Background: Many education systems internationally expect schools to participate in continuous instructional improvement programmes. One tool used within these processes is the structured, rubric-based classroom observation, focused on the evaluation of teaching. Such observations are a common feature of formative evaluation systems, teacher…

Mentors' feedback can assist preservice teachers' development; yet feedback tends to be variable from one mentor to the next. What do mentors observe for providing feedback? In this study, 24 mentors observed a final-year preservice teacher through a professionally video-recorded lesson and provided written notes for feedback. They observed the…

School districts and states across the Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic Region and the country as a whole have been modifying their teacher evaluation systems to identify more effective and less effective teachers and provide better feedback to improve instructional practice. The new systems typically include components related to…

Given the vital importance of using a scientific approach for curriculum development, the authors employed a design experiment methodology (Brown, 1992; Shavelson et al., 2003) to develop and evaluate, FUSION, a first grade mathematics intervention intended for students with or at-risk for mathematics disabilities. FUSION, funded through IES…

VIC is a computer program for the analysis of verbal interaction category systems, especially the Flanders interaction analysis system. The observer codes verbal behavior on coding sheets for later machine scoring. A matrix is produced by the program showing the number and percentages of times that a particular cell describes classroom behavior.…

The observation period traditionally has served as a time of transition between the study of educational theory and the actual practice of teaching. It has been a time for the trainee to observe--unpressured--the teaching process and to note important teacher-learner behavior. Observation in teacher training--as in medical school--is an art; it…

School administrators served as subjects to determine the effectiveness of teacher evaluation procedures. Examination of teacher's lesson plan had no effect on teacher assessment. However, prior assessment of lesson plan via an evaluation instrument improved effectiveness of evaluation of teacher's task sequencing skills, subject knowledge, and…

The manual describes the differences between low-inference observation and rating scales when evaluating teachers. Procedures for observing are set forth. The body of the manual defines and exemplifies the 115 items used on the observation instrument as well as the use of two other instruments used before and after the observation, i.e., the…

This paper describes attempts to evaluate whether teachers who had participated in a staff development program could apply what they had learned in a controlled, specific situation significantly better than teachers who had not had the training. The program under evaluation provided training in peer supervision and evaluation. Test results…

This paper discusses the supervisory use of one observational system -- Observation Schedule and Record, Form 5V (OScAR 5V). OScAR 5V refers to a series of observation schedules to develop techniques for obtaining an objective, quantitative record of observed classroom behavior that could be scored on dimensions of teacher behavior. Under this…

Based on the view that instructional supervision means the improvement of both teachers and instruction, this paper attempts to show how instructional supervision is managed and administered by one principal. Data were gathered through observation and interviews conducted for a related study by the author on teacher rewards. The bulk of the paper…

Designed to assist the observer in the understanding of the Group Reading Interaction Pattern Observation Instrument (GRIP) training manual, this programmed review contains a series of coding activities provided for the purpose of determining if each observer can differentiate between the categories and subcategories of the instrument as well as…

This module is one in a series of thirteen specifically designed to help vocational educators develop the skills needed to function as resource persons to learners enrolled in field-centered competency-based teacher preparation programs. (These learners are persons with appropriate occupational experience and competence who are being prepared as…