Instructional Change Research Articles

Mathematics Instructional Leadership

To optimize teacher support, administrators need subject-specific knowledge, skills, and beliefs to lead, not just manage, instructional change. Professional development (PD) is needed with the many roles administrators are already called to fill. In this study, 38 elementary administrators participated in PD in mathematics instructional leadership. Findings from the Administrator Self-Efficacy Survey for Mathematics, derived from the Principal Self-Efficacy Survey (Smith & Guarino, 2005), show that subject-specific, district-led PD designed around sources of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977, 1982, 1986) had a significant impact on increasing administrators’ mathematics instructional leadership self-efficacy. Specifically, administrators increased their beliefs to influence effective mathematics practice, apply district PD to instructional leadership practices, and justify change during reform. These results show promise for future mathematics-specific instructional leadership development. Results from this study can inform PD design for districts and leaders aiming to promote and support school administrators as instructional leaders and advocates for evidence-based practice.

Mentoring in the Development of Science Teaching Self-Efficacy Among Primary School Teachers in Thailand: A Mixed Methods Study

ABSTRACT This study employed a sequential mixed methods explanatory research design to explore the influence of mentoring in the self-efficacy-forming experiences of primary school teachers who participated in a variety of professional development projects on science teaching. In the quantitative phase, survey data drawn from primary school teachers (n = 834) showed that collaborative mentee-mentor activities and metaphorical descriptions of interpersonal relationship were the best predictors of personal science teaching self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and instructional change. In the qualitative phase, interviews with individual teachers identified their perceptions of how mentoring experiences influenced their development of science teaching self-efficacy and changes they made in their science classrooms. The findings are interpreted through the theoretical lens of the roles of culture and emotions in teacher learning.

University teachers’ profiles based on digital innovativeness and instructional adaptation to COVID-19: Association with learning patterns and teacher demographics

The purpose of this study was to understand the factors behind university teachers’ ability to implement instructional changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online questionnaire comprised of open-ended and Likert-scale questions was administered to teachers at a Finnish university in April 2020. The sample consisted of 378 university teachers who were categorised into four groups based on their digital innovativeness and the extent to which they implemented changes to adapt their teaching practices to COVID-19 restrictions: Avoider Survival Adapters, Avoider Ambitious Adapters, Embracer Survival Adapters, and Embracer Ambitious Adapters. We examined the association between the teacher groups and their learning patterns and background characteristics. The findings showed that Embracer Ambitious Adapters have significantly more meaning-oriented and application-oriented learning patterns than Embracer Survival Adapters, though Avoider Survival Adapters have more problematic learning patterns. Furthermore, the results indicated that pedagogical training and having more teaching experience helped innovative teachers embrace more changes in their teaching practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of discipline, the results showed that teachers working in hard disciplines (e.g., physics) were more likely to belong to the Embracer Survival Adapters group, while teachers working in soft disciplines (e.g., history) were more likely to belong to the Embracer Ambitious Adapters group. Possible interpretations of these findings and perspectives for further research are discussed.

Librarians as Teachers: Effecting Change in Composition Instruction

This study assessed student research papers using a rubric to determine the information literacy skills of students in introductory composition classes. Librarians taught a pilot composition course that infused information literacy (IL) into the traditional English curriculum. The students' IL skills were compared to those of undergraduates enrolled in a traditional composition class, who received only a one-shot library instruction session. Students in the information literacy composition course scored better than their counterparts in six of seven IL skill categories. Results support greater integration of information literacy and composition curricula as a path forward for student success.

The Role of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in Language Teachers’ Professional Development

In the 1950s, there were considerable changes in both second language instruction and learning. The transition from teacher-centred to student-centred learning has totally altered the structure of second language teaching, and the process is still going strong. Consideration of incorporating new methods, technology, and devices has become an integral aspect of language classrooms. The involvement of teachers in this phenomenon is critical and unavoidable. Teachers are now eager to understand their students' individual requirements and are looking for methods and activities that might bring about a revolution in the realm of second language teaching. They select the most appropriate and pertinent strategy based on the personalities and attitudes of their students. Due to which, it is essential to give their professional growth top priority so they are prepared to handle today's problems and decide what is best for their students. The study uses a qualitative interview approach to ascertain how technology influences language instructors' professional development with a focus on computer-assisted language learning (CALL). Recommendations are made to improve the professional development of language teachers based on the respondents' answers to the interview questions.

Measures of success: characterizing teaching and teaching change with segmented and holistic observation data

BackgroundNumerous studies show that active and engaging classrooms help students learn and persist in college, but adoption of new teaching practices has been slow. Professional development programs encourage instructors to implement new teaching methods and change the status quo in STEM undergraduate teaching, and structured observations of classrooms can be used in multiple ways to describe and assess this instruction. We addressed the challenge of measuring instructional change with observational protocols, data that often do not lend themselves easily to statistical comparisons. Challenges using observational data in comparative research designs include lack of descriptive utility for holistic measures and problems related to construct representation, non-normal distributions and Type-I error inflation for segmented measures.ResultsWe grouped 790 mathematics classes from 74 instructors using Latent Profile Analysis (a statistical clustering technique) and found four reliable categories of classes. Based on this grouping we proposed a simple proportional measure we called Proportion Non-Didactic Lecture (PND). The measure aggregated the proportions of interactive to lecture classes for each instructor. We tested the PND and a measure derived from the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) with data from a professional development study. The PND worked in simple hypothesis tests but lacked some statistical power due to possible ceiling effects. However, the PND provided effective descriptions of changes in instructional approaches from pre to post. In tandem with examining the proportional measure, we also examined the RTOP-Sum, an existing outcome measure used in comparison studies. The measure is based on the aggregated items in a holistic observational protocol. As an aggregate measure we found it to be highly reliable, correlated highly with the PND, and had more statistical power than the PND. However, the RTOP measure did not provide the thick descriptions of teaching afforded by the PND.ConclusionsFindings suggest that useful dependent measures can be derived from both segmented and holistic observational measures. Both have strengths and weaknesses: measures from segmented data are best at describing changes in teaching, while measures derived from the RTOP have more statistical power. Determining the validity of these measures is important for future use of observational data in comparative studies.

Philosophy instruction changes views on moral controversies by decreasing reliance on intuition

What changes people's judgments on moral issues, such as the ethics of abortion or eating meat? On some views, moral judgments result from deliberation, such that reasons and reasoning should be primary drivers of moral change. On other views, moral judgments reflect intuition, with reasons offered as post-hoc rationalizations. We test predictions of these accounts by investigating whether exposure to a moral philosophy course (vs. control courses) changes moral judgments, and if so, via what mechanism(s). In line with deliberative accounts of morality, we find that exposure to moral philosophy changes moral views. In line with intuitionist accounts, we find that the mechanism of change is reduced reliance on intuition, not increased reliance on deliberation; in fact, deliberation is related to increased confidence in judgments, not change. These findings suggest a new way to reconcile deliberative and intuitionist accounts: Exposure to reasons and evidence can change moral views, but primarily by discounting intuitions.

Relationships between undergraduate instructors' conceptions of how students learn and their instructional practices

AbstractSupporting changes in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instruction requires an understanding of the relationship between STEM instructors' conceptions and practices. In this study, the authors used the Teacher‐Centered Systematic Reform (TCSR) model as a framework to understand how instructors' conceptions are related to their instructional practices. This multiple methods study included interviews and classroom observations of 22 STEM instructors. We used qualitative methods to describe instructors' conceptions of how students learn and quantitative methods, including a hierarchical cluster analysis, to analyze the types of relationships that exist between their conceptions and practices. Results indicated instructors had a wide range of conceptions that exist along a continuum from teacher‐centered to student‐centered. While many faculty members perceived student‐centered practices as valuable, they conceptualized these practices in different ways. Instructors implemented a wide range of instructional practices, and these practices varied independently of conceptions. We identified three distinct clusters of participants based on the relationships between instructors' conceptions and practices: congruent lecturers, congruent active learning facilitators, and incongruent lecturers. In the first two clusters, instructors' conceptions were aligned with their instructional practices. However, incongruent lecturers thought that students learn through active learning approaches but primarily lectured in their courses. Instructors in this group described several personal and contextual factors that influenced the relationship between their conceptions and practices. The results include an in‐depth portrayal of one participant in each cluster. We found that student‐centered conceptions may be necessary but are not sufficient for instructors to implement active learning. Implications focus on instructional and institutional change efforts. To promote instructional change most effectively, it is important to address each component of the TCSR model, including personal and contextual factors. A focus on conceptions and practices alone may not sufficiently support faculty members in overcoming barriers that limit active learning instruction.

Does Place Actually Matter? Searching For Place-based Pedagogy amongst Impact and Intentionality

The emergence of this special issue of Metropolitan Universities journal, “The Pedagogy of Place-Based Initiatives and Anchor Institutions,” stems from developing, teaching, and evaluating courses and pedagogical programs at urban/metropolitan institutions. This issue is rooted in scholarly practice and focuses on the intersection of place-based initiatives and pedagogy. It interrogates how place-based initiatives such as hyper-local community-based learning and anchor frameworks impact teaching and learning in the classroom. This framing article for this special issue captures the themes and broader questions that emerged from the articles while proposing a line of inquiry to engage the readers with the special issue focus. Our line of inquiry throughout this special issue is whether a distinct pedagogy emerges from place-based initiatives such as anchor institution approaches and hyper-local community-based learning. We begin by interrogating how place-based initiatives such as anchor institution approaches and highly intentional partnership work do not guarantee a change in classroom instruction and may fail to impact pedagogy long-term. We provide examples of service-learning within our local professional context and draw from themes that emerged from the scholarly articles in this issue. We also noted the intersection of place, institution, and systemic context. We offer a framework for a pedagogy of place with committed approaches to these place-based intersections as we have experienced them in our practice and emerging from the issue’s scholarly articles.

English as Foreign Language (EFL) Teachers’ Efficacy and Positive Achievement Emotions: Relations to Instructional Changes After Attending a Study Abroad Program

Due to government policy, the number of study abroad professional development program for EFL teachers increased greatly in China during recent years. Study abroad program aims to help EFL teachers improve their knowledge and teaching practices, which requires them to make adjustments to their traditional teaching styles accordingly. Hence, teachers may experience strong emotional reactions when they are faced with different modes of teaching methods. From the perspective of “emotion”, this study used control-value theory of achievement emotions as the theoretical framework to examine the relationship between teacher efficacy, positive achievement emotions, and instructional changes among 386 Chinese EFL teachers who attended study abroad programs. Purposive sampling was used in data collection. Data analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results showed that teacher efficacy correlated positively with positive achievement emotions (enjoyment, hope, and pride) and instructional changes. Positive achievement emotions mediated the relationship between teacher efficacy and instructional changes. Findings showed the impact of teacher efficacy and positive achievement emotions on changes in teachers’ thinking and instructional practices. Based on the findings and limitations of this study, implications on teacher education and professional development program, directions and suggestions for future studies are discussed.

COVID-19, Mental Health, Technology Use, and Job Satisfaction Among School Psychology Trainers.

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to exacerbate the school psychology personnel crisis. There is a dearth of knowledge regarding how the pandemic has impacted school psychology trainers and course delivery. In this national study, 92 school psychology trainers completed an online questionnaire regarding technological instructional changes, job satisfaction, and their own mental health well-being during the pandemic. Findings suggest that during the portion of the pandemic assessed most trainers reported that they: (a) switched from in-person instruction to primarily online instruction, (b) were mostly satisfied with their jobs, and (c) generally experienced a positive sense of well-being. Furthermore, a sizable portion of those that switched to a mixture of hybrid and online instruction during the pandemic endorsed that they are likely to continue to use these modalities after the pandemic subsides. Unfortunately, although school psychology trainers presented as generally resilient workforce during the pandemic, almost 20% participants screened positive for possible depression.

Keterlambatan Proyek yang Disebabkan oleh Owner: Evaluasi Faktor-Faktor Penyebab dan Klaim Kontraktor

Delays in construction projects are generally understood to be the sole responsibility of the contractor. In fact, these delays can also be caused by factors that actually are the responsibility of the owner, resulting in project completion exceeding the contract target date. As a result, the contractors can be affected and suffer losses due to delays that are not actually their responsibility. This study intends to evaluate project delays caused by the owner and the delay claims submitted by the contractor. This research is exploratory and uses a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative approach. Data was collected through interviews and questionnaires with 80 respondents of the construction industry. The study found five main factors causing delays caused by the owner, including: land acquisition problems, changes in design and work instructions, payment problems, and unclear drawings in the contract documents. Of these delays, the majority (93%) were claimed by contractors, with an average claim success rate of 53%, and the compensation generally in the form of extension of project completion time (63%). The most frequently chosen claim dispute settlement method (93%) is non-litigation settlement through negotiation. This research has provided a comprehensive overview of delays due to owners and the contractor claims, and gives valuable lessons for the construction industry stakeholders to cope with delays in the future.

Hearing Education in Agriculture: Re-Evaluating Interest, Needs, and Growth

Highlights Agricultural mechanic student’s perceptions of noise levels are above recommended exposure limit. Direct and indirect exposure to decibel levels in a laboratory setting aids in shaping student perceptions. Student perceptions can be affected by changes in course instruction. Abstract. Safety in agricultural laboratories is of the highest concern for teachers and instructors. While there is a known safety concern with hearing in agriculture, a deficiency in the attitudes and perceptions relating to the output of decibels of tools in agricultural laboratory settings has been identified. This research focuses on hearing and noise levels in an agricultural mechanics laboratory by exposing students directly and indirectly to noise levels through project-based learning and informational posters throughout the laboratory. Pre- and post-course data are used to address students' perceptions of noise level outputs and willingness to wear hearing protection. Pre-course responses show a disconnect between perceptions of noise levels and the given threshold for wearing hearing protection. This perception gap closed over the semester as post-course responses show an increase in correct tool to threshold responses. The frequency of responses aligned with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's recommended hearing protection threshold also shows growth. While there is still a knowledge gap that needs to be addressed, we feel that the exposure provided through both direct and indirect instruction throughout the course can lead to knowledge gained and perceptions changed. Keywords: Agricultural mechanics, Attitudes, Perceptions, Safety.

Transforming the Curriculum into the Classroom - An Inquiry into Classroom Instructional Change

Transforming the Curriculum into the Classroom - An Inquiry into Classroom Instructional Change

Conceptualizations of active learning in departments engaged in instructional change efforts

Several academic departments have increased their use of active learning to address low student success rates. However, it is unclear whether those implementing active learning have a consistent conceptualization of it. Like other educational terms, the phrase “active learning” is in danger of becoming overused and misunderstood, which puts the utility of active learning into question. This study examines 115 conceptualizations of active learning across six institutions of higher education that are infusing more active learning into their mathematics courses. We use the four pillars of inquiry-based mathematics education as a basis for analyzing these conceptualizations and compare them in two ways: by stakeholder role and by institution. Our findings show that many participants conceptualize active learning as student engagement and activities other than lecture, yet there was limited focus on the role of the teacher and content. Only eight participants mentioned issues of equity. Comparison within individual institutions shows that faculty within departments may hold common understandings of active learning. Implications of these findings include a need to develop an understanding of active learning that attends to all four pillars and is shared across departments, institutions, and disciplines.

Teaching Programming by Revealing Thinking Process: Watching Experts’ Live Coding Videos With Reflection Annotations

Contribution: Programming is a complex cognitive activity that involves both conceptual understanding and procedural skills, which is challenging for novices. To develop both program comprehension and implementation competency, this study proposed a live-coding-based instruction. Experts’ live coding with think-aloud was recorded. Students then learn algorithmic planning and coding skills by observing experts’ thinking and coding processes from the videos. To deploy this pedagogical strategy, a learning platform was developed to present the videos to students who could also annotate their reflection about the videos in the system to deepen their understanding of syntax and concepts of computer programming. Background: Traditional lecture-based programming instruction focuses more on the explanation of syntax and concepts but lacks revealing the dynamic and nonlinear thinking and coding process. Research Questions: This study is to explore the effects of live-coding-based instruction on students’ programming knowledge, including declarative program knowledge (program comprehension) and procedural program knowledge (coding skills), and whether the instruction changes their attitude toward programming learning or not. Methodology: An empirical study was conducted with 33 high-school students who were novice programmers in one semester to explore the effectiveness of the live-coding-based instruction and the use of the learning platform. Findings: The experiment results show that watching flowcharting ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r=0.369, p \mathbf { &lt; }0.05$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) or coding processes ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r=0.409, p \mathbf { &lt; }0.05$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) of experts improves coding skills. This implies that explicit depiction of algorithmic planning and coding processes are essential for building procedural programming knowledge. In addition, reflection on syntactic content of experts’ programming plays an important role in programming ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r=0.511,p \mathbf { &lt; }0.01$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ). The research findings suggest that programming instruction could focus more on developing students’ problem-solving abilities by demonstrating the dynamic and nonlinear programming processes and providing opportunities for students to reflect on how syntactic knowledge could be applied to programming.

Connecting Policy to Practice: How State and Local Policy Environments Relate to Teachers’ Instruction

Background/Context: Instructional policy aims to shift the nature of teaching and learning. Decades of policy studies have highlighted the challenges inherent in these aims and the conditions necessary to support such change, including a robust infrastructure to support teacher learning. Further, teachers themselves must perceive and experience their policy environment to be supportive of calls to shift instruction. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: In this study, we examine the connection between teachers’ perceptions of their policy environments and their instructional practices over time, in the context of college-and-career-readiness (CCR) standards implementation. While conducted in the context of standards implementation, our findings apply to supporting instructional change through policy more broadly. Setting: We examine implementation of CCR standards in two unique state contexts: Texas and Ohio. These states represent important differences in demographics and in their approaches to CCR standards implementation over time. Research Design: We use a convergent mixed-methods design that draws on state-representative teacher survey data at two points in time (allowing for a trend analysis to understand how teachers’ perceptions and experiences evolve), longitudinal interview data with state education leaders, and interview data with educators in one case study district in each state. Data Collection and Analysis: Surveys measured teachers’ perceptions of their policy environments, as well as their self-reported instructional practices. Interviews focused on understanding state- and district-level policies, guidance, and resources, and educators’ enactment of standards. Survey analysis included descriptive analysis of patterns over time and hierarchical linear modeling. To unpack broad-based survey patterns, we coded qualitative data and developed assertions based on emergent patterns. Findings/Results: We found that Texas teachers agreed more strongly than Ohio teachers that their policy environment had aligned, specific, and stable resources, as well as accountability mechanisms in place. Specificity of guidance and resources for standards implementation predicted teachers’ use of standards-emphasized instruction in 2019. These patterns reflected each state’s approach to policy implementation: a robust state-level infrastructure for guidance and support in Texas, compared with fewer state-developed resources in Ohio in favor of local control. Still, aspects of teachers’ local context—in particular, lack of infrastructure for ongoing, embedded professional learning—limited teachers’ ability to engage in state-developed guidance. Conclusions/Recommendations: Our study offers enduring lessons about how to establish the policy conditions necessary to support teachers to change instruction. Findings suggest a need for states to develop resources that clarify instructional shifts for teachers, and districts must balance these top-down resources with ongoing opportunities for educators to adapt resources to suit their students’ needs.

The Impact of Professional Development on Inservice Teachers’ Culturally Responsive Practices and Students’ Reading Achievement

ABSTRACT This study examined the impact of a professional development in culturally responsive practices on in-service teacher practices and student achievement in reading. Using a concurrent explanatory mixed method design that incorporated quasi-experimental analysis of implementation and achievement data alongside inductive analysis of interview data, researchers investigated effects of the professional development on 21 K-8 teachers and their students. Results indicated that participating teachers grew significantly in their implementation of culturally responsive practices as compared to a control group. Students whose teachers participated in the professional development made significantly higher gains in reading achievement than students in control classes. Teachers linked changes in family collaboration, instruction, discourse, and critical consciousness to higher student achievement.

MOCCA-College: Preliminary Validity Evidence of a Cognitive Diagnostic Reading Comprehension Assessment

As access to higher education increases, it is important to monitor students with special needs to facilitate the provision of appropriate resources and support. Although metrics such as the “reading readiness” ACT (formerly American College Testing) of provide insight into how many students may need such resources, they do not specify why a student may need support or how to provide that support. Increasingly, students are bringing reading comprehension struggles to college. Multiple-choice Online Causal Comprehension Assessment-College (MOCCA-College) is a new diagnostic reading comprehension assessment designed to identify who is a poor comprehender and also diagnose why they are a poor comprehender. Using reliability coefficients, receiver–operating characteristic curve analysis, and correlations, this study reports findings from the first year of a 3-year study to validate the assessment with 988 postsecondary students who took MOCCA-College, a subset of whom also provided data on other reading assessments (i.e., ACT, n = 377; Scholastic Aptitude Test [SAT], n = 192; and Nelson–Denny Reading Test [NDRT], n = 78). Despite some limitations (e.g., the sample is predominantly females from 4-year institutions), results indicate that MOCCA-College has good internal reliability, and scores are correlated with other reading assessments. Through a series of analyses of variance (ANOVAs), we also report how students identified by MOCCA-College as good and poor comprehenders differ in terms of demographics, cognitive processes used while reading, overall comprehension ability, and scores on admissions tests. Findings are discussed in terms of using MOCCA-College to help gauge which students may be at risk of reading comprehension difficulties, identify why they may be struggling, and inform directions in actionable instructional changes based on comprehension processing data.

Field Instruction with Integration and Implementation of Indigenous Social Work Education

The purpose of field work is ... to clarify technical instruction. Just as the botanist goes into the fields to study plants and flowers to supplement his text book knowledge, and just as the geologist turns from a study of books to the study of rocks, so the social worker goes from the classroom to the appropriate field work activity, using the field work as a means of clarifying and adding point to the classroom instruction (Manshardt, 1985, p. 3).Field instruction, a crucial component of social work education, is recognised as an educational process to facilitate integrative and experiential learning. Though the pattern and organisation of social work practicum have some universality, the micro-based practice model adopted in the Indian context has led to inappropriately designed field education programmes producing students unsuited to meet the developmental need of the Indian society. Efforts made to restructure field instruction to prepare students for macro-based practice roles have been too slow to find their way into the educational programme of most of the schools of social work in India. Major problems such as scarcity of field placements, non-availability of qualified agency-based field instructors, inadequate linkage between classroom teaching and field realities, and poor faculty position still prevail. Crucial areas for change in field instruction are examined and alternative strategies are suggested in the light of the emerging socioeconomic concerns of the country and recent trends in the profession.