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Middle Leadership - Conversation with Kylie Lipscombe

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Middle Leadership - Conversation with Kylie Lipscombe

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Middle leadership_Conversation with Kylie Lipscombe 

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Middle Leadership: A partnership in teaching and learning

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Middle Leadership: A partnership in teaching and learning

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AEL - Vol 43 Issue 2 2021 - Middle leadership - A partnership in teaching and learning

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Understanding collaborative teacher teams as open systems for professional development

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Understanding collaborative teacher teams as open systems for professional development

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Understanding collaborative teacher teams as open systems for professional development

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Validity and Design of Classroom Assessment in Teacher Teams

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Validity and Design of Classroom Assessment in Teacher Teams

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https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-021-00437-9

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Abstract

The validity of evidence obtained from classroom assessments in schools is an important concept as significant decisions are made from teachers' judgments of this evidence. However, what is not clear are the classroom assessment practices that teacher teams use to ensure that the evidence of student learning produced from classroom assessments is valid for their purpose. This qualitative study examined the assessment practices, focussing on validity, from three primary school teacher teams in Australia as they designed classroom assessments in mathematics. From the analysis, four broad themes associated with validity were identified: alignment with curriculum and instruction, catering for student abilities, the scoring rubric and using classroom assessments data to meet students' needs. These findings could contribute to research and assessment practices in schools that enhance the validity of the evidence collected from classroom assessments.

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References

Bonner, S. (2017). Using learning theory and validity theory to improve classroom assessment research, design, and implementation. Paper presented at the National Council on Measurement in Education San Antonio, Texas.

Frey, B. B., & Schmitt, V. L. (2010). Teachers' classroom assessment practices. Middle Grades Research Journal, 5(3), 107-117.

Google Scholar

NSW Education Standards Authority (2019). Recording evidence. https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/understanding-the-curriculum/assessment/recording-evidence.

Popham, W. J. (1997). Consequential validity: Right concern - wrong concept. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 16(2), 9-13.

Article Google Scholar

Veldhuis, M., & van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, M. (2019). Supporting primary school teachers' classroom assessment in mathematics education: Effects on student achievement. Mathematics Education Research Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-019-00270-5

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Author information

Affiliations

School of Education, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, New South Wales, 2525, Australia

Kellie Buckley-Walker & Kylie Lipscombe

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kellie Buckley-Walker.

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Appendices

Appendix

Initial interview questions

1. 1.
What does the term classroom assessment mean to you?

2. 2.
Explain how your beliefs on assessment are similar and/or different to your colleagues?

3. 3.
Describe your experiences (e.g. what types of assessments have you designed, how many tasks have you designed) of designing assessments

1. a.
On your own.

2. b.
As a part of a team (e.g. did you have specific roles).

4. 4.
Thinking of your experiences of designing assessments on your own, describe the processes or steps that you go through in designing assessments. What are the strengths and limitations of this process?

5. 5.
Thinking about your experiences in designing collaborative assessments.

1. a.
Describe how the processes of designing assessments as part of a team are similar and/or different to designing assessments on your own.

2. b.
Who participates in the design of collaborative assessment tasks?

3. c.
How do team members participate with one another?

4. d.
How do the collaborative processes impact the final product of the assessment task?

5. e.
What are the strengths and limitations of this process?

6. f.
What did you learn from the collaborative process of designing classroom-based assessments?

Final interview questions

The Final Interview Questions will be based on the answers supplied in the initial interview and the recorded meetings and final assessment produced. Stimulated recall will be used on the final product to aid the participants with their recall of the experiences.

Example questions:

1. 1.
As we view the final product of the assessment task, can you tell me about:

1. a.
The processes that took place in the design of the assessment task?

2. b.
Your contributions to the final product?

3. c.
Your team member's contributions to the final product?

2. 2.
How would you judge the success of the collaborative processes of your team?

1. a.
What elements contributed to the success?

2. b.
What elements were obstacles or challenges?

3. 3.
How would you judge the success of the collaborative processes on the final product?

1. a.
What elements contributed to the success?

2. b.
What elements were obstacles or challenges?

4. 4.
Did your beliefs on assessment change due the collaborative process? Do you think you were able to influence the belief of your colleagues, if so in what way?

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Buckley-Walker, K., Lipscombe, K. Validity and the design of classroom assessment in teacher teams. Aust. Educ. Res. 49, 425-444 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-021-00437-9
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Keywords

Validity

Classroom assessment

Primary school

Teacher teams

Qualitative study

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Validity and the design of classroom assessment in teacher teams - The Australian Educational Researcher

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The validity of evidence obtained from classroom assessments in schools is an important concept as significant decisions are made from teachers' judgments of this evidence. However, what is not clear are the classroom assessment practices that teacher teams use to ensure that the evidence of student learning produced from classroom assessments is valid for their purpose.

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School Middle Leadership: A Systematic Review

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School Middle Leadership: A Systematic Review

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really clear and practical overview of facilitation styles - how easy do you think it would be for ML to learn these skills?

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Kylie, what do you see as being the relationship between confidence and self-awareness of middle leaders and effectiveness of facilitating which you've described? There can often be a pressure on middle leaders to be expected to 'know' all the answers which links to Stephen Katz around imposter syndrome.

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The importance of not making assumptions - asking those questions to ensure clarity and shared understanding. Often we miss this section to move onto the work...but time spent clarifying is crucial.

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Fascinating reflections on facilitation. How often do we really explore the role of facilitators? Thinking on times as a facilitator I have been "too expert".

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In the world of Community Learning & Development we use peer evaluation a lot in our practice with teams and partnerships.

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Facilitation - it's interesting how we can have difficulty structuring such sessions when we should be doing it at least 4/5 times a day for our young people

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These questions support a coaching approach to conversations...

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Respectfully challenging opinions can be difficult and is one of the things I have always worked hardest on (pre ML roles as well) as some can become immediately defensive, which is absolutely not the intent- it's always to inform and move forward.

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It strikes me from my experience how poor many middle leaders are when it comes to facilitating the collaboration they should be able to do quite naturally as they should be doing similar things in classrooms 4-5 times a day with young people. Perhaps they aren't doing so? Although some might say there are slightly different stresses working with adults, I'd say we should reflect these democratic practices at all levels. What would you say around how to use co-operative learning to help develop facilitation?

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I always viewed that I do more listening rather than talking as a negative but your words have made me think that this might actually be a strength.

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How do we support middle leaders to be able to focus on the benefits of middle leadership and not end up as the 'go-between' for practitioners and senior managers. That takes input and agreement from all parties.  Everyone has their own 'agenda', so how can we support middle leaders to use their influencing powers to get the best for everyone?

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How do we support middle leaders to be able to focus on the benefits of middle leadership and not end up as the 'go-between' for practitioners and senior managers. That takes input and agreement from all parties.  Everyone has their own 'agenda', so how can we support middle leaders to use their influencing powers to get the best for everyone?

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Middle leadership_Conversation with Kylie Lipscombe 

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The 5 key characteristics are good to take away to understand the role and to further critique. One of the main difficulties I have noticed with the role is that Middle leadership can become a 'broker' between teachers vs senior leaders in a school to nursery teams via management etc. It was interesting to read and reflect on this.