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The authors advance an argument that placing observation of actual teaching as a central feature of accountability frameworks, teacher preparation, and basic science could result in substantial improvements in instruction and related social processes and a science of the production of teaching and teachers. Teachers' behavioral interactions with students can be (a) assessed observationally using standardized protocols, (b) analyzed systematically with regard to sources of error, (c) validated for predicting student learning, and (d) changed (improved) as a function of specific and aligned supports provided to teachers; exposure to such supports is predictive of greater student learning gains. These methods have considerable promise; along with measurement challenges, some of which pertain to psychometrics, efficiency, and costs, they merit attention, rigorous study, and substantial research investments.
Keywords: classroom research; instruction; measurement; observation; quality; teacher education/development; teacher effectiveness
Many children spend more of their waking hours in classrooms than they do at home; within these settings they are exposed to experiences that, for better or worse, intended and unintended, shape their development. They may learn to read, write, and think critically; they make friends and have to face the inevitable challenges of peer relationships; and they are oriented increasingly to become productive, independent members of a larger society. Interest is keen in the extent of diese effects in classrooms, the methods of producing and reproducing them at various levels of scale, and understanding the mechanisms responsible for them.
In this article, our overall goal is to help advance a long line of inquiry in the observation of classrooms as settings for learning and development (Brophy & Good, 1986; Shinn & Yoshikawa, 2008; Tseng & Seidman, 2007). Advances in theory, in measurement, and in intervention have led to die possibility that metrics for a "highly effective teacher" rely on neither (a) the proxies of degrees or experience that bear only indirectly (Gordon, Kane, & Staiger, 2008) or not at all (Pianta & Allen, 2008) on student outcomes, nor (b) the tautology that effective teachers are those who produce achievement gains (Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2005; Rockoff, 2004). Rather, we argue that it is now feasible to focus on direct assessments of a teacher's performance in the classroom as an instructor, socializer, motivator, and mentor. The scale...