There is a consensus that what teachers do in the classroom directly impacts student's learning. Currently, however there is a paucity of data identifying which teaching practices actually support ...learning within an inclusive classroom, especially data derived from direct observations of teachers. Thus, research-based guidance regarding how best to target observations of inclusive teachers warrants further investigation. The purpose of this scoping review, therefore, was to determine which teacher practices are related to high-quality inclusion, when conducting classroom observations. Extracted data from the tools that relied on direct observation methods included concepts and definitions of inclusion, as well as all indicators of inclusive practice. Thematic Analysis of observable inclusive teacher practices were concentrated into five themes: 'Collaboration and Teamwork', 'Determining Progress', 'Instructional Support', 'Organisational Practices', 'Social/Emotional/Behavioural Support'. These themes were used to create a 'guide' for conducting in-class observation of inclusive teachers. Implications for the use of this 'guide' and teacher education are discussed.
Visual expertise has been explored in numerous professions, but research on teachers' vision remains limited. Teachers' visual expertise is an important professional skill, particularly the ability ...to simultaneously perceive and interpret classroom situations for effective classroom management. This skill is complex and relies on an awareness of classroom events. Using eye tracking measurements and verbal think aloud, we investigated differences in how expert and novice teachers perceive problematic classroom scenes. Sixty-seven teachers participated, 35 experienced secondary school teachers (experts) and 32 teachers-in-training (novices). Participants viewed videos of authentic lessons and their eye movements were recorded as they verbalized thoughts about what they had seen in the lesson and how it was relevant to classroom management. Two different types of videos were viewed: lesson fragments showing (1) multiple events depicting disengaged students with no overt disruptions and (2) multiple events that included a prominent disruptive event affecting the class. Analysis of eye movements showed that novices' viewing was more dispersed whereas experts' was more focused. Irrespective of the video type, expert teachers focused their attention on areas where relevant information was available, while novice teachers' attention was more scattered across the classroom. Experts' perception appears to be more knowledge-driven whereas novices' appears more image-driven. Experts monitored more areas than novices, while novices skipped more areas than experts. Word usage also differed, showing that expertise was associated with a higher frequency of words referencing cognition, perception, and events than novices.
As states and districts implement more rigorous teacher evaluation systems, measures of teacher performance are increasingly being used to support instruction and inform retention decisions. ...Classroom observations take a central role in these systems, accounting for the majority of teacher ratings upon which accountability decisions are based. Using data from the Measures of Effective Teaching study, we explore the extent to which classroom composition influences measured teacher performance based on classroom observation scores. The context in which teachers work—most notably, the incoming academic performance of their students—plays a critical role in determining teachers' measured performance. Furthermore, the intentional sorting of teachers to students has a significant influence on measured performance. Implications for high-stakes teacher accountability policies are discussed.
The Individualizing Student Instruction (ISI) classroom observation and coding system is designed to provide a detailed picture of the classroom environment at the level of the individual student. ...Using a multidimensional conceptualization of the classroom environment, foundational elements (teacher warmth and responsiveness to students, classroom management) and instructional elements (teacher-child interactions, context, and content) are described. The authors have used the ISI system to document that children who share the same classroom have very different learning opportunities, that instruction occurs through interactions among teachers and students, and that the effect of this instruction depends on children's language and literacy skills. This means that what is effective for one child may be ineffective for another with different skills. With improving classroom observation systems, the dynamics of the complex classroom environment as it affects student learning can be better understood.
This research investigates various purposes of teacher discourse moves essential to orchestrate dialogic discourse in secondary science classrooms. Data collected includes classroom observations and ...teacher interviews of two teachers teaching in an Indian school setting, whose classroom practices subscribed to a dialogic framework. A discursive move framework was developed, using a grounded, interpretative approach, to analyse teacher moves and their purposes at the utterance level. Iterative examination of the data led to the emergence of overarching goals being pursued for dialogic organisation of talk. These goals are conceptualised as three components of a schema characterising dialogic discourse in science classrooms: Foundation (F) aimed at developing a culture of discourse; Initiation (I) moves working towards sparking students' multiple perspectives; and Perpetuation (P) moves, which engage students in active exchange of ideas. Through axial coding, it emerged that teacher utterances, as detailed in the discursive framework, enabled the three components to come into play in dialogic classrooms. Specific tools used by the two teachers have been identified. A repertoire of tools facilitating teachers to position themselves as 'enablers of talk for thinking' Chin, C. (2006). Classroom interaction in science: teacher questioning and feedback to students' responses. International Journal of Science Education, 28(11), 1315-1346. has been identified.
Discover what happens when your students step out of their daily routines and activate their engagement. Author Katherine Mills Hernandez argues that movement, talk, and the physical environment of ...the classroom all contribute and influence students' learning. The ideas in Activate! will help you create a classroom optimized for deeper engagement and lasting learning. No matter what subject you teach, Katherine invites you to shift your attention from what you are doing in the classroom, to what your students are doing as the catalyst for learning. She provides insights into instruction through real classroom lessons as she gives you the tools to better assess your students' engagement and energy levels. The book describes practical ways to incorporate movement into the classroom routine, based on research on how an active brain generates true learning. Katherine invites you into her own classroom by sharing vignettes from lessons and activities, opening up the pages of her own learning journal, sharing pictures from her classroom, and examples of classroom charts. She also provides a comprehensive bibliography on the research behind the science of movement and talk and how they affect learning.
Anatomy of STEM teaching in North American universities Stains, M; Harshman, J; Barker, M K ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
2018-Mar-30, 2018-03-30, 20180330, Volume:
359, Issue:
6383
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Lecture is prominent, but practices vary
A large body of evidence demonstrates that strategies that promote student interactions and cognitively engage students with content (
1
) lead to gains in ...learning and attitudinal outcomes for students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses (
1
,
2
). Many educational and governmental bodies have called for and supported adoption of these student-centered strategies throughout the undergraduate STEM curriculum. But to the extent that we have pictures of the STEM undergraduate instructional landscape, it has mostly been provided through self-report surveys of faculty members, within a particular STEM discipline e.g., (
3
–
6
). Such surveys are prone to reliability threats and can underestimate the complexity of classroom environments, and few are implemented nationally to provide valid and reliable data (
7
). Reflecting the limited state of these data, a report from the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine called for improved data collection to understand the use of evidence-based instructional practices (
8
). We report here a major step toward a characterization of STEM teaching practices in North American universities based on classroom observations from over 2000 classes taught by more than 500 STEM faculty members across 25 institutions.
This contribution presents research results on the stable acoustic microclimate of a classroom and ventilation system design. The authors investigated the acoustic parameters of the classroom during ...a long-term operation of a forced ventilation system with variable airflow. By conducting an acoustic and energy study, the energy significance of variable airflow forced ventilation is demonstrated, leading to substantial energy savings relative to the widely used constant airflow ventilation systems. The calculations show the necessity to implement specific acoustic measures to maintain an optimal acoustic microclimate in the classroom. A significant finding is the clear benefit of combining building acoustic measures with variable air volume forced ventilation systems. As shown by simulations and calculations, the use of the presented building acoustic measures can ensure a stable indoor environment in the classroom even when a forced ventilation system containing specific control elements is installed, and at the same time, reduce the energy consumption of the ventilation system by 15–20 % compared to constant airflow ventilation systems.
Display omitted
•Stable acoustic microclimate of a classroom on the design of the ventilation system.•An acoustic and energy study to achieve the microclimate at minimum energy.•High energy significance of variable airflow forced ventilation system design.•Combining acoustic measures with a variable air volume forced ventilation system.•Energy savings 15–20 % compared to constant airflow ventilation systems.
This meta-analysis examined which classroom management strategies and programs enhanced students' academic, behavioral, social-emotional, and motivational outcomes in primary education. The analysis ...included 54 random and nonrandom controlled intervention studies published in the past decade (2003–2013). Results showed small but significant effects (average g = 0.22) on all outcomes, except for motivational outcomes. Programs were coded for the presence/absence of four categories of strategies: focusing on the teacher, on student behavior, on students' social-emotional development, and on teacher–student relationships. Focusing on the students' social-emotional development appeared to have the largest contribution to the interventions' effectiveness, in particular on the social-emotional outcomes. Moreover, we found a tentative result that students' academic outcomes benefitted from teacher-focused programs.
Given the growing interest in retrieval practice among educators, it is valuable to know when retrieval practice does and does not improve student learning—particularly for educators who have limited ...classroom time and resources. In this literature review, we developed a narrow operational definition for “classroom research” compared to previous reviews of the literature. We screened nearly 2000 abstracts and systematically coded 50 experiments to establish a clearer picture of benefits from retrieval practice in real world educational settings. Our review yielded 49 effect sizes and a total
n
= 5374, the majority of which (57%) revealed medium or large benefits from retrieval practice. We found that retrieval practice improved learning for a variety of education levels, content areas, experimental designs, final test delays, retrieval and final test formats, and timing of retrieval practice and feedback; however, only 6% of experiments were conducted in non-WEIRD countries. Based on our review of the literature, we make eight recommendations for future research and provide educators with a better understanding of the robust benefits of retrieval practice across a range of school and classroom settings.
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