Measuring teacher expertise in the sciences

1. Measuring teacher expertise in the sciences Robin Millar

2. The knowledge base for teaching • What do teachers need to know to be able to teach effectively? • Can we identify different kinds, or areas, of knowledge that teachers require?

3. Knowledge for teaching • Content knowledge • General pedagogical knowledge • Curriculum knowledge • Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) • Knowledge of learners and their characteristics • Knowledge of educational contexts • Knowledge of educational ends, purposes and values From: Shulman, L.S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57 (1), 1-22. See also: Shulman, L.S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15 (2), 4-14.

4. Knowledge for teaching • Content knowledge • General pedagogical knowledge • Curriculum knowledge • Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) • Knowledge of learners and their characteristics • Knowledge of educational contexts • Knowledge of educational ends, purposes and values From: Shulman, L.S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57 (1), 1-22. See also: Shulman, L.S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15 (2), 4-14.

5. Content knowledge • Generally accepted as a necessary condition for effective teaching • Though also widely recognised not to be a sufficient condition • So important to be able to ‘measure’ and evaluate

6. So how might we get a measure of a teacher’s content knowledge at a particular moment in time? • and can we do this in a way that is also formative, and encourages and supports further learning?

7. Some practical issues • Reliability of data obtained from any assessment depends on the amount of testing time • So what is feasible, and reasonable? • A science subject is a large domain • Do we assess knowledge broadly, but not in great depth in each sub-domain? • Or more deeply, but only in some sub-domains? • What kinds of questions do we ask?

8. What kind of question?

9. What kind of question? From: Mazur, E. (1977). Peer instruction (pp. 5-7). Prentice Hall. Average score on Q1: 4.9/10 Average score on Q2: 6.9/10

10. Moving football

11. KS3 responses: Moving football

12. KS4 responses: Moving football

13. Would everyone teaching physics topics at KS3 and 4 get this right? Should everyone teaching physics topics at KS3 and 4 get this right? And how many more questions like this are there?

14. Throwing a ball in the air Correct: ADG Common error: BFG Can you explain why ADG is right and BFG is wrong?

15. SASP Physics • A pre-test containing many diagnostic questions like those above • Perhaps enough questions to indicate broad areas of strength and weakness • But not enough on any given sub-topic to give a full and reliable picture of an individual’s understanding • Used without pre-testing

16. Some things we don’t know • How precise a diagnosis such questions can provide • Will depend on testing time, and subjects’ concentration span • How physics graduates entering teaching would answer them • Whether teachers with some years’ experience would answer them better

17. The way forward • Develop a larger bank of diagnostic questions for each science subject we are interested in • Test and validate these as carefully as possible • Establish how well some key groups can answer them • to establish a baseline • Explore the use of adaptive tests to increase efficiency

18. And remember … • We may also need to develop ways of assessing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, as well as their subject knowledge