Measuring teachers’ competence to monitor student interaction in collaborative learning settings

Abstract

The efficacy of collaborative learning depends on the student interaction taking place. Monitoring student interaction can help teachers ensure their lesson goals are met. Experienced teachers describe, explain, and predict student interactions by drawing on their professional knowledge about types of student interaction that are associated with learning. This paper reports an assessment tool that measures teachers’ monitoring competence, operationalized as a form of professional vision: the ability to describe student interaction. Participants rate student interactions shown in videos on standardized items. Ratings are compared to an expert solution to provide a measure of monitoring competence. The assessment tool was evaluated with N = 193 teacher students that were in the pre-service or in-service phase of German teacher education. Classical test theory and generalizability theory were applied to evaluate the reliability of the assessment tool. Scores showed medium internal consistency. Measurement error resulting from videos was small. Reliability of scores was sufficient to detect differences in competence levels, before and after completing a training program on monitoring competence. Participants found the assessment tool appropriate for measuring monitoring competence. The findings show the feasibility of measuring professional vision of student interaction in collaborative learning. The assessment tool may be useful for adapting teacher dashboards, such as by advising beginning teachers how to intervene or, for more experienced teachers, by alerting when student interaction is not optimal for learning.