Chapter 9

1. Chapter 9 Improving Instruction Systematically

2. Summary • Systematic, data-based approaches for improving instruction • Event, duration, and interval recording • Planned activity checks (PLA-Checks)

3. Evaluations • Practice and activity time • Class management • Response latency • Student performance and contacts • Instructional feed • Active supervision

4. Effective Instruction • What students learn through contact with the teacher • If students don’t learn, instruction did not occur • “Students learn when teachers teach” • Positive changes in behavior occur • Change is observable

5. Improving Teaching Skills • Learning to teach is cyclical • Prescribe • Analyze • Change • Active participation • Update techniques • Incorporate new skills

6. The Need for Goals and Feedback • Goals and feedback developed concurrently • Objective means of evaluation • Information used to modify future responses • Establish data base • Collect meaningful data

7. The Need for Systematic Feedback • Subjective evaluations frequently used: • Checklists • Rating scales • Observation • Need for reliable methods for self-improvement

8. Evaluating Effective Instruction • Three major areas • Teacher behavior • Movement • Instruction presentation • Praise-to-criticism ratio • Use of first names • Length of instructional episodes

9. Evaluating Effective Teaching • Student behavior • Rate of deviant behavior • Time on task • Number of practice trials • Time in physical activity

10. Evaluating Effective Teaching • Indicators of learning • Student skill performance • Knowledge • Attitudes

11. Systematically Observing Instruction • Keys to observation • Define area to be evaluated • Write out definitions

12. Event Recording • How many times an event occurs • Frequency • Quantity of events, not quality • Divided by the number of minutes in the evaluation session • Rate per minute • Allows for comparisons between lessons

13. Duration Recording • How long behavior occurs • Time • Representative sampling, not whole lesson • Converted to percentages • Allows for comparisons between lessons

14. Interval Recording • Analysis for short periods of time • 6–12 seconds in length • Interval of observing followed by interval of recording • Minimum of 90 data points • Convert data to percentages • Use with instruction and managerial time

15. PLA-Check Recording/Group Time Sampling • Behavior observed at different intervals • Observe group behavior • Scan group for 10 seconds • Look for off-task behavior • Identify student effort, productive activity, and participation • Observation intervals followed by recording intervals

16. Observation for Self-Improvement • Decide what to observe • Decide what method to use • Develop a meaningful evaluation plan • Develop coding form(s) • Reveals actual patterns exhibited in day-to-day teaching

17. Improving the Quality of Instruction • Implementing a well-planned lesson = quality instruction • Improvement based on experience and meaningful feedback • Set personal goals • Chart performance

18. Instructional Time • Includes: • Initial demonstration • Cues • Explanations to begin activity • Deals specifically with physical education content • Balance between instruction and practice • Goal to limit instructional episodes to 45 seconds or less

19. How? • Design a form • Student or colleague uses a watch and starts and stops each episode, or tape lesson • Total the amount of time spent in instruction • Convert to percentage of lesson time

20. Sample Form for Instructional Time

21. Time Management • No instruction or practice taking place • Gathering and replacing equipment • Moving students into formations • Taking roll and records • Changing clothes

22. Classroom Management Episodes • Determine management time: • Design a form • Record the lesson using a videotape • Total the management time and divide by lesson length • Total the number of episodes and divide into total management time

23. Response Latency • Time it takes a class to respond to a command or signal • Returning to squads after activity • From the time a stop command is given to the time the next command given or class involved in productive behavior • Lapsed time = response latency • Criterion based on percentage of students expected to be on task • Some response latency is expected

24. Practice and Activity Time • Academic Learning Time-Physical Education (ALT-PE) • Activity where students are practicing skills successfully • Learning related to on-task, productive activity • Duration recording is an effective tool

25. Student Performance • Percentage of students performing in a desired manner • Students performing activity as directed • Productive behavior • Effort • Interest in activity

26. Instructional Feedback • Influences instructional effectiveness • Evaluate to set meaningful goals for self-improvement • Praise and criticism • How is feedback delivered? • Tally occurrences • Calculate ratio of positive-to-negative comments • Set goals to modify ratio

27. General Feedback • Can be either negative or positive • Does not specify behavior being enforced • General feedback can reinforce undesirable behavior

28. Specific Feedback • Identifies the behavior • Uses student’s name • Accompanied by a value statement

29. General vs. Specific Feedback • Evaluate by tracking number of occurrences • How often student first names used? • Number of valuing statements?

30. Corrective Instructional Feedback • Meaningful • Focuses on improving performance • Specific when possible • Nonverbal feedback • Equal and more effective than some other forms of communication

31. Active Supervision • Maintain student involvement • Offers personalized information • Student problems frequently reduced by active teacher involvement • Measured by location and time spent in each area

32. Research and Supervision • Systems available for tracking more complex teaching or student behaviors • Instruments for tracking • Class time management analysis • Signal for attention analysis • Event recording • OSU MS-PETE supervision coding form • ASU Observation Instrument

33. Class Time Management Analysis Form • Observe multiple segments of class time • Reflective analysis should also be done

34. Reflective Analysis • Used to analyze teaching skills • Helps focus on NASPE teaching standards

35. Attention Analysis • Analyze a teacher’s attention signals • Track student response latency • Observe teacher reactions to student behavior • Can calculate: • Average lengths of time for response latencies • Percentages of teacher reaction behaviors • Reflective analysis also needed

36. Event Recording • Select behaviors to analyze in a lesson • Types of feedback given to students • Nonverbal behavior • Idiosyncratic behaviors • Focus on behaviors and skills that need extra analysis and attention • Gives flexibility in development of personal growth plan • Reflective analysis needed

37. Event Recording Form

38. OSU MS-PETE Supervision Coding Form • Used by principals and college or district supervisors • Multiple teaching and student behaviors analyzed concurrently • Category and behavior definitions need to be learned and practiced by supervisors and teachers

39. Oregon State University MS-PETE Supervision Coding Form

40. ASU Observation Instrument (ASUOI) • Focuses on 14 teacher behavior categories • Sensitive to the behavior instructional category • Behaviors represented as RPM and percentage • Used to analyze and set goals for teaching behaviors • Use of instructional categories • Praise-to-scold ratios • Management procedures • Hustle behaviors