Developing a Typology of Student Teachers' Diagnostic Skills by Assessing Them With Diagnostic Notes

• In Event: 60.032 - Teacher Education Outcomes: A Multimethod Multitrait Perspective on Teacher Competence

Abstract

Objectives
The diagnosis of learning processes is one of the core tasks of pre-school teachers (Viernickel & Schwarz, 2010). This study examines the nature of these teachers' diagnostic skills by analyzing their written diagnostic notes about children's mathematical learning processes. The objective is to develop a typology of pre-school teachers' diagnostic skills by identifying and validating different profiles of these.

Theoretical framework
The diagnostic skills of teachers have a positive influence on their students’ achievement gains in mathematics (Brunner, Anders, Hachfeld & Krauss, 2013). However, pre-school teachers' diagnostic assessments are rarely documented and analyzed. In German-speaking countries, on average less than half of the children receive a written diagnosis (Walter-Laager & Pfiffner, 2011). Studies on the structure and the content of these written diagnostic notes are completely missing.

Methods
A web-based monitoring method for the assessment of children's developmental processes aged 0-9 years (KiDiT®) was used. KiDiT® saves pre-school teachers' diagnostic notes. All notes from this online database were used for the current study. They were firstly analyzed qualitatively using content analysis (Mayring, 2010) and the software max.qda. Secondly, latent profiles will be identified by applying latent class analysis (LCA).

Data sources
To answer the research question, pre-school teachers' diagnostic notes of N = 664 children aged 4 to 6 years from Germany and Switzerland were analyzed. Each child received between 1 and 31 diagnostic notes. The nested nature of the data will be taken into account in the LCA.

Hypothesized Results
Data analyzing is currently taking place. It is hypothsized that categories reflecting the structure and the content of written diagnoses vary, for example, with respect to the focus of the diagnostic assessments (e.g., cognitive development versus interest of the children) or the mathematical content area (e.g., number versus geometry). Based on these categories, profiles can be identified and validated against external criteria reflecting different diagnostic skills and practices.

Scientific significance of the study
The results of this study document the reliability and validity of written notes as a new and innovative type of diagnostic assessments.

Authors

• Julia Bruns, Humboldt University - Berlin

• Lars Eichen

• Catherine Walter-Laager, Carl von Ossietzky Universität - Oldenburg

• Manfred Rolf Pfiffner, Das Eidgenássische Hochschulinstitut fnr Berufsbildung