Instructional Improvement Research Articles

Overcoming or overstepping? Boundary infrastructure for learning in the context of continuous improvement research-practice partnership

IntroductionUnder federal policy guidelines, school districts are increasingly expected to engage with research evidence to guide their efforts around instructional improvement. This article explores how a continuous improvement research-practice partnership (CI RPP) can create opportunities for educators to learn new research-based ideas and practices.MethodsWe present a year long case study of two rural school districts engaged in a CI RPP focused on math instruction.ResultsWe focus show how research-based mathematics ideas introduced by research partners were taken up by teachers, school leaders, instructional coaches, and district leaders. Then we describe how the county office of education created important opportunities for learning through a boundary infrastructure: the network of people, practices, and objects that supported the movement of ideas between research, practice, and CI communities.DiscussionWe highlight the possibilities of county offices as critical actors in CI efforts. We also highlight how the county office’s efforts to broker knowledge did not involve just overcoming or transcending boundaries but also maintaining them when they perceived external partners to be “overstepping.”

Cultivating space for teacher leadership: Two cases of negotiating and developing identities across systems

AbstractTeacher leadership research often focuses on individuals in formal leadership roles, including administrative roles outside of the classroom, attending to their knowledge, skills, and dispositions, and their impact on instructional improvement. An emerging view of teacher leaders focuses on individuals who take on responsibility for instructional improvement in a school or district absent a particular title‐often while maintaining a primary responsibility as classroom teacher‐and the role that systems play in supporting or constraining teachers' agency and voice in improvement. In this paper, we draw on a networked ecological perspective on teachers' positioning in school systems as well as a dialogical view of identity to present two cases of teacher leaders navigating multiple systems‐school, district, and other collaborations and professional spaces‐as teacher leaders, negotiating their own conceptions of teacher leadership and their identities as teacher leaders. Through these cases, we offer considerations of how professional spaces in and out of schools and districts can potentially influence evolving perspectives on teacher leadership. We also offer consideration of how identity is key to understanding teacher leader practice and development, as well as attending to influences of various systems on teacher leadership, including particular cultural contexts such as rural schools and communities.

An Analysis of the Reading Comprehension Levels of Class VIII Students in Descriptive Texts at SMP Negeri 7 Medan

This study aims to analyze the reading comprehension levels of Class VIII students in descriptive texts at SMP Negeri 7 Medan. Reading is a fundamental skill for language learners, especially for students learning English as a foreign language. However, many students face difficulties in comprehending descriptive texts, such as identifying key details, understanding the structure, and drawing accurate conclusions. These challenges are attributed to limited vocabulary, lack of familiarity with descriptive text conventions, and ineffective reading strategies. This research will evaluate students' comprehension levels and the effectiveness of current teaching strategies and materials. The findings are expected to provide insights that contribute to the improvement of reading instruction and strategies, benefiting both students and educators, and enhancing literacy education in junior high schools across Indonesia.

Collaborative Peer Mentoring in a Practicum: An Innovative Strategy to Cope with Teaching Anxiety

The practicum, a common form of school–university partnership, plays a critical role in developing future teachers’ practice; however, it is often regarded as a source of considerable anxiety and stress. Despite a significant body of studies investigating pre-service teachers’ anxiety, strategies to help them cope with anxiety during the practicum are still under-researched and there are few studies examining this issue outside the Anglosphere. This study examines the impact of a peer-mentoring programme on the teaching anxiety of English as a Foreign Language pre-service teachers in a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages practicum in the context of a school–university partnership in Vietnam. The study employed a quasi-experimental design in which 32 pre-service teachers were placed in a treatment group and experienced a peer-mentoring programme, and 33 were organized in a control group and followed the traditional model of the practicum. The study collected data from a pre-teaching and post-teaching anxiety survey and focus-group interviews with participants from both groups during and after the practicum. The findings show the effectiveness of the peer-mentoring relationship in reducing teaching anxiety during the teaching practicum. It is found that peer mentoring provided pre-service teachers with emotional support, workload reduction and instruction improvement, as a way to reduce teaching anxiety. Implications for teacher educators on how to support pre-service teachers during the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages practicum in the school–university partnership are highlighted.

Supervision of Instruction: Teachers and School Heads’ Perspective

The research focused on discovering the tactics used by school heads and the challenges faced when overseeing teaching in selected public secondary schools in Puerto Princesa City Division. The research utilized descriptive, correlation methods. The study included 139 participants, with 124 being teachers and 15 being school heads from the 15 public secondary schools in Puerto Princesa City Division. The researcher collected data from a survey questionnaire they created, the School Improvement Plan (SIP), The data was analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, weighted mean, ranking, Pearson-r correlation, and t-test methods. The results showed that the school heads’ supervisory strategies focused on enhancing instruction. They informed the teachers about the professional development opportunities that are available to them in certain areas. They frequently conducted their instructional supervision. The most popular functions were giving teachers feedback through performance assessment and evaluation that was constructive and accurate. The mentoring abilities of the school heads, along with the passive and uncooperative behavior of teachers, hindered their ability to supervise instruction effectively. The school heads’ instructional supervisory strategies were influenced by the frequency of instructional supervision provided to teachers, as they focused on developing, adopting, and implementing programs for instructional improvement, learning assessment, and teacher improvement. The research suggests that during mentorship sessions, school administrators should provide teachers with advice, specifically focusing on teaching techniques and the discovery and use of educational materials; Within the school improvement initiative, it is critical for school heads to establish or modify a program based on research. School administrators need to collaborate with expert teachers to evaluate and improve the curriculum in order to address the unique requirements of the community.

School District Superintendents as Transformational Leaders

The educational reform movement in the United States (1983-2024) presented school district superintendents with a wide array of challenges and opportunities. Initially, state and federal policymakers’ called for draconian school and district level accountability and endorsed he notion of top-down management. However, the reality of implementing district-wide, systemic changes focused on improving student learning outcomes influenced a shift in superintendents’ role from manager to teacher-scholar. During the last decade, researchers examined the role of superintendents in Instructionally Effective School Districts (IESD) and reported that they used their managerial prerogatives to initiate and sustain district-wide instructional improvement (Bjork, 2024). Research findings suggest that their involvement hiring and supervising teachers, evaluating principals, clearly articulating instructional and curricular goals, monitoring instructional improvement and, engaging in long-term financial planning for instruction indirectly influence the quality of learning and teaching. Findings from this longitudinal case study extend our understanding of how superintendents’ enact their role as teacher-scholar help to explain their success. Key elements of Transformational Leadership including idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and, individual consideration provided considerable insight into how they enacted their role. In addition, findings suggest that over time followers at different levels of the school district’s organization (teachers, principals and central office staffs) adopted Transformational Leadership dispositions and practices suggesting that it may be viewed as being both multidimensional and multi-directional. These findings may expand our understanding of how superintendents’ transformational leadership may influence the development of professional cultures and enhance student learning.

Course‐Based Teacher Professional Communities (With District and Union Support) at the Center of Three‐Dimensional Science Teaching

ABSTRACTThis study focuses on how two school districts managed and changed the instructional core—student learning goals, instructional resources and strategies, and assessments—in their required high school biology course as they responded to new state science standards based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Biology teachers in both districts had access to NGSS‐aligned resources for their classrooms. Interviews with teachers, district science coordinators, and union leaders revealed how district responses were affected by two institutional logics: academic logics included the criteria that teachers used to choose resources and strategies for their classrooms and professional logics included the roles and responsibilities of district professionals. Participants from District A endorsed a common‐sense experiential academic logic, which recognized teachers' obligations to meet general criteria for content coverage while using their personal experiences and values to make detailed instructional decisions. They also endorsed a professional logic of privacy and noninterference, which recognized teachers' individual autonomy in making decisions about their classroom instructional cores. In contrast, participants from District B described how district professionals empowered a course‐based professional community to make decisions about the instructional core that all biology teachers followed in their own classrooms. We examine how this strategy enabled actions consistent with an instructional improvement logic that supported an NGSS‐aligned instructional core in all biology classrooms. We consider the implications of this contrast for teacher learning in organizational settings—the focus of this special issue.

The Instructional Leadership Role of Superintendents in Instructionally Effective School Districts

Throughout the past four decades (1983-2024), the rise of a global economy and the changing nature of American society underscored the importance of educating all children. Successive waves of education reform in the United States of America (USA) launched a wide array of initiatives focused on improving student learning. These state and federal policy initiatives were accompanied by an historic shift in role expectations of school district superintendents. An examination of trend data reported in three successive nation-wide reports released by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) for the years 2000, 2010 and 2020 (Glass, Björk & Brunner, 2000; Kowalski, et al., 2011; Tienken, 2021) suggest that role expectations for district superintendents moved from away from an emphasis on management to a focus on instructional leadership. In addition, findings on superintendent instructional leadership practices in Instructionally Effective School Districts (IESD) reported by Bjork (1993, 2010, 2024) and Bjork & Browne-Ferrigno (2014) note that they effectively used their managerial position to support district-wide instructional improvement. They found that superintendents serving in IESD school districts used enacted their management responsibilities in areas that would indirectly influence the quality of learning and teaching including: (1) Staff selection and recruitment; (2) Principal supervision and evaluation; (3) Establishing clear instructional and curricular goals; (4) Monitoring learning and curricular improvement activities and, (5) Financial planning for instruction. These findings suggest that IESD superintendents’ use their management prerogatives to enact their instructional leadership role and reframe school district leadership for deeper learning in next generation schools.

Influence of PE Teachers’ Professional Learning Community on Continuing Professional Development

The study determined the predictive influence of PE Teachers’ professional learning community participation (PLC) on their continuing professional development engagement. To measure the PLC participation of the respondents, the researcher used the core features of PLC in China: common vision, read-practice-share learning flow, continuous reflection, supportive and sharing leadership, and peer and organizational support. For the assessment of CPD status, the study used the following sub-variables: keeping one’s self abreast, reflection and feedback, experimentation, collaboration for instruction improvement, and collaboration for school development. The assessments showed that the respondents participated in PLC well. Similarly, there is a high CPD engagement among the respondents. More importantly, the study showed that PLC participation significantly predicts CPD engagement.

The determinants of data use practice for instructional practice in higher education

PurposeAn evidence-based approach to improving instructional practices and student outcomes in data use. It is a systematic process of evaluating and analysing learning problems, collecting and transforming various types of data into instructional decisions, and implementing informed actions to improve instruction and student learning. Since teachers are the main actors in instructional practices, this article reports on a study aimed at predicting the influence of various teachers’ characteristics on the degree of data use practices for instructional purposes.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, we conducted a survey in a developing country to gather primary data. The collected data were analysed using a supervised machine learning approach, focussing on decision tree analysis, to determine the influential factors.FindingsOur investigation identifies pedagogical knowledge, data literacy, content knowledge, knowledge of English for teaching and attitudes towards data as crucial determinants in predicting the intensity of such data use practices. Notably, pedagogical knowledge emerges as the most potent predictor, emphasising its pivotal role in shaping teachers’ frequency of instructional data use practices. Surprisingly, English proficiency does not exhibit a significant influence in this predictive model.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings may not be generalisable to a wider context since this study relied on a relatively small teacher self-reported sample collected through surveys, and, as this study used perception data, this may or may not reflect teachers’ actual knowledge and skills.Practical implicationsBy spotlighting the nuanced interplay between teacher individual characteristics and the practice of data use for instructional improvement, this research contributes to a nuanced understanding of the factors shaping teachers’ engagement with data. Ultimately, it provides a foundation for targeted interventions and strategies aimed at fostering a culture of evidence-based practices to improve instruction and consequently student learning outcomes within educational settings.Social implicationsThis insight holds significant implications for policymakers, educational practitioners and providers of professional development programmes seeking to facilitate effective data use practices for instructional improvement.Originality/valueBy spotlighting the nuanced interplay between teacher individual characteristics and the practice of data use for instructional purposes, this research contributes to a nuanced understanding of the factors shaping teachers’ engagement with data. This study represents an empirical examination of such factors by employing a quantitative approach: a flexible decision tree analysis. This contributes to a growing body of research on factors related to teacher characteristics and much of the research in the field of data use has been done using a qualitative approach.

Evidence for validity and reliability of a research-based assessment instrument on measurement uncertainty

The Survey of Physics Reasoning on Uncertainty Concepts in Experiments (SPRUCE) was designed to measure students’ proficiency with measurement uncertainty concepts and practices across ten different assessment objectives to help facilitate the improvement of laboratory instruction focused on this important topic. To ensure the reliability and validity of this assessment, we conducted a comprehensive statistical analysis using classical test theory. This analysis includes an evaluation of the test as a whole, as well as an in-depth examination of individual items and assessment objectives. We make use of a previously reported on scoring scheme involving pairing items with assessment objectives, creating a new unit for statistical analysis referred to as a “couplet.” The findings from our analysis provide evidence for the reliability and validity of SPRUCE as an assessment tool for undergraduate physics labs. This increases both instructors’ and researchers’ confidence in using SPRUCE for measuring students’ proficiency with measurement uncertainty concepts and practices to ultimately improve laboratory instruction. Additionally, our results using couplets and assessment objectives demonstrate how these can be used with traditional classic test theory analysis. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Analysis of Predictive Factors for High School Teacher’s Instructional Improvement Activities Using Random Forest

Analysis of Predictive Factors for High School Teacher’s Instructional Improvement Activities Using Random Forest

A Systematic Review: Educational Supervision in Different Countries from Instructional Improvement Perspective

The systematic review was based on five different articles focused on educational supervision from five different countries searched and systematically reviewed. The purpose of systematic review was to identify, evaluate and summarize the findings of relevant individual previous studies over the issue related thereby making the available more accessible for decision makers. Twenty one literatures were searched and ten were screened. Five of them had different methods and the date of publication stated in the criteria became outdated. The remaining five articles were qualitatively conducted which were similar in methods included and systematically reviewed. Four important different excel spreadsheet protocol were prepared and attached to the appendix. Four important thematic area of the review selected to be analyzed were purpose of supervision, quality of a good supervisor, problem related to supervision, and approach to educational supervision (clinical supervision, peer supervision, collaborative supervision, self-directed and mentoring). The findings of the review revealed that several important of educational supervision for teachers’ professional development and improvement of teaching-learning process. There are different approaches of educational supervision to support teacher professional development in order to improve teaching learning. The reviewer recommended that teachers to be able to carry out their role effectively, it is necessary to apply appropriate approach of supervision in the schools. Finance and shortage of experienced supervisor have impact on the role of supervision in the school system which proper attention should be given for effective supervision.

Conducting research on teacher professional development in partnership with educators: promises, tensions and opportunities

ABSTRACT This study aims to document how a research-practice partnership designed and carried out joint work between researchers and educators to support teacher instructional improvement. A district-wide research-based teacher professional program, grounded in research on student development of mathematical ideas, was adapted to the assets and needs of one elementary school. The primary source of data were field notes of meetings of the school instructional improvement team, involving researchers, the principal, and teacher leaders, and focused on the co-design of school-based settings for instructional support. A framework outlining key conditions of research-practice partnership success was used as an analytical tool to examine partnership design elements that support joint work towards both practice and research goals, partner practices, processes, and activities as they unfolded, and methodological tensions and opportunities. Findings highlight how centring relationships, shared goals, and relevance to practice supported researchers in gaining deep understanding of the local context and of the complexity involved in creating settings that facilitate instructional improvement within school systems. They also underscore the need for vulnerability and flexibility in researcher involvement. Future directions include supplementing data sources to examine co-design sessions discourse and through multiple perspectives and extending analyses to subsequent years of the partnership.

An Examination of Content-Specific Leadership: District-Level Mathematics Specialists’ Sense-Making and Enactment of Their Leadership Role

ABSTRACT In the United States, calls for improved K-12 learning opportunities in mathematics have shifted focus in school district offices from bureaucratic pursuits to instructional improvement efforts. Yet, district leaders often receive little guidance on how to achieve these goals. Further, although widely recognized that content-specificity matters in instructional improvement efforts, mathematics-based district leadership has received relatively limited attention in the literature. In this qualitative study, we drew on district leaders’ narratives of their work to examine: 1) How do district-level mathematics specialists engage in and make sense of their practice? and 2) What influences the ways they make sense of their practice? Results indicate that the ways in which participants made sense of their leadership practices through their agency, agenda, and positioning was strongly influenced by both personal and systemic factors. Personal factors included the leaders’ personal and professional backgrounds and experiences. Systemic factors included the degree of coherence leaders perceived in the district’s vision of instructional improvement, the clarity of the district leader’s role, and management of staffing resources for improving mathematics instruction. The study concludes with implications for further research and practice.

A study on the cultivation of students' innovative thinking ability in junior high school English reading teaching

With the deepening of the new curriculum reform, cultivating students' innovative thinking ability has become an important goal of junior high school English teaching. This paper aims to explore how to effectively cultivate students' creative thinking ability in junior high school English reading teaching. Through the in-depth study of relevant theories and the detailed analysis of specific teaching cases, this paper puts forward a series of effective teaching strategies and methods. These strategies include not only innovative activity design in classroom teaching, but also the improvement of extracurricular reading instruction and evaluation system. This paper holds that the cultivation of innovative thinking ability requires teachers to guide students to question, criticize and think independently in teaching, provide rich reading materials and diversified learning tasks, and stimulate students' learning interest and initiative. Through these measures, it is expected to provide useful reference for English reading teaching, so as to comprehensively improve students' comprehensive English ability and innovative thinking ability, and promote their all-round development.

Unraveling high-quality mathematics teaching in algebra: insights from overlaying domain-specific and content-specific observation instruments

When analyzing instructional quality in mathematics, observational measures can consider domain-specific instructional approaches (e.g., effective teaching of mathematics) and content-focused practices (e.g., effective teaching of a specific mathematical topic). In this study, we analyze lesson videos from secondary algebra classrooms using two different instruments—one focused on ambitious mathematics teaching practices and one focused on instructional features that support students’ learning opportunities in algebra specifically. We consider the information provided by overlaying these instruments to raise implications for instructional improvement efforts, particularly related to how information from the instruments might inform formative feedback to teachers. We consider how alignment between instrument and instructional emphasis can influence the strengths and areas of instructional improvement identified in a given lesson. We further model a collaborative process for looking across observation instruments to deepen understanding of the information provided.

Instructional Coaching Personnel and Program Scalability

Abstract Instructional coaching is an attractive alternative to one-size-fits-all teacher training and development in part because it is purposefully differentiated: Programming is aligned to individual teachers’ needs and implemented by an individual coach. But, how much of the benefit of coaching as an instructional improvement model depends on the specific coach with whom a teacher works? Collaborating with a national teacher training and development organization, TNTP, we find substantial variability in effectiveness across coaches in terms of changes in preservice teachers’ instructional practice (roughly 0.25 to 0.3 standard deviation from our preferred sample and models). The magnitude of coach effectiveness heterogeneity is quite similar to average coaching program effects on teaching practice identified in other research. Through a set of alternative model specifications and permutation tests, we rule out the possibility that our estimates of coach effectiveness heterogeneity are driven by nonrandom sorting of coaches to teachers, at least on observable characteristics available in our data, as well as the possibility that these estimates are simply statistical noise. These findings suggest that identifying, recruiting, and supporting highly skilled coaches will be key to scaling instructional coaching programs.

Evaluation of flipped classroom teaching quality for civil engineering courses

The impact of civil engineering course education on civil engineers is profound and crucial. Due to the hierarchical and ambiguous nature of quality assessment for flipped classroom teaching, there is an urgent demand for a rational and effective approach to conduct such assessments. This would enable the targeted formulation of instructional improvement methods based on assessment outcomes, ultimately elevating the quality of pedagogy. This study combines the analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy evaluation method. The fuzzy evaluation method is utilized to identify four primary evaluation factor sets, fourteen secondary judgment factor sets, and five evaluation outcome sets, with subsequent quantification of the assessment results. The analytic hierarchy process is employed to ascertain the weight coefficients of the evaluation factors. The comprehensive assessment model for flipped classroom teaching quality is established. The assessment results indicate that the overall quality of flipped classroom teaching in the civil engineering major at Anhui University of Science and Technology, conducted through the platform of Superstar Learning Hub, falls within the ‘Good’ category. The fuzzy comprehensive evaluation score for extracurricular learning quality is the lowest, and the weight proportion attributed to flipped classroom infrastructure is the highest. Consequently, several targeted improvement measures are proposed to enhance the quality of flipped classroom teaching.

RELEVANCE OF INFORMATIVE MANAGEMENT AND TEACHING METHODS IN TEACHING GRADE SIX: A QUALITATIVE APPROACH

The main purpose of this study was to discover the relevance of informative management and teaching methods used by teachers who are currently teaching in elementary schools. This study will focus on the commitment of the teachers to teaching students and how they boost perseverance in achieving their goals. The decreasing number of students and increasing accountability to the public challenge in the Philippines is the sustainable development of schools. Schools must provide quality education to attract students and maintain their brand. For sustainable development, leaders are expected to strengthen the professional competency of teachers and staff, formulate strategic plans, and build collaborative relationships with external parties to manage change. Principals, as instructional leaders, are primarily responsible for promoting effective teaching implementation. Effective principals continually engage teachers in instructional dialog and reflective practices to ensure that they are thoroughly equipped to improve student performance. Effective principals are aware of the varied instructional strategies that directly or indirectly improve teachers’ professional development. When teachers are not well supervised, effectiveness in instruction will be adversely affected and the instructional purposes may not be well realized. Negligence in the improvement of instruction through improper instructional supervisory practices by school heads may go on without being detected. This may lead to low quality of instruction and invariably teachers’ lack of commitment to their job. Nowadays, parents and guardians of students are becoming more curious about the kind of education given to their children and wards. Quite often, they show their concern by demanding that the school should teach better than in the past. KEYWORDS: Relevance, informative, management, teaching methods, grade 6, qualitative, approach