Theorizing Teaching: Synthesizing Expert Opinion to Identify the Next Steps

Abstract

This chapter is a synthesis of the views on theorizing teaching put forward in Chaps. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 and those that emerged from the Delphi study in Chap. 10. In considering these views, we discuss a number of questions: Do theories of teaching exist? If they do, how are they defined, what purpose do they serve, and what attributes do they have? How should theories be generated, and is it possible to develop a comprehensive theory of teaching? What role does content specificity and context sensitivity have in the generation of such theories? What role can teachers play in this process and how can theories of teaching inform practice? The chapter considers how and why the contributors’ views on these questions agreed or differed, and identifies pathways to resolving differences. The exercise demonstrates the importance of providing the research community with opportunities for focused and systematic discussion. As the capstone of this book, the chapter also proposes ways in which the field of theorizing teaching can be moved forward.

Measuring the classroom level of the Dynamic Model of Educational Effectiveness through teacher self-report: development and validation of a new instrument

“…According to several authors (Scheerens, 2016;Sánchez-Cabrero et al, 2021;Charalambous and Praetorius, 2023), the Dynamic Model of Educational Effectiveness (DMEE, Creemers and Kyriakides, 2008;Kyriakides et al, 2020) is one of the reference models that encompassed the most relevant theoretical and empirical findings in the field of educational effectiveness. DMEE is a comprehensive and general theoretical framework based on over 40 years of research conducted as part of the Educational Effectiveness Research.…”