Upper Elementary Reading Lessons: Case Studies of Real Teaching

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These findings can inform policy in several key ways. Most existing measures, including those used in this study, were developed for research purposes rather than large-scale testing with repeated administrations. Open questions remain about whether reference bias substantially distorts comparisons across schools. Similar to previous studies, we include school fixed effects in all of our models, which helps reduce this and other potential sources of bias. However, as a result, our estimates are restricted to within-school comparisons of teachers and cannot be applied to inform the type of across-school comparisons that districts typically seek to make.

This line of research shows promise but still is in its early phases.

Further, although our modeling strategy aims to reduce bias due to non-random sorting of students to teachers, additional evidence is needed to assess the validity of this approach. Our findings suggest that specific domains captured on classroom observation instruments i. One benefit of this approach is that districts commonly collect related measures as part of teacher evaluation systems Center on Great Teachers and Leaders, , and such measures are not restricted to teachers who work in tested grades and subjects.

However, in order to leverage these measures for instructional improvement, we add an important caveat: A single overall evaluation score lends itself to a systematized process for making binary decisions such as whether to grant teachers tenure, but such decisions would be better informed by recognizing and considering the full complexity of classroom practice. Creating a teacher workforce skilled in most or all areas of teaching practice is, in our view, the ultimate goal. However, this goal likely will require substantial changes to teacher preparation programs and curriculum materials, as well as new policies around teacher recruitment, evaluation, and development.

In middle and high schools, content-area specialization or departmentalization often is used to ensure that students have access to teachers with skills in distinct content areas. Similar approaches may be taken to expose students to a collection of teachers who together can develop a range of academic skills, attitudes and behaviors. Viewing teachers as complements to each other may help maximize outcomes within existing resource constraints. Finally, we consider the implications of our findings for the teaching profession more broadly.

However, if there indeed is a negative causal relationship, it raises questions about the relative benefits of fostering orderly classroom environments for learning versus supporting student engagement by promoting positive experiences with schooling. Our own experience as educators and researchers suggests this need not be a fixed tradeoff. As our study draws on a small sample of students who had current and prior-year scores for Happiness in Class , we also encourage new studies with greater statistical power that may be able to uncover additional complexities e.

We find that both math-specific and general teaching practices predict a range of student outcomes. Striking the right balance between general and content-specific teaching practices is not a trivial task, but it likely is a necessary one. The research reported here was supported in part by the Institute of Education Sciences, U. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.

Additional support came from the William T. Estimates drawn from all available data. Loadings of roughly 0. This range is due to the fact that some survey items were not available in the first year of the study. Further, in analyses relating domains of teaching practice to student outcomes, we further restricted our sample to teachers who themselves were part of the study for more than one year, which allowed us to use out-of-year observation scores that were not confounded with the specific set of students in the classroom. Descriptive statistics and formal comparisons of other samples show similar patterns as those presented in Table 1.

In the second and third years, each of the two factors has an eigenvalue above one, a conventionally used threshold for selecting factors Kline, Even though the second factor consists of three items that also have loadings on the first factor between 0. In the first year of the study, the eigenvalue on this second factor is less strong 0. In these instances, we created final scores by averaging across all available information. By asking students to provide explanations of their thinking and to solve non-routine problems such as identifying patterns, the low-stakes test also was similar to the high-stakes tests in two districts; in the other two districts, items often asked students to execute basic procedures.

Teachers were allowed to choose the dates for capture in advance and directed to select typical lessons and exclude days on which students were taking a test. Factor analyses of data used in this study showed that items from this dimension formed a single construct with items from Emotional Support Blazar et al.

Given theoretical overlap between Classroom Instructional Support and dimensions from the MQI instrument, we excluded these items from our work and focused only on Classroom Emotional Support. First, including prior low-stakes test scores would reduce our full sample by more than 2, students. Further, an additional students were missing fall test scores given that they were not present in class on the day it was administered. Second, prior-year scores on the high- and low-stakes test are correlated at 0.

Third, sorting of students to teachers is most likely to occur based on student performance on the high-stakes assessments since it was readily observable to schools; achievement on the low-stakes test was not. Ultimately, we prefer the random effects specification for three reasons. First, it allows us to separate out teacher effects from class effects by including a random effect for both in our model. Second, this approach allows us to control for a variety of variables that are dropped from the model when teacher fixed effects also are included. Given that all teachers in our sample remained in the same school from one year to the next, school fixed effects are collinear with teacher fixed effects.

In instances where teachers had data for only one year, class characteristics and district-by-grade-by-year fixed effects also are collinear with teacher fixed effects. As expected, the variance of the teacher fixed effects is larger than the variance of teacher random effects, differing by the shrinkage factor. When we instead calculate teacher random effects without shrinkage by averaging student residuals to the teacher level i.

While achievement outcomes have roughly the same reference group across administrations, the surveys do not. That said, moderate year-to-year correlations of 0.

Comparatively, year-to-year correlations for the high- and low-stakes tests are 0. Thus, scores vary across time. In both sets of analyses, we found no evidence for a non-linear relationship. Given our small sample size and limited statistical power, though, we suggest that this may be a focus of future research.

Estimates of the relationship between the other three domains of teaching practice and low-stakes math test scores were of smaller magnitude and not statistically significant. Differences between the two studies likely emerge from the fact that we drew on a larger sample with an additional district and year of data, as well as slight modifications to our identification strategy. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U.

Educ Eval Policy Anal. Author manuscript; available in PMC Sep David Blazar and Matthew A. Are teachers who are effective at raising test-score outcomes equally effective at developing positive attitudes and behaviors in class? Table 1 Participant Demographics. Open in a separate window. Student Demographic and Test Score Information Student demographic and achievement data came from district administrative records.

All effects are statistically significant at the 0. Unconditional Estimates Emotional Support 0. Conditional Estimates Emotional Support 0. Discussion and Conclusion 6. Relationship Between Our Findings and Prior Research The teacher effectiveness literature has profoundly shaped education policy over the last decade and has served as the catalyst for sweeping reforms around teacher recruitment, evaluation, development, and retention.

Implications for Policy These findings can inform policy in several key ways. Supplementary Material Appendices Click here to view. Acknowledgments The research reported here was supported in part by the Institute of Education Sciences, U. Teach for America impact estimates on nontested student outcomes. Multifaceted impact of self-efficacy beliefs on academic functioning.

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INTRODUCTION

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1. Introduction

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A composite estimator of effective teaching. Miles SB, Stipek D. Contemporaneous and longitudinal associations between social behavior and literacy achievement in a sample of low-income elementary school children. Why what you learned in preschool is crucial at work. A Help your learning overall? B Improve your ability to communicate your knowledge of scientific concepts in writing? C Improve your ability to communicate your knowledge of scientific concepts orally?

D Help you understand the connections between scientific concepts and other aspects of your everyday life? Helped a great amount black bars ; Helped a good amount dark gray bars ; Helped a moderate amount medium gray bars ; Helped a small amount light gray bars ; Provided no help white bars. To elucidate the effectiveness of case studies at promoting learning gains related to specific course learning objectives compared with class discussions and textbook reading, students were asked how much each of these methods of content delivery specifically helped improve skills that were integral to fulfilling three main course objectives.

The differences in learning gains associated with both written and oral communication were statistically significant when completion of case studies was compared with either participation in class discussion or completion of textbook readings. Compared with textbook reading, class discussions led to a statistically significant increase in oral but not written communication skills. To test the hypothesis that case studies produced specifically for this course by the instructor were more effective at promoting learning gains than topically relevant case studies published by authors not associated with this course, perceptions of learning gains were compared for each of the case studies.

Therefore, it can be concluded that the effectiveness of case studies at promoting learning gains is not significantly affected by whether or not the course instructor authored the case study. Case studies positively affect student perceptions of learning gains about various biological topics. Finally, to determine whether performance on examination questions accurately predicts student perceptions of learning gains, mean scores on examination questions related to case studies were compared with reported perceptions of learning gains for those case studies Fig.

The coefficient of determination R 2 value was 0. This correlation was independent of case study author. Perception of learning gains but not author of case study is positively correlated to score on related examination questions. Positive point differences indicate how much higher the mean scores on case study-related questions were than the mean scores on paired control questions. Black squares represent case studies produced by the instructor of the course; white squares represent case studies produced by unaffiliated instructors. R 2 value indicates the coefficient of determination.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that teaching with case studies produced by the instructor of a course is more effective at promoting learning gains than using case studies produced by unaffiliated instructors. This study also tested the hypothesis that the case study teaching method is more effective than class discussions and textbook reading at promoting learning gains associated with four of the most commonly taught topics in undergraduate general biology courses: In addition to assessing content-based learning gains, development of written and oral communication skills and the ability to connect scientific topics with real-world applications was also assessed, because these skills were overarching learning objectives of this course, and classroom activities related to both case studies and control lessons were designed to provide opportunities for students to develop these skills.

Finally, data were analyzed to determine whether performance on examination questions is positively correlated to student perceptions of learning gains resulting from case study teaching. Compared with equivalent control questions about topics of similar complexity taught using class discussions and textbook readings, all four case studies produced statistically significant increases in the mean score on examination questions Fig. This indicates that case studies are more effective than more commonly used, traditional methods of content delivery at promoting learning of a variety of core concepts covered in general biology courses.

The finding that there was no statistical difference between case studies in terms of performance on examination questions suggests that case studies are equally effective at promoting learning of disparate topics in biology. The observations that students did not perform significantly less well on the first case study presented chemical bonds compared with the other case studies and that performance on examination questions did not progressively increase with each successive case study suggests that the effectiveness of case studies is not directly related to the amount of experience students have using case studies.

Furthermore, anecdotal evidence from previous semesters of this course suggests that, of the four topics addressed by cases in this study, DNA structure and function and osmosis and diffusion are the first and second most difficult for students to grasp. The lack of a statistical difference between case studies therefore suggests that the effectiveness of a case study at promoting learning gains is not directly proportional to the difficulty of the concept covered.

However, the finding that use of the osmosis and diffusion case study resulted in the greatest increase in examination performance compared with control questions and also produced the highest student perceptions of learning gains is noteworthy and could be attributed to the fact that it was the only case study evaluated that included a hands-on experiment.

Because the inclusion of a hands-on kinetic activity may synergistically enhance student engagement and learning and result in an even greater increase in learning gains than case studies that lack this type of activity, it is recommended that case studies that incorporate this type of activity be preferentially utilized.

Student perceptions of learning gains are strongly motivating factors for engagement in the classroom and academic performance, so it is important to assess the effect of any teaching method in this context 19 , A modified version of the SALG course evaluation tool was used to assess student perceptions of learning gains because it has been previously validated as an efficacious tool Appendix 2 Using the SALG tool, case study teaching was demonstrated to significantly increase student perceptions of overall learning gains compared with class discussions and textbook reading Fig.

Case studies were shown to be particularly useful for promoting perceived development of written and oral communication skills and for demonstrating connections between scientific topics and real-world issues and applications Figs. These findings also suggest that case study teaching could be used to increase student motivation and engagement in classroom activities and thus promote learning and performance on assessments. The finding that textbook reading yielded the lowest student perceptions of learning gains was not unexpected, since reading facilitates passive learning while the class discussions and case studies were both designed to promote active learning.

Importantly, there was no statistical difference in student performance on examinations attributed to the two case studies produced by the instructor of the course compared with the two case studies produced by unaffiliated instructors. Even when considering the inherent qualitative differences of course grades, these differences are negligible. The observation that case studies published by unaffiliated instructors are just as effective as those produced by the instructor of a course suggests that instructors can reasonably rely on the use of pre-published case studies relevant to their class rather than investing the considerable time and effort required to produce a novel case study.

Case studies covering a wide range of topics in the sciences are available from a number of sources, and many of them are free access. It should be noted that all case studies used in this study were rigorously peer-reviewed and accepted for publication by the NCCSTS prior to the completion of this study 2 , 10 , 18 , 25 ; the conclusions of this study may not apply to case studies that were not developed in accordance with similar standards. Because case study teaching involves skills such as creative writing and management of dynamic group discussion in a way that is not commonly integrated into many other teaching methods, it is recommended that novice case study teachers seek training or guidance before writing their first case study or implementing the method.

The lack of a difference observed in the use of case studies from different sources should be interpreted with some degree of caution since only two sources were represented in this study, and each by only two cases. Furthermore, in an educational setting, quantitative differences in test scores might produce meaningful qualitative differences in course grades even in the absence of a p value that is statistically significant.

In the future, it could be informative to confirm these findings using a larger cohort, by repeating the study at different institutions with different instructors, by evaluating different case studies, and by directly comparing the effectiveness of the case studying teaching method with additional forms of instruction, such as traditional chalkboard and slide-based lecturing, and laboratory-based activities.

It may also be informative to examine whether demographic factors such as student age and gender modulate the effectiveness of the case study teaching method, and whether case studies work equally well for non-science majors taking a science course compared with those majoring in the subject. Since the topical material used in this study is often included in other classes in both high school and undergraduate education, such as cell biology, genetics, and chemistry, the conclusions of this study are directly applicable to a broad range of courses.

Presently, it is recommended that the use of case studies in teaching undergraduate general biology and other science courses be expanded, especially for the teaching of capacious issues with real-world applications and in classes where development of written and oral communication skills are key objectives. The use of case studies that involve hands-on activities should be emphasized to maximize the benefit of this teaching method.

Importantly, instructors can be confident in the use of pre-published case studies to promote learning, as there is no indication that the effectiveness of the case study teaching method is reliant on the production of novel, customized case studies for each course. The author declares that there are no conflicts of interest. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. J Microbiol Biol Educ.

Teacher and Teaching Effects on Students’ Attitudes and Behaviors

Published online May 1. Published by the American Society for Microbiology. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Following years of widespread use in business and medical education, the case study teaching method is becoming an increasingly common teaching strategy in science education.

Course material The four biological concepts assessed during this study chemical bonds, osmosis and diffusion, mitosis and meiosis, and DNA structure and replication were selected as topics for studying the effectiveness of case study teaching because they were the key concepts addressed by this particular course that were most likely to be taught in a number of other courses, including biology courses for both majors and nonmajors at outside institutions. RESULTS Teaching with case studies improves performance on learning assessments, independent of case study origin To evaluate the effectiveness of the case study teaching method at promoting learning, student performance on examination questions related to material covered by case studies was compared with performance on questions that covered material addressed through classroom discussions and textbook reading.

Open in a separate window. Case study teaching increases student perception of learning gains related to core course objectives Student learning gains were assessed using a modified version of the SALG course evaluation tool Appendix 2. Student perceptions of learning gains resulting from case study teaching are positively correlated to increased performance on examinations, but independent of case study author To test the hypothesis that case studies produced specifically for this course by the instructor were more effective at promoting learning gains than topically relevant case studies published by authors not associated with this course, perceptions of learning gains were compared for each of the case studies.

Example assessment questions used to assess the effectiveness of case studies at promoting learning. Student learning gains were assessed using a modified version of the SALG course evaluation tool. Click here to view. Anderson LW, Krathwohl D. A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: An argument and plan for promoting the teaching and learning of neglected tropical diseases. Directed case study method for teaching human anatomy and physiology. Dori YJ, Herscovitz O. Question-posing capability as an alternative evaluation method: J Col Sci Teach.

Teacher and Teaching Effects on Students’ Attitudes and Behaviors

The influence of discussion groups in a case-based learning environment. Educ Tech Res Dev. In case you are interested: Case studies in science—a novel method of science education.

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