Using Lesson-Specific Teacher Reports of Student Engagement to Investigate Innovations in Curriculum and Instruction

Teacher reports on school organizational functioning, curricular processes, and student engagement are a reliable means of ascertaining valuable information about classroom climate and learning outcomes. Yet, to date, the vast majority of quantitative teacher-reported data, where teachers themselves reach judgments about educational processes, have been summary rather than lesson specific, where teachers evaluate classroom experiences at the moment of instruction. In this study, we examine how lesson-specific teacher survey reports generate insight into the relationship between student engagement and instruction. Results suggest that this underutilized design has significant application for procuring data on within-teacher variability in practice, especially in studies focused on student engagement, active change in teacher practice, and/or teacher buy-in as a mediator of outcomes. Ultimately, we argue that lesson-specific teacher reports may be a valuable tool for researchers in measuring instructional change.

Effecting Epiphanous Change in Teacher Practice: A Teacher’s Autoethnography

This study comprises of a series of autoethnographic vignettes stemming from Karen’s life experiences that provide a snapshot of her quest for equality and fairness in her personal life, as well as her professional life as a primary school and special education educator. Karen later became a teacher of teachers, keen to share what she had learned with her peers. It was when she began educating other teachers that she became even more self-reflective with the most poignant question being, what causes one to change their beliefs, attitude, or way of thinking? The included vignettes encapsulate significant stories, starting from early childhood, to the motivation behind Karen’s teaching career and then the students that she met who shaped her adoption of the belief of equality and fairness for all. The vignettes provide the foundation for a qualitative study where one teacher’s journey of transformative and epiphanous change are analysed using autoethnography, reflexivity and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The study examines the value of tacit knowledge, and then segues to explore resonance with Dewey’s constructivism, Kolb’s experiential theory, Mezirow’s transformational education theory and Tang’s Synergic Inquiry. While these theories provide a foundation for how learning and personal transformation may occur and attempts to answer the aforementioned question; not one theory captured what Karen was seeking; which is: How does epiphanous, mind blowing, life affirming change occur? The author contends that to shift one's value’s paradigm, one needs to incorporate the essence of all of the above theories to create a new integrated model.

How Does Changing “One-Size-Fits-All” to Differentiated Instruction Affect Teaching?

This rigorous literature review analyzed how 28 U.S.-based research studies conducted between 2001 and 2015 have defined, described, and measured changes in teaching practices related to implementation of Differentiated Instruction (DI) in P–12 classrooms. Research questions examined frameworks that defined DI, classroom operationalization of DI, key barriers and facilitators, and how changes in teacher practices across studies did not lead to a common definition of DI. Extracted data were analyzed by study type, DI purpose, theoretical framework, research questions, methodology, analysis method, expected/reported change in teacher practice, expected/reported impact on student learning, key barriers, facilitators, contextual factors, and implications for teaching and research. Findings demonstrated how the many different frameworks used to define DI shaped a variety of changes to teacher practices and roles. The purpose of DI varied widely from a systematic response to policy to informal teacher perception of student differences. Barriers included the DI decision source (institution vs. teacher). Facilitators focused on teacher view of time, resources, control, and dispositions toward differences and ambiguity. The need for systematic replicable studies with greater methodological rigor is discussed and a more integrative definition of DI focused on teacher instructional reasoning and decision making is proposed for future research.

Target Inquiry

Researchers have identified several features of effective teacher professional development. Yet, there is little research on long-term Professional Development (PD) programs that provides information on the impact of such programs on in-service teacher experiences and practice during long-term PD. A qualitative case-study approach was used to investigate the impact of the Target Inquiry (TI), a long-term PD program, on change in teacher practice and the factors that support or impede these changes. The TI program is for science teachers who wish to earn a Master of Education focused on advanced content or to complete a 15-credit certificate program. Bell & Gilbert's model of teacher development and Spillane's model of teacher enactment of reforms were used as a frameworks to examine change. Teachers reported that participating in long-term PD, when combined with the necessary tools, resources, and strategies empowered them to embrace an inquiry-based practice.

Examining the Use and Success of Demonstration Classrooms that Focus on Differentiated Instruction

While many teachers currently differentiate their classroom instruction and assessment methods, many others are unsure what differentiation means or how to best support all students in their classroom. Professional development opportunities pursued either individually or as part of a district in-service are available to improve teacher knowledge and build capacity around this important area of practice. Demonstration classrooms, which involve educational professionals observing a classroom teacher offering a differentiated lesson, is one method that can be used to increase teacher knowledge of differentiated instruction and encourage change in teacher practice. The purpose of this paper was to describe the demonstration classrooms within the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board that were designed to introduce school staff to differentiated instruction and to report on the success of this professional development opportunity.

Supporting Teacher Learning: Standards-Friendly Lessons in University Methods Courses

Since the publication of reform recommendations in Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics 1989), many strategies have been used to align teacher practice with the Standards. For example, mathematics educators have examined the impact of coaching in teacher's classrooms (Hart, Najee-ullah, and Schultz 2004), changing curriculum materials (Educational Development Center 2005), using case studies (Barnett 1992), and participating in lesson study groups (Fernandez 2005). Although all these strategies—given the appropriate resources and teacher motivation—can improve instructional practice, many are not easily implemented in a university classroom. Teacher education programs in colleges and schools of education that attempt to facilitate substantial and lasting change in teacher practice, particularly change with preservice teachers, must often find other methods.

The Tickit to Teacher Learning: Designing Professional Development According to Situative Principles

Professional development that leads to change in teacher practice is hard to find, especially professional development focused on technology integration. The Teacher Institute for Curriculum Knowledge about the Integration of Technology (TICKIT) successfully answers both challenges. This article reports on a study aimed at understanding the impact of one professional development program on self-reported levels of technology integration. We then frame the success of the design and the positive associations of the TICKIT experiences with increased levels of technology integration against the situated perspective on learning. The situated perspective and its instantiation in the teacher institute provide insight about why the program was effective. We propose that the active ingredient in the model is the intentional design of the program around the tenets of the situated perspective.