Effective teaching and values: some implications for research and teacher appraisal

Teacher effectiveness research has tended to neglect the analysis of values in two senses: the general values associated with the processes of education, and the more specific values underlying effective teaching. The possibilities for re‐conceptualising teacher effectiveness, by incorporating a values dimension, are illustrated through two examples: effectiveness in developing independent learning and effectiveness in achieving a classroom climate characterised by inclusiveness. The potential contribution to teacher effectiveness outside, as well as inside, the classroom is explored through a discussion of the strengths and problems inhering in the English government's adoption of the Hay McBer model of teacher effectiveness for the assessment of teacher performance. The contribution of teacher self‐evaluation to the process of the identification of values underlying effectiveness is discussed.     

Promoting teachers’ instructional practices in alternative assessment through teacher collaboration

This paper reports the findings of a study which aims to examine the processes and effectiveness of the collaboration between teachers in their professional learning which some Singapore schools are currently engaged in. The learning process attempted to raise the profile of teacher professionalism in classroom alternative assessment through action research. A total of nine schools participated in this two-year study. Participants included teachers and school leaders. Guided by a university researcher and supported by a cluster superintendent and school leaders, the collaboration helped familiarise teachers with alternative ways of assessing student learning, connect theories with practice in their classroom assessment, and acquire the skills of doing research. Facilitated by a structure that supports the development of partnerships between teachers from different schools, the collaboration focused on teachers working on a common task. The data reveal how teachers took ownership of their own learning through this process and led their peers in their respective schools in curriculum customisation through alternative assessment practices. Such an education reform process, which has driven the effectiveness of the collaborative teacher learning in promoting teachers’ instructional practices, is analysed from four dimensions, namely, (a) macro level (systemic reform), (b) school level (school improvement plans), (c) teacher level (teacher community), and (d) micro level (classroom level). This paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges in sustaining teacher collaboration across schools in Singapore.     

Feedback in Hong Kong secondary writing classrooms: Assessment for learning or assessment of learning?

While much of L2 teacher feedback research has focused on the effectiveness of feedback and its impact on student revision and writing, little has been done to examine teachers’ feedback in the larger classroom context of teaching and learning to ascertain the functions teacher feedback serves from an assessment-for-learning perspective. Using multiple sources of data from 26 secondary teachers’ written feedback to 174 student texts, interviews with six of the teachers and 18 students, the present study investigates the nature of teacher feedback and the functions it serves in the teaching-learning-assessment process in the writing classroom. The findings show that teacher feedback focuses largely on assessing writing summatively, primarily serving the purpose of assessment of learning, rather than assessment for learning – i.e., using feedback as a pedagogical tool for improving the teaching and learning of writing. The study calls for greater attention to the implementation of assessment for learning in the writing classroom, and specifically the use of feedback for formative purposes.     

Teacher Questioning: The Epicenter of Instruction and Assessment

In this article we examine some sequences of teacher–student interaction in which a teacher generates and acts on formative assessment data. We look at the teacher's practices of question construction and her decisions about in situ next pedagogical steps made in real time to support and further student learning. Our observations are guided by the following research questions: (a) What are the interactional practices that constitute formative assessment? (b) Are there observable classroom routines and organization that support these interactional practices? Our observations suggest that open and respectful pedagogical questioning is a key resource in eliciting students' current learning status, and for making decisions about next steps in student learning. Stable classroom routines and mutually understood interactional goals and practices are significant supports for these processes.     

The assessment process in a Swedish year five classroom: ‘Reach page 52!’

This paper describes and analyses the assessment process in a Swedish year five classroom, involving pupils aged 11 to 12?years. The paper is based on classroom observations and interviews, which were analysed to explore the assessment process in daily classroom practice, and investigates how the assessment process was understood by pupils and the teacher. The results indicated that the assessment process embodied mainly oversimplified learning goals; teaching was organised as individual work with tasks according to a weekly plan; and assessment and feedback were directed to deconstructed, easily marked goals.     

课堂教学有效性的几个基础问题

提高教育教学质量,探索课堂教学有效性,有必要弄清楚几个基础性的问题。我们对课堂教学有效性的关注缺失了什么?是否关注了促进公平的前提、教学的教育性和教育的教学性、课堂教学的若干隐蔽范畴?课堂教学有效性的"有效"追求什么?是否弄清了低效负效、真实有效和虚假有效、坚持能力为重的有效?课堂教学有效性的"有效"如何落实?是否转变了基础教育教学的评价观、有效教学的实践观、有效教学的合适方法?     

Using student ratings to measure quality of teaching in six European countries

This paper argues for the value of using student ratings to measure quality of teaching. An international study to test the validity of the dynamic model of educational effectiveness was conducted. At classroom level, the model consists of eight factors relating to teacher behaviour: orientation, structuring, questioning, teaching modelling, application, management of time, teacher role in making classroom a learning environment and assessment. In each participating country (i.e. Belgium/Flanders, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland and Slovenia), a sample of at least 50 primary schools was used and all grade 4 students (n?=?9967) were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning the eight factors of the dynamic model. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to test the construct validity of the questionnaire. Both across- and within-country analyses revealed that student ratings are reliable and valid for measuring the functioning of the teacher factors of the dynamic model. Implications for teacher education are drawn.     

Helping preservice teachers learn to assess writing: Practice and feedback in a Web-based environment

Writing is a highly valued skill that is often neglected in the classroom; one reason is that teachers often do not receive adequate training in writing assessment and instruction. Teachers, particularly preservice teachers, need practice making detailed assessments of student writing and to build their confidence for assessing student writing, but practical issues of time and resources often constrain the frequency and quality of training they receive. This mixed method study focused on the design and evaluation of an online tool for building preservice teachers’ writing assessment skills and self-efficacy for writing assessment. In the study, teacher education students interacted with actual 4th-graders’ writing samples via a Web-based critical thinking tool. They received scaffolded practice in assessing multiple student papers and justified their assessments using analytic criteria. After each paper, they received feedback that included access to expert assessments and those of their peers, along with both teacher and peer rationales for their ratings. Participants significantly improved in ability to accurately assess student writing using an analytic approach and in knowledge of the writing traits. They also showed significantly greater self-efficacy for assessing student writing and high levels of satisfaction with the Web-based tool and their overall learning experience.     

How to capture growth? – Video narratives as an instrument for assessment in teacher education

Portfolios are widely used as instruments for assessment in initial teacher education courses. They are claimed to present a comprehensive picture of student teachers' knowledge and performance. But what type of evidence is needed to safely say that an aspiring teacher has not only grasped essential notions and concepts from the teacher education course, but is also able to implement them in real world classroom situations? This paper reports on the design process of one portfolio assignment that has been developed specifically to capture students' classroom performance and development in their portfolio. Data from the portfolio entries of one student from a small-scale pilot conducted with the assignment are analyzed in detail followed by a discussion of the implications of the case study.     

Comparing Vignette Instruction and Assessment Tasks to Classroom Observations and Reflections

The growing body of research on the use of vignettes in teacher education courses suggests that vignette-based instruction and assessment tasks may represent a viable alternative to traditional forms of scaffolded instruction and reflective essays following classroom observations, thereby creating a bridge between college and K–12 classrooms for teacher candidates. In this study, the authors compare the effectiveness of vignette instruction and assessment tasks with teacher observation-reflections on subject matter mastery in two sections of an online graduate educational psychology course. One section completed vignette assessment tasks while a second section wrote reflective essays following K–12 classroom observations. Both sections also completed a cumulative posttest (ten forced-choice items, a vignette task, and a video reflection task). Results confirmed the null hypothesis that there would be no significant differences in mastery of subject matter across the two groups, extending the effective application of the vignette as an alternative to reflective essays following classroom observations.     

教育增值评价先行者——美国田纳西州教育增值评价模式解析

美国田纳西州增值评价模式(TVAAS)通过对学生多年的学业成就数据进行纵向分析,测定学校系统、学校和教师促进学生学业进步的有效性。其研究发现,种族、社会经济因素、班级规模以及班级成员的异质性均不是学生学业增长较好的预测指标,教师效能才是学生学业进步的主要因素;教师的影响是附加的和累积的,且没有补偿效应。TVAAS是对教育评价方法的有益补充。     

课堂教学有效性视阈中的教师实践性知识

教学的有效性是深化课堂教学改革的重要课题,其核心是使学生在课堂教学中获得应有的发展。有效教学与教师的实践性知识之间存在着极为密切的内在联系,教师的实践性知识是教师在课堂中有效地促进学生发展的最重要的主观因素。基于教师的实践性知识提高课堂教学有效性的基本策略是教学要面向全体学生,创设和维护良好的教学环境和生活化的教学氛围。     

Teacher Effectiveness Research: towards describing user‐friendly classroom instruction

In this article we examine the teacher's role as a mediator of knowledge and cognitive learning in the classroom. We cite findings from the research areas of teacher effectiveness, teacher expertise, and curriculum knowledge. These data strongly support user‐friendly explicit methods of classroom teaching. We also discuss issues raised in conjunction with alternative conceptions of the teaching process. Finally, we note the importance of incorporating teacher effectiveness research findings into teacher education programmes, and of identifying the various misconceptions that have been used to criticise this body of information.     

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.     

The Educational Forces Inventory

The Educational Forces Inventory (EFI) is a technique for assessing the constellation of forces in the teacher’s social-psychological field. Thereby, important stress points for teachers are identified and their work in the classroom is facilitated. The EFI charts the relative influence of each of 13 forces that are important factors in the educational settting. Teachers are asked to characterize each force along two dimensions: the amount of influence it exerts upon the classroom process, and the degree to which this influence is positive or negative. Several hundred teachers and teaching assistants in Follow Through classrooms throughout the country participated in a field test of the instrument, with concurrent administration of the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire (PTO), an established measure of teacher morale. The high rate of return and correct completion on the EFI indicated that it is a practical technique. In addition, the data indicated validity for the instrument in three important respects: (1) the pattern-of-importance ratings correspond to independently assessed patterns of physical and social distance; (2) the positive/negative ratings for particular forces correlated substantially with corresponding subscores of the PTO; and (3) the pattern of responses reflected aspects of internal consistency. Some ways of utilizing EFI data are discussed: how to plot and interpret two-dimensional force fields, and how to use them in program implementation, especially to facilitate the work of the teacher in the classroom.     

Ethical issues of behavior modification research in schools

Behavior modification research in the classroom was examined by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects because of the increasingly widespread use of behavioral procedures in the schools, the effectiveness of these procedures in changing academic and social behavior, and the consequent concern about potential misuse. In order to foster the responsible use of behavior modification procedures in the schools on a practical as well as a research basis, the following ethical issues being considered by researchers and the involved public are discussed: informed consent, determination of classroom goals, legitimacy of rewards and aversive controls in the classroom, conceptions of behavior modification as manipulative and mechanistic, who can implement the procedures, research design, and accountability. The authors conclude that the issues regarding protection of human subjects in behavior modification research are no different from other treatment-oriented research with children. However, the high degree of parental and teacher involvement in both research and practice requires shared responsibility for the prevention of misuse of behavior modification procedures.     

Teacher management behaviors and pupil task involvement during small group laboratory activities

A major concern of many beginning and experienced teachers is that of classroom management and control. This article describes recent research into defining classroom management procedures that are used by high school science teachers and their relationship to pupil ontaskness. The classroom is conceptualized as a manipulable behavioral system. This construct arises directly from Barker's (1968) ecological psychology, the classroom and its occupants being conceptualized as a behavior setting. The behaviors of the teacher and the pupils are an integral part of the unit (behavior setting), which in turn coerces certain behaviors from its participants. Thus settings, and, in particular, subsettings, are seen as more important determiners of social behavior than the personality of individual teacher or pupil. The methodology employed in this research has involved the extensive use of video in naturalistic science classrooms. Tapes of both teacher and pupil behaviors were continuously and independently recorded. Intensive analysis using electronic recording instruments interfaced with the computer has allowed the collection and sophisticated analysis of the observational data. Data relating to teacher management behavior in small group settings have been analyzed and the relationships to pupil task involvement have been explored.     

When Students Grade Their Teachers: A Validity Analysis of the Tripod Student Survey

This article develops a validity argument for the use of the Tripod student survey of instructional practices to assess teacher effectiveness in summative teacher evaluations and professional development decisions. This paper expands upon previous research in three ways: (a) it draws from current validity thinking to examine the evidence for separate summative and formative purposes of the Tripod survey, (b) it takes advantage of a large, multiple measure data set collected by the Measures of Effective Teaching Project, and (c) it accounts for both the multilevel nature of school data and contextual classroom features. Preliminary evidence was found for a two-dimensional structure, representing classroom management (Control) and academic support (Support). The Control and Support Tripod scores are fairly reliable and correlated with classroom observation ratings and teacher value-added scores. However, caution is suggested in interpreting these results as an endorsement for use in high-stakes teacher evaluations.