Effective Practices of Feedback of Elementary School Administrators During the Post-Observation Conference

Research identifies two purposes for teacher evaluation: measurement and professional growth; however, the literature provides limited research on the impact of the post-observation conference in teacher evaluation on professional growth (Marzano, 2012). The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study is to examine the perceptions of Indiana public elementary school principals on the impact of the post-observation conference on professional growth of teachers. The study uses an Elementary Administrators’ Background Questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to gather an in-depth understanding of administrators’ perceptions. Four research questions framed this study as I examined public elementary school administrators’ perceptions of post-observation feedback within the teacher evaluation model. The first question examined the importance of the administrator-teacher relationship on the impact of the evaluation process. Data collected identified the importance of the principal and teacher relationship in the evaluation process. In addition, principals also expressed concern over the ability of the evaluation process to identify strengths of the teacher. The second research question examined how administrators prepare, conduct, and follow-up on evaluation conferences with teachers. Principals expressed a little more disagreement over their ability to provide effective feedback, resources, and professional development suggestions. The semi-structured interviews highlighted feedback focusing more on classroom management topics rather than curricular and instructional issues. The third research question asked administrators to share their experiences with the post-observation conference and how it produced improvement in teachers. Data from the questionnaire and the semi-structured interviews demonstrated a concern over the inability of the evaluation tool to differentiate teachers’ abilities. The participants in the interviews shared examples of their personal stories of assisting teachers to improve their skills through professional growth, mentoring, and coaching. The final research question explored principals’ perceptions on whether the teacher evaluation system impacted professional growth of teachers. Principals once again expressed their lack of comfort with providing effective feedback to assist teachers in professionally developing. Participants in the interviews shared they usually rely on mentoring from veteran teachers or coaching cycles from corporation instructional coaches. The final chapter examines how the study’s implications can impact educators and researchers to educate administrators and revise the evaluation system to improve the professional abilities of teachers

Improving Instructional Practice Via Walkthrough Implementation: A Superintendent Centered Perspective

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perceptions and reflections of former and current superintendents of suburban public school districts throughout the state of New Jersey regarding their districts’ use of classroom walkthroughs as a means to improve instructional practice. Comprehensive, in-person, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight superintendents. The participants were purposefully selected based on their qualifications, their willingness to participate in the study, and their experience using the walkthrough protocol. Utilizing interview questions that were steered by the study’s three overarching research questions, the researcher was able to delve deeply into the perceptions and reflections of the eight participants pertaining to the value of walkthrough implementation. Through the process of qualitative data analysis, congruent categories and themes were constructed. These categories and themes allowed the researcher to take an exorbitant amount of qualitative data and convert it into a narrative that ultimately addressed each of this study’s three research questions. This study identified fundamental categories and themes that are associated with classroom walkthroughs. Key walkthrough components include length and frequency, data collection, non-evaluative intent, look-fors, and feedback. Possible obstacles to walkthrough implementation include time, prioritization, and trust. Instructional leadership practices associated with walkthroughs include coaching, professional development, data-driven decision-making, visibility, and culture building. Overwhelmingly, all eight superintendents supported the notion that when used correctly, walkthrough implementation is an effective strategy to improve instructional practice

Increasing Student Engagement In The Middle School Classroom

There is a need to improve student engagement in the middle school classroom. This change plan seeks to determine the level of student engagement in the classroom using the Instructional Practices Inventory tool. Classroom walkthroughs will be conducted to determine the level of engagement in the classroom. The data collected during the walkthroughs will drive the professional development needed for teachers in order to be able to implement teaching strategies that increase the level of student engagement in the classroom. The effective implementation of this change plan will ensure that teachers will work collaboratively in order to design engaging instruction for the students

Common Core State Standards : elementary teacher perceptions of administrator supports with a focus on professional learning communities and walk throughs.

In 2009, there was a major instructional shift in the state of Kentucky. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted and funding was provided to the state by Race to the Top in order to facilitate implementation of the CCSS (Kentucky Department Education, 2014c). Within this framework, teachers and administrators have had to re-examine the education of students and, specifically, administrators have had to rethink their approach to supporting teachers. To address these new standards, teachers and administrators had to restructure how students were taught. Implementing CCSS requires teachers to teach students differently than they did before. Two widely implemented strategies to support teachers were Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and Walk Throughs (WTs). This study examined the perceptions that teachers and administrators have about professional learning communities and walk throughs as supports to improve instructional strategies. The study was conducted in a large urban district in Kentucky. A cross-sectional survey design was used to measure teachers’ and administrators’ perception of instructional supports. Both the teacher and administrator surveys seek to measure the perceptions of PLC and WT supports. The surveys are similar in content but worded differently to suit the role of the participant. The findings suggested there was a significant difference between teacher and administrator perceptions on PLCs and WTs serving as instructional supports. Specifically, the largest difference between perceptions was in the survey subscale labeled Trust in Administrators. Teachers did not perceive administrators following through on commitments, providing feedback after a WT, or demonstrating knowledge of teaching and learning using the WT tool

Developing a child-friendly post-occupancy assessment methodology for sustainable schools

This paper explores the development of post-occupancy evaluation (POE) methodologies for working with children and school buildings and discusses why a tailored, child-friendly method is important for both understanding and assessing the efficient use of energy. It presents work carried out in a series of workshops with pupils in 3 case study UK schools in the East and West Midlands and South Yorkshire. Whilst POE methods generally allow examination of the physical, technical and management factors influencing the actual performance of building, they can also be adapted to examine the gap between predicted and actual energy performance of a building and human behaviour is key in such investigations. Moreover, using action research-based participatory and collaborative methods in POE provides a way to explore knowledge and attitudes towards low carbon buildings influencing behaviours. Understanding why our energy use and our relationship with natural resources have to change raises complex social issues but new school environments provide a unique opportunity for feedback methods not only to improve the performance of 'sustainable' architecture, but also to examine and influence adoption of sustainable lifestyles. This paper reports our finding from PostOPE, a research project currently being run by the Civil and Building Engineering Department at Loughborough University

Examining education leadership communication practices around basic and advanced skill sets: a multiple case study

The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore and describe the leadership communication practices of school principals in Southern California schools with demonstrated high levels of academic performance in order to identify practices that might be replicated in other schools. Communication practices were studied in relation to two leadership skill sets, basic and advanced. Basic leadership skill set includes (a) setting direction, (b) developing people, and (c) redesigning the organization. Advanced leadership skill set includes: (a) creating and sustaining a competitive school, (b) empowering others to make significant decisions, (c) providing instructional guidance, and d) developing and implementing a strategic school improvement plan. This multiple case study was conducted in a K-12 public school district and included two elementary schools and one middle school. Four data collection instruments, designed by the researcher included principal and teacher interviews, observations, and artifacts. Eleven certified teachers and three school principals were interviewed, each school provided communication artifacts, and the researcher spent one day observing the principals’ interactions to observe the overall feel of the school culture. The study yielded five conclusions. First, fostering a positive school climate is an important means school leaders have for improving student learning. Second, establishing trust is an integral part of leadership communication practices. Third, providing meaningful professional development communicates a focus on professional practice. Fourth, coordinating strategies school wide for instructional feedback provides a focus on learning and student achievement. Fifth, effective communication around both basic and advanced skill sets is essential to successful leadership. The study yielded five recommendations. First, state, district and school leaders are encouraged to include communication strategies that foster a positive school climate in leadership preparation courses. Second, school administrators should remain aware of the importance of establishing trust with all stakeholders. Third, school administrators should communicate the importance of professional practice through meaningful professional development. Fourth, school administrators should use consistent strategies for providing instructional feedback to ensure a focus on student achievement. Fifth, through communication practices school administrators need to provide a clear understanding of the basic and advanced skill sets for all staff members

Experiencing algorithms:How Young People Understand, Feel About, and Engage With Algorithmic News Selection on Social Media

The news that young people consume is increasingly subject to algorithmic curation. Yet, while numerous studies explore how algorithms exert power in citizens’ everyday life, little is known about how young people themselves perceive, learn about, and deal with news personalization. Considering the interactions between algorithms and users from an user-centric perspective, this article explores how young people make sense of, feel about, and engage with algorithmic news curation on social media and when such everyday experiences contribute to their algorithmic literacy. Employing in-depth interviews in combination with the walk-through method and think-aloud protocols with a diverse group of 22 young people aged 16–26 years, it addresses three current methodological challenges to studying algorithmic literacy: first, the lack of an established baseline about how algorithms operate; second, the opacity of algorithms within everyday media use; and third, limitations in technological vocabularies that hinder young people in articulating their algorithmic encounters. It finds that users’ sense-making strategies of algorithms are context-specific, triggered by expectancy violations and explicit personalization cues. However, young people’s intuitive and experience-based insights into news personalization do not automatically enable young people to verbalize these, nor does having knowledge about algorithms necessarily stimulate users to intervene in algorithmic decisions

IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING PEDAGOGY AND IMPACT ON EMPLOYABILITY AND LEARNING WITHIN ENGINEERING EDUCATION FRAMEWORKS

Engineering Education experiences turbulent changes, both from government pressures and from industry demands on readdressing the requirements of graduate capability. Despite vast amounts of engineering literature discussing ‘change’ within the field, engineering curricula still maintains its predominant pedagogic model of dissemination to students as it did in previous decades. Technology Enhanced Learning in education has created new and flexible options in the delivery and assessment of teaching and learning, but uptake is limited and approached with caution within Engineering Education. This mixed methods research introduces an inclusive and innovative approach to Engineering Education assessment techniques utilising an integrated blended learning strategy to the implementation of Technology Enhanced Learning within engineering curriculums. The research explores and assesses the effectiveness of Technology Enhanced Learning and educational pedagogies within Engineering Education frameworks to enhance and develop student learning, digital literacy and employability. Preliminary research positioned the research, utilising observation and interview techniques to baseline current pedagogic practices in undergraduate Engineering Education against current literature. An alternative method of video assessment was implemented and embedded following a two year cycle of action research within a cohort of two undergraduate engineering modules. A prototype ‘toolkit’ was created using Xerte Online Toolkits (XOT) to facilitate student learning and support for the assessment. Additional techniques inside the cycles gained further qualitative and quantitative data via a survey and focus groups. Student learning and assessment results showed significant improvement following the introduction of this approach and validated the transferability of this technique into other educational disciplines. An industry based survey validated chosen research methods and provided a comparison of viewpoints on key issues surrounding Engineering Education against existing stakeholders. The research introduces a new innovative approach to Engineering Education utilising Technology Enhanced Learning, validated through positive industry feedback and student academic achievement and satisfaction. Significant improvements on student employability and engineering ‘soft skills’ are evidenced

School Administrators’ Perceptions of the James Stronge Teacher Evaluation System

This qualitative study examined school administrators’ perceptions of the James Stronge teacher evaluation system, one of five approved evaluation systems by the New Jersey Department of Education from the Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey Act (TEACHNJ) in 2012. Fourteen administrators from a suburban district were interviewed to examine their views of the Stronge model’s influence on teachers’ instructional practice, the accuracy of the ratings found from using this model, and its influence on their instructional leadership. The results indicate the seven performance indicators at the heart of the Stronge evaluation system are valuable to administrators as they communicate with teachers regarding their instruction. The Instructional Delivery indicator within the observation process was overwhelmingly identified as a significant tool for administrators. Regarding accuracy of ratings, the administrators in this study found the evaluation process to be subjective despite the objective design of the system. Additionally, it was troubling to use one system as both a tool for growth and professional development as well as evaluation. Finally, as instructional leaders, the administrators interviewed for this study felt the Stronge system had not had a major impact on their approach to professional development and goal setting, although it was acknowledged that as part of an upper middle class suburban community with high student achievement results, they were already able to focus on professional development in a way that may be different from other communities