Predicting Changes in Young Children's Achievement and Motivation: Differences in Measures of Teaching Effectiveness

• In Event: 61.086 - Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: 61.086-8 - Teacher Practices and Student Learning and Motivation

Abstract

The current focus of federal and state educational efforts aim to increase achievement by ensuring that only effective teachers teach students, which involves differentiating between effective and ineffective teachers. There is very little evidence to help educational administrators decide which of the many available instruments to use to evaluate teachers. We examined two types of observational teacher effectiveness measures, one content independent (i.e., CLASS) and one content specific (i.e., RTOP), in the context of 40 science lessons taught by 10 kindergarten teachers throughout the year. We considered teachers’ effectiveness scores on both instruments in relation to children’s end-of-year growth in science achievement and a range of science motivation measures.

Authors

• Helen Patrick, Purdue University

• Panayota Y. Mantzicopoulos, Purdue University

• Sam Watson, Purdue University

• Scott Tipton, Purdue University

• Inok Ahn, Purdue University