Purpose:
The goal of this seminar is to promote sharing and communication between researchers who work with Observation Systems (Bell et al., 2018) based on the need for greater communication in this area as described by Praetorius and Charalambous (2018, 2021). The seminar is organized around a very general empirically-grounded framework (Figure 1): Theory should inform Measurement, which generates Data, which informs Theory. Then, developments in any one area has important implications for each other area. Observation systems are important in that they exist at the intersection of theory and measurement.
The seminar invites researchers to present research that relates Observation Systems broadly. See Bell et al, 2018 for our conceptualization of observation systems. Presentations may include: Presentations of empirical results; discussions of instructional theories (as relevant to observation systems; e.g. dimensions/domains to be measured); discussions of measurement/implementation challenges when using observation systems. Of particular interest, however, will be presentations that address questions spanning the framework (Figure 1): What theoretical implications can we draw from empirical results and what does this imply about measurement approaches? Given a specific theoretical view on teaching quality for example, what measurement implications can we draw and how does this lead to better data on this area? How can alternate measurement approaches improve the quality of the data and thus analyses generated?
Format
Participation is open and widely encouraged. Those interested in presenting should contact Mark White (mark.white@ils.uio.no). Preference for presentations will be given to those who routinely and actively participate in the seminars. Presentations should be no more than 30 minutes and should conclude with some shared points for discussion. Discussion will then proceed for 30 minutes. All participants will be muted during the presentation. Clarifying questions can be asked through the chat and a moderator will decide whether to interrupt the speaker to get clarification on the point. The moderator will be in charge of muting/unmuting participants during the discussion.
Mailing List
To stay up-to-date about upcoming presentations and receive Zoom invitations feel free to join our network and subscribe to the network mailing list using your institutional email address where possible. For security reasons, we cannot accept subcriptions submitted from free email accounts. Please contact the organisers if you have questions. You must confirm your email address in the confirmation email you receive to complete signing up to the mailing list. If you are already subscribed to our mailing list and would like to unsubscribe, you may unsubcribe here.
Organizers
References
Bell, C. A., Dobbelaer, M. J., Klette, K., & Visscher, A. (2018). Qualities of classroom observation systems. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 0(0), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2018.1539014
Praetorius, A. K., & Charalambous, C. Y. (2018). Classroom observation frameworks for studying instructional quality: Looking back and looking forward. ZDM, 50(3), 535–553. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-018-0946-0
Seminar conveners
QUINT Centre Director Professor Kirsti Klette
QUINT Postdoctoral Fellow Mark White
Administrative support QUINT Administrative Leader Maria Dikova