own knowledge of the role of phonological and orthographic information in literacy instruction; teachers can use that knowledge to change classroom practice; and changes in teacher knowledge and classroom practice can improve student learning.     

Race and class silences in teacher education: resisting strategy-based approaches to literacy methods instruction

This article draws on qualitative and practitioner research methodologies to unpack one critical incident from an undergraduate literacy methods course in which possessing complex understandings of endemic poverty proved central to assessing student achievement. In particular, we use an example of a comprehension lesson based on the children’s book Leah’s Pony as a key example through which to consider the dangers inherent in teaching pre-service teachers to adopt strategies that seem universal and innocuous, like answering comprehension questions or filling in worksheets, outside of broader critiques of social class, racism, poverty and student positioning in schools.     

Micropolitical literacy: reconstructing a neglected dimension in teacher development

Teachers’ professional learning takes place in an organisational context, in which issues of power, influence, and control can play an important part. In this article, we argue that learning how to deal with these inevitable micropolitical aspects of their work lives, constitutes an important dimension in teachers’ professional development and needs to be included in any appropriate theory on teacher development. We describe this ‘political’ learning process as the development of micropolitical literacy. Although the development of micropolitical literacy may be stimulated and intensified by particular policy measures or reforms, as a learning process it starts at the very beginning of the teacher career. Using the micropolitical perspective as a theoretical framework, we will illustrate this by presenting the results of an interpretative analysis of one primary teacher's story about his first years in teaching.     

Online peer observation: its value in teacher professional development,support and well-being

This article discusses an online peer observation project conceived to enhance language-teacher positivity and creativity in synchronous virtual classrooms. Participants worked part-time at the UK’s Open University (OU) in a blended context and came from two different groups distant from each other and geographically dispersed within their own group. As a result of the project, participants perceived an increase in their confidence and greater willingness to experiment. They appreciated better how they fitted into the wider OU teaching community, built new professional friendships and flexible communities of practice, and developed a better understanding of how to progress their own self-development.     

微生物学实验教学实践与学生综合能力培养

本文介绍在微生物学实验教学实践中,采取精选实验内容、拓展实验项目内涵、注重教学内容的系统性和连贯性、开设综合性和设计性实验、交替安排个体性实验与团体性实验、制定考核标准等一些有效的改革措施,促进实验教学有序有效地进行。注重启发式教学,增强学生的自信心和学习兴趣,从而促进学生创新能力和综合素质的提高。     

Becoming a teacher: encouraging development of teacher identity through reflective practice

Models of learning to teach recognize the important relationship between university and school settings. The roles that educators in each setting play in the development of effective beginning teachers are not discrete. Rather they complement and support one another. Building upon existing literature, and utilizing recent data, this paper challenges teacher educators to consider how pre‐service teacher core beliefs and perceptions affect the dynamics of learning to teach and the establishment of a teacher identity. To facilitate these, it is argued that a consultative mentoring model that acknowledges individuality is more effective in the growth of teacher identity than the more traditional supervision model that focuses mainly on socialization. Reflective practice is promoted as crucial and its development is the responsibility of all teacher educators—both at university and in the schools.     

Constructivism as a framework for literacy teacher education courses: the cases of six literacy teacher educators

This paper presents findings from the large-scale study Literacy Teacher Educators: Their Backgrounds, Visions, and Practices that includes 28 literacy/English teacher educators (LTEs) from four countries. The participants were interviewed three times and shared their course outlines. Six pre-service LTEs who use a constructivist approach are presented. The six LTEs speak English as their mother tongue. Three aspects of constructivism are discussed: knowledge is constructed by learners; knowledge is experience based; and a strong class community is essential. They have adopted a constructivist approach because they conceptualised the teaching/learning process as a partnership. Constructivism is a flexible and fluid framework so individual LTEs can shape their work for their context and draw on their strengths; however, it is demanding because courses have to be somewhat organic in order to create space for discussion of issues as they arise.     

学习素养:教师专业的基石

为了支持学生自主学习和促进自身专业发展,教师必须养成和提高其学习素养。作为专业实践的基础,教师学习素养包括学习科学、问题解决、知识建构、学习方法和学习组织等方面内容,其形成和发展是一个从知识性学习经由应用性体验到习惯性行动的过程。为了加速提升其学习素养,教师要积极地进行自身学习的分析,并与学生和其他教师努力构建学习共同体。     

Photoshop课程教学设计的思考与实践

本文以教学设计的理论为依据,结合Photoshop这门课程的教学实践,探讨如何通过对教学内容的设计、不同教学方法的使用以及相应教学评价的实施来激发学生对这门课程的学习兴趣进而改进教学设计,提高学生Photoshop软件的应用能力。     

The development of student feedback literacy: the influences of teacher feedback on peer feedback

Abstract

Although the concept of student feedback literacy has drawn increasing attention in higher education, empirical research on this matter is still in its infancy. In the area of peer feedback, little research has investigated the role of teacher follow-up feedback on peer feedback in the development of student feedback literacy. To address the research gap, a multiple-case study of three Chinese master’s students enrolled in an academic writing course was conducted, drawing on the students’ drafts with peer feedback, teacher written feedback on that peer feedback, semi-structured interviews, retrospective verbal reports, observation field notes and class documents. Three students’ epistemological and practical knowledge about, attitudes towards, and self-efficacy beliefs in peer feedback were found to improve at different paces and to different degrees. However, considerable individual variations were observed with two high-achieving, highly motivated participants becoming more feedback-literate than their under-achieving, minimally motivated peer. Teacher feedback on peer feedback was found to have distinct impacts on individual students, depending on learner factors including language ability, beliefs and motivation. These findings suggest that teacher feedback on peer feedback, if consistently provided and compatible with learner factors, can scaffold both cognitive and social-affective aspects of student feedback literacy.     

Teacher knowledge about oral English instruction and teacher profiles: an EFL perspective

Teacher knowledge, as an important cognitive basis of teaching, has attracted tremendous attention in educational research in the last few decades. This study examines whether teachers’ self-perceived knowledge about oral English teaching differs with regard to their professional profiles in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context in China. A sample of 527 teachers from 56 universities in 29 cities across the country responded to a self-report questionnaire. Thirty teachers were interviewed. Teachers’ self-perceived knowledge was assessed by two factors: pedagogical content knowledge about oral English teaching (PCK) and knowledge of students’ oral English characteristics (KOS). The reliability and validity of the instrument are tested and presented. Results showed that EFL teachers generally reported having insufficient PCK and KOS. ANOVA and t-tests revealed no significant knowledge difference among teachers with different teaching experiences, training and overseas exposure. However, teachers’ learning experiences, self-perceived speaking ability and familiarity with teaching methodologies were found to influence teacher knowledge in a significant way. The findings highlight the need for the development of teacher knowledge about oral English teaching in the EFL contexts. Suggestions for further research are provided.     

Burning out during the practicum: the case of teacher trainees

The purpose of the present study was to empirically examine the link between practicum-related stressors, perceived general practicum stress, personal variables (i.e. general and teaching self-efficacy, epistemological beliefs, conceptions about teaching and learning, and trait anxiety) and burnout dimensions in a sample of 174 Greek student teachers, immediately after the completion of their practicum. In addition, the study sought to identify the best predictive combination of the studied variables for each burnout dimension. Participants who reported high general practicum stress indicated moderate levels of emotional exhaustion, but low depersonalisation and high personal accomplishment. Statistically significant correlates of burnout dimensions were used in three regression analyses. Results revealed that emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment were predicted by practicum workload, whereas depersonalisation was predicted by teachers’ epistemological beliefs (i.e. learning process) and practicum-related stressors (i.e. meeting pupils’ needs). The present study contributes to the limited body of existing evidence on burnout in student teachers. The results are discussed in terms of both theoretical and practical implications.     

Enhancing learning in clinical placements: reflective practice,self-assessment,rubrics and scaffolding

Professional preparatory health programmes generally involve clinical placements with a focus on integration of theory into real life practice. Reflective writing is often included in the assessment requirements for clinical placement courses. However enabling students to engage in deeper levels of reflective writing in action, on action and for action requires careful scaffolding and assessment task design within university clinical placement handbooks. The purpose of this case study was to explore iterative refinement of assessment exercises within clinical placement handbook activities. Specifically, the study examined students’ responses to counselling experiences in authentic pharmacy practice, with comparative analysis undertaken for the various versions of the assessment task. Results showed that provision of iteratively developed guidelines, provided to three different groups of students, to support students in the assessment task, increased the marks achieved for individual components of the assessment. The results provide insight into how the design of these types of assessment exercises can be improved.     

Impact of professional development on teacher practice: Uncovering connections

An Inquiry Learning Partnership (ILP) for professional development (PD) was formed between a university, science centre, and two urban school districts to offer 4–6th grade teachers specific science content and pedagogical techniques intended to integrate inquiry-based instruction in elementary classrooms. From pre/post content exams, PD surveys, focus group, and assessment data, teachers increased their science content knowledge, reported implementing inquiry practices in their classrooms and their students experienced modest gains on 5th grade standardized science achievement exams. While some teachers were transferring knowledge/skills gained in professional development to their classrooms, others encountered barriers to implementing PD. These obstacles included limited resources, time constraints, mandated curriculum pacing, language learning, and classroom management issues. Strategies to mitigate these barriers in order to maximize the impact of professional development need to be a priority in professional development reform.