Institutional research and decision making: A bibliographic essay

A review of literature dealing with the relationship between the institutional research function and the decision-making process in higher education reveals a wide range of opinion. At one extreme are those who believe that institutional researchers should be little more than purveyors of data for use by the executive decision makers. At the other extreme are the advocates of an active institutional research role in policy analysis and decision making. A recurring theme in the literature summarized here is the precarious nature of an institutional researcher's position in the unique organizational milieu of higher education. Most sources agree that an institutional research office must be perceived by all parties as completely neutral in order to maintain credibility with both faculty and administration.     

Misconceptions about data-based decision making in education: An exploration of the literature

Research on data-based decision making has proliferated around the world, fueled by policy recommendations and the diverse data that are now available to educators to inform their practice. Yet, many misconceptions and concerns have been raised by researchers and practitioners. To better understand the issues, a session was convened at AERA’s annual convention in 2018, followed by an analysis of the literature based on misconceptions that emerged. This commentary is an outgrowth of that exploration by providing research, theoretical, and practical evidence to dispel some of the misconceptions. Our objective is to survey and synthesize the landscape of the data-based decision making literature to address the identified misconceptions and then to serve as a stimulus to changes in policy and practice as well as a roadmap for a research agenda.     

Teacher decision making: The case of prairie high

This article explores the decisions that science teachers make when they plan for instruction. It is a case study analysis of five teachers in a high school and probes into the personal reasons, beliefs, and dilemmas underlying their decisions. These decisions, while serving many purposes, had a common structure which involved tradeoffs and compromises. The decision represented the end result of the conflict between a cluster of teacher intentions and a melange of ideas about student characteristics. Teachers appeared to make decisions within a framework that holistically integrated science content and practical classroom knowledge-a knowledge system that includes the basic beliefs of a teacher and the socialization of students. By understanding how and why teachers tend to make their decisions, one gains practical insights into the act of teaching science. These insights are of particular interest to science curriculum specialists who wish to understand how teachers use science curriculum materials for the purpose of socializing students.     

Teacher and technologist beliefs about educational technology

This study investigated perceptions of teachers and educational technologists about the following areas: instructional design, cooperative learning, learner control, school reform, computers and media, and implementation of a key practice in each area in their teaching. Subjects were 477 individuals representing four respondent groups: educational technology faculty, educational technology graduate students, K-8 teachers, and 9–12 teachers. Data were collected using a 30-item, five-choice Likert-type questionnaire containing five items per topic area. Significant differences between groups were found on 16 items, with an overall total of 32 significant between-group differences. Nineteen of the 32 differences were between K-8 teachers and either the educational technology faculty or the graduate students. K-8 teachers had significantly more positive perceptions than one or both of the educational technology groups on all five of the cooperative learning items and on three of the five learner control items. The results suggest approaches that educational technologists can use in teaching instructional design courses and in designing instructional programs for the schools. Deborah L. Lowther is Program Evaluator for the Phoenix Urban Systemic Initiative which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Maricopa Community Colleges. The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of the following people to this study: Gayle Davidson, Thomas Duffy, Nick Eastmond, Donald Ely, Michael Hannafin, Simon Hooper, James Klein, Kyle Peck, Robert Reiser, Lloyd Rieber, and Steven Ross.     

Four narratives about online international students: a critical literature review

In the current higher education context, offering online programmes is seen as an effective means to recruit more international students. However, supporting online international students studying at a distance is not a simple task for both universities and tutors. The problem mainly stems from a lack of theoretical understanding of online international students and their learning experiences. The present article, therefore, aims to address the gap, by systematically, yet critically reviewing relevant academic narratives about online international students. Our review reveals four types of narratives presented in the literature, describing online international students in particular ways: unspecified others with a rapid increase in their numbers, specific others with deficits, specific others as pedagogical resources and active participants in international learning communities. We discuss the merits and the drawbacks of each type of narratives for online educators seeking pedagogical suggestions about supporting online international students.     

Exemplary Teacher Induction: An international review

Whereas present theories of transformative learning tend to focus on the rational and reflective actor, in this article it is suggested that spontaneous action may play a decisive role in transformative learning too. In the spontaneity of action, novelty finds its way into life, gains momentum, is respected by others and reflected by the actor. Such transformation processes are investigated both with the means of theoretical reflection and of empirical inquiry. Based on nine narrative interviews typical phases of transformative learning processes are identified. Owing to the comparative nature of the study, it was also possible to develop an age‐related typology that overlaps certain phases of the transformation process. These empirical findings constitute the background against which the nexus of spontaneous action and transformative learning is reflected theoretically. Theories drawn upon include John Dewey's Pragmatism and George Herbert Mead's Social Pragmatism. Both scholars provide rich theoretical concepts for reflecting on the nature of that what so often eludes from the control of both educators and learners: the spontaneity of the beginning.     

Teacher attrition: a review of literature

Teacher attrition is generally positioned within research addressing teacher shortage, the wastage of resources and expertise, as well as that concerning teachers’ lowly status and poor working conditions. As such the research is fragmented and diverse. This paper attempts to draw together contemporary international attrition research in order to consider: how teacher attrition may be defined; patterns of attrition; influences upon attrition; the impact of attrition; and strategies employed for decreasing attrition. It concludes that research concerning teacher attrition requires the development of more comprehensive databases on teaching personnel and increased clarity of how attrition is being framed and investigated.     

The place of teachers' beliefs in research on teacher thinking and decision making,and an alternative methodology

Recent research on teacher thinking and decision making is reviewed, together with the models that gave rise to this work, to show first that scant and insufficient attention has been given to the content of teachers' thinking, specifically their beliefs and principles, and second that because of this, the inferences made in these studies are flawed by assumptions, especially by the assumption that teachers and researchers share perceptions and so understand language identically.An alternative methodology for acquiring an understanding of teachers' beliefs and principles is described and illustrated with a case study. This methodology is an adaptation of Kelly's Repertory Grid Technique.     

The effects of professional development on the attitudes,knowledge and skills for data-driven decision making

The Dutch government and School Inspectorate encourage schools to use the student performance data they can obtain from their student monitoring systems to maximize student performance in a systematic and goal-oriented way. Research by the same Inspectorate (Inspectie van het Onderwijs, 2010) shows that students in schools which do so outperform students in schools where data-driven decision making (DDDM) is as yet less developed. The University of Twente developed a training course in which school teams learn to utilize data from computerized student monitoring systems in order to improve instructional quality and student performance. Parallel to the training activities, training effects are studied. The research findings show that the training activities had a positive effect on school staff's DDDM knowledge and DDDM skills. Staff attitudes towards DDDM were already high on the pre-tests and remained high on the post-tests.     

Teacher burnout—Solutions for the 1980s: A review of the literature

In recent years, popular, professional, and scholarly journals and periodicals have carried a significant number of articles concerning the teacher burnout phenomenon. This phenomenon is described as physical, emotional, and attitudinal exhaustion and results in a significant decrease in teacher job satisfaction and performance. It is caused by high levels of stress related to inordinate time demands, inadequate relationships, large class sizes, lack of resources, isolation, fear of violence, role ambiguity, limited promotional opportunities, lack of support, etc. In addition to resulting in a number of emotional and physical illnesses, burnout manifests itself in increased job turnover and absenteeism, reduced job satisfaction, mental and physical withdrawal and detachment, increased inter- and intraindividual conflict, and a general reduction in individual and ultimately school performance. Some solutions which hold considerable promise for reducing this phenomenon are improved teacher status; rewarding ambition, commitment, motivation, and performance; job enrichment or redesign; preservice stress preparation; teacher conditioning; improved supervision and support; implementing quality circles; joint student-parent-teacher problem solving; and participatory team leadership.     

Teacher noticing: A systematic literature review of conceptualizations,research designs,and findings on learning to notice

Teacher noticing has become a prominent construct in research on teacher education and professional development; however, the current state of research is quite diverse, with different theoretical foundations and a variety of research designs. The study described in this paper provides a systematic review of the literature on teacher noticing published over the past two decades. Based on a full-text analysis of 182 articles published in renowned databases and peer-reviewed Englishscholarly journals, the study reveals the dominance of a cognitive-psychological perspective of teacher noticing, especially in combination with qualitative studies. Although teacher noticing has been described as a holistic concept in many earlier articles, more recent studies from the last decade tend to differentiate teacher noticing into different facets. Overall, qualitative studies with small sample sizes are prevalent, which allows for fine-grained analysis but limits the generalizability of findings. This study highlights the limitations of the current discussion, such as the prevalence of teacher noticing mainly in the field of mathematics education and the low representation of work from parts of the world other than North America and Europe. In addition, the studies under consideration in this literature review are examined in depth in terms of their findings on improving teachers’ noticing through interventions and on comparisons between experts and novices, which allows for a discussion of the implications of learning to notice for teacher education and professional development.     

Effects of student participation in decision making at school. A systematic review and synthesis of empirical research

This article reviews empirical research on the effects of student participation in school decision-making processes. Out of 3102 searched citations, a total of 32 publications met the inclusion criteria. The qualitative analyses employed in this review yielded a typology of student participation, a categorisation of the diverse effects of student participation and an overview of the quality and quantity of related research (available evidence). We found moderate evidence of positive effects of student participation on life skills, self-esteem and social status, democratic skills and citizenship, student-adult relationships and school ethos. We found limited evidence of positive effects on academic achievement, facilities, rules or policies, and health; we also found low levels of evidence of negative effects. We did not find sufficient research on the positive effects of student participation on peer relationships or on effects on teachers. Different forms of student participation seem to have different effects, but first and foremost, this review indicates a need for more comprehensive high quality research.     

Teacher assessment literacy: a review of international standards and measures

Assessment literacy is a core professional requirement across educational systems. Hence, measuring and supporting teachers’ assessment literacy have been a primary focus over the past two decades. At present, there are a multitude of assessment standards across the world and numerous assessment literacy measures that represent different conceptions of assessment literacy. The purpose of this research is to (a) analyze assessment literacy standards from five English-speaking countries (i.e., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, and USA) plus mainland Europe to understand shifts in the assessment landscape over time and across regions and (b) analyze prominent assessment literacy measures developed after 1990. Through a thematic analysis of 15 assessment standards and an examination of eight assessment literacy measures, results indicate noticeable shifts in standards over time yet the majority of measures continue to be based on early conceptions of assessment literacy. Results also serve to define the multiple dimensions of assessment literacy and yield important recommendations for measuring teacher assessment literacy.     

Teacher beliefs about learning and teaching in primary science and technology

It is argued that the introduction of many new curricular with their associated teaching practices have failed because the beliefs, views and attitudes of teachers have been ignored. This paper reports the implications of the initial belicfs of primary school teachers involved in a professional development program about science and technology education. In particular, a mismatch between teachers views of learning and teaching is identified and analysed. Specializations: Science education, professional development Specialisation: primary science and technology education     

Teaching about ethics through socioscientific issues in physics and chemistry: Teacher candidates' beliefs

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and explain the origins of physics and chemistry teacher candidates' beliefs about teaching about ethics through socioscientific issues (SSI). This study utilized a series of in‐depth interviews, while the participants (n = 12) were enrolled in a 9‐month teacher education program at an urban university in Canada. Our data analysis revealed that beliefs about teaching physics and chemistry using SSI derive from a complex web of fundamental beliefs exemplified by four archetypes representing the subject‐specific identities of our teacher candidates—Model Scientist/Engineer, Model Individual, Model Teacher, and Model Citizen. Furthermore, we found that the justification for belief change required by a particular teacher candidate depends on these subject‐discipline identities. Thus, the presence of each archetype in preservice classrooms has ramifications for the way a teacher educator should encourage his or her students to include SSI in their teaching. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 380–401, 2010