Examining Learner Cognitive Attainment as a Basis for Assessing Student Teachers

Testing for Competence: Lessons from Health Professions

This investigation was.conducted to determine whether lear6er coritIveittainment.data:have potential for decisfon-making regarding.thecollipetence. of a1,1 prospectiVe teachers compieting a.SecOndary:teachet education program. Five Conceptual models 'were develqi)ed for detenmining the effectivenest of student teachers in bringing about learn4 er cognitive"attainment. Structural regression equations for theSe modelsmere developed to. analyie the.data 6 ...-7--...collected for 2540 secondary schdol learnerS and,21 Student 1 teachers', Comparisons of. the 'varioUS regression:equations yielded results indicating the professional: 'characteristics Aif the student teather namely, academic major 6nd:overall grade: point ratio, significantly (F=67.69, df2,2536) accounts-for variation amonglearner coghitive attainment scores', Further analyseS'of these .data revealed that education majors produced Substantially higher cognitive attainment'scores among theirelearners tham did non-education majors. Other analyset indicate.-that time-referenced:variables (F.23.52,.df:2,2534) and SuperVisoeratings of the,blanning and instructional effectiveness of Student teahe.ts (F=48..83, df:2.,2532)'also'accOunt for some of ,9e wariability,of learner cognitive attainment.values. Ai might be expecteoL pOsitive relatigns Were fouhd betwatn longer periods:of time Aevoted to instruction and greater learner cognitive'atta4pment. Supercfisor ratings of candidates were found to have a mOdest positive,relation with pore svccessful learners. ,This finding suggesits that supervisor ratings, commonly used as the primary evaluation tool in student teaching, need to be used in combination . with other evaluation instruments to diktermine the competence of teaching candidates, One addftional analysis.addressed classroom behavior styles of individual'student teachers (F=32,46, df:21,2511j. This finding accounted for substantial vplance..in lea'rner cognitive Attainment in thit 'invesiigationand has substanttal significance for an intensive field experience if'a teaching' candidate's-competence is based onfearner cognitive attainment rather than demohstraiion of "teaching-process" skills. The press for accountability in educational settings is no longer reserved for learners in public schools. Experienced teachers and teaching candidates applying for a pbsition with the Dallas Independent School District now must pass aproficiency test tefore being seriotsly considered as a-viable candidate for a teaching position in -that district.. Accioding' tc? Mitchell (,l978), in a recent issue of Atlantic Monthly, this practice was initiated because of the dismal performance records of many newly minted teachers withtrecently acquired teaching certificates in hand. One wonders how and iihy this phenomenwi ha's ,occurred, and what type of evaluation would allow ill-equipped,individuals to attain teaching certificates. Perhaps the experience of Dallas is unique, II it does serve to emphavae the growjng concern publie schocil personnel officqrs and parents have regarding the capabilities of teaching candidates and the tluality of teacher peeparation programs responsible 'for preparing these individuals. The concern about teacher preparation program quality has long been,an issue of great impqrtance. Some time back a multi-stage evaluation system,was established tovonitor the development and implementation of a competency_based teacher education program,(Denton, 1971). Onf stage of this evaluation system focuses on.the student teaching.experience where efforts'have been guided by the common-sense notion that "successful teachers bring about learning in their charges." While this generalization A.s straightforward antis easy fo interpret, implementation of a.plan to. obtain performance data'0n lear4rs is anothen matter. Thus, thfs.investigatfon was conceivedeand conducted to determine whether learner cognftive attainment data 'have potential for deCision-filaking retirding Vie competence of all Prospective teachers completing 0 .teacherpreparAion probram. THEORETICALCONSJDE,RATIONS A p fOr Using learner cognitive attainment as a measure of teaching success.dates hack to tge scientific management era in American schools from 1910 to 1930 (Callahan, 1962). Apparently, this interest continued for some time given the investigations Rostker (1945),-Rolfe (1945) and LaDuke (1945). These investigatorsicollected alltiple teacher and.learner variables while examining teaching ability based on.learner achievemen. Interestingly, these investigators employed rather elabbrate statistical _procedures, i.e., multiple regression, to explain the effects of teacher variables on learner achievement. More recen'tly, Wittrock (1962) studied the impact of learner achievement _ p gains on student teachers by telling the candidates their grades in student teaching depended on_the performance of their learners. When pupil achievement of thele teaching candidates were compared with pupil achievement of,a similarOpup of student teachers who served4ts controlS for this investigatiton,. the learners of the experimental studAtiteachers were found to have attained higher scores on standardized tests in social studies and English. Unfortunately, I the pupils of some of the experimental student teachers expressed more dissatisfact,t with their student teachers than did pupils of.the Control student teachers. During the past decade or*, so, assessment issues in teacher eduCation have receiv substantial attention, due in pet to attempts to plan, develop, and implene petency -based teacher education (CBTE) programs. Two major 4 positions emanating from CBTE regarding assessment of teacher ccopetency are: (1) procedures on ihe one hand which.assess the process and practice of teachlinv candidates and (2) assessment techniques which encourage the cpllection of learner

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Cognitive Attainment of Learners of Student Teachers: A Criterion for Attaining Accountable Teacher Preparation Programs.

University supervisors' evaluations of student teachers were assessed to determine if the cognitive attainment of pupils taught by the student teachers was a rating factor. The sample consisted of 82 secondary level student teachers participating in a competency based teacher education program. Data collected for the study included a summary evaluation instrument, developed by the student teachers, to ascertain their pupils' academic achievement levels. The student teacher supervisors recorded their ratings of student teachers' instructional effectiveness on an evaluation profile scale consisting of 20 instructional skills and eight personal competencies. Final ratings were obtained from a three-way conference among the student teacher, the university supervisor, and the cooperating teacher. Only four cf the 28 ratings areas were found to relate significantly to learner achievement: (1) developing lesson plans; (2) using different levels of classroom questions; (3) performance while student teaching two-week units; and (4) personal energy level. These findings have implications for student teacher evaluation procedures, since they refute the assumption that high student teacher ratings by their supervisors is related to high learner achievement. (FG) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ***********************************************************************

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Patricia M. Kay

Papers

Assessing Preservice Teachers' Competence.