Using Educational Effectiveness Research for Promoting Quality of Teaching: The Dynamic Approach to Teacher and School Improvement

Abstract

AbstractThe chapter discusses the need of using a theory-driven and evidence-based approach for teaching improvement purposes and argues that the dynamic model of educational effectiveness may be used for establishing links between educational effectiveness research and research on teaching improvement. In the first part of the chapter the main elements of the dynamic model are presented with an emphasis at the factors operating at classroom level and their measurement dimensions. The first part also provides an overview of national and international studies conducted to test the validity of the dynamic model at classroom level. These empirical studies have provided support for the importance of factors included in the dynamic model (such as application, modelling, student assessment etc.), with regard to their effects on student learning outcomes. Empirical studies have also revealed relationships among factors operating at the classroom level, which help us define stages of effective teaching. Therefore, in the second part of the chapter, we discuss ways of using the dynamic model for teaching improvement purposes. In this context, the rationale and main steps of the dynamic approach (DA) to teaching improvement are presented. In the final section, we provide a critical review of studies investigating the impact of the DA on improving teaching skills and promoting student learning outcomes and draw implications for research, policy, and practice.