Classroom Observation SIG Business Meeting: Envisioning the Next Generation of Classroom Observation Research

Session Type: Business Meeting

Abstract

In this business meeting of the AERA Classroom Observation SIG, we organize a discussion about the next generation of research—with the goal of improving teaching and learning across various contexts. Whereas improvement has been a longstanding goal, classroom observation research over the past generation has focused largely on policy-minded, quantitative studies intended to link qualities of teaching with student achievement outcomes. Coinciding with accountability movements, these studies, in many cases, were associated with efforts to hire, promote, or dismiss teachers on the basis of their performance on standardized measures of teaching effectiveness. After these studies and associated efforts “failed to produce the desired dramatic improvement in outcomes” (Stecher et al., 2018, p. xxvi), as a field we wonder what the next generation of classroom observation research could or should look like to accomplish our noble aims.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Classroom Observation

Chair

• Elizabeth L. Adams, American Institutes for Research

Speakers

• Laura S. Hamilton, National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inc.

• Jose-Felipe Martinez, University of California - Los Angeles

• John A. Williams, Texas A&M University

• Anne Garrison Wilhelm, Southern Methodist University

Participants

• Bryant Jensen, Brigham Young University

• Kathleen Lynch, University of Connecticut

• Shifang Tang, East Texas A&M University

• Rebecca O'Brien, Whitworth University

• Flora J. Harmon, American Institutes for Research

• Elizabeth L. Adams, American Institutes for Research