Session Information
31 SES 09 A, Observations of Pedagogical Excellence in Teaching Across Nations (OPETAN): Results from a Four Nation Study
Symposium
Contribution
This symposium presents four analyses of data from an international dataset collected in Germany, Finland, the US and the UK during the 2017-2018 academic year. The overarching study, OPETAN (which means, “I Teach” in Finnish and stands for Observations of Pedagogical Excellence in Teaching Across Nations), consists of 32 observations of general education content teachers who have a reputation for excellence in their work with multilingual students.
In this study, the multilingual students we focus on are students with an immigration background, who do not usually speak the language of instruction at home, and whose typical language practices are minoritized without much cultural, political or economic power or privilege in their local context (Flores & Rosa, 2015). Our definition excludes students who speak the language of instruction at home and are also fluent users of other dominant and powerful languages (e.g. Finnish-speaking students in Finland who are also fluent in English and Swedish).
The research questions for the larger study are as follows:
- What does quality instruction consist of and look like in content classrooms for multilingual learners in four different national contexts?
- What similarities exist across the four national contexts?
- What differences exist across the four national contexts?
To answer these questions, we focused on observations of classroom instruction framed by the Standards for Effective Pedagogy (Tharp, Estrada, Dalton & Yamauchi, 2000; Tharp, 2006; Teemant, Leland & Berghoff, 2014). These standards are grounded in critical sociocultural theory (Freire, 1994; Vygotsky, 1978) and operationalize critical sociocultural instructional practices in a sufficiently flexible manner as to capture pedagogical excellence diverse national contexts. Specifically, the standards focus on Joint Productive Activity (teachers and students producing together), Language and Literacy Development (developing language and literacy across the curriculum), Contextualization (connecting school learning to students’ lives outside of school), Challenging Activities (teaching complex thinking), Instructional Conversation (teaching through dialogue), Critical Stance (teaching to transform inequities), and Modeling (learning through observation). Each standard has levels of practice articulated in the rubric we utilized for this study (Appendix A) and has been thoroughly researched (e.g., Doherty & Hilberg, 2007; Doherty, Hilberg, Epaloose, & Tharp, 2002; Tharp, Estrada, Dalton & Yamauchi, 2000; Teemant & Hausman, 2013; [AT1] Teemant, Leland, & Berghoff, 2014). We find these standards to be the strongest theoretically and empirically grounded framework in existence that had the possibility of being productive across all four national contexts.
The research team prepared by participating in online meetings to learn about the observation protocol and the standards. Team members collected data in local and international contexts as as local funding allowed. The PI of the project participated in all 32 observations to ensure inter-rater reliability and data collection consistency. After each observation the team of researchers discussed the observation and came to agreement on protocol ratings. Expansive fieldnotes were taken by each participating researcher. Team discussions of the larger dataset led to further analyses of data at the country level based on additional questions. These four papers are represented in this symposium, and include one analysis looking across the whole study, one in-depth study from Finland, one comparison of the US/UK data, and a look across all 32 observations regarding the standard “Joint Productive Activity.”
The purpose of this symposium is to share the research findings from the OPETAN study in expansive, complementary, and nuanced ways. We further wish to illustrate the possibilities of internationally developed and implemented research that was managed with no overarching funding. The possibilities of the OPETAN study are both in the findings as well as the methods for possible replication.
References
Doherty, R. W., Hilberg, R. S., Epaloose, G., & Tharp, R. G. (2002). Standards Performance Continuum: Development and validation of a measure of effective pedagogy. Journal of Educational Research, 96(2), 78-89. Doherty, R. W., & Hilberg, R. S. (2007). Standards for effective pedagogy, classroom organization, English proficiency, and student achievement. The Journal of Educational Research, 101(1), 24-35. doi:10.3200/JOER.101.1.24-35 Flores, N. & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 149-171. Freire, P. (1994). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. Teemant, A., & Hausman, C. S. (2013, April 15). The relationship of teacher use of critical sociocultural practices with student achievement. Critical Education, 4(4). Retrieved from http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/article/view/182434. Teemant, A., Leland, C., & Berghoff, B. (2014). Development and validation of a measure of critical stance for instructional coaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 39, 136-147. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2013.11.008 Tharp, R. G., Estrada, P., Dalton, S. S., & Yamauchi, L. A. (2000). Teaching transformed: Achieving excellence, fairness, inclusion, and harmony. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Tharp, R. G. (2006). Four hundred years of evidence: Culture, pedagogy, and Native America. Journal of American Indian Education, 45(2), 6-25. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes.(M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E Souberman, Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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