Abstract
There is a growing use of standardized observation systems to directly measure teaching quality in classrooms. These systems are based on conceptual understandings of teaching that lead to carefully operationalized rubrics that decompose teaching quality into a number of distinct dimensions. In this paper, we argue that measurement and analysis choices used by observation systems may not fully align with the conceptual understandings of teaching upon which observation systems are based. We discuss three key assumptions that undergird many views of teaching quality and highlight how common analytical approaches violate these assumptions, proposing alternative analytical approaches that would better conform to the conceptual understandings of teaching quality. We end with a discussion of the importance of carefully aligning conceptual understandings with measurement approaches.
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Mark White, Jennifer Luoto, Kirsti Klette, Marte Blikstad-Balas,
"Bringing the conceptualization and measurement of teaching into alignment"
Studies in Educational Evaluation.
Volume 75, 2022.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2022.101204.