Claire Guo
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Matthew Ronfeldt
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Educational Studies / Education
Program: UROPF
Session: Session 5 (2:40pm – 3:30pm)
Authors: Claire Guo, Matthew Truwit, Matthew Ronfeldt
Abstract
While 41 states have adopted a form of teacher evaluation system as of 2019, questions remain about the equity and objectivity of administrator observations. Prior research has documented possible bias regarding how external evaluators score the questioning and discussion-prompting techniques of teachers. This study aims to investigate how evaluators score and assess a number of pedagogical practices: how teacher’s question, probe, prompt, and engage students in the classroom. After transcribing video-recorded lessons, we developed and applied a codebook designed to report the extent of differing teaching tactics and how they were evaluated, along dimensions of “quality†of teacher questions, “adequacy†of wait time, and “genuineness†of discussion. Analysis of transcriptions and codes provides insight on the frequency of questioning and discussion-prompting practices, and thus contributes to knowledge on the extent to which observed teacher practices differed from the numerical evaluation score they received from observer’s given systems. These practices include eliciting student thinking, probing (accessibility, processes, and understanding), wait time, topic setting, integration, distribution, redirection, highlighting, and providing support. We are analyzing the frequency with which teachers use these techniques to find important differences among teachers and classrooms, that will help us understand the source of potential inequity in one of the most commonly used observational rubrics in the country. Future results will contribute to and inform continued discussions around equity and efficacy of teacher evaluation systems across the country.
