Friday, February 4, 2011

How is class time related to student achievement?

In the next coming years an emphasis will be placed on the teachers ability to teach the material in a effective way. Not only will this be monitored through standardized test results but through annual overview of teachers effectiveness. This places a accountability on the teachers. For example a Physical education teacher can be evaluated through a SOFIT assessment this tracks the type of instruction, Activity level and practice time of the students. The same kind of evaluations are being implemented into the general education classrooms. The question of, How much time on the material is related to the student achievement. The common thought is that the more time you spend on a topic the more knowledge you will retain, yes Practice makes perfect. Although it is how the content is delivered. Now a days teachers are being urged to deliver the content thorough Intra-task variation which means that teachers teach to the different levels of learning. When you teach to the high and low students in the room at the same time. With this Intra-task variation and elongated time on material; i think it will have a direct impact on student learning and achievement. Yearly evaluations will let teachers reflect upon one's teaching style. This is great because teachers should always be refining there methods and theories that way they produce the best possible learning environment for the students. These evaluations of the teachers will go in correspondence with president Obama's educational reform, where he states that he wants to reward the good teachers and weed out the bad".

1 comment:

  1. Good point about assessment and practice - but we also want to make sure that it is "perfect" practice in that it is focused in a mastery environment and that we have both summative and cumulative feedback and assessment.

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