Developing and assessing beginning teacher effectiveness: the potential of performance assessments

The Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) is an authentic tool for evaluating prospective teachers by examining their abilities to plan, teach, assess, and reflect on instruction in actual classroom practice. The PACT seeks both to measure and develop teacher effectiveness, and this study of its predictive and consequential validity provides information on how well it achieves these goals. The research finds that teacher candidates’ PACT scores are significant predictors of their later teaching effectiveness as measured by their students’ achievement gains in both English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. Several subscales of the PACT are also influential in predicting later effectiveness: These include planning, assessment, and academic language development in ELA, and assessment and reflection in mathematics. In addition, large majorities of PACT candidates report that they acquired additional knowledge and skills for teaching by virtue of completing the assessment. Candidates’ feelings that they learned from the assessment were the strongest when they also felt well-supported by their program in learning to teach and in completing the assessment process.     

Professional development and the beginning teacher: issues of teacher autonomy and institutional conformity in the performance review process

This paper discusses some of the conditions that have facilitated the use of a customised virtual learning environment as part of a blended learning approach on a part‐time postgraduate initial teacher training programme for prospective primary school teachers. It is based on data gathered as part of a study of the impact of e‐learning on students following a part‐time flexible postgraduate route to Qualified Teacher Status. It concludes that the success of these particular virtual communities can be attributed to the balance, on the programme, between face‐to‐face and e‐learning together with the nature and structuring of the e‐learning tasks; the focus on professional learning with the immediacy of its application in the work‐place; its focus on independent and student‐led interaction; and the motivation and personal circumstances of the students involved.     

Problems of beginning teachers: Comparing graduates of bachelor's and master's level teacher preparation programs

This study compares classroom problems of novice teachers who had completed either a traditional 4‐year baccalaureate or 1‐year graduate level preparation program. Problems encountered were remarkably similar. For both groups, the three most frequent problems are shared and identically ranked: (a) having adequate time for planning and preparation; (b) having every student work up to his or her ability; and (c) providing for individual learning differences. Of the 20 most frequently experienced problems for each group, 15 are common to both. Furthermore, problems these teachers encountered are highly comparable to those encountered by novice teachers of two decades ago. When viewed from a teacher development perspective, these results may indicate that beginning teachers have a similar set of problems to work through regardless of their preparation program. The results also indicate that graduates of a 1‐year master's level program are no more likely to encounter problems in their first years of teaching than are graduates of a traditional 4‐year baccalaureate program.     

Student teacher portfolios: A portrait of the beginning teacher

Abstract

This article describes a student teacher portfolio for use as an interviewing tool. A review of the research on hiring practices indicated that prospective employers reviewed the following competencies of teacher candidates: planning skills, classroom management philosophy, reflective abilities, knowledge of appropriate assessment methods, and the initiative to do more than is expected. Therefore, the recommended sections of the student teacher portfolio are Self‐Assessment; Philosophy of Classroom Management; Planning, Implementation, and Assessment Skills; and Special Projects and Activities. Because prospective employers indicated that they would devote limited time to reading a portfolio, student teachers are instructed to make all sections only six to eight pages long. Professionally arranged appendixes can then be used to provide the employer with specific evidence for claims made in the main body of the portfolio.     

Supporting the digitally able beginning teacher

This article reports on research which explored the experiences six digitally able beginning teachers during their first year in secondary schools. Using a complexity theoretical framework, the barriers and enablers that influenced the integration of digital technologies into teaching practice were examined. The findings indicate that context influences the ability of beginning teachers to apply their knowledge and experience of digital technologies to their teaching practice through: school policies and structures which encourage and allow access to digital technologies, encouraging beginning teachers to develop their sense of agency, and the support of a mentor with relevant pedagogical content expertise.     

Effects of the learning cycle upon student and classroom teacher performance

A great deal of research has been done regarding science in-service education and the conclusion can be drawn that positive results were generally achieved in workshop-participant attitude and implementation of instructional approaches into the classroom. One of the most important effects of an in-service workshop is upon the students of the teachers participating in an in-service program, but rarely, if ever, is this parameter assessed in the in-service evaluation design. This study investigated the relationships among (1) teacher's attitudes and implementation of in-service workshop developed science materials (learning cycles) and (2) elementary school student's conservation reasoning and language used to describe properties of objects. Data were gathered from over 100 students from grades K-5 and 16 teachers who had participated in an in-service program. A representative comparison group of students and teachers was selected which generally matched the teachers participating in the in-service workshop except for one variable–-the comparison group taught science traditionally, that is, by exposition. Data from the research indicated that the teachers involved in the science in-service workshop implemented the workshop-developed learning cycles into their science classes. Significantly greater gains in conservation reasoning and language usage occurred with the students of the teachers participating in the science in-service workshop as compared to students in the exposition classrooms.     

Exploring connections between teacher interpersonal behaviour,student motivation and competency level in competence-based learning environments

Learning Environments Research - Studies of connections between teacher behaviour and student outcomes are numerous, but those specifically addressing such connections in a competence-based...     

Work environment predictors of beginning teacher burnout

This study investigated elements of school environments that explain variance in burnout scores in a sample of university graduates from Brisbane, Australia, two years after they commenced work as teachers. Using a longitudinal survey methodology, 79 beginning teachers completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) on four occasions over a two‐year period, first, six weeks after they commenced work as teachers and finally, in the concluding term of their second year of teaching. Beginning teachers also completed the Work Environment Scale each time they were surveyed. The revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was administered when the graduands were first surveyed. In a series of hierarchical regression analyses, reports of how innovative the work environment was perceived to be added significantly to the explanation of variance in all three MBI subscales after first controlling for initial levels of burnout and the personality trait Neuroticism.     

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.     

Mathematics teacher professional learning and teacher education practices

Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education -     

远程教育:一种生活状态

生活世界先于科学世界,应该成为远程教育研究的出发点。就知识、技能、态度和生活本身来说,远程教育乃是远程学习者的一种生活状态。为了完善这种生活状态和生活方式,我们有必要从生活质量的角度调整教育质量的标准,改进远程教育评价体系。     

Student gain in reasoning ability as a function of teacher reasoning level and teaching style preference

This study examines the effect of teacher reasoning level (i.e., concrete versus formal) and teaching style preference (i.e., inquiry vs. expository) on improvement in student reasoning ability. A random sample of fourth and seventh grade teachers and their students were selected to participate over one school year. Students completed a reasoning test in the early fall and late spring. Teachers completed two instruments in the Spring, a reasoning test and a teaching style preference questionnaire. Students of concrete operational teachers showed greater gains in reasoning ability than students of formal operational teachers while students of inquiry teachers showed slightly greater gains than students of expository teachers. Possible explanations are discussed as are suggestions for future research.     

Relations among student attention behaviors, teacher practices, and beginning word reading skill

The role of student attention for predicting kindergarten word reading was investigated among 432 students. Using Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD Symptoms and Normal Behavior Rating Scale behavior rating scores, the authors conducted an exploratory factor analysis, which yielded three distinct factors that reflected selective attention. In this study, the authors focused on the role of one of these factors, which they labeled attention-memory, for predicting reading performance. Teacher ratings of attention-memory predicted word reading above and beyond the contribution of phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge. In addition, the relations between four teacher practices and attention ratings for predicting reading performance were examined. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the authors found significant interactions between student attention and teacher practices observed during literacy instruction. In general, as ratings of attention improved, better kindergarten word reading performance was associated with high levels of classroom behavior management. However, better word reading performance was not associated with high levels of teacher task orienting. A significant three-way interaction was also found among attention, individualized instruction, and teacher task redirections. The role of regulating kindergarten student attention to support beginning word reading skill development is discussed.     

Individual Differences in Learning: Cognitive control,cognitive style,and learning style

This paper assesses the value of three learning style tests when used to examine the design of educational materials for teaching computer science at a distance. The paper presents three studies where three different learning styles were used to discriminate preference and performance in different contexts. The studies indicate that the Learning Style Questionnaire and the Group Embedded Figures Test are of little value. However the Cognitive Style Analysis proved useful in discriminating performance on imagery‐rich materials in a simulated learning context. The paper argues that it may be necessary to match the theoretical basis of learning style with the context in which it is used in order to gain useful information. On the whole the studies showed that the value of learning style tests may be limited.     

Community and conversation: tackling beginning teacher doubt and disillusion

Margaret Somerville has suggested that a new methodology of postmodern emergence might allow researchers to disrupt the taken-for-granted and provide fresh insight into familiar problems. One such familiar problem is the doubt and disillusion many early-career teachers experience, both during their teacher education and in their first years. Attrition rates are high. This paper, co-authored by two teacher educators and two early-career secondary teachers, draws on Somerville’s ideas by creating multiple modes of creative expression in order to allow fresh insight to emerge from the relationship between the multiple parts of the paper. Different readers will draw their own conclusions from the rich material presented, but for the authors the research reminds us of the regenerative potency of relationships and conversations in which doubts and disillusion can be expressed and heard. The implications for teacher education, at a time when direct face-to-face time with students is being eroded, are explored.