bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Piecing Together the Teacher Policy Landscape: A Policy Problem Typology
Authors: Rice Jennifer King , Roellke Christopher , Sparks Dina , Kolbe Tammy
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Evidence suggests that teachers are a critical resource in realizing high-quality educational opportunities for all students. However, many school systems across the country continue to employ large numbers of teachers who, by most indicators, do not fit into the category of “high quality.” Although policy makers at various levels of government have responded to the teacher staffing problem, we know very little about the range of strategies being used or how these strategies are packaged together.

Purpose/Objective

This article presents and applies a three-dimensional typology designed to organize and analyze the array of teacher policies across education systems. This analytic tool extends current approaches to studying teacher policy in three ways. First, our approach recognizes the multidimensional nature of the teacher staffing problem and the array of policy responses to it. Second, we acknowledge that multiple levels of the system are simultaneously at work to address teacher staffing and teacher quality, so that each policy at any given level is part of a broader web of policies being employed across the educational system. Finally, our study emphasizes the importance of considering teacher policy “packages” to understand what is currently being done to address critical staffing issues and what needs to be done if we are serious about staffing all classrooms with highly qualified teachers.

Research Design

We developed the typology using data from a national scan of teacher policy, based on a broad review of scholarly literature, state and district documents and Web sites, a national data set, and interviews with education leaders at the national, state, and district levels. We tested and refined this tool using data from multilevel, nested case studies of teacher policy in three states: Maryland, New York, and Connecticut.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The study makes both conceptual and empirical contributions. Conceptually, we have developed and tested a useful tool for policy makers and researchers to examine the range of policies and resources being employed to address the various dimensions of the teacher staffing problem. Empirically, this study provides information on the constellations of teacher policies across levels of the education system in three states and presents findings on the range and reach of teacher policies at the state, district, and school levels.
Finding Freedom in Dialectic Inquiry: New Teachers’ Responses to Silencing
Authors: Bieler Deborah , Thomas Anne Burns
Published: November 2021

Background

The need to support new teachers in urban public schools is well established, given current shortages and research that highlights serious issues with teacher retention. Debate continues about approaches to support for new teachers, including questions about the importance of developing an inquiry stance toward teaching. As more teacher preparation and professional development programs adopt inquiry-based methods, the theory and practice of these approaches deserve close analysis. Examining the ways in which inquiry-based programs strengthen or constrain new teacher agency is an important step in understanding the relationship between teacher retention and the deprofessionalization of teaching.

Focus of Study

This article describes two groups of new teachers who experienced the inquiry-based programs of support in which they participated as silencing and uncritical. The authors argue that even in the best-intentioned programs, inquiry can become a fixed method in which the new teachers’ voice and agency are lost. In each study, the new teachers worked to reclaim voice and agency through dialectic inquiry, which the authors characterize as local, self-reflexive, and able to embrace the tensions that mark many teaching situations.

Research Design

This article draws on two year-long practitioner research studies conducted with new teachers who were participating in structures intended to support their development as critical, reflective practitioners.

Recommendations

Given the nature of teaching as a profession, the authors argue that dialectic inquiry can help new teachers develop important attributes of agency and critique. The authors advocate for inquiry-based teacher development programs that remain flexible and reflective and are able to support new teachers in a profession that can be silencing.
Profiting from Public Education: Education Management Organizations and Student Achievement
Authors: Garcia David R. , Barber Rebecca , Molnar Alex
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Nationally, almost a quarter of charter school students attend a school managed by a for-profit education management organization (EMO). EMOs have full executive authority over the operation and management of schools, including curriculum and instruction decisions. Because charter schools are funded with public dollars, critics argue that the profit motive may divert funds away from academics and have a negative impact on student achievement.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study compares the academic achievement of EMO-managed charter schools with other charter schools and traditional public schools in Arizona. Whereas prior EMO research has focused on total scores in mathematics and reading as the academic achievement variables, this study delves further by analyzing subtest scores that distinguish between basic and complex thinking skills. We use more sensitive test data in an effort to examine the differential impact of the educational practices of EMO-managed charter schools on academic achievement.

Research Design

Student-level longitudinal test data are used for Arizona students who were enrolled in Grades 2–6 in 2001 and who remained in the same sector (EMO, non-EMO charter, or traditional public school) for the next 3 years. The test data include total scores for reading and mathematics, as well as subtest scores divided into basic and complex thinking skills. The analyses are based on a model that estimates the level of academic achievement in Year 3 using the sector of attendance as predictors and a twice-lagged achievement variable along with the other student-level covariates.

Findings/Results

For students who remained in the same sector for 3 consecutive years, attendance in non-EMO-managed charter schools had a positive effect on achievement results in total mathematics. The outcome was driven by higher scores in mathematics procedures, the basic skills subtest. For students who remained in the same sector and same school for 3 consecutive years, EMO-managed charter schools exhibited a positive effect in reading vocabulary, a basic skills subtest, and a negative effect in reading comprehension, the complex thinking subtest.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Previous research has illuminated many common teaching and learning characteristics of EMO-managed charter schools, such as drill and practice and standardized curricula that can be delivered by less experienced teaching staffs. Our results are the first empirical indication that the academic environments of EMO-managed charter schools may be associated with higher levels of academic achievement in basic skills at the expense of achievement in complex thinking skills, at least in reading. In all, the results are modest, but they deepen the available evidence about the academic impact of EMO-managed charter schools.
Children of Turkish Immigrants in Germany and the Netherlands: The Impact of Differences in Vocational and Academic Tracking Systems
Authors: Crul Maurice , Schneider Jens
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Much research is being done on Turkish immigrants and their children in Germany and the Netherlands, but almost always from a national perspective. To compare the situation, for example, regarding educational outcomes across the two countries has proved to be very difficult because of different sets, selection criteria, and time periods for statistical data on immigrant populations. However, those data, which are actually available and comparable to at least some degree, already show how strongly the differences in educational attainment and labor market integration of Turkish immigrants depend on structural and systemic differences in the ways that education is organized in Germany and the Netherlands.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The article analyzes available data on young Turkish immigrants and native-born second generations and their educational success in the two countries with the major Turkish populations in Western Europe. It aims to direct the focus away from group background characteristics, which are actually quite similar, to the influence of institutional arrangements and the way that the educational system facilitates (or not) the educational integration of Turkish youth.

Research Design

The article is based on publicly collected and available data on the Turkish populations in Germany and the Netherlands. This mainly refers to the Dutch SPVA surveys and the German micro-census and Integration Survey.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The findings show that more than group characteristics, systemic and institutional factors can have a decisive role in promoting or hampering the educational and labor market integration of young immigrants and the native-born second generation. The greater openness of the Dutch school system to provide “long routes” and “second chances” shows its effect in significantly higher shares of Turks in higher education. On the other side, the dual system of vocational training in Germany seems to be better suited for labor market integration, especially because apprenticeships are more practice oriented and do count as work experience for later application procedures. The Dutch system also offers better opportunities for girls than does the German system. Yet, the polarization effect between “high achievement” and “failure” of only partial integration success is greater in the Netherlands, whereas the overall advancement is slower, but also less polarizing, in Germany. In this sense, each country could learn something from its neighbor regarding those aspects of the institutional and systemic setting that apparently fail to do the job well enough.
“Intermediate Theory” Building: Integrating Multiple Teacher and Researcher Perspectives through In-Depth Video Analysis of Pedagogic Strategies
Authors: Hennessy Sara , Deaney Rosemary
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This work draws on a “participatory” approach to research collaboration that respects the teacher's “voice” in building on and extending the interactive “colearning” agreements between researchers and practitioners that work toward improving practice. Both parties in these agreements act as agents of (reflexive) inquiry, actively participating in rigorous and systematic joint analysis and contributing interpretative insights.

Focus of Study

This article describes and reflects on a collaborative approach to the analysis of digital video recordings of classroom activity. Our primary focus was assisting teachers to make explicit the pedagogical rationale underlying their practice. A key aim was to draw on sociocultural perspectives to develop a shared, grounded account of the processes through which teachers strategically mediate subject learning, in the context of using projection technology. The process of collaboration itself is our focus here.

Participants

Four UK teachers, one in each of four secondary subject areas (English, mathematics, science and history), and their students aged 12–15, took part in the research. The teachers were all experienced, reflective practitioners. The research collaboration also involved a colleague of each teacher, two researchers (the authors), and academic subject specialist colleagues.

Research Design

A case study design was used to collect qualitative observational data.

Data Collection and Analysis

Teachers were observed over six lessons each and interviewed four times. They also collaborated with us in critical scrutiny and discussion of lesson videos during a series of four recorded meetings, making underlying rationale explicit and identifying emerging themes. Student perspectives were sought through two focus group interviews in each case. Copies of student work and all lesson materials and outlines were collected, screen displays were captured, and each teacher kept a diary (unstructured) recording his or her planning, decision making, and/or postlesson reflections. Interview transcripts, individual commentary, meeting notes, and diaries were thematically analyzed using HyperResearch software.

Findings

The dialogic process culminated in development of “intermediate theory” bridging between teachers’ perspectives on supporting learning in specific settings, and key constructs from sociocultural theory. Hence, a priori theories were elaborated, integrated, and reframed using a common language.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The findings are being exploited through coconstruction and dissemination of a set of interactive CD-ROMs. These characterize the key themes and strategies emerging within and across cases, with illustrative video sequences for each case in turn hyperlinked to professional development activities and relevant aspects of the narrative accounts.
Understanding the Relationship between Mathematics and Science Coursework Patterns
Authors: Ma Xin
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

There has been little research on the relationship between mathematics and science coursework in secondary school.

Purpose of Study

The present analysis explored the patterns of science course-taking in relation to the patterns of mathematics course-taking among high school graduates.

Research Design

Using data from the 2000 High School Transcript Study (N = 20,368), secondary analysis was performed in the form of multilevel models with students nested within schools to document a strong relationship between mathematics and science course-work patterns.

Findings/Results

Results highlighted that (1) taking more courses in advanced mathematics was related to taking more courses in advanced science (this relationship remained strong even after adjustment for student-level and school-level variables); (2) the more courses that students took in advanced mathematics, the more likely it was that student and school characteristics would join in to select students into taking more courses in advanced science; (3) many high school graduates complied with graduation requirements by taking limited non-advanced mathematics and science coursework during high school; and (4) mathematics coursework was necessary but insufficient to promote advanced science coursework.

Conclusions/Recommendations

State governments are encouraged to prescribe not only the number but also the content of mathematics and science courses required for high school graduation. School personnel such as career counselors are encouraged to help promote better coursework of students in mathematics and science.
Building Bridges for Student Success: Are Higher Education Articulation Policies Effective?
Authors: Roksa Josipa
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Although the importance of facilitating transfer from community colleges to 4-year institutions is almost universally accepted, there is little consensus on how to measure transfer success or evaluate policies aimed at assisting students in making this educational transition. Despite the increasing attention on transfer in recent decades, the most fundamental types of questions, such as whether community colleges are successful at facilitating transfer and bachelor's degree attainment and whether articulation policies are effective, lack satisfactory answers.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

I describe challenges associated with current endeavors to facilitate and measure transfer success, attempt to resolve some of the inconsistencies in previous research on articulation policies, and illuminate promising paths for the future.

Research Design

The manuscript begins with a synthesis of previous research, including different definitions of transfer success and articulation policies. I then analyze state-level and individual-level data to examine the effectiveness of articulation policies using these distinct definitions. Finally, I draw on descriptive information from various higher education systems to illustrate the variety of strategies adopted to facilitate transfer, and I suggest potential explanations for why statewide articulation policies may not appear effective.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The current state of knowledge and data collection efforts make it impossible to provide definitive answers regarding the effectiveness of articulation policies in higher education. I conclude with recommendations for improving future research and policy regarding this crucial transition in higher education, including collecting and sharing data (with collaboration between higher education institutions and state and federal governments), clearly defining goals of articulation policies and evaluating them accordingly, and developing a consistent set of definitions and measurements of transfer success. I suggest that these recommendations can be implemented by building on existing systems of collaboration and coordination in higher education. The 2/4 community college-baccalaureate transfer function is one of the most important state policy issues in higher education because its success (or failure) is central to many dimensions of state higher education performance, including access, equity, affordability, cost effectiveness, degree productivity, and quality. Wellman, 2002, p. 3
Reconceptualizing Geography as Democratic Global Citizenship Education
Authors: Gaudelli William , Heilman Elizabeth
Published: November 2021

Background

Geography education typically appears in school curricula in a didactic or disciplinary manner. Yet, both the didactic and the disciplinary approach to geography education lack a serious engagement with society, politics, and power, or democratic theory. We suggest, from Dewey, that most students, the social studies, and indeed society are not well served by these approaches, particularly as we confront global challenges that demand geographic knowledge and insight.

Purpose

We propose that geography can and should reflect the interests of students and society and thus be what Dewey calls psychologized through a democratic vision of global citizenship education (GCE). Toward that end, we develop a typology of global education to identify those types most congruent with democratic citizenship (cosmopolitan, environmental, and critical justice) and those less congruent (disciplinary, neoliberal, and human relations). Drawing on our typology, we show how GCE can be a point of synthesis in practice, bringing together global education and reconstituted geographic knowledge.

Research Design

The method of this article is a secondary analysis of literature in democratic theory, global citizenship education, and geography education that synthesizes points of overlap.

Conclusions

Based on this analysis, we recommend that geography curriculum should be remade within a vision similar to GCE so that space and place can be socially understood.
Special Education Subgroups under NCLB: Issues to Consider
Authors: Eckes Suzanne E. , Swando Julie
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

There are few empirical studies exploring the alleged conflict between the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Objective

The purpose of this study was to examine what impact the No Child Left Behind Act has had on students with disabilities.

Research Design

Specifically, using large data sets from three different states, this article examines how the students with disabilities subgroup has fared under the No Child Left Behind Act. Under NCLB, there are four different subgroups: race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, limited English proficiency, and students with disabilities. If any one of these subgroups fails to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) under NCLB, the entire school fails.

Findings

This study found that schools fail to make AYP most often because of the students with disabilities subgroup. The failure of the special education subgroup to make AYP occurs mainly because the students with disabilities subgroup is expected to maintain the exact same proficiency levels as their general education peers—a standard that has proved to be problematic because special education students often start out with lower average test scores than general education students. In addition, the students with disabilities subgroup is the only subgroup in which actual limitations on ability to learn might come into play. The existence of these limitations calls into question the wisdom of trying to close the general education–special education “achievement gap” at the same pace as the race- or class-based achievement gaps. In addition to quantitative methods, this study also used legal research techniques to examine the legal impact that the two laws are having on students with disabilities.

Conclusions

The study found that although judicial challenges may be one route to try to change the law, pressure at the state and local levels by educators and parents of students with disabilities working together with the U.S. Department of Education may have an impact as well.
The Art and Science of Educational Inquiry: Analysis of Performance-Based Focus Groups with Novice Bilingual Teachers
Authors: Cahnmann-Taylor Melisa , Wooten Jennifer , Souto-Manning Mariana , Dice Jaime L.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

For over two decades, the boundaries between the social sciences and the humanities have become blurred, and numerous articles and books have been written about the infusion of the arts in qualitative research as a means to collect and analyze data and to represent findings. Yet these arts-based research processes, although present in the social sciences, are still largely invisible in a research climate that privileges (e.g., through publication, funding, and recognition) work claiming to be exclusively scientific.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

To fully develop the potential of the arts for a transformative educational inquiry, the synthesis of scientific and artistic methods must be fully explicated through clear examples that address theoretical and empirical concerns. This article focuses on explicit arts-based approaches that the authors employed in a 3-year teacher education study of professional conflicts experienced by novice bilingual teachers. Authors describe how they used the arts and to what end, addressing questions of artistic processes, expertise, and research validity.

Research Design

The research design included theatrical and literary techniques alongside more traditional qualitative methods of inquiry (e.g., participant observation, audio- and video-recorded focus group interactions, interviews, and surveys). Authors initiated performative focus groups based on the work of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal in which participants share and act scenes from power-laden experiences of conflict, rehearsing strategies for personal and social revolution. This embodied data enabled the research team to focus empirical and pedagogical attention on both participants’ physical and verbal “scripts” or trans/scripts: compressed renderings of original transcripts that utilize techniques from poetry and the dramatic arts to highlight the data's emotional “hot points” and heightened language from the original discourse.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This study illuminated the range of experiences and emotions involved in novice bilingual teachers’ professional lives, signaling the value and validity of research that is both artistic and scientific. Such hybridity may at first appear to make for unexpected and potentially haphazard methodological mergers. The authors do not claim to have resolved these epistemological tensions, but to have exploited both traditional and artistic research methods to broaden the notion of what counts as “research” in teacher education and to conduct research that is engaging to researchers and participants alike.
“You Can Form Your Own Point of View”: Internally Persuasive Discourse in Northern Ireland Students’ Encounters with History
Authors: Barton Keith C. , Mccully Alan W.
Published: November 2021

Background

Research on historical understanding has sometimes depicted adolescents and adults as either appropriating or resisting particular narrative accounts, and resistance seems to be especially common when school-based narratives differ from those encountered outside school. In Northern Ireland, however, school history does not present an alternative narrative to community-based histories, but takes a different approach altogether; school history represents an evidence-based, analytic subject that emphasizes multiple perspectives and avoids connections to contemporary identifications or political positions.

Purpose

In this study, we sought to understand both how young people in Northern Ireland approached historical information in school and how they made sense of conflicting perspectives on the past.

Research Design and Participants

Using qualitative, task-based interviews, we interviewed 253 secondary students, approximately equal numbers of whom had completed each of the 3 required years of historical study; these interviews included students of both genders and from differing school types in a variety of regions within Northern Ireland.

Findings

We found that these students had experienced history in more complicated ways than has been evident in most previous research. They had learned about the past in a variety of formal and informal settings, and they navigated among these multiple sources in a conscious attempt to refine and extend their historical understanding as they followed up on interests initiated in one setting by seeking out information elsewhere. Although some students simply assimilated this information into dominant community narratives, most were aware that such narratives can be used for contemporary political purposes, and they appreciated that school history encouraged a more complete and balanced historical perspective, particularly by exposing them to the motivations and experiences of the other community. Even as they sought expanded historical viewpoints, however, they were unwilling to abandon the political commitments of their communities, and they sought greater contemporary relevance for history than they were likely to encounter in school.

Conclusions

These students thus were not simply appropriating or resisting particular historical narratives; they were engaged in a more complex process that involved developing internally persuasive discourse as they drew from multiple historical discourses in an attempt to form their own point of view on the region's troubled past.

Implications

This research suggests that students in Northern Ireland and elsewhere might benefit from a curriculum that attends more directly to their active construction of historical meaning and supports them in constructing critical perspectives on the contemporary relevance of the past.
Cosmopolitanism and Education: A View from the Ground
Authors: Hansen David T.
Published: November 2021

Background/ Context

In recent years, scholars the world over in both the social sciences and humanities have reanimated the ancient idea of cosmopolitanism. They discern in the idea ways in which people today can respond creatively to rapid social, political, cultural, and economic transformations. Scholars in this burgeoning field have examined issues involving cultural hybridity, global citizenship, environmental justice, economic redistribution, and more. In the article, I examine from a philosophical perspective how a cosmopolitan-minded education can assist people in cultivating thoughtful receptivity to the new and reflective loyalty to the known.

Purpose/ Objective/ Research Question/ Focus of Study

Philosophical work has begun on possible relations between cosmopolitanism and education. However, there are virtually no published studies that deploy a systematic cosmopolitan frame of analysis in conjunction with qualitative or quantitative research. This article seeks to encourage such research by elucidating a distinctive conception of cosmopolitanism rooted in one of its long-standing strands. This strand is characterized as cosmopolitanism on the ground, and it features what has been called “philosophy as the art of living” and “actually existing cosmopolitanism.”

Research Design

The article is a philosophical investigation that builds an argument using the techniques of conceptual analysis, comparison, contrast, analogy, metaphor, illustration, and exegesis of texts.

Conclusions/ Recommendations

The long-standing strand of cosmopolitanism on the ground generates several key elements of a philosophy of cosmopolitan-minded education. These elements are (1) a recognition of the importance of local socialization as making possible education itself, (2) the recognition that a cosmopolitan outlook triggers a critical rather than idolatrous or negligent attitude toward tradition and custom, (3) the recognition that curriculum across all subjects can be understood as a cosmopolitan inheritance, and (4) the recognition that many teachers constitute an already existing cosmopolitan community and can build on their shared purposes to enhance educational practice the world over.
Teaching Replays, Teaching Rehearsals, and Re-Visions of Practice: Learning from Colleagues in a Mathematics Teacher Community
Authors: Horn Ilana Seidel
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Research shows that teachers’ understandings of students, subject, and teaching influence their classroom practice. Additionally, teachers’ colleagues have a role in shaping individuals’ approaches to teaching and their responses to reform.

Focus of Study

To understand how interactions with colleagues support teachers’ informal learning, I examined teachers’ collegial conversations in a highly collaborative teacher community.

Setting

This research took place within a collaborative, improvement-oriented urban high school mathematics department that showed evidence of increasing access to and rigor in its curriculum.

Participants

Six high school mathematics teachers and the researcher as a participant observer worked together in a group focusing on detracking ninth-grade algebra classes.

Research Design

This 2-year ethnographic study went inside the teacher community, with the researcher teaching alongside the teachers to gain access to their interactions and workings.

Data Collection and Analysis

Approximately 100 hours of teachers’ collaborative conversations were observed and recorded through audio- and videotape and field notes. Using a situated learning framework and sociolinguistic analyses, I examined teacher-to-teacher talk that constituted episodes of pedagogical reasoning (EPRs) to understand how collegial conversations provide resources for teacher learning.

Findings

Across EPRs, two forms of discourse were important sites for representing, and sometimes learning about, teaching practice, which I call teaching replays and teaching rehearsals. Extended replays or rehearsals supported a re-visioning routine, interactions in which teachers elaborated, reconsidered, or revised their understanding of complex teaching situations while providing particular, emotionally involving accounts of the classroom. The examination of these interactions further specifies conditions that support teachers’ collegial learning.

Conclusions

Theoretically, this article illustrates a process of learning as recontextualiza-tion, as the teachers work between general teaching principles and specific occurrences in their classrooms. Practically, by highlighting the work that teachers do to make sense of innovative practices, this analysis provides a description of how collegial conversations can support teachers’ informal learning, supporting the development of professional communities.
How to Exist Politically and Learn from It: Hannah Arendt and the Problem of Democratic Education
Authors: Biesta Gert
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

In discussions about democratic education, there is a strong tendency to see the role of education as that of the preparation of children and young people for their future participation in democratic life. A major problem with this view is that it relies on the idea that the guarantee for democracy lies in the existence of a properly educated citizenry so that once all citizens have received their education, democracy will simply follow.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The question that is explored in this article is whether it is possible to think of the relationship between education and democracy differently than in terms of preparation. This is important not only to be able to acknowledge the political nature of democratic education but also to be able to acknowledge the political “foundation” of democratic politics itself.

Research Design

The argumentation in the article is developed through a critical analysis and discussion of the work of Hannah Arendt, with a specific focus on her ideas about the relationship between education and politics and her views on the role of understanding in politics.

Findings/Results

Arendt's writings on the relationship between education and politics seem to be informed by a “developmentalistic” perspective in which it is maintained that the child is not yet ready for political life, so education has to be separated from politics and seen as a preparation for future participation in political life. Arendt's writings on politics and the role of understanding in political life point in a different direction. They articulate what it means to exist politically—that is, to exist together in plurality—and highlight that political existence is neither based on, nor can be guaranteed by, moral qualities such as tolerance and respect.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The main conclusion of the article is that democratic education should not be seen as the preparation of citizens for their future participation in political life. Rather, it should focus on creating opportunities for political existence inside and outside schools. Rather than thinking of democratic education as learning for political existence, it is argued that the focus of our educational endeavours should be on how we can learn from political existence.
Assessing English Language Learners’ Opportunity to Learn Mathematics: Issues and Limitations
Authors: Abedi Jamal , Herman Joan
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

English language learner (ELL) students are lagging behind because of the extra challenges they face relative to their peers in acquiring academic English language proficiency with the added burden of learning content in a language in which they are not proficient. The mandated inclusion of ELL students in the nation's accountability system may not be productive if their academic needs are not defined and addressed.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study explores the relationship between students’ ELL status and their level of opportunity to learn (OTL) as a factor that may explain performance differences between ELL and non-ELL students.

Setting

The research was conducted on a sample of Grade 8 students in Southern California.

Population/Participants/Subjects

A total of 24 Grade 8 classes participated in the study. Within these classes, a total of 602 students served as subjects for this study.

Research Design

In this study, we examined factors that explain OTL for ELL students; therefore, the research design for this study is an ex post facto or causal-comparative design.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data were collected on student reading comprehension, student background, and motivation. Internal consistency approach was used for estimating reliability of the instruments. Comparison of performance of ELL and non-ELL was done using a hierarchical linear model approach.

Findings/Results

Results indicate that: (1) measures of classroom OTL are associated with student performance; (2) ELL students report a lower level of OTL as compared with non-ELLs, and such differential levels of OTL may indeed play a role in the lower performance of ELLs; (3) a higher concentration of ELLs is associated with lower levels of OTL; and (4) English proficiency and self-reported ability to understand teachers’ instruction both appear to influence effective access to OTL.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The results of this study suggest that students’ ability to understand teacher instructions influences reported levels of OTL. Students who experience more difficulty may report lower levels of OTL because they do not understand or thus recognize topics that have been addressed in class. Such differential levels of OTL may be a major factor contributing to the substantial performance gap between ELL and non-ELL students. However, study limitations limit generalization. Among the most important is the meaning of OTL itself. What is a reasonable definition of OTL, and how far down into enacted instruction does it extend? Future studies need to carefully examine these factors and determine the best way to address the performance gap between ELL and non-ELL students.
Models and Predictors of Teacher Effectiveness: A Comparison of Research About Teaching and Other Occupations
Authors: Harris Douglas N. , Rutledge Stacey A.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

A half-century ago, scholars of teaching observed that there was a disconnect between theory and evidence. This problem remains. Although there is great deal of scholarly activity about teacher effectiveness and quality, discussion of theory is largely separate from empirical evidence. In addition, research on teaching is based on an implicit assumption that teaching is unique, suggesting further that lessons cannot be learned from other occupations and professions.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The theory-evidence disconnect, and relationship with other occupations, is addressed by comparing and contrasting research on teachers with research on other occupations.

Research Design

The article synthesizes and analyses past discussions of the nature of teaching and empirical analysis of the predictors of teacher effectiveness. A similar review is provided for other occupations, and the two bodies of research are analyzed together.

Conclusions/Recommendations

First, four models of teaching are identified—labor, profession, craft, and art—each with its own (often implicit) objectives and theories about how learning takes place. However, the age-old theory-evidence disconnect remains because empirical analyses still almost never mention theory, and vice versa. This problem is much less pronounced in research on other occupations and professions in which theory and empirical analysis are appropriately intertwined. Although disconnect in teacher research is partly due to disagreement about the objectives and nature of teaching, and there is greater agreement on these grounds in other occupations, it is shown that clear theories and models of teacher effectiveness can be developed and tested for each of the four models of teaching. Second, there is considerable similarity between the teacher characteristics that predict teacher effectiveness and those predicting worker effectiveness in similarly complex occupations and professions. Specifically, cognitive ability and experience predict effectiveness for both groups, whereas personality and education are not predictive. These specific findings are informative for developing specific models of effectiveness. More generally, the similarity across teaching and other complex occupations suggests that teaching, although different, is not completely unique and that lessons can be learned from research that extend beyond teaching.
Proceed with Caution: Interactive Rules and Teacher Work Sample Scoring Strategies, an Ethnomethodological Study
Authors: Bullough Robert V.
Published: November 2021

Background

Facing growing accountability pressures, Teacher Work Samples (TWSs) as a model of performance-based assessment is of growing significance in teacher education. Developed at Western Oregon University and widely adopted and adapted, proponents claim that the model is “real,” “natural,” “meaningful,” and “helpful” (G. R. Girod, 2002).

Research Questions

The study addresses three questions: (1) How do sample raters understand their responsibilities? (2) What are the underlying interactive rules and strategies used by raters to achieve their aims, and how are they employed? (3) What issues or concerns should teacher educators interested in using TWS methods address as they seek to demonstrate candidate quality and program value?

Research Design

Conversation analysis, ethnomethodology.

Data Collection and Analysis

Ten TWS scoring conversations conducted by four teams were recorded and analyzed to identify interactive rules and strategies. Scoring teams were composed of one tenure-track elementary teacher education faculty member and one clinical teacher education faculty member. Excerpts from a TWS case judged marginal are presented and analyzed.

Findings

From the case, a set of interactive rules (tenure-track faculty speak first; the efficiency and equivalence rules; and scorers are prepared) and strategies (splitting the difference; rubric simplification; previewing scores; and rubric stretching) are identified, and implications of their use are discussed for assessment validity, fairness, content quality and coverage, meaningfulness, and cognitive complexity (R. L. Linn, E. L. Baker, & S. B. Dunbar, 1991).

Conclusions

This study raises a number of concerns about the expectations for and use of Teacher Work Samples and cautions about their use for high-stakes assessment.
Personal Background Knowledge Influences Cross-Cultural Understanding
Authors: Lin Xiaodong , Bransford John D.
Published: November 2021

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study was to investigate how two types of videos, personal background knowledge (PBK) and general background knowledge (GBK), affect people's interpretation of a classroom problem case that involved a disconnection between a foreign college professor and her students. The PBK video described the professor's personal experiences and upbringing within her culture that impacted her views about the importance of learning. The GBK video included only general information about important political and social events in, and the language and customs of, the professor's culture. Both prior to and after seeing the PBK or GBK video, we measured participants’ reactions to the problem case. PBK had a much stronger impact on changes in reactions than GBK.

Background/Context

Prior research suggests that background information may unfreeze stereotypes and result in more empathy between people. It is unclear whether these effects are due to access to general kinds of knowledge about an individual (GBK) or whether they depend on specific kinds of relevant personal knowledge (PBK). We investigated the role of different kinds of knowledge in changing people's negative views about the teacher in the case.

Participants

The participants were 43 undergraduate students (25 females and 18 males) enrolled in a general psychology course at a top-5 school of education (according to US News rankings) located near the middle of the United States. Ninety percent of the participants were Caucasian and enrolled in different majors in the school of education.

Research Design

We used a within- and between-subjects design. The participants first saw and responded to the case of the problematic professor (baseline condition). Participants were then assigned randomly to either the PBK or GBK video conditions. After watching, they answered questions about the case once again.

Results

The PBK video story had strong emotional and cognitive effects on changes in students’ understanding of Professor X's case and in their strategies for resolving the problem. The GBK tended to make negative stereotypes and opinions worse. This latter outcome was unexpected given the frequent reliance on general cultural knowledge to make people more empathetic and understanding. We suggest that increased attention to personal background knowledge in instruction may have important implications for additional ways to help students learn.
Crossing the Line: When Pedagogical Relationships Go Awry
Authors: Johnson Tara Star
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Very little empirical research has been conducted on the issue of educator sexual misconduct (ESM) in secondary settings. The few reports available typically treat a larger social issue, such as sexual harassment or child abuse; therefore, data on ESM specifically must be extrapolated. When such data are obtained, the focus has been on rates of incidence rather than the nature of the problem. Feminist scholars have theorized embodiment in education and debated whether and to what extent an eroticized pedagogy is desirable, but scant attention has been paid to how and why erotic pedagogy can go awry.

Research Question/Focus of Study

A central question of this study is whether and when the sexual dynamic of teaching that many scholars believe is a condition present in most classrooms becomes ESM. This article focuses on just one step of the teacher-student affair process: how the line between “teacher” and “lover” was crossed.

Participants

The primary participants are Hannah and Kim, high school English teachers who had a sexual relationship with a student. Their cases are framed with Mary Kay Letourneau and Heather Ingram, two headline-heavy teachers whose backgrounds and affair patterns are similar to Hannah's and Kim's.

Research Design

This is a qualitative case study based primarily upon interviews and artifacts collected from the participants.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The participants’ relationships with their students were an escalation of events, a continuum upon which “crossing the line” was arbitrarily fixed at the point of their physical expression of what was already an emotional affair. The process was similar across the cases: During the teachers’ attempts to save the student from academic failure, they fell in love with the students. Students initially flirted with the teachers, which the teachers did not discourage; the teachers then allowed (and sometimes created) increasingly intimate scenarios, thereby setting the stage whereby the line could be crossed, although the students initiated the physical crossing of the line. Understanding how and why teachers cross the line is more likely to be effective than the two lines of prevention and their concomitant assumptions that typically operate in schools: silence (the elephant will go away if we don't talk about it) and surveillance (instituting rules that disallow any form of touch will control outbreaks of educator sexual misconduct). In light of this study, the latter is especially ironic: A heightened emotional connection, not inappropriate physical touching, was the gateway to misconduct.