Investigating Quality in Education and Teaching

Investigating Quality in Education and Teaching

Educational research has for years been concerned with examining quality in education and teaching, and in both educational practice and policy, quality is a recurring theme. Yet it is still a contentious question what we should understand by quality in education and teaching and how it can be explored.

In this Ph.D. masterclass we will deal with different understandings and definitions of quality in education and teaching as well as with different ways of examining quality. The masterclass runs over three days and will alternate between, on the one hand, presentations from and dialogue with international and national researchers and, on the other hand, discussion of and response to submitted papers from the participants.

In addition to increasing the participants' knowledge of different definitions of and ways of examining quality in education and teaching, the masterclass will strengthen the participants' critical stance on this and to different ways of conceptualizing quality in educational practice and policy. At the same time, the masterclass will contribute to a general awareness of the relation between concepts, definitions and research designs/methods.

Presenters:

• Research Professor Trude Nilsen, Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo

  https://www.uv.uio.no/ils/english/people/aca/trudenil/index.html

• Assistant Professor Charalambos Charalambous, Department of Education, University of Cyprus)

  https://www.ucy.ac.cy/dir/en/component/comprofiler/userprofile/cycharal

• Head of Research, Thomas Illum Hansen UCL University College

  https://www.ucviden.dk/da/persons/thomas-illum-hansen

• Professor Nikolaj Elf, Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark

  https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/da/persons/nikolaj-elf

• Associate professor Torben Spanget Christensen, Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark

  https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/da/persons/tosc

• Professor Ane Qvortrup, Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark
   https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/da/persons/anq

Programme:

Monday 23 May 2022

Welcome and introduction to the masterclass, by professor Ane Qvortrup

Lecture by Trude Nilsen: Research on conceptualizations and measurements of teaching quality

Teaching quality is a key to student learning and motivation. This lecture will provide a review of previous research on conceptualizations and measurements of teaching quality, as well as it’s relations to student learning outcomes and motivation. The focus will be on international large-scale assessment, but also other studies will be included (including video-studies of classrooms). Examples from own studies and other studies will be provided. Reflections on future research with regards to conceptualizations, design, measurement, and methods of analysis will be discussed.

References:

1. Senden, Bas; Nilsen, Trude & Blömeke, Sigrid (2021). Instructional Quality: A Review of Conceptualizations, Measurement Approaches, and Research Findings. In Klette, Kirsti; Blikstad-Balas, Marte & Tengberg, Michael (Eds.). Ways of Analyzing Teaching Quality. Potentials and Pitfalls (p. 140-172). Universitetsforlaget. doi: doi.org/10.18261/9788215045054-2021-05.
2. Klieme, Eckhard & Nilsen Trude (in press). Teaching quality and student outcomes in TIMSS and PISA. In T. Nilsen, A. Stancel-Piątak, & J.E. Gustafsson. International Handbook of Comparative Large-Scale Studies in Education: Perspectives, Methods and Findings. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Will be available here: https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-030-38298-8

Workshop by Trude Nielsen: Issues and challenges of conceptualizing and measuring teaching quality

Teaching quality is a key to student learning and motivation. However, what is teaching quality, how is it measured, and how does one analyze data on teaching quality? This workshop will include an introductory short lecture, discussion groups, tasks, and plenary discussions. The focus will be on international large-scale assessment, but also other studies will be included (including video-studies of classrooms). The aim is that the students get an understanding of the issues and challenges of conceptualizing and measuring teaching quality through practical examples, and on methods of analyses.

Tuesday 24 May 2022

Lecture by Charalambos Charalambous (online): Using Classroom Observations to Gauge Teaching Quality: Promise, Challenges, and Open Issues

Classroom observations have for long been considered the golden standard for exploring teaching quality. But are they impeccable? In this presentation, I will discuss the promise and the challenges of using this approach for gauging teaching quality. I will particularly consider issues of conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement and identify problems that future scholarly work ought to address in order to study teaching quality more effectively. I will conclude by underlining the importance of scholarly collaboration in addressing such challenges and open issues.

References:

1. Charalambous, C. Y., Praetorius, A.K., Sammons, P., Walkowiak, T., Jentsch, A., & Kyriakides, L. (2021). Working more collaboratively to better understand teaching and its quality: Challenges faced and open issues. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 71(1), 101092. Doi: 10.1016/j.stueduc.2021.101092
2. Charalambous, C. Y., & Praetorius, A. K. (2020). Creating a forum for researching teaching and its quality more synergistically. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 67, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2020.100894

1. Charalambous, C. Y., & Praetorius A.K. (2018). Studying mathematics instruction through different lenses: Setting the ground for understanding instructional quality more comprehensively. ZDM Mathematics Education, 50(3), 355-366. DOI 10.1007/s11858-018-0914-8.

1. Praetorius, A.K., & Charalambous, C. Y. (2018). Classroom observation frameworks for studying instructional quality: looking back and looking forward. ZDM Mathematics Education, 50(3), 535-553. DOI 10.1007/s11858-018-0946-0
   

Response on papers part 1

Lecture by Thomas Illum Hansen: Et non-kriteriologisk fænomenologisk begreb om kvaliteters erfaringsmæssige grundlag

The purpose of this paper is to present and exemplify a theoretical framework of quality in teaching that combines several perspectives on quality in a model in order to explore different ways of perceiving quality theoretically and empirically. The basis is a distinction between prescribed, experienced and documented quality that is used to clarify what quality is, for whom, how and under what circumstances. Based on theory development under the auspices of the nationwide RCT project Quality in Danish and mathematics (2016-2019), a non-criteriological phenomenological concept of quality experiential basis is argued both as a corrective to a performative and performance-oriented quality concept and as a basis for developing quality in the subjects.

References:
”Kvalitet i undervisningen i kritisk belysning: Mellem performativ præstation og fænomenologisk forankring” (in review). Vil blive delt med deltagerne forud for masterclassen

Lecture by Nikolaj Elf: Epistemological questions in research in teaching quality

This presentation focuses on epistemological questions in research in teaching quality. Referring to the recently published QUINT-chapter The Surplus of Quality attached to this presentation, I elaborate on how a multidimensional understanding of teaching quality could be linked to a practice-based and communicative approach to the analysis of teaching quality in everyday teaching practices. The proposed theoretical framing mediates Anglo-Saxon and Nordic-German traditions for investigating teaching quality both across and within school subjects. I discuss how such an approach becomes meaningful for understanding the ambition of the Nordic Centre of Excellence Quality in Nordic Teaching (QUINT) and its sub-studies.

References:
"The Surplus of Quality: How to Study Quality in Teaching in Three Quint Projects." Chap. 2 InWays of Analysing Teaching Quality: Potentials and Pitfalls, edited by Marte Blikstad-Balas, Kirsti Klette and Michael Tengberg, 53-88. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, 2021.https://www.idunn.no/doi/10.18261/9788215045054-2021-02

Questions and discussion

Wednesday 25 May 2022

Response on papers part 2

Lecture by Torben Spanget Christensen: Observing and interpreting quality in social science teaching

This lecture contributes to a discussion about quality for social science teaching and it presents a tool for social science classroom observation, for both direct and video-based observation. 

It is based on an understanding of classroom teaching as communication. Therefore, it is crucial that an analysis of quality of social science teaching includes a focus on communicative quality. The theoretical basis of the article is therefore threefold. 1) A Bakhtin-inspired communicative approach, 2) sociocultural ethnographic classroom research and 3) social science didactics / social science teaching discourse. Discourse is not only understood as language, but as language in context, which means that it’s not only communication as spoken words, utterances, but also communication as actions (doings) that counts.

It is concluded that communicative quality in social science teaching, and perhaps in teaching in general, can be observed as utterances in the classroom analysed for their coherence between form, content, and goal / intended function, which accordingly are the basic elements of an observation tool developed. The tool aims to keep focus on form, content, and goal / intended function of the basic subject discourse, which functions as an underlying structuring of classroom communication. It is also concluded that the normative basis for social science teaching, can be operationalized and thus serve as a guidance of interpretations of observations made in the classroom of the form and content of teaching

References:
"Observing and interpreting quality in social science teaching” (in review). Vil blive delt med deltagerne forud for masterclassen

Lecture by Ane Qvortrup: Malleable Factors in Teaching

Educational research often separates causes of academic performance or causes of effect into “given,” “endogenous,” or simply “prior” conditions or factors on the one hand, and malleable factors on the other hand. Malleable factors include both what we call institutional factors, such as class size, student–staff ratios, indoor environment, length of the school day, and so on, and pedagogical factors and treatments, that is all types of teaching efforts and teaching strategies or activities. Although there is widespread agreement that malleable factors are important to student learning outcomes, it has been difficult to identify specific factors that are reliably related to student learning outcomes. Possible reasons for this are discussed and a new approach is proposed to investigate malleable factors. The approach is exemplified through a number of own studies of the teaching environment in different contexts.

References:
”Malleable Factors in Teaching: Why and How to Address Them from a Constructivist Perspective” (together with Eva Lykkegaard, in press)

Questions and discussion

Closing the masterclass