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Conceptualization, Measurement, and Improvement of Classroom Processes: Standardized Observation Can Leverage Capacity

ROBERT C. PIANTA is the dean of the Curry School of Education as well as the Novartis US Foundation Professor of Education and a professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, 405 Emmet Street South, Suite 102, Charlottesville, VA 22903; pianta{at}virginia.edu. His recent work focuses on the assessment of teacher quality, teacher–child interaction, and child improvement, using standardized observational assessment and video feedback.

BRIDGET K. HAMRE is the associate director of the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia, 350 Old Ivy Way, Suite 100, Charlottesville, VA 22903; hamre{at}virginia.edu. Her research interests include student–teacher relationships and classroom processes that promote positive academic and social development for young children.

The authors advance an argument that placing observation of actual teaching as a central feature of accountability frameworks, teacher preparation, and basic science could result in substantial improvements in instruction and related social processes and a science of the production of teaching and teachers. Teachers’ behavioral interactions with students can be (a) assessed observationally using standardized protocols, (b) analyzed systematically with regard to sources of error, (c) validated for predicting student learning, and (d) changed (improved) as a function of specific and aligned supports provided to teachers; exposure to such supports is predictive of greater student learning gains. These methods have considerable promise; along with measurement challenges, some of which pertain to psychometrics, efficiency, and costs, they merit attention, rigorous study, and substantial research investments.

Key Words: classroom research • instruction • measurement • observation • quality • teacher education/development • teacher effectiveness

Educational Researcher, Vol. 38, No. 2, 109-119 (2009)
DOI: 10.3102/0013189X09332374


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