A Survey of State Teacher-Competency Examination Programs

As compared to the 1987 "wall chart" issued by U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett and to other recent reports on teacher testing, this article by Lehmann and Phillips provides considerably more detail on the nature of teacher testing. On the basis of a survey of all the states, the authors provide an analysis of what areas are covered in teacher tests, exactly which tests are used, and how the tests are used in both current and planned state teacher testing programs.     

College classroom interaction as a function of teacher- and student-centered instruction

Regional campus college students participated in traditionally or nontraditionally taught sections of undergraduate introductory educational psychology. The nontraditional sections were student centered, involving personal goal setting and monitoring conferences, and informal group discussion tests. The traditional sections were teacher centered, involving a lecture format, formal tests and assignments, and comparative grades. An event sampling behavioral assessment procedure was used to record student and teacher behaviors according to the following verbal interaction response categories: positive, negative, questions, answers, presents, solicits, shares, generates, impedes. The course sections were analyzed and found to be comparable with regard to teachers' positive responses and information presented, as well as content acquisition and final grades. However, students in the nontraditional course section asked significantly more questions, shared more information, and generated more ideas than students in the more traditional teacher-centered course. Replication analyses supported the initial findings regarding learning and attitudinal differences favoring student centered course sections over teacher centered sections.     

Project Work in the Paperless School: A Case Study in a Swedish Upper Secondary Class

This paper reports of how ICT and a computer rich environment is used in a an upper secondary Swedish school to change traditional teacher and pupil work. A teacher and his classes were followed during one week. Observations, field notes, spontaneous conversations and formal interviews with the teacher and some pupils were made. Teachers' and pupils' work is affected in many ways. Some of the traditional teacher's work is here left to the pupils. In spite of the pedagogical intention to promote cooperation, the technology seems to strengthen individual work. ICT also seems to lead to the dissolution of boundaries between home and work place, working time and leisure time. The pupils' task to search for information on the Internet and transform it into personal knowledge is not an easy one. Discussion or evaluation of sources and origin of texts found on the Internet seems to be negligent.     

关于计算机基础教学模式改革的几点看法

对于当前计算机基础教学中存在的问题,提出并分析了关于教学大纲、教学手段和考试手段的改革措施。教学大纲的改革具有统领性,可从宏观角度指导教学;教学手段的多样化可以有效沟通教学情况,提升教学效果;最后论述了基础教学的考核模式改革,需重视操作技能考核。     

Revising the Online Classroom: Usability Testing for Training Online Technical Communication Instructors

ABSTRACT

This article reports on an effort by the authors to use usability testing as a component of online teacher training for their multimajor technical communication course. The article further explains the ways in which program administrators at other institutions can create their own usability testing protocols for formative online teacher training in course design and in principles of user-centered design.     

Ability Grouping of Junior High-School Pupils in Cleveland: Some Practical Aspects of the Problem

Abstract

The study investigated teacher attitudes toward measurement (testing) as it is routinely used for classroom instructional purposes. Data were collected from a stratified random sample of elementary and secondary teachers in a rural mid western state. Results are reported for six major attitudinal areas: teachers’ knowledge, information desired by the teacher, student acceptance/support, external constraints on the testing situation, the nature and quality of information yielded by tests, and the evaluative uses made of tests. The results depict teachers as: heavy users of tests, supportive of tests but concerned about the evaluative merits of tests, and limited in their testing expertise.     

儒学教师观

本文通过对传统儒学经典的主题化解读,一种建基于德性之上,又为了德性之生长和表现的中国传统的"儒学教师观"诞生了——教师即"道德创造家"、教师即"个人"、教师即"终身学习者"、教师即"批判性公共知识分子"。这对重新思考、检讨我国当前教师教育中,过于注重教师作为"技术"抑或作为"实践"的训练,而忽视教师的价值倾向、漠视教师个人经验等问题,将有所裨益。     

儒学教师观

本文通过对传统儒学经典的主题化解读,一种建基于德性之上,又为了德性之生长和表现的中国传统的“儒学教师观”诞生了——教师即“道德创造家”、教师即“个人”、教师即“终身学习者”、教师即“批判性公共知识分子”。这对重新思考、检讨我国当前教师教育中,过于注重教师作为“技术”抑或作为“实践”的训练,而忽视教师的价值倾向、漠视教师个人经验等问题,将有所裨益。     

Primary School Mathematics Teacher Reflection through a Modelling-Based Professional Development Programme

This article contributes to the discussion on mathematics teacher reflection. Reflection was included in a study of the didactisation practices of primary school mathematics teachers as one of nine didactisation practices. The study involved five volunteer primary school mathematics teachers. A qualitative design-research approach was designed which employed model-eliciting tasks to create new experiences for teachers. This article reports on the nature and development of mathematics teacher reflection. Teacher reflection was gauged at various times during the programme through written responses to open-ended reflective questionnaires. Teachers were involved in three types of sessions for a period of one year: 1) modelling sessions whereby they collaboratively solved a mathematical modelling task; 2) observing primary school students/learners solve the same problems; and 3) sessions discussing traditional and problem-centred teaching and learning. It was found that modelling tasks provided reflective platforms and a window to teacher resources, orientations and goals. It is recommended that further research into mathematics teacher reflection be conducted where teachers specifically implement modelling in their own classrooms.     

Incorporating critical thinking in the pedagogical content of a teacher education programme: does it make a difference?

Recent educational policies, national reports, and voluminous literature stress that critical thinking (CT) is an essential skill in any stage of schooling for producing critical thinkers and ensuring better learning. The importance of teaching CT has been raised in teacher education programmes because students are supposed to teach this skill in schools in the future. This study therefore assesses the effects of a CT-based pedagogical course on student teachers’ content knowledge and CT disposition. A pre-test–post-test experimental study was carried out in a vocational pre-service teacher education programme in Turkey. Although the students who were exposed to CT-based instruction showed better progress in both academic achievement and CT disposition than in traditional instruction, this result was not statistically significant according to the Mixed Factorial ANOVA and ANCOVA results.     

Manipulating the data: teaching and NAPLAN in the control society

High-stakes testing is changing what it means to be a ‘good teacher’ in the contemporary school. This paper uses Deleuze and Guattari's ideas on the control society and dividuation in the context of National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing in Australia to suggest that the database generates new understandings of the ‘good teacher’. Media reports are used to look at how teachers are responding to the high-stakes database through manipulating the data. This article argues that manipulating the data is a regrettable, but logical, response to manifestations of teaching where only the data counts.     

A synthesis of the literature on research methods education

The purpose of this research synthesis is to examine the current research on teaching and learning research methods. The aims are to understand the themes present in the current literature and identify gaps in our understanding of how we teach, and how students learn, research methods. A synthesis of 89 studies generated three themes: (1) characteristics of students taking a research methods course, (2) teaching methods and techniques, and (3) content and course goals. Gaps identified include a lack of research on assessment and on what and how students learn in research methods courses. The majority of studies reviewed were teacher reports of attempted teaching strategies so that an additional need exists for other types of research into the teaching and learning of research methods such as case studies of students' learning or experimental studies of assessment techniques. Suggestions for instructors and future research are considered.     

The Effects of Chronological Age and Information Media on Teacher Screening Decisions for Elementary School Principals*

Screening decisions made by public school administrators have been shown to be influenced by the chronological age of teacher candidates and have been examined through a single medium consisting of paper credentials mailed to principals in the field setting. However, today, unlike the past, teacher candidates have available to them several different mediums for communicating their interests and personal information to potential employers in the public school setting. To determine the impact of different mediums (traditional, CD-ROM, & Web page) and specific messages (masked or unmasked for chronological age) on screening decisions made by elementary school principals, an experimental study was conducted. Results indicated that principals may well overlook many qualified teacher candidates choosing to use electronic mediums for communicating their credentials to organizational representatives at the screening stage of the selection process.     

Supporting Teacher Learning and Informed Practice in Writing through Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning

This paper concerns teacher learning. It describes the impact on teacher knowledge and reported practice of working with diagnostic assessment tools for writing. These tools were specifically designed with a dual purpose: to provide diagnostic information about students to guide teaching for enhanced learning outcomes and also to develop teacher understanding about features of, and developmental progressions in, writing. We describe the features of the tools which facilitate teacher learning. Then we present three small‐scale studies conducted during and after development of the tools to explore their impact. Discussion focuses on teachers' reports of their learning about writing and how working with the assessment tools impacted a range of teaching practices.     

Expertise for Teaching Biology Situated in the Context of Genetic Testing

Contemporary genomics research will impact the daily practice of biology teachers who want to teach up-to-date genetics in secondary education. This article reports on a research project aimed at enhancing biology teachers’ expertise for teaching genetics situated in the context of genetic testing. The increasing body of scientific knowledge concerning genetic testing and the related consequences for decision-making indicate the societal relevance of an educational approach based on situated learning. What expertise do biology teachers need for teaching genetics in the personal health context of genetic testing? This article describes the required expertise by exploring the educational practice. Nine experienced teachers were interviewed about the pedagogical content, moral and interpersonal expertise areas concerning how to teach genetics in the personal health context of genetic testing, and the lessons of five of them were observed. The findings showed that the required teacher expertise encompasses specific pedagogical content expertise, interpersonal expertise and a preference for teacher roles and teaching approaches for the moral aspects of teaching in this context. A need for further development of teaching and learning activities for (reflection on) moral reasoning came to the fore. Suggestions regarding how to apply this expertise into context-based genetics education are discussed.     

COOPERATIVE TEST CONSTRUCTION: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM?

For decades traditional methods of testing have been criticized for saying relatively little reliably about students’ ability as well as causing anxiety, which can negatively affect students’ recall of learned information. The reform movement with its innovative approaches focusing on learner-centered education perceives assessment as an interactive feedback mechanism, which must provide for active, collaborative reflection by both teacher and students. This means that students must be active participants in designing assessment tasks and be given responsibility for using assessment data to monitor and improve their own learning (Valencia, 1990, p. 339). Focusing on alternative methods of assessment proposed by the opponents of traditional ones, the present study aimed at investigating the impact of cooperative test construction on Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students’ achievement as well as their attitudes towards such tests. The participants in this study were second- grade high school students (equivalent to Grade 11 in US senior high school) who were assigned to experimental and control groups based on their scores on a standardized retired version of Nelson test. Both groups received the same schedule of instruction for sixteen weeks. The students in the experimental group experienced cooperative test construction while the students in the control group did not have any role in the construction of their tests. The findings revealed statistically significant difference between grammatical knowledge of the students who cooperatively made their own test items and that of those who were tested traditionally. Furthermore, the students’ reactions to cooperative test construction were overwhelmingly positive.     

Reclaiming Teacher Agency in a Student-Centred Digital World

This article examines the current dilemma faced by many teachers: the drive for a modern day pedagogy advocating student-centred, technology-enabled learning is at odds with teacher comfort zones still nestled in a teacher-talk, print-based classroom. Put another way, the 'techno-reluctance' of many teachers represents a negative reaction to the perception that new technologies represent a threat to their traditional roles and general sense of practical agency in the learning process or classroom. The paper interprets some of the key factors impacting on techno-reluctance as a means of moving beyond such a simplistic view of the connection between digital technologies and changing teacher roles. On this basis, it goes on to discuss the concept of 'technoliteracy' as a means of reclaiming teacher agency in a studentcentred, computer-mediated environment and also reframing teacher attitudes to electronic texts and related literacy practices.     

A Knowledge Base for Teaching Biology Situated in the Context of Genetic Testing

Recent developments in the field of genomics will impact the daily practice of biology teachers who teach genetics in secondary education. This study reports on the first results of a research project aimed at enhancing biology teacher knowledge for teaching genetics in the context of genetic testing. The increasing body of scientific knowledge concerning genetic testing and the related consequences for decision-making indicate the societal relevance of such a situated learning approach. What content knowledge do biology teachers need for teaching genetics in the personal health context of genetic testing? This study describes the required content knowledge by exploring the educational practice and clinical genetic practices. Nine experienced teachers and 12 respondents representing the clinical genetic practices (clients, medical professionals, and medical ethicists) were interviewed about the biological concepts and ethical, legal, and social aspects (ELSA) of testing they considered relevant to empowering students as future health care clients. The ELSA suggested by the respondents were complemented by suggestions found in the literature on genetic counselling. The findings revealed that the required teacher knowledge consists of multiple layers that are embedded in specific genetic test situations: on the one hand, the knowledge of concepts represented by the curricular framework and some additional concepts (e.g. multifactorial and polygenic disorder) and, on the other hand, more knowledge of ELSA and generic characteristics of genetic test practice (uncertainty, complexity, probability, and morality). Suggestions regarding how to translate these characteristics, concepts, and ELSA into context-based genetics education are discussed.     

Generating Criteria for Measuring Teacher Effectiveness Through a Self-Evaluation Approach: A Complementary Way of Measuring Teacher Effectiveness

The article argues that the traditional conception of teacher effectiveness, focused on the teaching performance of individual teachers in relation to student cognitive outcomes, has limitations primarily because it does not recognise broader roles and responsibilities. A case study of a primary school staff attempting to generate criteria for effectiveness was conducted in order to develop a complementary approach. The criteria generated cover most of the characteristics of the effective teacher in the literature. Also the criteria generated in the case study school correlated strongly with those of a nationally representative sample. Implications for teacher effectiveness research are drawn.