For years the field of education research has struggled with the lack of a common language to describe teaching. Individual studies often have their own set of criteria and specific vocabulary, making it difficult to have meaningful discussions across the different studies. QUINT Director Kirsti Klette addressed the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER 2021) this September to discuss the need for a common language to study teaching quality and to present what she sees as a way forward.
“One of the things that has been problematic in education research is the lack of a shared vocabulary” says Klette, “but if we look at different observation protocols used in current classroom studies we can actually see strong commonalities in how the these frameworks conceptualise teaching quality.”
Observation protocols are essentially instruction manuals that provide a systematic framework for researchers to use when they observe and analyse teaching and learning in classrooms the four key domains:
- Instructional clarity
- Cognitive demand
- Supportive climate
- and Classroom discourses
Regardless of how each framework divides and codifies different aspects of teaching, these four domains are almost always present, making them a solid basis for building a common langue for understanding teaching.
Dividing the act of teaching into discrete parts offers other advantages as well. It allows for researchers to study specific features of classroom teaching and instruction across different classrooms and over time, and it creates the possibility of providing teachers with precise feedback on their instructional practices .
As part of the research project ‘Linking Instruction and Student Achievement in Norway’, (LISA) Klette and her colleagues codified 12 specific features of teaching across 49 Norwegian schools (94 classrooms). One of the features that stood out to Klette was the oral feedback that teachers gave to their students in the classroom. The researchers codified this feedback using a scale of 1 to 4: 1 equalling ‘no feedback’; 2 ‘vague or unclear feedback’; 3 ‘clear and specific feedback’ and; 4 ‘clear, specific feedback and advice on how to improve.’
“We were sort of surprised that the score on feedback was so low, around a 2, because there has been a long-term investment in Norway in assessment for learning and feedback practices as a part of our national policy.”
As a part of the QUINT center, the LISA study has been expanded to LISA Nordic, and is being carried out in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. LISA Nordic draws on video recordings from more than 150 different classrooms in all five countries. Part of the study’s methodology is to examine specific features of classroom instruction and analyse how these relate to learning gains. The type of codifying that this requires is demanding and entails close observation of the classroom, and Klette is quick to point out the importance of video technology in this process.
“Teaching is a complex activity, and it can be viewed very differently depending on who or what you focus on. By using a discrete multi-camera setup we can document teaching from multiple perspectives, and conduct a much more systematic analysis than would be possible with in-person observation.”
Klette believes that studies like LISA Nordic will help in forming a common language for assessing teaching quality, and that other classroom video studies will continue to play an important role in moving the field of education research forward.
You can watch Professor Klette’s keynote address to the ECER 2021 conference on YouTube.
To learn more about the LISA Nordic study visit our projects page.
Conference information
European Conference on Educational Research (ECER 2021)
Education and Society: expectations, prescriptions, reconciliations
Dates: 6 - 10 September 2021
The keynote videos are available prior to ECER and the ECER week will culminate with the Keynote Panel on Friday 10 September.
ECER 2021, Geneva (online) proposes to investigate the tensions that exist between the broad social, political and economic demands placed on education systems and the realities of daily engagement with learners and those connected to them at all stages of the education continuum. Addressing this dichotomy between the, at times, contradictory prescriptions, injunctions and demands placed on education systems and the needs of individual learners and learning communities has been central to much educational research and the process of reconciling the, often conflicting, demands that emerge will be at the heart of this conference.
Geneva was one of the main crucibles of the New Education movement which, at the beginning of the 20th century and after World War I in particular, placed so much hope in the education of the human to build a better future. Thus when choosing a main theme for an ECER organised in this international city, it seems appropriate to raise the issue of tensions between the realities or social contexts within which the education process takes place and the stated aims of formal education as a collective, mandated endeavour, in as much as that has at its heart an understanding of the centrality of human personal development.
As a product of the societies that build, finance and manage it, the educational institution and its actors are caught in many dilemmas: supporting balanced and equitable educational provision in an increasingly challenged and challenging social and political environment; acknowledging the need for diversity, inclusion and openness to difference while at the same time recognising the need for an agreed set of shared values and practices; recognising the legitimate interest of the broader polity in the content, practices and structure of education while also keeping at the heart of educational provision the needs of individual learners and learning communities. The additional challenges of enabling educational communities to be transparent, open and responsive to the changing needs and requirements of the social and learning communities they serve and are part of is also of central importance.
Seeking to reconcile these different conceptualisations of the purpose and practice of education and educational research leads to the emergence of many research questions: is the objective of formal education uniquely the transmission of knowledge or should it be understood in larger ways and what does this mean? How can knowledge transmission in educational settings contribute to the solving of social problems? How far does education help the development of the citizen and what kind of citizenship is envisaged?
During ECER 2021, Geneva (online), the 32 EERA networks and the emerging researchers' group will engage and explore the various facets of the tensions experienced during the first decades of the 21st century in educational settings.