Administrators who observe mathematics teachers need to have knowledge and an understanding of mathematics teaching and learning to effectively evaluate teachers and how their instructional practices relate to student thinking. This research study was conducted to illustrate the importance of understanding the thought process of administrators as they make decisions about teacher effectiveness based on what they notice during observations of mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this study was to examine what administrators attend to in the instructional environment and how what they notice influences their ability to identify the Common Core State Standards, Standards for Mathematical Practice. A purposive sample of six administrators engaged in cognitive interviews, known as think alouds, while observing two mathematics classroom videos. This study was designed to explore how administrators* instructional leadership knowledge or skills influence what they notice during mathematics instruction. There was evidence that administrators did notice aspects of the instructional environment pertaining to teachers, students, and, content. However, in this study it was found that administrators with an understanding of mathematics teaching and learning attended more to student*s mathematical thinking during instruction. It was also found that there was an increase of the administrators* mathematical language and attention to student interactions with mathematics content when the administrators were presented with a tool describing the elements of a classroom engaged in the Standards for Mathematical Practice.

The intent of this study was to determine what students perceive as caring behaviors in teachers, whether those views match teachers’ perceptions, whether these vary depending on students’ academic track, and whether teachers are observed to exhibit the behaviors identified by their students as indicative of caring. Eighty-two majority Hispanic high school students and eight teachers completed a four-section survey about caring behavior. These teachers and students were also observed four times in the classroom. The survey contained Likert scale and open-ended questions about teachers’ caring behaviors. It also probed how the students’ own teachers interacted with them daily in the classroom and their personal open-ended opinion about how teachers show that they care or do not care about them. Two groups were studied, specifically Advanced Placement (AP) and Regular students, to find out whether academic placement caused students’ to categorize caring behaviors of teachers differently. Results of the study indicated a significant difference in AP and Regular students’ attitudes about how teachers treat them. Teachers’ perceptions were also compared to students’ perception and differences were found. Differences included how often teachers interact in one-on-one conversations about certain issues with students, such as the need to complete homework assignments. Within these conversations some issues were reported to occur more frequently by teachers than students. On other issues, like disrupting class, there was agreement, but only for specific teachers and subjects. In addition, STEM and non-STEM classes were investigated and it was discovered that these students responded differently about the frequency with which their teachers had conversations with them about specific issues. Differences included disrupting class, not completing assignments, interests and things that are important to students, and plans for college and work. Observations made by this researcher further support the idea that there is similarity in how students define caring behaviors, but what behaviors they experience, like assisting in homework or listening to personal needs, is different. Although trends observed in this study are suggestive, more research is required to support the idea that academic placement and subject make a difference in students’ experiences of caring behaviors in teachers. / text

Teaching is a complex and fundamentally collaborative process, through which knowledge and skills are acquired as a result of repeated interactions between teachers and students. The effectiveness of these interactions depends on both the instructional environment created by the teacher and the extent to which students engage with that environment. The current study combines these dimensions of teaching to (a) evaluate the construct validity of two instruments: the Middle School Intervention Project Classroom Observation Tool (MSIP-COT) and the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI), and (b) test the extent to which these measures predict differences in reading proficiency for middle school students who struggle with reading. Observation, engagement, and reading achievement data were collected for a sample of 1,446 reading intervention students from 25 middle schools in the Pacific Northwest participating in an evaluation of state and local education programs. Instruments were evaluated by fitting a series of measurement models to the observation and engagement data. The results of the best fitting models were then used in a cross-classified, multilevel structural equation model to predict differences in reading proficiency and evaluate the direct and mediational effects of engagement and instructional environment. Results provided reasonably strong evidence for both measures as indicators of their respective constructs but limited support for the direct and mediational effects of observed instructional environment and self-reported student engagement on reading proficiency for these students. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

This is a praxis-oriented case study of written language activities in Forms 1–5 in the nine-year Swedish compulsory school. The emphasis is on pupils at risk of de­veloping reading and writing disabilities. The aim of this study is to analyse the factors underlying successful reading and writing education and the pedagogical conditions promoting re­flective didactic skills, focusing on the students’ develop­ment of reading and writing abili­ties. The praxis-oriented approach is expressed by means of working with classroom ob­servat­ions and reflective communication with the teachers. Four classes at the junior and intermedi­ate levels of the nine-year compulsory Swedish school have been studied for two years. Both the schools and the teachers have been chosen strategically. Quantita­tive and qualitative data indicate that the selected schools have special qualifications. The teachers were chosen because they have proved particu­larly successful in devel­oping reading and wri­ting abilities of their pupils, including those with docu­mented reading and writing disabilities. Reports from the National Swedish Agency for Education, as well as large inter­na­t­ional surveys, indicate that the consensus concerning reading and writing edu­cation achieved by science during the past decade has had very little impact on everyday class­room activities. One of the underlying questions is how research re­sults are suc­cessfully implemented in everyday school work. The results show that the teachers use a wide variety of methods in response to the wide variety of students´ requirements. The lessons are characterized by in­tense activity on the part of both teacher and pupils, and of a high level of interac­tivity in communi­cation, reading, writing and counting. A surprising pattern is that the teach­ers very consciously work with oral presentation in various topics and genres. This gives students with reading and writing difficulties an op­portunity to succeed. The instruction is notable for being well-structured, with a balance between form and function, a high level of challenging tasks and visibilization of individual pro­gress. The special needs education aspect of the instruction appears in the te­achers’ abilities to arrange pedagogical situations in which a wide variety of abilities can be expressed and developed. The teachers show a positive belief in their stu­dents and strive to make them successful in a social context. This study indicates the importance of a solid theoretical background, enabling the te­acher to identify the developmental stage the student is at and to adapt the instruction accordingly. Another important factor is the ability of the teacher to in­stantly see and grasp pedagogical opportunities and to interpret and utilize the diag­nostic signals in the classroom. One im­portant conclusion is that reading and writing education, in order to be successful, must be viewed in a context of lan­guage development as a whole, involving both its oral and its writ­ten aspects. This study also demonstrates that research results are perceived as more acces­si­ble and relevant by the teachers when the researchers’ focus is on applied peda­gog­ics, al­lowing theory and practical applications to interact. This opens up the possi­bility of es­tablishing and incor­porating scientific theories on learning in every­day, practical school work. / Detta är en longitudinell studie som tar sin utgångpunkt i Tjernbergs magisterstudie (Tjernberg, 2007). Detta innebär att vissa avsnitt från denna återfinns i licentiatavhandlingen, främst i de teoretiska utgångspunkterna och metodavsnittet. (Denna not tillfogades 20121201.)

Education for sustainable development (ESD) faces the enormous challenge of educating students to handle so called wicked problems, i.e., problems that lack true or false solutions and with inherent conflicts of interests and which characterizes the great questions of our time. ESD is internationally a diverse practice with many different approaches to the challenge described above. At the same time the United Nations among others emphasizes the crucial role of educations in developing the action competence needed for the transformation of society towards a more sustainable world. A unique student led initiative started at Uppsala university as a counter-reaction to prevailing traditions within higher education and with the goal of creating an education that does not destroy the planet. The purpose of this study is to generate knowledge about this student led teaching practice by investigating two aspects of learning that are key in developing desired action competences: firstly, desired subject positions which then will be discussed in the light of the second aspect desired educational functions. The study makes use of three central theoretical and methodological perspectives that has shaped the design of the study; Dewey’s transactional perspective is used as an overall starting point that enables an in situ study of actions. Foucault’s conception of power and governance is used to understand how power – in the sense of “actions upon actions” – is manifested in the educational practice. And to make visible and discuss how ESD functions in the teaching practice in relation to the aims of that practice, Biesta’s three dimensions of educational functions – education as qualification, socialization and subjectification, is being used. In accordance with these theoretical perspectives and the aim of the study a qualitative case study of group discussions in the student led classroom was conducted using audio- and video recordings during a university course. The student transactions were analyzed in two steps. The first step consisted of an overall analysis of the explicit aim or focus of the teaching practice where three main focus was found; “learning from each other”, “taking a stand” and “to be critical and creative”. The second step consisted of a specified analysis of desired subject positions which were then discussed in the light of educational functions. Here the students’ actions were found to limit their own and each other’s learning processes, by for instance avoiding conflicting views and facts. The analysis also shows how the students’ emotional reactions on the other hand enable their own and each other’s learning processes by creating “interruptions” thus making space for an existential dimension of environmental and sustainability issues. Education as qualification and socialization often was put to the foreground in the practice. But in the students’ transactions in their group discussions two unique tools for learning was identified which teachers may not possess, and which have the potential to enable room for subjectification. These tools were identified as the student’s possibility to be private and to have continuous conversations.

The purposes of this study were to (a) describe parents' perceptions of what paraprofessionals are doing for and with their child in inclusive situations and (b) to compare the perceptions of parents to what is actually happening in the classroom. Ten parent and child pairs agreed to participate in this study. The parent and child pairs were chosen on the basis of their child's special education eligibility. The parents were interviewed using a structured interview guide. Children were observed in their general education classroom three times with each observation lasting one hour. A total of thirty observations were conducted. Each parent interview was analyzed for themes individually. Those themes were then compared between interviews in a cross-case analysis. Collective themes were developed from the cross-case analysis. Those themes were then compared to the classroom observations. The classroom observations were analyzed in connection to themes that had emerged from the cross-case analysis. It is imperative to note that the results of this study indicate that the use of paraprofessionals may actually hinder the goals of inclusion. The observed results matching parent perceptions to classroom observations are actually counter to what parents believe to be happening and, importantly, do not meet the guidelines for least restrictive environment (LRE) mandates. The results of this study will assist administrators in providing education to students with moderate to severe disabilities within the general education classroom and within the LRE mandates. Utilizing individual paraprofessionals to support one child in a general education classroom is an expensive intervention. Given the potential for enormous financial burdens upon school districts as well as questions regarding efficacious management and use of paraprofessionals as proposed by this study, administrators must use caution in assigning individual paraprofessionals to support. It is recommended that school administrators work with general and special education teachers and parents to define and refine the role of the paraprofessional, thus meeting LRE requirements and promoting fiscally responsible use of interventions.

The purpose of this study is to interpret observations of three 6th grade elementary mathematics classrooms throughout a unit in detail. Specifically, this study examined the patterns and traditions related with teaching practices in the context of teaching a unit, teaching a topic, and single lessons, and described frequently observed teaching features in mathematics lessons. This study presented a detailed description and analysis of teaching practices of three experienced mathematics teacher from three public elementary schools. The participated teachers were directly observed through teaching a different mathematics unit. The teaching and learning practices in each classroom was described and analyzed both separately and together. The results of this study indicated that teaching a mathematics unit could be described as the combination of separately taught topics where the sequences of topics are strictly determined by elementary mathematics curriculum. There was no specific practice aiming to construct relation between unit&rsquo / s concepts and other school subjects, other mathematics concepts, and among these concepts. Teaching practices throughout a topic showed explicit similarities so that a pattern for teaching a topic can be described as demonstrating the new content, practicing the new content, and assigning and doing homework. It was not possible to draw a pattern for teaching practices in elementary mathematics lessons by using single lesson periods as a unit of analysis. &lsquo / Practicing&rsquo / was the most occurred activity in elementary mathematics lessons. Based on the findings some suggestions for future research studies were proposed, and some implications for teachers, teacher educators and policy makers were delivered.

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (a) to determine the relationship between the number of classroom observations and teacher VAM scores and (b) to identify the relationship between the types of feedback provided to teachers and student achievement outcomes as measured by VAM scores. De-identified data for the sample set of teachers in a large urban school district was gathered for the 2013-2014 year from iObservation by administrators observing teachers using the domains of the Marzano instructional model. The number of observations were compared to VAM scores to determine if teachers with a greater number of observations received higher VAM ratings. The comments recorded and submitted as feedback were also reviewed. Data were analyzed to identify relationships between the types of feedback provided to teachers and student achievement outcomes as measured by VAM scores. No significant relationship existed between VAM scores and number of observations or percentage of comments for teachers at any grade level. In addition, no significant relationship existed between predominant feedback for teachers and VAM scores. The information in this study was valuable for understanding the relationships that exist among instructional practice scores, value-added measures, and learning gains to drive conversations with teachers regarding rigorous instruction. Observations and feedback should be a tool for improvement of instruction, but the data confirmed this process continues to be compliance based with inflated scores that do not match the level of performance of students. Changing this is strongly linked to the provision of feedback associated with improving instruction and holding teachers accountable in meeting the standards outlined in the feedback. Observers are in need of professional development on how to provide effective feedback in the areas of instruction that will make the biggest impact on student achievement. Continuing to put time and effort into implementing and monitoring evaluation systems without further training and emphasis on feedback will result in the same lack of impact on student achievement outcomes and may even undermine the role of observers in providing support to teachers.

It is generally assumed that in order to learn a language, learners need to master reading, writing, listening and speaking. However, merely possessing the skills and abilities to communicate is not sufficient; one must have the will to use the language. In order to formulate a model that can accurately describe the willingness to communicate, Mac-Intyre et al. (1998) formulated a model that attempts to do just this. The goal of this study is to verify the veracity of the Willingness to Communicate (WTC) model in terms of to what extent students’ self-reported WTC correlate with their actual WTC in the class-room. To accomplish this, this study utilized interviews with Swedish EFL students in southern Sweden, based on the WTC framework, and classroom observation in order to collect data on said connection. The results of this study showed that self-reported WTC and actual WTC do not necessarily correlate with one another; for some students, they spoke English more than they reported, some spoke less, and others’ WTC reflected their self-assessed WTC. Although the WTC model could account for the students’ actual WTC, it could not account for this discrepancy. However, this discrepancy may not be due to the model itself, but rather to the situational factors that, to a certain degree, influenced the outcome of this study. Based on this study, teachers are recommended to consistently speak English, as this raises the students’ own WTC, and to encourage English usage among students themselves. For future research, it is therefore recom-mended that non-linguistic factors be taken into account, possibly through factor analysis, in order to produce more nuanced data, as well as conducting a longitudinal study.

Research on the mathematical behavior of children over the past forty decades has considerably renewed and augmented the body of evaluative tests of the results of learning (Lester, 2007). Research however, has provided very little knowledge about the means of improving students’ performance on these tests. Nevertheless teachers, students, and others are being pressured to improve students’ performance, but in order to concentrate on basic skills, the learning itself is made more difficult and slower. The combination of requirements has led to a variety of uncontrolled phenomena such as meta-didactical slippage (Brousseau, 2008). The purpose of this study was to: (a) understand the nature of meta-didactical slippage that occurred in a ninth grade predominantly African American mathematics classroom; and (b) describe how these meta-didactical slippages affect students conceptual understanding on a unit of study of ninth grade mathematics. The study was a descriptive, qualitative, case study that employed ethnographic techniques of data collection and analysis. The theory of didactical situations in mathematics (Brousseau, 1997) served as the theoretical lens that grounded the interpretation of the data, because it enabled the researcher to isolate moments of instruction, action, formulation, validation, and institutionalization in the mathematics teaching and learning process. The study was conducted over a period of 15 weeks in one, ninth grade class of 23 predominantly African American students at a high school in a southeastern state. Data was crystalized using multiple data collection techniques: (a) collection of document artifacts, which included student work samples and teacher lesson plans; (b) interviews conducted with the teacher; (c) researcher introspection; and (d) direct observation. Data was analyzed using ethnographic and discourse analysis techniques, including domain analysis, coding, situated meaning, and the big “D” discourse tool. The study found four themes, which illustrated the nature meta-didactical slippages: (a) over-teaching, (b) situational bypass, (c) language and symbolic representation, and (d) the design of didactical situations.