Section archive - Assessment & Evaluation

This article argues for the value of using student ratings to measure quality of teaching. An international study to test the validity of the dynamic model of educational effectiveness was conducted. At classroom level, the model consists of eight factors relating to teacher behaviour: orientation, structuring, questioning, teaching modelling, application, management of time, teacher role in making classroom a learning environment and assessment. The analyses revealed that student ratings are reliable and valid for measuring the functioning of the teacher factors of the dynamic model.

The goal of this article is to report on the challenges the authors faced in designing an instrument aimed at measuring pre-service science teachers’ topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (PCK(. The discussion focuses on the implications of the aforementioned PCK assessment tool for enhancing pre-service science teachers’ topic-specific PCK and the challenges associated with measuring and enhancing pre-service science teachers’ PCK. Furthermore, the discussion focuses on the ways in which science-teacher educators can engage in transforming the concept of PCK and its use for research and professional development.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the implementation of the Video Assessment of Interactions in Learning (VAIL) as a standardized measure of preservice teacher learning. Based on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, the VAIL measures participants’ ability to identify effective teaching strategies and interactions related to emotional supports, classroom organization, and instructional supports. The data suggest that the VAIL may be a useful tool in examining preservice teacher learning. However, large variability in preservice teachers’ ability to identify effective teaching strategies and behaviors remains unexplained by this model.

This article describes grade inflation as compromises the signaling value of grades and undermines their capacity to achieve the functions for which they are intended. Therefore, the authors argue that grade inflation must be understood in terms of the signaling power of grades. Analyzing data from four nationally representative samples, they find that in the decades following 1972: (a) grades have risen at high schools and dropped at 4-year colleges, in general, and selective 4-year institutions, in particular; and (b) the signaling power of grades has attenuated little, if at all.