This study presents a novel standardized rating instrument for observing and measuring effective classroom management (ECM) as part of the teaching and learning environments in primary school. The ...instrument comprises eight high-inferent items on organizational aspects (lack of disruptions/discipline problems, withitness, effective time use, clear rules, clear routines, appreciation) and instructional aspects (structuring, goal clarity). It was applied in second grade classrooms of German primary school teachers (
n
= 35) providing early reading and writing instruction. Pairs of trained raters (student teachers) observed one to three lessons in each classroom over 3–4 months, reaching acceptable interrater agreement. The instrument showed acceptable internal consistency. Factor analyses revealed structures with good to acceptable fit indices, with confirming the differentiation into organizational and instructional ECM aspects. Correlations between observed ECM and facets of teacher knowledge (that were directly assessed by using paper–pencil tests) provide divergent and convergent validity evidence: Whereas no significant correlations could be found between pedagogical content knowledge for early reading and writing instruction and ECM, findings show significant correlations between general pedagogical knowledge and the ECM. The added value of the study is therefore to provide a novel instrument that can be applied in future empirical research on primary school classroom management.
Zusammenfassung
Die Nachfrage nach Integrationskursen mit Alphabetisierung ist stark gestiegen, gleichzeitig sinken die Erfolgsdaten dieser Kurse kontinuierlich ab. Die gängigen, lautorientierten ...Alphabetisierungskonzepte führen nicht zum erwünschten Erfolg. Schriftstrukturorientierte Ansätze, die in allgemeinbildenden Schulen ihre Lernwirksamkeit gezeigt haben, werden in den Alphabetisierungskursen allerdings bislang kaum berücksichtigt. Hier setzt das Forschungsprojekt an. In Workshops konnten Kursleitungen einen schriftstrukturorientierten Ansatz kennenlernen. Anschließend wurden sie in Interviews dazu befragt, ob, und wenn ja, mit welchen Anpassungen dieser Ansatz in den Alphabetisierungskursen eingesetzt werden kann. Die Argumente wurden systematisiert und zeigen Chancen und Grenzen der Übertragbarkeit auf.
This study suggests a comprehensive conceptualization of teacher knowledge for teaching early literacy in primary schools. Following the discourse on the professional knowledge of teachers, we argue ...that teachers’ knowledge relevant to support reading and writing at the beginning of primary school education is multidimensional by nature: Teachers need content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and general pedagogical knowledge (GPK). Although research on teacher knowledge has made remarkable progress over the last decade, and in particular in domains such as mathematics, relevant empirical research using standardized assessment that would allow in-depth analyses of how teacher knowledge is acquired by pre-service teachers during teacher education and how teacher knowledge influences instructional quality and student learning in early literacy is very scarce. The following research questions are focused on: (1) Can teachers’ professional knowledge for teaching early literacy be conceptualized in terms of CK, PCK, and GPK allowing empirical measurement? (2) How do teachers acquire such knowledge during initial teacher education? (3) Is teachers’ professional knowledge a premise for instructional quality in teaching early literacy to students? We present the conceptualization of teacher knowledge for teaching early literacy in primary schools in Germany as the country of our study and specific measurement instruments recently developed by our research group. Assessment data of 386 pre-service teachers at different teacher education stages is used to analyze our research questions. Findings show (1) construct validity of the standardized tests related to the hypothesized structure, (2) curricular validity related to teacher education, and (3) predictive validity related to instructional quality. Implications for teacher education and the professional development of teachers are discussed.
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