Teachers’ constructs of effective classroom practice: variations across career phases

‘It ain't (only) what you do, it's the way that you do it’: A mixed method approach to the study of inspiring teachers

“…The project utilised a pragmatic‐constructivist approach and the mixed methods design enabled the participants to be in control of the way their experiences are framed and articulated. Mixed methods research has rapidly increased in popularity since 2000 as an alternative to a purely qualitative or quantitative piece of research (Tashakkori & Teddlie, , ; Burke & Onwuegbuzie, ; Gorard & Smith, ; Teddlie & Sammons, ; Kington et al., ; Sammons & Davis, ). This study aimed to provide new evidence regarding: (i) inspiring teachers as individuals and collectively; and (ii) inspiring teaching as a practice using a number of perspectives in order to increase knowledge and understanding of these concepts.…”

“…However, in addition to collecting data from participant teachers, data were also generated via tools administered to the head teachers and students taught in a class from each teacher. Instruments utilised for this research had been designed, developed ‘and/or validated in the English context’ (Sammons et al., 2016a, p. 17) during a previous ESRC‐funded study of Effective Classroom Practice (ECP) (Kington et al., ). These included: Semi‐structured interviews—face‐to‐face interviews were conducted to collect the views, opinions and perceptions of teachers (Appendix ); Classroom systematic observation—two international observational instruments were administered in each classroom to explore teacher behaviours and effectiveness (Appendix and ); Classroom qualitative field notes—these were collected in each classroom giving a rich description of the lessons under observation; Ranking sheets—these were emailed to teachers and head teachers to explore the relative importance assigned to a number of teacher attributes; Student survey—this questionnaire was administered by the research team to students taught by participant teachers to collect their perceptions and views. …”

“…One of the key features of this study was the exploration ‘of the relative importance that teachers and head teachers in the study assigned to different teacher attributes’ (Sammons et al., 2016a, p. 38). In order to provide data triangulation, all of the participating teachers and the head teachers, were invited to complete a structured ranking sheet based on the constructs of inspiring and effective teachers that originally emerged from the analysis of a repertory grid interview conducted as part of the ECP project (Kington et al., ). There were 17 constructs in total and participants in this study were asked to rank them in order of priority to them, with no equal rankings allowed.…”

“…However, in addition to collecting data from participant teachers, data were also generated via tools administered to the head teachers and students taught in a class from each teacher. Instruments utilised for this research had been designed, developed 'and/or validated in the English context' (Sammons et al, 2016a, p. 17) during a previous ESRC-funded study of Effective Classroom Practice (ECP) (Kington et al, 2014). These included:…”

“…Definitions of teacher effectiveness typically seek to measure teacher/class effects on student progress in some way, while controlling for students’ prior attainment and other baseline measures using statistical models. In addition, because of the findings that teaching approaches and strategies typically vary across different school contexts, studies that explore the role of school context have often included case studies and argued for context specificity to be included in definitions (Teddlie & Stringfield, ; Luyten, ; Luyten & Snijders, ; Muijs et al., ; Day et al., 2006b; Creemers et al., ; Kington et al., ). Observational studies especially using systematic instruments developed in international collaborations have also highlighted variations in teacher behaviours and classroom processes and their associations with student outcomes (Campbell et al., ; Ko et al., ; Muijs et al., ).…”