Vergleichsarbeiten im Vergleich – Akzeptanz und wahrgenommener Nutzen standardbasierter Leistungsmessungen in Baden-Württemberg und Thüringen

Test-based reforms of schools and teaching have become popular instruments of German educational policy. However, performance assessment and its implementation differ widely between the German states. The differences between the comparative tests used in Thuringia (years 6 and 8) and Baden-Württemberg (year 6) are particularly clear. For instance, the Thuringia competency tests are embedded within an extensive concept for teachers’ continual professional development and the teachers receive fair, criteria-based feedback. A quantitative teacher survey in both German states (n=1136) was carried out in order to find out whether these differences led to differences in the respective teachers’ acceptance and appraisal of the tests and whether the test results initiated internal discussions amongst teachers. The results show that teachers from Thuringia had a higher acceptance and estimation of curricular validity, uses of the data for learning diagnosis and for future lesson planning. Singularly, the use of the central test results to mark students received a higher evaluation from teachers in Baden-Württemberg. The tests results are also more frequently the subject of systematic discussions in school forums in Thuringia.     

A Study in Correlation of Allied English Abilities

ABSTRACT

The authors explored teachers' and principals’ perceptions of the feedback report from the National Tests in Trinidad and Tobago and the extent to which they used the report in making curricular decisions to impact student learning. The sample comprised 133 primary school teachers (79 from low-performing and 54 from high-performing schools) and 10 principals. Results of the quantitative and qualitative data indicated that while many teachers were uncomfortable with interpreting the data presented in the report, teachers in higher performing schools were more inclined through department-wide collaboration to use the report to make pedagogical and curricular decisions. The major conclusion drawn was the need for teacher training in the use and interpretation of assessment data. Other issues emerging from the data and a possible subject for further research included the branding of schools as good schools and bad schools based on the school performance on the tests.     

A logic of appropriation: enacting national testing (NAPLAN) in Australia

This paper explores how the strong policy push to improve students’ results on national literacy and numeracy tests – the National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) – in the Australian state of Queensland influenced schooling practices, including teachers’ learning. The paper argues the focus upon improved test scores on NAPLAN within schools was the result of sustained policy pressure for increased attention to such foci at national and state levels, and a broader political context in which rapid improvement in test results was considered imperative. However, implementation, (or what this paper describes more accurately as ‘enactment’) of the policy also revealed NAPLAN as providing evidence of students’ learning, as useful for grouping students to help improve their literacy and numeracy capabilities, and as a stimulus for teacher professional development. Drawing upon the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, the paper argues that even as more political concerns about comparing NAPLAN results with other states were recognised by educators, the field of schooling practices was characterised by a logic of active appropriation of political concerns about improved test scores by teachers, for more educative purposes. In this way, policy enactment in schools is characterised by competing interests, and involving not just interpretation, translation and critique but active appropriation of political concerns by teachers.     

Do trainee teachers harm pupil attainment? Isolating the effect of pre-service teachers on contemporaneous pupil performance in ‘high-stakes’ tests

The prevalence of ‘pre-service’ or ‘trainee’ teachers in schools is rising in England, driven by the expansion of school-led routes to qualified teacher status and increasing demand for newly qualified teachers. This may have important implications for schools, which have historically been concerned with the impact of trainee teachers on their pupils’ attainment. There are, however, confounding factors which affect both the decision to host a trainee teacher and pupil attainment. We empirically model the impact of trainee teachers on contemporaneous pupil attainment in ‘high-stakes’ exams, exploiting unique data combining national administrative data on pupil test scores with a survey of schools’ involvement with initial teacher training over multiple academic years. We use school fixed effects to account for time-invariant school factors which may determine both schools’ teacher training decisions and pupil attainment. Counter to schools’ concerns, we find that pupil attainment in high-stakes assessments, on average, is not significantly affected by the number of trainee teachers. This is an important empirical finding, as it suggests that the rapid expansion of school-led teacher training is not likely to have a detrimental effect on pupil attainment in England, conditional on the set of schools that choose to engage with initial teacher training remaining similar: trainee teachers may still affect pupil attainment in schools that do not currently participate in initial teacher training, as these schools are typically more constrained.     

Developing a Holistic Assessment Stance in Student Teachers

Over the last 10 years far-reaching changes have been introduced to the education system of England and Wales. In particular, the curriculum in state schools has been prescribed through the introduction of a National Curriculum. Associated with the National Curriculum is an assessment system involving teachers undertaking the on-going assessment of pupils, as well as externally set national tests, the results of which are published. These changes have had a profound effect on the training needs of in-service teachers and on the content and structure of training courses for pre-service teachers. The assessment system linked to the National Curriculum is extremely complex. There are huge demands on the time available for pre-service teacher training. This means that teacher educators struggle to find valid ways to train students to develop good assessment practices that will enhance students' teaching and the learning achieved by their pupils. This paper reports on the attempts of one group of course tutors to develop a means of achieving this goal.     

Teachers' motivation to teach national education in Singapore: a self-determination theory approach

The National Education (NE) programme was set up in Singapore schools in 1997 to inculcate a national identity and values in the younger generation. Teachers in schools are given the important role of developing a shared sense of nationhood among their students. However, no study has yet examined the motivations for teaching NE in schools. The purpose of this study was to examine pre-service teachers' motivations, perceptions of NE, perceived competence to teach NE and feelings on the NE programme provided in their teacher training course, using the cluster analysis method. The study involved 4242 pre-service teachers (1229 males, 2986 females, 27 missing information) from the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Singapore. The results showed that 15.6% of the teachers belonged to a “high amotivation” cluster, 38.0% formed a “high externally regulated” cluster, 19.9% made up a cluster labelled as “low externally regulated”, and the rest (26.5%) had an “intrinsically regulated” profile. The four clusters showed significant gender and programme differences. In summary, the results from the cluster analysis supported the concurrent validity of the clusters in terms of pre-service teachers' perceptions of their involvement in NE activities, its importance, NE as government propaganda, competence to teach NE and satisfaction with the NE programme provided in their teacher training course.     

Construction and validation of a test to assess (pre-service) teachers' technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK)

As society becomes increasingly digital, teachers must be trained to integrate technology effectively into their classrooms. Teachers’ technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK), as defined in the TPACK framework, is considered an important prerequisite for effectively integrating technology. The TPACK framework has received a great deal of attention, yet few knowledge tests have been developed that directly assess TPK. However, those tests are crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of teacher education courses on technology integration. We have developed a 17-item test that covers teacher knowledge about various digital technologies as employed in teaching. Experts rated the items to represent the construct adequately. Data obtained from 245 pre-service teachers supports the test’s internal structure. Concerning convergent and discriminant validity, the pre-service teachers’ test scores were not related to their self-reported TPK, but to their self-reported technological knowledge. The test was sensitive to changes in pre-service teachers’ TPK through teacher education courses.     

The Role of Teacher Leadership in Professional Learning Community (PLC) in International Baccalaureate (IB) Schools: A Social Network Approach

This study aims to illuminate how professional interactions among teachers form different types of teacher leadership in schools, which, in turn, shape different levels of teachers’ involvement in activities related to their professional learning community (PLC). To investigate certain patterns of teachers’ interactions that contribute to the formation of teacher leadership and thereby the development of PLC, two international schools that offer a full continuum of three International Baccalaureate (IB) programs were purposively chosen. The schools have similar numbers of students and are located in two different countries in East Asia. Using a mixed-methods research approach, the patterns of teacher professional interactions were first examined using social network analysis. Next, the degree to which teachers in the case study schools enact practices related to PLCs was assessed and compared through a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test. Further, based on findings from social network analysis, in-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with selected key participants to understand the linkage between teacher leadership and teachers’ involvement in their PLC in each case school. From the findings, we propose four conceptual types of teacher leadership that explain how teacher leadership shapes different levels of teachers’ engagement in PLC in the two case schools.     

教师的法律地位研究

合理确立教师的法律地位,是建设高素质教师队伍的重要保障,也是人与社会发展的必然要求。我国现行立法将教师作为与其他专业人员无异的一类群体,在法律地位上没有体现教师职业的特殊性,也没有呈现不同教育阶段、不同性质学校教师群体的差异性,导致教师管理实践中问题和争议频发。教师职业源于现代国家公共教育体系建立的需要以及其对社会发展的重要功能,与其他类型专业人员最显著的区别即在于教师职业的公共性,而不同教育阶段、不同性质学校教师群体的公共性强度也存在显著差异。应以教师职业的公共性为分析基础,以公共性强度差异为划分维度,确立不同教师群体的法律身份以及与之相适应的教师与相关主体的法律关系;以公共性保障及其与自主性的协调为目标,确立教师的权利和义务,科学设计教师的法律地位。     

Teacher collaboration in the context of the Responsive Classroom approach

This mixed‐method study examined characteristics and predictors of teacher collaboration. Limited research exists that describes the characteristics of teacher collaboration, and surprisingly little work explains the ways in which teaching experience and teachers’ perceptions of the school environment influence teacher collaboration. Questionnaire data were collected from a sample of 118 elementary school teachers in six schools in a northeast urban school district, and interviews were conducted with administrators in each school. Three schools were in their second year implementing the Responsive Classroom ^® (RC) approach, and three schools were comparison schools. Teachers reported collaborating approximately once or twice per month, generally with fellow grade‐level teachers about student‐centered topics. Teachers in RC schools reported more frequent formal collaboration than comparison school teachers. In regards to predicting teacher collaboration, teachers who used more RC practices and/or resources reported collaborating more, valuing collaboration to a higher degree, and perceiving greater involvement in school decision‐making, controlling for whether they taught at a RC school. Also, teachers’ perceptions of the school environment related positively to teacher collaboration. The current study adds to the understanding of teacher collaboration and its antecedents, contributing uniquely to the literature on how a school‐wide educational initiative is associated with teachers’ perceptions of their school environment as well as their collaborative behaviors and beliefs.     

Valid and Reliable Science Content Assessments for Science Teachers

Science teachers’ content knowledge is an important influence on student learning, highlighting an ongoing need for programs, and assessments of those programs, designed to support teacher learning of science. Valid and reliable assessments of teacher science knowledge are needed for direct measurement of this crucial variable. This paper describes multiple sources of validity and reliability (Cronbach’s alpha greater than 0.8) evidence for physical, life, and earth/space science assessments—part of the Diagnostic Teacher Assessments of Mathematics and Science (DTAMS) project. Validity was strengthened by systematic synthesis of relevant documents, extensive use of external reviewers, and field tests with 900 teachers during assessment development process. Subsequent results from 4,400 teachers, analyzed with Rasch IRT modeling techniques, offer construct and concurrent validity evidence.     

School-based assessments in high-stakes examinations in Bhutan: a question of trust? Exploring inconsistencies between external exam scores,school-based assessments,detailed teacher ratings,and student self-ratings

This study explores the validity of school-based assessments when they serve to supplement scores on central tests in high-stakes examinations. The school-based continuous assessment (CA) marks are compared to the marks scored on the central written Bhutan Certificate of Secondary Education (BCSE) examination, to detailed teacher ratings of student competencies, and to student self-ratings. A survey was undertaken in 10 higher secondary schools, involving 26 English teachers and 365 graduates. Though results indicate moderate conformity among measurements within schools, results between schools indicate that schools with high average scores on the BCSE exam tend to score relatively low CA averages and vice versa. Compared to the CA marks for student performance in English listening and speaking skills, the detailed teacher ratings of students on the same skills correlate more strongly with the BCSE exam marks and the student self-ratings.     

To trust or not to trust?—teacher marking versus external marking of national tests

In the Swedish educational system, teachers have the dual responsibility of assigning final grades and marking their own students’ national tests. The Government has mandated the Swedish Schools Inspectorate to remark samples of the national tests to see if teacher marking can be trusted. Reports from this project have concluded that intermarker consistency is low and that teachers’ markings are generous as compared to those of the external markers. These findings have been heavily publicized, leading to distrust in teachers’ assessments. In the article, we analyze and discuss the remarking studies from methodological as well as substantive angles. We conclude that the design applied in the reanalysis does not allow inferences about bias in marking across schools or teachers. We also conclude that there are several alternative explanations for the observation that teacher marks are higher than the external marks: The external markers did not form a representative sample, they read copies with sometimes marginal legibility, and they used a different scale for marking than the teachers had used. The results are thus not as clearcut as suggested by the reports and media releases, which is because a school inspections logic rather than a research logic was applied in designing, conducting, and reporting the studies.     

Development and evaluation of a Chinese version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI)

Teacher–student interpersonal relationships play an important role in education. The Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) was designed to measure students’ interpersonal perceptions of their teachers. There are two Chinese versions of the QTI for student use, and that inherited the weaknesses of the previous English versions, such as items that focus on class behaviour, instead of teacher behaviour, or that include conditionals and negations. The present study aimed to develop an improved Chinese version of the QTI which is conceptually parallel with the original QTI and with the use of optimal item wording. The process contained several steps, including expert panels and student and teacher interviews. New items were also created based on the Chinese secondary classroom context, rather than only using translations of English items. The final version of the Chinese version of the QTI presented in this paper was evaluated with a sample of 2000 students from 4 secondary schools in mainland China who rated a total of 80 teachers. The resulting version of the Chinese QTI had adequate validity and reliability, and it distinguished clearly between teachers. The predictive validity was supported by the relation between the students’ perceptions of their teachers and their academic emotions in class. Although further improvement of the instrument is recommended, it can be used to study interpersonal teacher behaviour in China and to help to improve Chinese teachers’ teaching practices.     

Principal–teacher interactions and teacher leadership development: beginning teachers’ perspectives

Teacher leadership lies at the heart of school improvement. Leadership development among beginning teachers, however, is often neglected. This paper examines the role of principal–teacher interactions in the leadership development of a group of beginning teachers. Using a case study design, interviews were conducted and documentary evidence was collected. The results showed that the beginning teachers were able to take up leadership roles in schools both formally and informally. Development of teacher leadership requires constructive and regular communication with teachers and encouragement of their continuing professional development. Three types of effects on principal–teacher interactions in developing teacher leadership were identified: ‘inspirational’, ‘empowering’ and ‘allowing’. These interaction patterns contribute to the international knowledge on teacher leadership development in schools. Implications for school leadership are discussed.     

Analyzing the relationship between principals’ learning-centered leadership and teacher professional learning: The mediation role of trust and knowledge sharing behavior

This study tested the relationship between principals’ learning-centered leadership and teacher professional learning in Iranian primary schools, with a focus on the mediating role of trust and knowledge sharing behavior. Survey data collected from 886 teachers in 121 primary schools, representing a range of socioeconomic status, distributed across three districts in the city of Mashhad. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results illustrate significant path relationships between the constructs, linking learning-centered leadership with teacher professional learning. Learning-centered leadership directly influenced the professional learning of teachers, and such a relationship was fully mediated by the teachers’ trust and knowledge-based sharing behavior in these Iranian primary schools. These results provide evidence that principals can enhance teacher learning by emphasizing teaching and learning to develop trust among teachers and foster knowledge sharing.     

The preparation of pre-service student teachers’ competence to work in schools

Competence to work in schools is an important dimension of professional competence, although it is often a neglected dimension of teacher development. This article reports a qualitative study that examined student teachers’ learning experiences in initial teacher education (ITE) in relation to competence to work in schools. In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 student teachers on an undergraduate ITE programme in Hong Kong. The findings of the study show that competence to work in schools is characterised by student teachers’ deep contextualised learning. In addition, it offers a deeper understanding of this competence in the ITE context by identifying its three facets, namely understanding of the micro-political realities of schools, social capital building and social strategies. The study provides insights for ITE and schools to support student teachers’ development of their competence to work in schools, including the design of ITE curricula, ITE processes and co-curricular activities in undergraduate studies. Moreover, it suggests the importance of developing schools as growth-fostering and positive micro-political sites for ITE fieldwork and teacher induction.     

Does principal leadership make a difference in teacher professional learning? A comparative study China and Thailand

This research explored the relationship of principal leadership and teacher professional learning in China and Thailand. The authors tested a conceptual model in which teacher trust and agency were proposed as mediators of the effects of the principal’s learning-centered leadership on teacher professional learning. Common survey measures had been used to collect data from 1259 teachers in 38 schools in mainland China and 1071 teachers in 60 schools in Thailand. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, multi-group structural equation modelling, and bootstrapping were employed to compare the proposed leadership and teacher learning processes in Chinese and Thai schools. The results confirmed a similar model of strong, statistically significant, ‘mediated effects’ of principal leadership on the professional learning of teachers in the two societies. These findings contribute to our understanding of leadership effects across societies and offer insight into how policymakers and practitioners can support school leadership, teacher development, and educational change.     

Notes on contributors

This research examines Zambian teachers’ perceptions of expert teaching, as identified by characteristics possessed by a theoretical “expert teacher”. One primary question guided the study: In the minds of teachers at basic schools (grades one to nine) in Choma District, Zambia, what specific characteristics are believed to be essential for teachers to possess in order to be an expert teacher? Additionally, an ancillary question was explored concerning the relationship between teacher perceptions of expert teachers and the local environments where they live and teach. Conducted in 2008, this study utilized qualitative methods to explore these questions. The results of the research revealed six characteristics Zambian teachers believe are essential to being an expert. The characteristics have implications for change within national educational policies, teacher training programs, and individual schools. These suggested modifications, in turn, have the potential to improve the overall quality of education in Zambian schools.     

School‐based teacher collaboration in Sweden and Greece: formal cooperation,deprivatized practices and personalized interaction in primary and lower secondary schools

During recent years, educational restructuring efforts have commonly regarded schools as both learning communities and sites for teachers’ professional development. A plethora of attributes influence prerequisites as well as outcomes of the efforts, while teachers’ local cultures constitute a cornerstone. More specifically, enhanced school‐based teacher collaboration is associated with upgraded school effectiveness and enhanced professional growth. However, the comparative study of school‐based teacher collaboration remains a subjective research area. The overall aim of this study is to highlight teacher collaboration in Sweden and Greece utilizing nationwide surveys with physical education teachers in both countries. The final sample consisted of 707 Swedish and 451 Greek professionals. The high response rate combined with restricted internal dropout forms the basis of the generalization of the findings. The presentation of the results is connected with issues of formal cooperation, deprivatized practices and personalized interaction in four teachers groups: primary and lower secondary schools in Sweden and in Greece. According to the data, formal cooperation and deprivatized practices occur more frequently in Sweden than in Greece. However, personalized interaction is rather high in Greek lower secondary schools. Despite differences between the four contexts, a second order model represents obtained information adequately with very good fit indexes. It seems that school‐based teacher collaboration in authentic settings can be connected to complex processes with multifaceted characteristics in different national contexts as well as in educational stages within one country as well. Manipulating distinct aspects of schooling may consequently jeopardize expected outcomes, as development ambitions should be targeting several interdependent dimensions. Swedish schools generally and lower secondary schools specifically constitute original examples of enhanced school‐based teacher collaboration, while an intensification of combined endeavours is needed in Greece. The comparative mapping of interconnected collaboration characteristics might contribute to more holistic restructuring struggles towards schools as learning communities and sites for teachers’ professional development.