Adapting for Scalability: Automating the Video Assessment of Instructional Learning

Although scalable programs, such as online courses, have the potential to reach broad audiences, they may pose challenges to evaluating learners’ knowledge and skills. Automated scoring offers a possible solution. In the current paper, we describe the process of creating and testing an automated means of scoring a validated measure of teachers’ observational skills, known as the Video Assessment of Instructional Learning (VAIL). Findings show that automated VAIL scores were consistently correlated with scores assigned by the hand scoring system. In addition, the automated VAIL replicated intervention effects found in the hand scoring system. The automated scoring technique appears to offer an efficient and reliable assessment. This study may offer additional insight into how to utilize similar techniques in other large-scale programs and interventions

Enhancing the Impact of Professional Development in the Context of Preschool Expansion

Among all the factors that influence the success of preschool programs, none is more important than the quality of the teaching workforce. The design and delivery of effective approaches to professional development (PD) are central to the support of the early childhood education workforce. In this article, we provide a model outlining the PD features that help to ensure that PD is effective, as well as the program- and policy-level supports needed to implement this type of PD as a part of local, state, and federal preschool programs. Throughout the article, we summarize recent research that is refining our understanding of the characteristics of effective PD, and we draw from research as well as our own experience in working with Head Start and state preschool programs across the country to illuminate challenges and promising practices in implementing effective PD at scale

Cross-lagged associations between problem behaviors and teacher-student relationships in early adolescence

This study investigated the cross-lagged associations between teacher-student relationships and problem behaviors in a sample of 440 Finnish students (half of them identified as being at risk of reading difficulties). The degree to which these associations were moderated by a child’s gender, academic performance, risk for reading difficulties, parental education, and having the same teacher over 2 years was examined. The teachers evaluated the students’ problem behaviors and reported closeness and conflict with a particular student. The results showed that the higher the students scored on externalizing problems in Grade 4, the more conflict teachers reported 2 years later. Moderator analyses revealed that internalizing problems predicted higher levels of closeness for boys only. Conflict predicted internalizing problems among students who had the same teacher across the 2 years. The results emphasize the importance of investigating the transactional links in different subgroups.peerReviewe

A Course on Effective Teacher-Child Interactions: Effects on Teacher Beliefs, Knowledge, and Observed Practice

En: American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 88–123Among 440 early childhood teachers, half were randomly assigned to take a 14-week course on effective teacher-child interactions. This course used the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) as the basis to organize, describe, and demonstrate effective teacher-child interactions. Compared to teachers in a control condition, those exposed to the course reported more intentional teaching beliefs and demonstrated greater knowledge of and skills in detecting effective interactions. Furthermore, teachers who took the course were observed to demonstrate more effective emotional and instructional interactions. The course was equally effective across teachers with less than an associate’s degree as well as those with advanced degrees. Results have implications for efforts to improve the quality of early childhood programs through the higher education system

Teaching through Interactions: Testing a Developmental Framework of Teacher Effectiveness in over 4,000 Classrooms

Validating frameworks for understanding classroom processes that contribute to student learning and development is important to advance the scientific study of teaching. This article presents one such framework, Teaching through Interactions, which posits that teacher-student interactions are a central driver for student learning and organizes teacher-student interactions into three major domains. Results provide evidence that across 4,341 preschool to elementary classrooms (1) teacher-student classroom interactions comprise distinct emotional, organizational, and instructional domains; (2) the three-domain latent structure is a better fit to observational data than alternative one- and two-domain models of teacher-student classroom interactions; and (3) the three-domain structure is the best-fitting model across multiple data sets