Sensitivity of test items to teaching quality

Instructional sensitivity is the psychometric capacity of tests or single items of capturing effects of classroom instruction. Yet, current item sensitivity measures’ relationship to (a) actual instruction and (b) overall test sensitivity is rather unclear. The present study aims at closing these gaps by investigating test and item sensitivity to teaching quality, reanalyzing data from a quasi-experimental intervention study in primary school science education (1026 students, 53 classes, M_age = 8.79 years, SD_age = 0.49, 50% female). We examine (a) the correlation of item sensitivity measures and the potential for cognitive activation in class and (b) consequences for test score interpretation when assembling tests from items varying in their degree of sensitivity to cognitive activation. Our study (a) provides validity evidence that item sensitivity measures may be related to actual classroom instruction and (b) points out that inferences on teaching drawn from test scores may vary due to test composition.     

Working more collaboratively to better understand teaching and its quality: Challenges faced and possible solutions

Given the need to develop common frameworks for conceptualizing teaching quality and common instruments for measuring it, the current paper brings together a small group of interested scholars who have used generic, content-specific, and hybrid frameworks and classroom observation instruments to reflect on how collaboration can be enhanced in research on teaching quality. Five categories of challenges that inhere in such collaborative work are identified and discussed: establishing common goals and agendas; resolving differences in terminology and structure; addressing issues of operationalization and measurement; dealing with insufficient transparency and the need for sharing information; and attending to issues of limited funding. We also offer some possible solutions for dealing with these challenges. These solutions are envisioned to contribute toward moving the field forward by supporting more scholarly collaborations in the future.     

Classroom observation for evaluating and improving teaching: An international perspective

Teacher evaluation and development policies around the world are undergoing significant reform. Classroom observation often carries a considerable weight in teacher appraisal and improvement systems, and provides the critical formative anchor informing professional development. This study examined a purposively selected sample of sixteen classroom observation systems in six countries, including high performing Singapore and Japan, regional exemplar Chile, the three largest school districts in the United States, and other interesting examples in Australia, Germany and the United States to add diversity to the sample. The study offers an analytic framework for understanding classroom observation systems across contexts, distinguishing conceptual, methodological and policy aspects that shape these systems. The sixteen systems were remarkably consistent in their stated overall purposes, but there was variation in terms of how they operationalized good teaching, the degree of standardization of the observation process, emphasis on validation, and information uses. The paper describes and discusses these characteristics in order to help researchers and policymakers reflect on the available options and take more informed decisions in designing classroom observation for evaluating and improving teaching.     

An Analysis of Instruments that Measure the Quality of Mathematics Teaching in Early Childhood

The evaluation of teaching quality in mathematics has become increasingly important following research reports indicating that preschoolers are developmentally able to engage in mathematic thought and that child performance in mathematics at this level is a strong predictor of later school achievement. As attention turns to early mathematics education, so too does the focus on teaching quality. This paper reviews nine instruments designed to measure mathematics teaching quality—their theoretical bases, foci, and psychometrics—and examines their appropriateness for administration in early childhood settings. Three of the nine measures are identified as having highly desirable characteristics, with one of them specifically designed for early childhood administration. The measures, our review process, and our recommendations for practice are presented. As school divisions and teacher educators examine teaching quality, they will be better able to support their teachers’ practice, and better able to reap the benefits in improved child outcomes.     

Hybrid content-specific and generic approaches to lesson observation: Possibilities and practicalities

This paper considers various approaches to classroom observation that combine generic and mathematics content-specific dimensions of instructional quality. Using results from previous research in which three research teams each analysed the same three mathematics lessons (from fourth-grade mathematics classrooms in the USA) using different frameworks, we compare features of the frameworks and assess the extent to which these lead to convergent, divergent or complementary assessments of instructional quality. These findings inform reflections on how a synthesis of existing conceptualisations of instructional quality captures shared aspects of different frameworks but may be differentially useful than individual frameworks depending upon the purposes of observations. Specifically, single frameworks may be particularly useful within specific contexts and for professional development and accountability, but a synthesis of frameworks can foster more coherent cross-cultural understandings of instructional quality. We argue that establishing international networks of scholars can facilitate collaborations aiming to investigate and understand instructional quality.     

Observing instructional quality in the context of school evaluation

Observational measures of instructional quality are used in both research and evaluation contexts. In European school evaluation systems, one main intended use of classroom observation results is to inform schools' instructional improvement efforts. This study examined the quality of such diagnostic information in the context of a school evaluation system in Germany. The factor analytic results indicate that the empirical structure of the observation instrument lacks correspondence with its original normative model but does mirror a five-factor model based on recent literature, including classroom management, two different aspects of student orientation, cognitive activation, and classroom assessment. The generalizability analyses show that both indicators and observers represent important sources of measurement error. Additionally, their magnitude is larger for shorter observations (lesson segments). At least two, sometimes three, observers and between five and ten indicators per dimension are needed to achieve sufficiently reliable results, but results importantly depend on which dimension of instructional quality is being assessed.     

建立科学规范的成人高等医学教育教学质量保障体系

教育观念是成人高等医学教育的生命，要树立新的教育观念、教育思想，确定新的教育理论，就必须有新的成人教育理论来指导，并在教学实践中使这种理论更正确、更完善。成人高等医学教育事业要积极适应社会主义市场经济发展的迫切要求，要在竞争和开放中成长，就必须紧跟时代步伐、适应社会发展，不断完善符合成人高等医学教育特点的育人模式。加强教学管理，严格考试制度，不断提高教学质量。     

Building the field’s knowledge of teaching and learning: Centering the socio-cultural contexts of observation systems to ensure valid score interpretation

The articles in a special issue of this journal, Merits and Limitations of Researching Teaching Quality More Synergistically, grapple with the assertion that the field does not share a common language or structural decomposition of teaching and that the current range of frameworks and observation systems used by researchers jeopardizes the accumulation of knowledge in the field. We analyze these arguments from a socio-cultural perspective, theorizing that teaching and the improvement of teaching occur in socially situated contexts that give meaning to all research frameworks and measurement tools. Rather than asking whether a common framework of teaching might be useful, we ask when such a framework might be useful, when can such efforts be limiting, and why? Building on contemporary validity theory, we bring the role of context back into the current conversation. We suggest that while there are important affordances of a unified framework of teaching quality, such a framework will be unable to fully address some of the issues identified in this special issue. For practical, theoretical, empirical, and socio-cultural reasons, researchers will require multiple frameworks and associated observation systems to support the study and improvement of teaching across contexts.     

Teaching for understanding and/or self-regulated learning? A video-based analysis of reform-oriented mathematics instruction in Switzerland

In mathematics instruction, can a teacher implement surface features of instruction that foster self-regulated learning as well as achieve quality at the deeper level of instruction, that is, focus on higher-order thinking, problem-solving, and mathematical modeling? An educational reform effort in Switzerland, which is based on constructivist and sociocultural theories of mathematics learning, targets both these dimensions: self-regulated learning and conceptual understanding. We examined the realization of the two dimensions in classroom instruction in a video-based study of 79 eighth-grade math classes using three kinds of data: videotapes of mathematics lessons, student and teacher questionnaires, and achievement tests. As to the surface level of instruction, teachers reported how frequently they provided opportunities for self-regulated learning. With regard to the deeper level of instruction, teachers reported how frequently they provided opportunities for independent problem solving. In addition, we examined the extent to which teachers’ pedagogical beliefs reflected a constructivist orientation. The results showed that teachers implemented the two dimensions relatively independently of one another. Teachers’ constructivist-oriented beliefs influenced only opportunities provided for independent problem solving and did not affect opportunities for self-regulated learning. Opportunities for self-regulated learning had a positive effect on students’ learning experience. Professional development should encourage teachers to take greater account of both surface-level and deeper-level (quality) features of instruction.     

College student perceptions of teaching and learning quality

Numerous instructional design models have been proposed over the past several decades. Instead of focusing on the design process (means), this study investigated how learners perceived the quality of instruction they experienced (ends). An electronic survey instrument containing nine a priori scales was developed. Students responded from 89 different undergraduate and graduate courses at multiple institutions (n = 140). Data analysis indicated strong correlations between student self-reports on academic learning time, how much they learned, First Principles of Instruction, their satisfaction with the course, perceptions of their mastery of course objectives, and global course ratings. Most importantly, these scales measure principles with which instructional developers and teachers can evaluate their products and courses, regardless of design processes used: provide authentic tasks for students to do; activate prior learning; demonstrate what is to be learned; provide repeated opportunities for students to successfully complete authentic tasks with coaching and feedback; and help students integrate what they have learned into their personal lives.

数学概念教学方法探析

数学概念教学首先要讲清概念的来源、形成，在数学概念教学中必须注重学生思维品质的培养和开发，数学概念教学主要是要完成概念的形成和概念的同化这两个环节。     

Improving teaching quality and the learning organisation

Abstract

This study applied a learning organisation framework to understand academic departments’ efforts to improve teaching quality. The theoretical framework was generated from literature on learning organisations, organisations devoted to continuous improvement through continuous learning. Research questions addressed relationships among departments’ vision, leadership, knowledge management, communication, learning culture, and teaching improvement. Using survey data collected from department chairs, this study found a positive association between learning organisation behaviours and the improvement of teaching.     

试点高校网络教育教学质量评价关键要素分析

随着我国试点高校网络教育的不断发展，其教学质量日益成为社会关注的热点和焦点。本文透过对评价关键要素的分析，为设计出符合我国试点高校网络教育教学质量评价指标体系提供参考。     

打造品牌赛事，提高教学技能——一种有效的教学技能训练方式

实践证明,以课堂教学技能、课件、普通话、说课等为内容的比赛对提高师范院校教师和学生教学基本功有显著成效．通过分析教学技能各要素与相关赛事的关系,提出一种在系统训练基础上进行的、能有效提高教师教学技能并通过其向学生提供示范和启发、以达到提升师范生教学技能之目的的有效途径。     

高职计算机课程教学设计与教学方法的探索与实践

以高职《计算机文化基础》课程为例探讨基于现代信息技术条件下综合运用多种教学方法实施教学,论述了适合高等职业技术教育的教学设计与教学方法的新探索与实践。     

高校教学质量存在的问题及监控措施研究

教学质量3个方面内容:人与物的资源质量;教学实践过程的质量;教学成果的质量。目前存在的问题是高校教学质量低于基础教育质量,需要通过建立题库统一联考建立学业评估制度,确定科学合理的教学质量监控系统法方解决,通过决策系统;保障系统;评估系统与反馈系统4大系统来构建高效教学质量监控体系。     

课堂观察的有效性与评课

科学、有效的课堂观察是课堂教学质量评价的基础。由于提高课堂观察能力可以提升教学质量,教师所掌握的观察技术可以提升其教学的专业化水平,目前这已逐渐成为一线教师认可的一种专业学习方式。文章阐述了几个重要的课堂关注点和课堂观察表,供广大物理教师在课堂听课后进行评课时参考。     

基于建构主义教学理论的网络多媒体教学仿真系统研究

基于建构主义教学设计的实现是以学生为中心，构建适合于学生自主学习的学习情景，它是新时期教育教学理论的最新发展成果之一。如何将这一教学设计方法应用于网络环境下的环境设计。本文对此提出了初步设想并进行了有效尝试．以期对推动网络环境下的教学设计提出建设性建议和和实践依据。     

The purpose, design and use of examples in the teaching of elementary mathematics

This empirical paper considers the different purposes for which teachers use examples in elementary mathematics teaching, and how well the actual examples used fit these intended purposes. For this study, 24 mathematics lessons taught by prospective elementary school teachers were videotaped. In the spirit of grounded theory, the purpose of the analysis of these lessons was to discover, and to construct theories around, the ways that these novice teachers could be seen to draw upon their mathematics teaching knowledge-base in their lesson preparation and in their observed classroom instruction. A highly-pervasive dimension of the findings was these teachers’ choice and use of examples. Four categories of uses of examples are identified and exemplified: these are related to different kinds of teacher awareness.