The aim of this symposium is to illustrate and evaluate different observation manuals targeted towards measure teaching qualities.

While observation manuals have been a part of the methodological toolkit for measuring qualities of instruction for decades, the field has also been suffering from “paradigm wars”, fragmentation and local production of instruments (Darling Hammond et al., 2010; Klette 2009). There is an urgent need for standardization, harmonization and integration of measures. If the field of “measuring teaching qualities” is to move forward we have to develop programmatic research that address a set of questions over time, scholars argue. Grossman and McDonalds (2008, p 198) underscore the critical role of developing common instruments for investigating teaching, including observation protocols for teaching that are both generic and subject specific. Such common tools for research developed within an integrated methodological design could help researchers making progress in aggregating knowledge about the impact of different teaching approaches across settings and subjects.

This symposium serve as one such integrative mechanism and compare ‘local’ protocols from respectively Chile (Grau), US (Grossman), and Europe (Norway (Klette) and Switzerland (Ligozat)). However all protocols are also ‘global’ as they are theory driven and draw on a shared knowledge base when trying to understand and measure qualities of teaching. Furthermore all these protocols are using video data or video documentation as raw data when testing out the different manuals. Scholars and experts around the world agree that the advantages of collection of videos of teaching practices are significant (Hiebert et al., 2003; Clarke et al, 2006; Janik & Seidel, 2009; Klette 2009). Video can reveal practices more clearly, facilitate discovery of new alternatives, stimulate to discussion about suitable coding categories and choices within each instructional practice and context, and thus deepen educators’ understanding of teaching. Video data further facilitates secondary analysis and increases inter-rater reliability and enhance training facilities.

The suggested symposium will give status, overview and focus of the different observation manuals, and discuss how these manuals and coding schemes could be used for developing common instruments for investigating teaching and learning in classrooms. The protocols convey both generic and subject specific ambitions.

Pam Grossman (US) will discuss how the PLATO instrument serve as a tool for measuring teaching practices in English/ Language classrooms.

Florence Ligozat (Switzerland): discusses how coding categories must be linked to longer time segments in order to be relevant for measuring qualities of instruction in science classrooms. She argues how the didactical interpretation remains dependent upon the progression of the content.

Kirsti Klette (Norway) discusses challenges when trying to capture subject specific issues within an observation format. Coding categories might serve well as measures of instruction and interactions patterns while the content and subject specificity easily get lost, she argues.

Valeska Grau (Chile) discusses convergences and contradictions of different ways to observe classroom interaction in Chilean primary classrooms filmed in the context of the National teaching assessment program.