How do we hold teachers accountable for having the correct types of knowledge and assist them in further growth in these domains?

Madeline Respeliers, Hayley Reynolds, Lindsey Landgrover

The Incomplete Core Concept

“Teaching necessarily begins with a teacher’s understanding of what is to be learned and how it is to be taught. It proceeds through a series of activities during which the students are provided specific instruction and opportunities for learning, though the learning itself ultimately remains the responsibility of the students. Teaching ends with new comprehension by both the teacher and the student.” - Lee S. Shulman

The Knowledge Base“A conceptual analysis of knowledge for teachers would necessarily be based

on a framework for classifying both the domains and categories of teacher knowledge and the forms for representing that knowledge.” -Shulman

❏ Content Knowledge❏ General Pedagogical Knowledge❏ Curriculum Knowledge❏ Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)❏ Knowledge of learners and their characteristics❏ Knowledge of educational contexts (workings of the classroom,

governance and finance of the district, character of the culture/community, etc.)

❏ Knowledge of educational ends, purposes, and values, and their philosophical and historical grounds

Domains of KnowledgeWhat do teachers need to be held accountable for knowing?

Propositional Knowledge: morally and ethically guided principles (PK)

Subject Matter Knowledge: the amount and organization of knowledge in the mind of the teacher (CK)

Curricular Knowledge: knowledge of curriculum and associated materials (CK)

Pedagogical Content Knowledge: subject matter knowledge for teaching (PCK)

Pedagogical Knowledge, Content Knowledge, Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Pedagogical Knowledge“The knowledge of broad principles and strategies of classroom management

and organization that appear to transcend subject matter.”

Disciplined Empirical (or Philosophical) Inquiry: Derived from empirical research

Practical Experience: never confirmed by research and difficult to demonstrate, but “represent the accumulated wisdom of practice”

Moral or Ethical Reasoning: reflects the norms, values, ideological or philosophical commitments of justice, fairness, equity “that we wish teachers to learn and employ”

“These are propositions that guide the work of a teacher, not because they are true in scientific terms, or because they work in practical terms, but because they are morally and ethically right.” -Shulman

Content Knowledge “Knowledge that teachers have regarding the subject matter and concepts and

information regarding the field.”

Curricular Knowledge: knowledge of curriculum and associated materials

Subject Matter Knowledge: the amount and organization of knowledge in the mind of the teacher

• Substantive Knowledge: key facts, concepts, frameworks, and explanatory frameworks of a discipline

• Syntactic Knowledge: whether or not concepts or facts in a discipline are reliable or correct

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)

“Goes beyond knowledge of subject matter to the dimension of knowledge of subject matter for teaching.”

Pedagogical Content Knowledge: “Knowledge used to transform subject matter into content forms that are more comprehensible to students”

“Identifies the distinctive bodies of knowledge for teaching; it represents the blending of content and pedagogy into an understanding of how particular topics, problems, or issues are organized, represented, and adapted to the diverse interest and abilities of learners, and presented for instruction.”

-Lee S. Shulman

Discussion 1:

In a classroom, what should effective interaction between content knowledge and pedagogical

knowledge look like?

Marzano Teacher Evaluation Model: Summary

• Used in whole or part in many states including Florida and Oklahoma as well as in diocese of Dallas schools

• Covers 41 elements over four domains:1. Classroom strategies and Behaviors 2. Planning and Preparing3. Reflecting on Teaching4. Collegiality and Professionalism

• Largest focus is on Domain 1

PDAS: Summary• Used in most Texas public school districts

• Covers 51 criteria within eight domains:1. Active, Successful Student Participation in the Learning Process

2. Learner-centered Instruction

3. Evaluation and feedback on Student Progress

4. Management of Student Discipline, Instructional Strategies, Time/Materials

5. Professional Communication

6. Professional Development

7. Compliance with Policies, Operating Procedures and Requirements

8. Improvement of All Students' Academic Performance

• Includes a minimum of one 45 minute formal observation and completion of the Teacher Self-Report form

Teacher Self-Report formhttp://www4.esc13.net/uploads/pdas/docs/tsrf.pdf

Discussion 2:What type(s) of knowledge do(es) PDAS/Marzano value most?

Are there any types of knowledge that PDAS/Marzano should assess but disregards?

Are there domains that could be added or altered to include these knowledge types?

Marzano’s Teacher Evaluation Model: Research Based Teacher Evaluation

● Based on a number of works, each of which report substantial research of the elements they address.

○ Haystead, M. W. & Marzano, R.J. (2010). Meta-Analytic Synthesis of Studies Conducted at Marzano Research Laboratory on instructional Strategies.

○ Marzano, R.J. (2003). What works in schools

○ Marzano, R. J. (2006).Classroom assessment and grading that work

○ Marzano, R.J. (2007). The art and science of teaching

○ Marzano, R. J., Frontier, T., & Livingston, D. (2011). Effective supervision: Supporting the art and science of teaching

○ Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works

○ Marzano, R.J., Marzano, J. S., & Pickering, D. J. (2003). Classroom management that works

● Marzano employs meta-analysis in his research to compare and contrast large amount of educational research studies○ can be referred to as “conducting research about research”

Overall Effect Size Across Marzano’s Knowledge Domains

2001 Marzano 76

Criticisms of Marzano• Reduces teaching to a checklist of artificial gestures

o Reduces teacher professionalism

• Phantom findings cited in Marzano researcho In Classroom Instruction that Works: Research Based Strategies for

Increasing Student Achievement, Marzano states that a number of studies have shown that homework has “beneficial results for students in grades as low as 2nd grade.” However, the five citations Marzano cites either do not present research on elementary grades or do not cite any benefit for homework in the lower grades.

• The evaluation model is implemented too narrowly o good tool, bad implementation

PDAS Critique and UpdatesCritiques:• Research indicates that there is “no positive relationship between a teacher's

effectiveness, as assessed by PDAS, and student performance, as assessed by TAKS” (Pate 2009)

• Less than 4% of teachers are rated as anything less than proficient

Updates:• This school year (2013-14) about 100 schools across Texas are piloting two

new teacher evaluation systemso Both systems involve a lot more classroom observations than PDAS

currently requireso Both systems have a history of producing a wider range of scores than

PDAS, with a few teachers emerging with the best or worst scores, and the majority of teachers scoring in the middle

“Standards without Standardization”?

“We have an obligation to raise standards in the interests of improvement and reform, but we must avoid the creation of rigid orthodoxies. We must achieve standards without standardization.

“We must be careful that the knowledge-base approach does not produce an overly technical image of teaching, a scientific enterprise that has lost its soul.

“The serious problems in medicine and other health professions arise when the doctors treat the disease rather than the person, or when the professional or personal needs of the practitioner are allowed to take precedence over the responsibilities to those being served” (Shulman, 1987).

How wide of a rein should be given to teachers to express their individual teaching style and exercise “professional judgement” in the classroom?

How PCK needs to be taught

Shulman’s theory of Pedagogical Content Knowledge heavily emphasizes knowledge growth in teaching.

In Rousing Minds to Life, Tharp and Gallimore speak of schools as an interconnected chain -- each of the links should be teaching the ones below it, but there is startlingly little teaching going on in schools.

For assessment of PCK to be authentic, it has to stem from how we teach them: according to T & G, if teachers could be assessed like we’re assessing them now, the whole art of teaching could be “reduced to a few days of standard in-service training that teachers can implement on their own.”

Teachers have a ZPD, just like students. We are starting to realize that there are many things we assumed would be

automatically acquired (eg. metacognitive reading strategies) that we need to deliberately teach students. Teacher acquisition of PCK falls here.

PCK: Natural Overlap, or New

PlaneDo we need to be looking specifically for PCK? Can we assume they have

good PCK if they have good pedagogical strategies and a good command of content?

We assume they overlap.Knowing the process of inquiry is different from knowing how to connect it

with specific subject matter to anticipate misconceptions and serve students.

“Content knowledge or pedagogical knowledge alone does not contribute much to their professional development.” In teacher prep, preservice teachers are given many isolated pieces they are told are efficacious, and left alone to connect them. Who is assisting the growth of teachers?

Geometry teachers who were given PCK classes but lacked critical pieces of Subject Matter Knowledge. Were unaware of the limits of their knowledge.

Lack context of curricular big picture.

Professionals or Bureaucrats?Teaching is “a complex, humane activity” which educators are brought to by

“higher motives of service.”

YET: “School culture systematically assumes incompetence on the part of teachers... [which] makes not only teachers but the schools themselves incompetent for teaching... [T]he ossified administrative/organizational structures of the schools ... perpetuate the infantilization and unprofessionalism of the American teacher, because the schools will not allow teachers to become professional.”

“Teachers are held bureaucratically accountable for doing certain specific and standardized things that are hierarchically imposed, while they are supposed to be professionally accountable for doing uniquely appropriate things for individual clients.”

BUT: “Educators will not be made more professional and more competent by further isolating them in their classrooms.” To isolate teachers is a profound disservice.

How PCK could be taughtPre-service: SHULMAN: Educate teachers like we educate professionals.

Develop a “knowledge-base” of how process and content should interact. Knowledge-base of case studies: an educator’s Bible.

In-service: T & G: Connect the isolated pieces of the big picture through scaffolding by a knowledgeable guide. “Assisted performance in the ZPD” leads to microgenesis of discrete skills.”Mandating behaviors is necessary when they are not internalized, but internalization must be actively assisted. The “plane” of PCK must be formed.

Offering help “when performance requires assistance” should not be seen as weaknesses or incompetence on the part of the educator.Do accountability evaluations like PDAS erode cooperative learning relationships

between superiors and teachers by making teachers afraid of feeling deficient or failing?

Discussion 3: “Behind the Classroom Door”

How do we maintain balance between holding individual teachers accountable and giving them enough freedom to exercise their professional judgment and respecting their professional integrity?

Which is more important to preserve: teachers’ professional integrity or accountability for implementation of behaviors which are proven to be effective?*

*Please place group response on the T Chart

What opportunities for knowledge growth would best assist teachers in our schools? How could these opportunities be practically implemented?

Answers should be framed in reference to which of the two (from the second question) you prioritize.