The purpose of this study was to examine previously unexplored relationships among the organizational contexts of schools and classrooms, teachers’ psychological states, and change in individual teacher practice through staff development unassociated with school or district innovation. A path model, based on theories of individual behavior and change within organizations, is presented and tested using a sample of teachers who voluntarily participated in a staff development program aimed solely at improving individual teacher practice. The findings from the path analysis suggest that, in the absence of organizational foci and pressures for change associated with school or district innovation, individual change is a direct function of personal teaching efficacy. The findings suggest indirect influences on individual change of teachers’ certainty about practice, the concentration of low-achieving students in teachers’ classrooms, and the interactions teachers have with their colleagues about instruction. The...

The Enhancement Function of Staff Development: Organizational and Psychological Antecedents to Individual Teacher Change

This article presents a conceptual framework for examining the design and implementation of teacher evaluation processes in school organizations. Research on teaching, organizational behavior, and policy implementation suggests that different educational and organizational theories underlie various teacher evaluation models. The conceptions of teaching work and of change processes reflected in teacher evaluation methods must be made explicit if educational goals, organizational needs, and evaluation purposes are to be consonant and well served.

Teacher Evaluation in the Organizational Context: A Review of the Literature

The Elementary School Journal Volume 85, Number 3 ? 1985 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 001 3-5984/85/8503-0003$01 .00 State policies intended to improve education generally try either to set educational standards or to shape the educational process. Although states also seek to improve education through the allocation of funds, in recent years they have placed more emphasis on regulation-setting standards in the form of tests to be passed or educational procedures to be followed. Some policies are targeted on students; others, on teachers. The policies, of course, also affect schools, school systems, and, in certain cases, schools of education. In this paper, however, we focus on how policies affect the teacher-learner relationship as it occurs in classrooms.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED245353.pdf

Beyond Standardization: State Standards and School Improvement.

Teacher characteristics and teaching styles as effectiveness enhancing factors of classroom practice

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of students' background and perceptions on science attitude and achievement. The data analysed came from Booklet 4 given to 17-year-olds during the 1976–1977 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) survey. Causal modeling procedures were used to analyze the data. In particular, the LISREL method which underlies the LISREL IV computer program, (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1978) was employed. The influence of five background variables (sex, race, home environment, amount of homework, and parents' education) on three dependent variables (student perception of science instruction, student attitudes, and student achievement) was examined. Sex, race, and the home environment were shown to have substantial influence on student achievement in science. Further, two different models were tested: a model in which attitudes influence achievement and its converse (achievement influences attitudes). The data supported the first model, that is, attitudes influence achievement.

Influence of students' background and perceptions on science attitudes and achievement

This review examines a model for investigating school and teacher variables which influence student achievement. The structural model, presented in the first part of the review, includes examples of variables and their expected relationships to each other and to student learning outcomes. Variables are grouped as: (1) school or school district conditions, (2) within school conditions, (3) teacher characteristics, (4) teaching behavior, (5) student characteristics, (6) student behavior, and (7) student learning outcomes. A summary of some of the school effects and teacher behavior research, presented in the second and third section of the review, generally supports the expected relationships among variables in the model.

John A. Centra

Papers

School and Teacher Effects: An Interrelational Model