Teacher Evaluation, Teacher Effectiveness and School Effectiveness: Perspectives from the USA

This article provides historical overviews of the conceptual and research and development focus of teacher evaluation, teacher effectiveness and school effectiveness research in the USA. Pertinent literature is cited and arguments are made that these lines of inquiry have coexisted for nearly four without adequate integration. With the fourth stage of school effectiveness research in process, there is a recognition that within school context variables, particularly teacher effectiveness, have important effects on school improvement and school outcomes. Similarly, there is the recognition that findings from school effectiveness research have relevance for studies of teacher effectiveness and ongoing developments in teacher evaluation. Examples of: (a) new generation, learner-centered teacher evaluation systems in the USA that are informed by teacher and school effectiveness research; and (b) the fourth stage of school effectiveness research are described. It is proposed that these lines of research should be merged as completely as possible.     

Class size and achievement in introductory economics: Evidence from the TUCE III data

Does class size affect achievement in introductory economics? This paper addresses this question using a national economic education data base (TUCE III), consolidating these data so that each observation represents a single class rather than a single student, thereby alleviating several estimation problems that plague empirical work in this area. Our results indicate that class size does not affect student achievement, and further, that class characteristics over which instructors or department chairs have control also do not influence achievement. These results are remarkably robust to different specifications, so long as students' Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores are used to control for ability and account is taken of whether the TUCE test result counted toward the students' final grade.     

Developing leadership in higher education: perspectives from the USA,the UK and Australia

It is broadly acknowledged that leaders in the twenty-first century are required to navigate an increasingly complex landscape and that the types of challenges individuals and organisations face in the knowledge era require the capacity to adapt and respond to continual fluctuations and change. Outcomes from previous leadership research, combined with the perspectives of colleagues and observation over the past decade, prompted concern that leadership in higher education (HE) institutions was, in the main, not demonstrating the level of readiness or capability to effectively respond to the challenges embodied in the transition to the knowledge era. In seeking to establish how well founded this concern was, this study, supported by a Peter Karmel International Travel Grant, investigated leadership development thinking, programmes and practices within the HE sector in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, and explored how this applies within the Australian context. A number of themes emerged that support the idea that the work of leadership will ideally be based on relationships rather than the ‘command and control’ models of the past and on distributed leadership processes and practices throughout the organisation.     

A procedure for using and evaluating concept maps

Conclusion The procedures devised for mapping and evaluating maps has been applied to a number of different topic areas both for senior chemistry and for junior science. We believe that this procedure for constructing concept maps is more comprehensive and facilitates student use better than previous procedures. The procedure for evaluating concept maps has also been refined to the point whereby the classroom teacher can readily apply it as part of his/her teaching strategy. The research for this paper further supports concept mapping both as an instructional and evaluative tool.     

基于学生学业成绩的教师质量评价-来自中国西部农村小学的证据

科学评价是提升教师质量的信息基础,但如何评价一直是困扰教育研究者和决策者的难题。由于缺乏系统的评价技术,通过学历、教龄、任课班级平均成绩等传统指标,我们只知道农村教师队伍质量较低等模糊信息,难以准确刻画西部农村教师在教学工作中对学生发展所发挥的真实作用,不利于全面、客观、有效的把握教师质量。为解决这一问题,本研究借鉴国外教师质量评价设计思路,从学业成绩是义务教育阶段学校产出最重要维度的角度,以西部农村小学追踪样本构建两水平增值性模型,较为准确的测量任课教师对学生学业发展发挥的真实影响效应,在整体和个体层面分别衡量了教师质量状况。研究发现,中国西部农村地区的小学教师在学生学业发展中发挥着关键作用;但教师间差异很大,教师差异是造成学生学业发展不均衡的重要因素;加强教师队伍建设、缩小教师质量的差异对于实现"提高教育质量、促进教育均衡"这一战略目标非常关键。     

Knowledge presented in concept maps: correlations with conventional cognitive knowledge tests

Our study focuses on the correlation of concept map (CMap) structures and learning success tested with short answer tests, taking into particular account the complexity of the subject matter. Novice sixth grade students created CMaps about two subject matters of varying difficulty. The correlation of the complexity of CMaps with the post-test was small but highly significant in both subject matters. The complexity of the CMaps correlated with the long-term knowledge in the difficult subject matter but not in the context of the easy one. Furthermore, the high number of technical errors makes it close to impossible to estimate students’ knowledge. In summary, CMaps do not provide an adequate alternative to conventional short answer knowledge tests, but together with them they may offer a better comprehension of a student’s knowledge structure and aid in the preparation of further instruction tailored to individual needs.     

Problems and issues in the use of concept maps in science assessment

The search for new, authentic science assessments of what students know and can do is well under way. This has unearthed measures of students' hands-on performance in carrying out science investigations, and has been expanded to discover more or less direct measures of students' knowledge structures. One potential finding is concept mapping, the focus of this review. A concept map is a graph consisting of nodes representing concepts and labeled lines denoting the relation between a pair of nodes. A student's concept map is interpreted as representing important aspects of the organization of concepts in his or her memory (cognitive structure). In this article we characterize a concept map used as an assessment tool as: (a) a task that elicits evidence bearing on a student's knowledge structure in a domain, (b) a format for the student's response, and (c) a scoring system by which the student's concept map can be evaluated accurately and consistently. Based on this definition, multiple concept-mapping techniques were found from the myriad of task, response format, and scoring system variations identified in the literature. Moreover, little attention has been paid to the reliability and validity of these variations. The review led us to arrive at the following conclusions: (a) an integrative working cognitive theory is needed to begin to limit this variation in concept-mapping techniques for assessment purposes; (b) before concept maps are used for assessment and before map scores are reported to teachers, students, the public, and policy makers, research needs to provide reliability and validity information on the effect of different mapping techniques; and (c) research on students' facility in using concept maps, on training techniques, and on the effect on teaching is needed if concept map assessments are to be used in classrooms and in large-scale accountability systems. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Usefulness of concept maps in college chemistry laboratories: Students' perceptions and effects on achievement

The problem addressed by this study is that first-year college chemistry students learn little of the conceptual material associated with chemistry experiments they perform. The thesis of this research is that the construction of prelab and postlab concept maps help students understand the concepts involved in the experiments they perform. The study was conducted using 32 non–science majors enrolled in a first-year chemistry course. The experimental group constructed prelab and postlab concept maps, while the control group wrote essays explaining the conceptual chemistry of the four experiments used in this study. Both groups took 25-item achievement tests 1 week after each experiment. Prelab and postlab concept maps were scored and evaluated for significant differences. Five students were interviewed to investigate their perceptions regarding the usefulness of concept maps in chemistry laboratories. No significant differences were found between treatment groups with respect to students' conceptual understanding as determined by the multiple choice achievement tests. Students responded very positively toward the use of concepts maps in the laboratory. They felt strongly that constructing prelab and postlab concept maps helped them understand the conceptual chemistry of the experiments. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 1015–1029, 1998     

美国亚利桑那州校长效能评价及其特点

美国亚利桑那州2016年4月发布了最新的校长效能评价框架,该框架聚焦在校长的领导能力,学生学业进步,学生、教师及家长的调查和校长自我评价四个方面。美国亚利桑那州校长效能评价具有四大特点:评价框架的灵活性、评价目标的发展性、评价程序的严谨性、评价主体的全面性。借鉴亚利桑那州经验,我国应为中小学校长评价提供有力度的制度支持,促进评价标准的操作性和针对性,注意收集多方信息,实现评价主体的多元化,并以助力校长专业化成长为最终目标。     

Professional Development and Instructional Practice: Conceptions and Evidence of Effectiveness

As with many districtwide reform efforts, the San Diego reform sought to improve classroom instruction by focusing on building the capacity of teachers. This article examines practices of teacher professional development in the district and their impact on literacy instruction. Through examination of the literature on effective professional development, school staff's conceptions of what makes professional development effective, and detailed data on professional development experiences from 100 elementary teachers, we explore the extent to which characteristics of effective professional learning align with what is actually taking place in schools. We also examine relationships between professional development characteristics and teachers' use of instructional practices that have been shown to predict student growth in reading comprehension. We find that professional development characterized by an emphasis on content and curriculum and that incorporates coaching is related to a higher frequency of this type of instruction.     

Developing a technical vocabulary on teacher planning: Preservice teachers' concept maps

Recent literature has focused on a need to develop a technical vocabulary in the teaching profession. Concept mapping, a technique of graphically representing concepts and their hierarchical interrelationships along two dimensions, was used to examine the growth of student teachers' knowledge concerning planning over three sequenced courses. Quantitative and content analysis of the maps indicated that students developed a more shared, technical vocabulary reflecting course content and evidencing greater hierarchical organization. The study provides information about the nature of and growth of student teachers' thinking, and demonstrates a means of monitoring the growth of student teachers' conceptual development over a course.     

The economics of bonded service: The case of graduate secondary teachers in Victoria,Australia

In the six Australian states the main form of recruitment of teachers for government schools has been through the award of teacher scholarships or studentships to entrants to teacher training. The teacher trainees in return have bonded themselves to undertake a period of teaching. The object of this paper is to measure some of the costs and benefits of the scheme that has operated in the state of Victoria.A range of present values of the cost of training a cohort of male university entrants and the subsequent salary bill in teaching of the survivors have been estimated with the aid of a Markov chain model. The estimates are based on data on survival in training and in teaching. and salary and allowance data at the turn of the decade Alternative estimates were made of the salary bill at higher salary rates which might be offered in place of the studentship scheme and which could be considered likely to yield at least as large a quantity of teaching service. Even under the tight labour conditions at the end of the sixties the studentship scheme appeared to be a very expensive method of recruitment. When consideration is given to other costs and benefits in teaching and to society generally the case against the studentship appears even stronger.An earlier and more detailed version of this paper was given at the Third Conference of Economists, Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand, Adelaide, May 1973: it is based on Burke (1972, Ch. 10). Tables of estimates and accompanying methodological notes are available from the author. I am grateful to C. Selby Smith and Gary P. Sampson for comments on early drafts.     

论证据保全的效力

证据保全是证据法理论体系中一个重要组成部分，然而审判实践中对证据保全有诸多误解，弄清证据保全的效力，正确认定证据保全与人民法院调查取证的效力之间的关系，有利于当事人正确运用诉权，维护自己的合法权益，也有利于人民法院更好地查清案件事实，提高诉讼程序的收益和效率，从而为最终实现社会正义提供证据保障。     

How the design and complexity of concept maps influence cognitive learning processes

Educational technology research and development - Concept maps are assumed to enhance learning as their inherent structure makes relations between information more salient. Nevertheless, research...