Studying Large-Scale Reforms of Instructional Practice: An Example from Mathematics and Science

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura S. Hamilton ◽  
Daniel F. McCaffrey ◽  
Brian M. Stecher ◽  
Stephen P. Klein ◽  
Abby Robyn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Outcome Measures ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
National Science ◽  
Based Instruction ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Mathematics And Science

A number of challenges are encountered when evaluating a large-scale, multisite educational reform aimed at changing classroom practice. The challenges include substantial variability in implementation with little information on actual practice, lack of common, appropriate outcome measures, and the need to synthesize evaluation results across multiple study sites. This article describes an approach to addressing these challenges in the context of a study of the relationships between student achievement and instructional practices in the National Science Foundation’s Systemic Initiatives (SI) program. We gathered data from eleven SI sites and investigated relationships at the site level and pooled across sites using a planned meta-analytic approach. We found small but consistent positive relationships between teachers’ reported use of standards-based instruction and student achievement. The article also describes the ways in which we addressed the challenges discussed, as well as a number of additional obstacles that need to be addressed to improve future evaluations of large-scale reforms.

Effectiveness of Technology in Precollege Mathematics and Science Teaching

1983 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Kulik ◽  
Robert L. Bangert-Drowns
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Student Attitudes ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Individualized Instruction ◽  
Programmed Instruction ◽  
Science Classrooms ◽  
Computer Based Instruction ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Based Instruction ◽  
Mathematics And Science

The first major applications of scientific technology to education were made by psychologist B. F. Skinner three decades ago. In the years since, the emphasis in instructional technology has shifted from programmed instruction to individualized systems of teaching to computer-based instruction. These three approaches show different degrees of promise as aids in precollege mathematics and science classrooms. Programmed instruction and individualized instruction have had only limited success in raising student achievement or improving student attitudes in precollege education. Computer-based instruction, on the other hand, has raised student achievement significantly in numerous studies, dramatically affected the amount of time needed for teaching and learning, and greatly altered student attitudes toward the computer.

Expanding the boundaries of learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (8) ◽  
pp. 8-13
Author(s):  
Thomas Hatch
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Practices ◽  
New Hampshire ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Educational Experiences ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Project Based Learning

Taking advantage of the possibilities for learning outside of school requires us to build on what we know about why it is so hard to sustain and scale up unconventional educational experiences within conventional schools. To illustrate the opportunities and challenges, Thomas Hatch describes a large-scale approach to project-based learning developed in a camp in New Hampshire and incorporated in a Brooklyn school, a trip-based program in Detroit, and Singapore’s systemic embrace of learning outside school. By understanding the conditions that can sustain alternative instructional practices, educators can find places to challenge the boundaries of schooling and create visions of the possible that exceed current constraints.

scholarly journals Early tracking and different types of inequalities in achievement: difference-in-differences evidence from 20 years of large-scale assessments

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-167
Author(s):  
Andrés Strello ◽  
Rolf Strietholt ◽  
Isa Steinmann ◽  
Charlotte Siepmann
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
International Student ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Seminal Paper ◽  
International Student Assessment ◽  
Units Of Analysis ◽  
Social Achievement ◽  
Mathematics And Science ◽  
Combined Data

AbstractResearch to date on the effects of between-school tracking on inequalities in achievement and on performance has been inconclusive. A possible explanation is that different studies used different data, focused on different domains, and employed different measures of inequality. To address this issue, we used all accumulated data collected in the three largest international assessments—PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study), and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study)—in the past 20 years in 75 countries and regions. Following the seminal paper by Hanushek and Wößmann (2006), we combined data from a total of 21 cycles of primary and secondary school assessments to estimate difference-in-differences models for different outcome measures. We synthesized the effects using a meta-analytical approach and found strong evidence that tracking increased social achievement gaps, that it had smaller but still significant effects on dispersion inequalities, and that it had rather weak effects on educational inadequacies. In contrast, we did not find evidence that tracking increased performance levels. Besides these substantive findings, our study illustrated that the effect estimates varied considerably across the datasets used because the low number of countries as the units of analysis was a natural limitation. This finding casts doubt on the reproducibility of findings based on single international datasets and suggests that researchers should use different data sources to replicate analyses.

Teachers’ Professional Development in a Climate of Educational Reform

1993 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Warren Little
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
School Organization ◽  
Reform Initiatives ◽  
Coaching Model ◽  
Development Policies ◽  
Teachers Professional Development ◽  
Policies And Practices

This essay posits a problem of fit among five streams of reform and prevailing configurations of teachers’ professional development. It argues that the dominant training-and-coaching model—focused on expanding an individual repertoire of well-defined classroom practice—is not adequate to the conceptions or requirements of teaching embedded in present reform initiatives. Subject matter collaboratives and other emerging alternatives are found to embody six principles that stand up to the complexity of reforms in subject matter teaching, equity, assessment, school organization, and the professionalization of teaching. The principles form criteria for assessing professional development policies and practices.

Math coaches, specialists, and student achievement: Learning from the data

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (3) ◽  
pp. 42-45
Author(s):  
Kristin E. Harbour ◽  
Evthokia Stephanie Saclarides
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Elementary Mathematics ◽  
National Assessment ◽  
Mathematics Coaches ◽  
Professional Development Model ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications

To support continuous professional development model in the teaching and learning of mathematics, many districts and schools have begun hiring elementary mathematics coaches and/or specialists (MCSs). However, limited large-scale empirical research exists that determines how the use of MCSs affect student learning and achievement. Kristin E. Harbour and Evthokia Stephanie Saclarides begin to fill in this gap by using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress to explore the relationship between the presence and responsibilities of elementary MCSs and 4th-grade student achievement in mathematics. Based on their findings, they share practical implications for districts and administrators to consider.

Instructional Practices to Boost Tier 1 Content Area Instruction for Students with Disabilities: A Closer Look at PACT

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Swanson ◽  
Alexis Boucher
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Content Area ◽  
Students With Learning Disabilities ◽  
Reading Support ◽  
Eighth Grade Students ◽  
Content Area Instruction ◽  
Based Instruction

For students with learning disabilities, providing text-based instruction in general education content area classes can provide students with additional reading support while simultaneously boosting their content knowledge. This article will outline a set of instructional practices delivered in social studies classes that has been shown to improve performance of eighth grade students with disabilities on measures of content knowledge, vocabulary, and content reading comprehension. Each instructional practice will be described in detail with a timeline of step-by-step procedures and accompanying language that demonstrates how the intervention may unfold in the classroom setting.

scholarly journals Seeing Near and Far: Balancing Stakeholder Needs and Rights in Kazakhstan’s Educational Reform

2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jazira Asanova
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Education System ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Educational Reforms ◽  
Reform Initiatives ◽  
Current Reform ◽  
Société Civile ◽  
Stakeholder Needs

This paper examines the schooling reform in the post-socialist transformation of Kazakhstan. Adopting a rights-based approach to education, it looks at the ways in which the current education system addresses (or fails to address) the rights and needs of various stakeholders in the society, including teachers, learners, parents, civil society, and policymakers. Two recent large-scale educational reforms form the focus of the paper: a national standardized assessment and a transition from 11 to 12 years of schooling. Implications of the current reform initiatives for Kazakhstan’s development are also discussed, pointing to lessons for understanding schooling and social change in post-socialist transformation. Cet article examine la réforme scolaire pendant la période de transformation post-socialiste du Kazakhstan. En adoptant une approche basée sur les droits de l'éducation, l'auteur considère les méthodes que l'actuel système d'éducation emploie pour répondre (ou ne pas répondre) aux droits et aux besoins des parties prenantes de la société, y compris, les enseignants, les apprenants, les parents, la société civile, et les responsables de politique. Cet article met au point le deux récentes réformes scolaires à grande envergure: la standardisation de l'évaluation nationale et l'ajout d'une année en plus à l'ancien système scolaire de 11 années. L'auteur y examine aussi les répercussions des initiatives de la réforme actuelle pour le développement du Kazakhstan, et suggère les leçons qui pourront nous faire comprendre l'éducation et le changement de la société dans la transformation post-socialiste.

scholarly journals Disaffection and agentic engagement: ‘Redesigning’ activities to enable authentic self-expression

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 456-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Henry ◽  
Cecilia Thorsen
Keyword(s):  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Activity Level ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Authentic Self ◽  
English Classrooms ◽  
Negative Face

Demotivation (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011) and non-participation (Norton, 2001) characterize negative responses to classroom practice of a generally chronic nature. In this article, focus is directed to negativity that emerges within the context of a particular language developing activity, and which can be understood as a situated response to the activity’s demands. In conceptualizing negative responses at the activity level, disaffection – the negative face of engagement – is a construct of central importance. Drawing on data from a large-scale ethnographic project in secondary English classrooms in Sweden, in this exploratory case study disaffection (Skinner, 2016) is examined in the context of two language developing activities. Analyses reveal that disaffection can transform into active engagement, and that when called upon to perform an inauthentic identity, students can ‘redesign’ activities in ways that enable them to act authentically.

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