Effects of different cue types on the accuracy of primary school teachers' judgments of students' mathematical understanding

To gain insight into how teachers' judgment accuracy can be improved, we investigated effects of cue-type availability. While thinking aloud, 21 teachers judged their fourth grade students' (n = 176) decimal magnitude understanding. Sensitivity (correctly judging what students did understand) did not improve from availability of both answer cues (students' answers to prior practice problems) and student cues (knowledge of students triggered by knowing their names), and was lower when only answer cues were available, compared to only student cues. Specificity (correctly judging what students did not understand) was higher when only answer cues were available, compared to only student cues or both student and answer cues.     

Developing a pedagogy of mutuality in a capability approach: Teachers’ experiences of using the Open Educational Resources (OER) of the teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) programme

The TESSA (teacher education in sub Saharan Africa) programme aims to improve teacher education at scale by developing open educational resources (OER) that allow sustainable and locally managed pedagogical change in higher education institutions and schools. The article offers a sociocultural theoretical rationale for the pedagogy of mutuality represented in the TESSA OER; and for the research approach to understanding pedagogical change that recognises the dialectical relationships between national policies and institutional structures and practices, and the consequent impact of these on teachers’ practice and pupils’ learning. It reports from an interview-based enquiry, from the project¹ ‘Extending and embedding TESSA OER’, looking at how teacher educators at a Kenyan University served to broker changes in pedagogy within the institution and its partner schools. Two school-based cases are discussed that highlight the role teachers, who take up these pedagogical challenges play in further brokering change in their local institutions; some of the influences that support the process of institutional change are identified and how these are understood and reported to increase access and enhance learning for all pupils.     

Appraisal of students experience survey (SES) as a measure to manage the quality of higher education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: an institutional study using six sigma model

Students’ Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness is one of the most widely accepted methods of measuring the Quality of Higher Education worldwide. The University of Dammam is currently performing several evaluations by students as required for academic accreditation by the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment. Of these, two of them deal with program evaluation i.e. Students Experience Survey (SES), and Programme Evaluation Survey (PES). SES denotes the experience of students halfway through in a given academic program and PES denotes the students overall experience at the end. This study was conducted among the students of Medical and Nursing programs to capture their experiences related to various aspects of the teaching and learning process adopted in their college. The students’ attitude was captured through the SES questionnaire and the data were analyzed through six sigma analytical tool using the Poisson distribution model. From the non-conformance level apprehended through the responses from the students about the various categories of teaching and learning process prevailing in the College, the corresponding sigma rating for each teaching and learning process was calculated. Consequently, an innovative six point quality rating system was developed for each sigma values.