Washback Effects of Diagnostic Assessment in Greek as an SL: Primary School Teachers’ Perceptions in Cyprus

Washback of diagnostic tools targeted to young migrant learners has been an under-researched area in the language assessment field. This paper explores teachers’ perceptions on the Greek Diagnostic Language Assessment (GDLA) tool recently introduced into the SL preparatory classes of the Cyprus primary education. The tool’s implementation coincides with the launch of a new SL curriculum. The objective is fourfold: (1) to examine GDLA’s washback effects on teaching/assessment, (2) to investigate washback’s variability with respect to several contextual variables, (3) to collect feedback on the perceived credibility of the tool, and (4) to reflect on the use of the GDLA tool as a lever of instructional reform in support of curricular innovation. The study employs a mixed-methods approach and draws on (a) quantitative data (questionnaire, 234 informants) and (b) qualitative data (interviews, 6 participants). The results indicate a positive and quite strong washback on teaching and assessment. However, they bring to the surface several misconceptions on the purpose and the implementation of diagnostic assessment, pointing to gaps in the teachers’ assessment literacy. They also bring into play school administration constraints. Finally, they imply that a diagnostic assessment aligned to a context-sensitive curriculum may bind the test to positive washback.

A close look at change: the role of an instructional-team community on an Instructor’s evolution during instructional reform

In transforming undergraduate STEM education, it is important to understand the personal and contextual factors that impact instructors’ reform efforts. In this study we explored an instructor’s drivers and motivators for change in perspectives and practice, with an emphasis on the impact of an internal community (her ‘instructional team’) comprised of a co-instructor, graduate teaching assistants, and several undergraduate learning assistants (LAs). Data were collected over two semesters through classroom observations, interviews, faculty learning community discussion recordings, and team email communications. We identified pedagogical discontentment as a primary initial trigger for the instructor’s engagement in instructional reform, guided by personal values and beliefs about student learning and the nature of her discipline. The instructional-team community, which was established during a period of instructional distress, provided 1) consistent support in instructional planning, implementation, assessment, and reflection processes, 2) unique access to different perspectives on the nuances of the teaching environment and student challenges, 3) increased space, time, and motivation for the instructor to more critically reflect on her teaching and engage in creative instructional design. This case illustrates the potential effects of instructional team-based communities on instructors as they work to improve their practice and reform their courses.

Instructional coaches' framing of a mathematics reform

PurposeInstructional coaches are pivotal to articulating the agenda of system-wide reform, yet their role remains largely unexamined. Their approach with educators is contextually situated within the schooling system in which they work to reflect the historical and sociocultural system influences. Given the downward trend in New Zealand's international test scores for mathematics, it is timely to review the role of instructional coaches.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors draw on qualitative data derived from interviews with experienced coaches to investigate how they brokered the vision and pedagogy of a system-level reform in mathematics. Using a sensemaking lens we specifically examined the collective stories they employed as explanatory tools.FindingsThe analysis revealed that coaches drew on factors from school and classroom contexts of professional development practice and from collective beliefs about effective practice, alongside the project materials incorporated in the design of the project. System-level stories of reading reform influenced coaches' leadership of professional practice in implementing the New Zealand Numeracy Development Project, a progressively scaled-up professional learning and development initiative designed to improve teacher knowledge and pedagogy.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the critical importance of coaches' knowledge and expertise, the complexity of the implementation process and the coherence of the infrastructure that supports them in instructional reform.

A Distributed Leadership Perspective on Implementing Instructional Reform: A Case Study of an Urban Middle School

This qualitative case study examined the distribution of leadership and the implementation of an instructional reform in a low-performing urban middle school. Leadership for the instructional reform was widely distributed and stretched across formal and informal teacher leaders. School personnel were highly invested in the instructional model and implementation was high. The broad distribution of leadership across formal and informal leaders contributed to the school beginning to turnaround from lackluster academic performance and mediocre instruction to a culture where implementation of the instructional reform was expected, and where teacher collaboration and accountability were becoming the norm.

Five Decades of Comprehension Research: Informing the Future

This article shares insights from a symposium celebrating the retirement of P. David Pearson, one of the most influential reading researchers of the last half-century. Presenters addressed the nature, instruction, and assessment of reading comprehension, teacher learning and comprehension, and the texts and contexts of comprehension. Collectively, the sessions offered the opportunity to reflect on what we have learned over five decades of comprehension research and practice and to engage with questions about the work that lies ahead. In particular, presenters called for renewed efforts to link comprehension instruction to students’ roles as agents and actors; to embrace complex views of readers, texts, and contexts; and to foreground teachers’ roles in their own learning about comprehension and in instructional reform efforts.

Real-world Maths: Preparing Teachers to use Real-life Contexts for Teaching Maths

Common Core Mathematics in the US promotes eight Standards for Mathematical Practice to guide instructional reform. Standard 2 includes the practice of “decontextualizing” or abstracting a given situation and representing it symbolically to solve real-world problems. Preparing teachers to employ this practice in classrooms requires knowledge and skill to apply technology to bring the real world into the classroom and the ability to discuss personal experiences in a mathematical way. Professional development with New York teacher candidates and in-service teachers in Nicaragua, China, and the US indicates the need for further dissemination with a research program to evaluate its efficacy.

Learning Lessons from Instruction: Descriptive Results from an Observational Study of Urban Elementary Classrooms

Background For nearly three decades, policy makers and researchers in the United States have promoted more intellectually rigorous standards for mathematics teaching and learning. Yet, to date, we have limited descriptive evidence on the extent to which reform-oriented instruction has been enacted at scale. Purpose The purpose of the study is to examine the prevalence of reform-aligned mathematics instructional practices in five U.S. school districts. We also seek to describe the range of instruction students experience by presenting case studies of teachers at high, medium, and low levels of reform alignment. Participants We draw on 1,735 video-recorded lessons from 329 elementary teachers in these five U.S. urban districts. Research Design We present descriptive analyses of lesson scores on a mathematics-focused classroom observation instrument. We also draw on interviews with district personnel, rater-written lesson summaries, and lesson video to develop case studies of instructional practice. Findings We find that teachers in our sample do use reform-aligned instructional practices, but they do so within the confines of traditional lesson formats. We also find that the implementation of these instructional practices varies in quality. Furthermore, the prevalence and strength of these practices corresponds to the coherence of district efforts at instructional reform. Conclusions Our findings suggest that, unlike other studies in which reform-oriented instruction rarely occurred, reform practices do appear to some degree in study classrooms. In addition, our analyses suggest that implementation of these reform practices corresponds to the strength and coherence of district efforts to change instruction.