Current debates in teaching effectiveness research underline the importance of moving from using classroom observation frameworks to describe and evaluate teaching, to a focus on how these frameworks can support teacher learning (Gitomer, 2024). Among the many qualitative aspects that feedback to teachers may cover, feedback grounded in the content-specific issues a teacher is struggling with is more likely to lead improvement in teaching. Beyond the dichotomy between subject-specific versus generic frameworks for classroom observation, Bell et al., (2015) pointed the importance of considering the system of observers, frameworks constructs and training for using these frameworks, as means to understand their full potential. This paper explores the content and task-related constructs embedded a qualitative subject-generic framework designed for capturing how knowledge content develops in the classroom and how the students are enabled to participate in this development. The Model for analyzing Teaching Quality based on the Joint action framework in Didactics (JAD-MTQ; Ligozat & Buyck, 2024; in press) stems from comparative didactics research in French-speaking countries. This model systematizes classroom observations according to three dimensions: 1) Selection of knowledge content and tasks, 2) Structuring of learning situations and 3) Organization teacher- student interactions. From the assessment of the teaching quality of the Norwegian lesson in mathematics at grade 8 suggested as an empirical basis in this symposium, we will shed light on the knowledge about the mathematical content that an observer needs for using constructs such as Relation to subject epistemology (in Dimension 1); Continuities in the milieu (in Dimension 2), and Teacher’s uptake of students meaning-making (in Dimension 3). Such constructs are not subject-specific, but they can be said “content-related” because their use relies upon the analysis of the content of instructional tasks by the observer. To some extent, these constructs also relate to the domains of a subject, or even the school subject in certain occurrences. From this analysis, we argue that the JAD-MTQ is a subject-generic “didactic” framework, which can contribute to assessing the quality of teaching based on content specificity. From this paper, we expect opening a dialogue between the implicit/explicit content knowledge for handling classroom observation frameworks and the notion of subject didactic knowledge developed in European Didactics research (Rothgangel & Vollmer, 2020) to conceptualize teachers’ professional knowledge.

Bell, C. A., Drake, C., Frasier, A., Wilson, M., & Kim, J. (2015, avril 17). Subject-Specific and General Observation Protocols as Tools for the Evaluation and Improvement of Teaching. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, Illinois. https://www.aera.net/Publications/Online-Paper-Repository/AERA-Online-Paper-Repository Gitomer, D. (2024, août). The Productive Use of Disagreement in Observational Ratings. Keynote at the EARLI SIG 18 « Promoting Educational Quality: Contribution of Educational Effectiveness and Improvement Research », Cyprus. Ligozat, F., & Buyck, Y. (2024). Comparative didactics : Toward a generic model for analyzing content-specific dimensions of teaching quality. European Educational Research Journal, 23(6), 810 838. https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041241257282 Ligozat, F., & Buyck, Y. (in press). Conceptualizing Teaching Quality About and Beyond Subject-Specificity through the Lens of the JAD-MTQ. School Effectiveness and School Improvement. Rothgangel, M., & Vollmer, H. J. (2020). Towards a Theory of Subject-Matter Didactics. RISTAL - Research in Subject-Matter Teaching and Learning, 3, 126 146. https://www.ristal.org/archive/news/towards-a-theory-of-subject-matter-didactics/?tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&cHash=f30a113c204e2e84b93dfe68699b0a84