The aim of teaching observations and post observation feedback in higher education is to support teachers to reflect on and improve their teaching. Yet, our understanding of tutors' (observers') and teachers' (observees') capacities for capitalising on these feedback opportunities is limited and there is little empirically derived advice for…

The purpose of this exploratory descriptive research was to examine what Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) certified Montessori teachers (MTs) for students ages 3-6 years in the United States reported regarding scientific observation (SO) as a disposition and as a disposition in action (DIA) to better understand MTs' application of…

Makerspaces, especially in their diverse proliferating forms, support a broad variety of learning outcomes. There is rich work in attempting to understand and describe these learning goals. Yet, there is a lack of support for practitioners and educators to assess the learning in events and programming at makerspaces (and similar environments)…

Traditional teacher evaluations -- full-lesson observations, write-ups, and debriefs -- are time-consuming and largely ineffective. As a principal, Kim Marshall found that mini-observations -- short, frequent, unannounced classroom visits, each followed by a face-to-face coaching conversation and brief narrative summary -- actually improved…

Several state policies link high-stakes consequences to teacher evaluations, which tend to be heavily weighted by observation scores. However, research has only recently investigated the validity of these scores in field settings. This study examines the sensitivity of teacher observation scores to the number of observations assigned by state…

The assessment of workplace learning by educators at the workplace is a complex and inherently social process, as the workplace is a participatory learning environment. We therefore propose seeing assessment as a process of judgment embedded in a community of practice and to this purpose use the philosophy of inferentialism to unravel the judgment…

While much research has explored the quality of traditional teacher evaluations, little is known about the quality of ratings in preservice teacher evaluations. This paper presents a case study of Many-facet Rasch measurement (MFR, Linacre, 1989) to explore potential rater effects influencing the quality of supervisor ratings in educator…

This article is based on studies carried out within the "Young children's learning" research education programme. This undertaking involved five graduate students, all recruited from the Swedish preschool system. The licentiate thesis makes up the final product of their education programme, and the focus of each candidate's licentiate…

Fidelity is defined as doing what is intended. The purpose of measuring fidelity is to assist with supporting implementation. Collecting fidelity data provides an opportunity to problem-solve throughout the process versus waiting for outcome data. More often than not, purchased programs and curriculum materials are missing a research-validated…

This preliminary study explores how GPT-4 Vision (GPT-4V) technology can be integrated into teacher analytics through observational assessment, aiming to improve reflective teaching practice. Our study develops a Video-based Automatic Assessment System (VidAAS) powered by GPT-4V. This approach uses Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to…

Increasing job demands and continuing struggles to improve teacher evaluation practice raise the question of how peers might assist principals with teacher evaluation. Using a robust international sample (TALIS2013) of 36,411 teachers from 2,759 schools in 11 countries, we tested the hypothesis that teacher-led evaluation practices are associated…

"Evaluation" under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is among the major responsibilities of school psychologists. This concluding article in the series on evaluation under the IDEA provides legal analysis and professional recommendations related to procedural appropriateness. Specifically, it addresses notices,…

Teaching observation protocols serve purposes beyond research, such as providing formative feedback for teachers' growth in their practice. Such observation tool usage requires different approaches for validation. For this reason, we developed the formative teaching evaluation framework adapted from the student-assessment literature. We used this…

Over the past decade, researchers have developed several teaching observation protocols for use in higher education, such as the Teaching Dimensions Observation Protocol (TDOP), Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS), Practical Observation Rubric to Assess Active Learning (PORTAAL), and Decibel Analysis for Research in…

Classroom observation rubrics are a widely adopted tool for measuring the quality of teaching and provide stable conceptualisations of teaching quality that facilitate empirical research. Here, we present four statistical approaches for analysing data from classroom observations: Factor analysis, Rasch modelling, latent class or profile analysis,…