Ethics in classroom assessment practices: Issues and attitudes

Student evaluations should “be ethical, fair, useful, feasible, and accurate” [JCSEE (2003). The student evaluation standards. Arlen Gullickson, Chair. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin]. This study focuses on defining ethical behavior and examining educators’ ethical judgments in relation to assessment. It describes the results from a web-based survey of educators in which they read a brief scenario and indicated whether the student evaluation practice in the depiction was ethical or unethical. Results showed strong agreement among the educators on fewer than half of the scenarios presented in this study. These findings suggest that assessment is currently an educational realm without professional consensus.     

The physical placement of classroom technology and its influences on educational practices

The purpose of this study was to gain deeper insights into how technology restructures the classroom as a spatial setting and how the positioning of these technologies can be associated with educational practices. The research includes a photographic and schematic representation of 115 classrooms in 12 primary schools in Belgium, resulting in a typology based on structural features of the classrooms. Based on the typology derived and the specific positioning of technology, nine teachers were purposefully selected and interviewed regarding their perceptions concerning the link between the use of technology and the classroom layout. The results indicate that (1) the positioning of technology can be related to specific types of technology use; (2) the classroom layout is in transition from one central display to multiple screens; and (3) because of physical access to technology, the educational practice of individual classes is spatially dispersed over different locations within the school.     

Changing approaches to classroom assessment: An empirical study across teacher career stages

Research indicates that there is considerable variability in teachers' approaches to assessment resulting in different learning cultures for students. The primary purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between teachers' approaches to assessment across a set of dimensions (including their conceptions of assessment purposes, processes, fairness, and measurement theory) and career stage. The results of this paper illustrate nuanced impacts of career stage on teachers' approaches to multiple dimensions of assessment and enable the generation of assessment profiles that provide empirical support for differences in teachers’ approaches to assessment both within and between career stages.     

Teachers' classroom assessment practices and fourth-graders' reading literacy achievements: An international study

This study, through multilevel analyses of the data of four English-speaking nations (i.e., Canada, England, New Zealand and the United States) from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001 database, investigated the relationship between teachers' uses of various types of classroom assessments and their fourth-graders' reading literacy achievement, reading self-concept, and attitudes toward reading. The results showed varied outcomes associated with teachers' uses of different types of assessments (multiple-choice items, short-answer and paragraph writing, and oral communication) across countries and across aspects of student reading achievement. Implication of the study and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Reflective teaching: theory within classroom practices

The core of the Senate Bill 2042 (1998) was designed to provide the guidelines needed to prepare teachers who can meet the needs of a diverse K-12 student population in California. Following the guidelines marked by this bill, faculty working in Teacher Credential Programs across California are designing activities to prepare candidates with a deep understanding of effective pedagogies applicable to a full range of students. A key component in this preparation is to provide teacher candidates with opportunities to critically read and reflect on theory and research. Understanding the importance of this component, I designed an assignment, Quadruple Entry Journals (QEJ), which asks teacher candidates to first, critically read texts on theory; secondly, to reflect and analyze those texts; thirdly, to reflect on the reflections of their classmates; and, finally, to connect these theoretical reflections with practice. In this article, I explain the pedagogy followed when implementing QEJ with teacher candidates. Their feedback showed that when theory and research are cooperatively analyzed by teacher candidates, they better understand the connection between theory and practice, thus creating a deep understanding of what to teach and how to teach.     

Exploring classroom assessment practices: the case of teachers of English as a foreign language

The research investigated the factors which underlie the perceptions and usage of alternative assessment procedures among EFL teachers in Israel. The research was conducted within the framework of an earlier model by Hargreaves and colleagues comprising four perspectives – technological, cultural, political and postmodern – to account for teachers’ assessment practices and beliefs. The sample included 113 EFL teachers who responded to a self‐report questionnaire. The model’s four perspectives were validated using a two‐stage factor analysis. Results show that the predominant factor related to the usage of alternative assessment is the technological one, followed by the cultural and postmodern perspectives. The political perspective yielded mixed results. The findings highlight the complexity of teachers’ assessment practices reflecting not merely a testing approach but a social and educational paradigm encompassing micro constraints (technological), macro influences (political), ideologies and commonly‐held beliefs (cultural) as well as evidence of critical pedagogy (postmodern).     

Portfolio assessment: direct from the classroom

Portfolios have been regarded as a means of personal self‐expression. This study reports on student real‐life experiences with portfolio assessment. The focus group comprised 150 freshmen (100 females) from a small campus of a tertiary educational institution. For two semesters (approximately 30 weeks), students engaged in numerous activities selected to encourage deep learning and understanding of mathematical concepts. Because students were not involved in the experiment, ecological validity was maximised, and observations may be regarded as fairly authentic and worthy of analysis. Generally, students reported learning much from portfolio assessment and felt an integral part of the assessment process. Portfolio assessment appeared to empower students and provide them with the self‐respect they desired. Future research could compare results from everyday observations with those from experiments.     

Teaching manuals and the blackboard: accessing historical classroom practices

The blackboard, a useful teaching tool in nineteenth-century England, was transformed into a teaching necessity in the decades follwing 1870, when the Education Acts made school free and mandatory for all children. The resulting huge population of schoolchildren inspired the development of teaching techniques appropriate for large-group learning. Many of these techniques relied on the blackboard as a reusable demonstration space visible to the entire class at once, unlike a book or slate. To share these new practices among teachers, particularly the novice teachers recruited to serve the increased school population, dozens of teaching manuals were published around the turn of the twentieth century. These manuals’ instructions for how to teach reading, writing, arithmetic and nature study to elementary school students offer historians a rare glimpse into teachers’ and students’ school experiences by suggesting how the blackboard shaped classroom practices in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century England.     

Assessment of preschool classroom practices: Application of Q-sort methodology

This paper reports on the application of Q-sort methodology to the development of the Preschool Classroom Practices (PCP) Q-sort. The PCP Q-sort was tested in a sample of 66 preschool teachers and assistants. Results demonstrated the existence of a 2-cluster structure within the Q-sort, comprised of Cognitive Development Activities and Socioemotional Development Activities. Specific properties of the PCP Q-sort, including cluster means, demonstrated consistency across both samples and time. Preschool teachers reported engaging in significantly more Socioemotional Development Activities than Cognitive Development Activities. Relationships to classroom observational measures are presented. Application of the PCP Q-sort as a measure of classroom practices and implications for preschool curriculum are discussed.     

生物学课堂教学实效性的实践和探索

前苏联教育家巴班斯基创立的教学最优化理论指出：“教学最优化可以说是从解决教学任务的有效性和师生时间消费的合理性着眼，有科学根据地选择和实施该条件下最佳的教学方案。”这就是说，衡量教学最优化有两个标准：一是教学效果的最优化；二是时间消耗的最优化即“师生用于课堂教学和课外作业的时间不超过学校卫生学所规定的标准”，用“师生耗费合理的时间去取得这些成效。”根据这一理论上好课既要提高教学质量，使学生在德育、智育、体育诸方面获得全面发展；又要减轻负担，不搞加班加点，用合理的时间取得最大的成效。为此，就必须进行教学方法的改革，选择最优化的教学方法。     

The study of classroom contexts and practices

This process-product study identified classroom contexts and teaching practices related to the mathematics achievement and enjoyment of Year 5 students in Australia. Seventy-five classes were observed 8–10 times during a term with a low-inference observation schedule. Other student and teacher background data were collected with questionnaires. Individual student data were aggregated, and the class was used as the unit of analysis. Classroom context and teaching-practice variables significantly related (at the 0.05 level) to either achievement or enjoyment were identified. For each outcome, a causal model of teaching was developed and tested using multiple linear regression and path analyses. The more effective teachers more frequently presented to large groups, engaged in small-group work incorporating teacher and peer tutoring, provided opportunities for individual practice which they actively monitored, and marked homework assignments which they varied to meet student needs.     

Teachers' behaviour and practices in the classroom

The theory behind this study yielded the predictions that successful teacher–pupil interaction in the classroom is essential to the educational and social development of pupils and that teachers' understanding of their own behaviour is therefore of paramount importance. The study examined the behaviour and practices of 20 teachers, 10 in small schools and 10 in large schools. The teachers were grouped into three categories: empathetic teachers, non-empathetic teachers and uncommitted teachers. This study contributes several significant findings to the literature on teacher–pupil interaction in the classroom, most importantly that personal characteristics appear to be a good predictor of teacher competence and that there appear to be relationships between particular personal characteristics on the one hand and teachers' classroom practices on the other. These results seemed to be unrelated to class size and schools type.     

Images as orienting activity: using theory to inform classroom practices

Conceptualizations of teacher knowledge have shifted to focusing on the role of experiential rather than theoretical knowledge. There are different approaches to this, but the idea of an image that guides practice is widespread. One approach to images that has not been frequently investigated in studies of second language teachers is through sociocultural theory, specifically in the contribution of activity theory known as orienting activity. In this view, images mediate teaching actions by linking theoretical knowledge and practical experience. This article will use orienting activity to examine the role that images play in an English as a second language teacher’s personal practical knowledge by drawing on classroom observations, informal discussions, simulated recall interviews and documentary evidence collected over a nine month period. Analysis of the data shows that several key images mediated the teacher’s classroom actions. These emerged in the observations and in the teacher’s commentary on planned and spontaneous, routine and novel and successful and unsuccessful activities. The images appeared to have developed through both tacit knowledge associated with practical experience and theoretical knowledge associated with research and theory. This demonstrates the usefulness of orienting activity as a theoretical framework for exploring classroom practices and teacher development through the links it can make between theory and practice.     

Integrating mindfulness and connection practices into preservice teacher education improves classroom practices

Teachers vary in their ability to enact effective teaching practices. We randomly assigned 88 early education preservice teachers to standard teacher education or teacher education plus a 9-week mindfulness-based intervention. Using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) as our primary outcome, we assessed effective teaching practices at baseline and at a 6-month follow-up that occurred during full-time student teaching. Mindfulness, negative affect, and well-being were assessed at baseline, post-test, and follow-up. At follow-up, we observed significant GROUP × time interactions on all major CLASS domains: Instructional supports, Emotional supports, and Classroom organization favoring the intervention group (Cohen's d's 0.53–0.65). Daily mindfulness practice was significantly associated with intervention group improvements on Instructional supports (r = .39) and Classroom organization (r = .38). No group differences were observed on negative affect or well-being. Implications for teacher education are discussed.