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One of the best ways for students to determine what they know, think, and believe about a given subject is to write about it. To support students in their writing, it is important to provide them with a meaningful writing task, one that has an authentic purpose, clear guidelines, and engages students in their learning. In this section, you can read about key principles of assignment design, review examples of effective writing assignments, and use a checklist to guide your own designs. You can also consult with a Writing Across the Curriculum Program team member . We’re happy to think with you about your writing assignment, whether it is in the inkling stage or undergoing a few minor tweaks.

What makes an assignment effective?

A good deal of educational research points to the benefits of writing assignments that exhibit the following features:

Meaningful tasks. A task is given meaning by its relevance to and alignment with the learning aims in the course. What counts as meaningful in one course context might not be meaningful in another. As Eodice, Geller, and Lerner (2016) have shown, meaningful writing assignments do occur across all disciplines and they are typically ones that “offer students opportunities to engage with instructors, peers, and texts and are relevant to past experiences and passions as well as to future aspirations and identities.”

Maximized learning time. As Linda Suskie argues, effectiveness is determined by the “learning payoff,” not by size of the assignment. Will students learn four times as much on an assignment that takes 20 hours outside of class than one that takes 5? Longer research-based assignments and elaborate class activities (mock conferences, debates, poster sessions, etc.) can greatly maximize learning, but there must be an appropriate level of writing and learning time built into the task. Term papers are much more effective when students have time to draft and revise stages of the assignment, rather than turning in one final product at the end.

Logical sequencing. A writing task that includes discrete stages (research, drafting, review, revising, etc.) is more likely to be an effective learning experience than one that only specifies the final product. Furthermore, these stages are more effective when they are scaffolded so simpler tasks precede more complex tasks. For example, a well-sequenced 10-12 page essay assignment might involve discrete segments where students generate a central inquiry question, draft and workshop a thesis statement, produce a first draft of the essay, give and receive feedback on drafts, and submit a revision. Read more about sequencing assignments . 

Clear criteria will help students connect an assignment’s relevance to larger scale course outcomes. The literature on assignment design strongly encourages instructors to make the grading criteria explicit to students before the assignment is collected and assessed. A grading scheme or rubric that is handed out along with the assignment can provide students with a clear understanding of the weighted expectations and, thus help them decide what to focus on in the assignment. It becomes a teaching tool, not just an assessment tool.

Forward-thinking activities more than backward-thinking activities. Forward-thinking activities and assignments ask students to apply their learning rather than simply repeat it. The orientation of many writing prompts is often backward, asking students to show they learned X, Y, and Z. As L. Dee Fink (2013) points out, forward-thinking assignments and activities look ahead to what students will be able to do in the future having learned about X, Y, and Z. Such assignments often utilize real-world and scenario-based problems, requiring students to apply their learning to a new situation. For Grant Wiggins (1998) , questions, problems, tests, and assignments that are forward-thinking often:

• Require judgment and innovation. Students have to use knowledge and skills to solve unstructured problems, not just plug in a routine.
• Ask students to do the subject. Beyond recitation and replication, these tasks require students to carry out explorations, inquiry, and work within specific disciplines.
• Replicate workplace and civic contexts. These tasks provide specific constraints, purposes, and audiences that students will face in work and societal contexts.
• Involve a repertoire of skills and abilities rather than the isolation of individual skills. 

Feel free to use this assignment checklist , which draws on the principles and research described on this page.

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Overview: How Unpacking the Elements Translates into Lesson Planning

In Unpacking the Elements we try to break down prompts into the essential features common to nearly every assignment (writing or not), and in doing so the goal was primarily two-fold: to help instructors identify the role of each element in their own assignments and how clearly each element is communicated in their prompts; and to give students and instructors a shared, simple vocabulary for talking about the goals and expectations of assignments.  In this section, the goal is to move from designing effective prompts and sharing them with students to using prompts as a road map for teaching in the classroom. If you’ve done the assignment prompt decoder and thought about elements in a specific prompt, you were maybe left with a few questions. For example:  

• What does it look like to teach each element and give students practice with them?
• What is the best order to teach the elements in?
• How can I scaffold smaller exercises or give students feedback along the way?
• What’s the timing of all of this look like within the framework of a real term?

In the pages of this section we take up these questions, first laying out more generally how teaching through the elements looks in the classroom before taking a deeper dive into a handful of the more common—and increasingly complex—types of academic writing assignments. For each kind of assignment, you’ll find sample timelines and sequences, along with out-of-the-box activities and generalizable advice on teaching with writing (“tips” and “pitfalls to avoid”). 

The advice and examples in this section are meant to be flexible enough to adapt to a wide range of real-life teaching scenarios and pedagogical approaches, but they all reflect a handful of guiding principles about the interrelated ways that assignment prompts "work": they create the context for learning experiences by serving as a touchstone for student-teacher discussions about the specific goals and expectations of the learning experience at hand, and they help keep instructors and students alive to what those goals and expectations are—and how their time together is an ongoing, well-supported engagement with them.

Three Key Principles for Teaching Writing in the Classroom

Students should always be “writing the paper”.

If your lesson plan is drawn from the actual assignment students are working on at any point in the term (whether it’s a smaller “now” response paper or a smaller part of a “bigger” project due in six weeks), then nearly every homework assignment or in-class activity is writing the paper. The purpose of section will always be more clear if students recognize that every meeting is a chance to practice relevant skills or make progress on an assignment. And of course, that recognition is only possible if students understand what the goals of the assignment they're working on are, what skills are relevant to meeting those goals, and what kinds of steps reflect progress toward them. With that in mind, it’s helpful to start with the Assignment Decoder for Students . 

Prompts don’t (and shouldn’t be asked to) speak for themselves

The assignment prompt decoders linked throughout this site are meant to give course heads, TFs & TAs, and students a way of assessing how clearly a prompt is communicating its elements. For course heads and instructors, this might lead to a revision of the prompt or clarifications in class or meetings of the teaching team. For students, it might lead to questions in section, emails to an instructor, or asking a fellow student for input. Whatever doing the decoder leads to—and whether or not the decoder is used at all—it’s crucial to keep in mind that prompts don’t speak for themselves, no matter how clear they are: they’re a framework for, and hopefully an invitation to discussion about what it will look and feel like to do an assignment well. But what about a really clear prompt—doesn’t it save class time if students can just read it on their own? It’s a fair question, and the fair response is that we can’t know whether students have understood the really clear prompt unless we have a discussion with them about it. At that point, of course, we’re back to discussing the prompt, and the upside is this: spending class time working through prompts is actually a reliably efficient way to make subsequent classes more effective. 

You can’t do it all, and you don’t need to

If you and your students are on the same page about the goals and priorities of an assignment, then you’re freed up to engage in some backward design triage: How much time is there until the likely deadline? How many sections are there to work with? What are the essential elements that need teaching and practice? What’s a good place to start? When giving feedback, it’s almost as unhelpful to just write “A-” without comments as it is to fill the margins with comments or append a novella’s worth of reflection to the end of a student’s essay. In both cases, it’s unclear what the rubric for feedback is and how they reflect the priorities of this assignment. And the same goes for teaching this assignment: You should find the sequence of in-class activities and formative assessments that best balance what’s necessary for students to succeed with what’s possible given the time and bandwidth available to you and your students. The general advice and sample trajectories for assignments in this section are meant to make that balance feel both attainable and much more than “good enough”—it’s what great teachers aim for. 

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5 Highly Effective Teaching Practices

I remember how, as a new teacher, I would attend a professional development and feel inundated with new strategies. (I wanted to get back to the classroom and try them all!) After the magic of that day wore off, I reflected on the many strategies and would often think, "Lots of great stuff, but I'm not sure it's worth the time it would take to implement it all."

We teachers are always looking to innovate, so, yes, it's essential that we try new things to add to our pedagogical bag of tricks. But it's important to focus on purpose and intentionality -- and not on quantity. So what really matters more than "always trying something new" is the reason behind why we do what we do.

What Research Says

This leads me to educational researcher John Hattie, who wrote Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning . Through his research, one of his goals is to aid teachers in seeing and better understanding learning through the eyes of their students.

Hattie has spent more than 15 years researching the influences on achievement of K-12 children. His findings linked student outcomes to several highly effective classroom practices. Here I'd like to highlight five of those practices:

1. Teacher Clarity

When a teacher begins a new unit of study or project with students, she clarifies the purpose and learning goals, and provides explicit criteria on how students can be successful. It's ideal to also present models or examples to students so they can see what the end product looks like.

2. Classroom Discussion

Teachers need to frequently step offstage and facilitate entire class discussion. This allows students to learn from each other. It's also a great opportunity for teachers to formatively assess (through observation) how well students are grasping new content and concepts.

3. Feedback

How do learners know they are moving forward without steady, consistent feedback? They often won't. Along with individual feedback (written or verbal), teachers need to provide whole-group feedback on patterns they see in the collective class' growth and areas of need. Students also need to be given opportunities to provide feedback to the teacher so that she can adjust the learning process, materials, and instruction accordingly.

4. Formative Assessments

In order to provide students with effective and accurate feedback, teachers need to assess frequently and routinely where students are in relation to the unit of study's learning goals or end product (summative assessment). Hattie recommends that teachers spend the same amount of time on formative evaluation as they do on summative assessment.

5. Metacognitive Strategies

Students are given opportunities to plan and organize, monitor their own work, direct their own learning, and to self-reflect along the way. When we provide students with time and space to be aware of their own knowledge and their own thinking, student ownership increases. And research shows that metacognition can be taught .

Collaborating with Colleagues

Great teachers are earnest learners. Spend some time with a colleague, or two or three, and talk about what each of these research-based, best classroom practices looks like in the classroom. Discuss each one in the context of your unique learning environment: who your students are, what they need, what they already know, etc.

How do you already bring these five classroom practices alive in your classroom? Please share in the comments section below.

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Designing Assignments for Learning

The rapid shift to remote teaching and learning meant that many instructors reimagined their assessment practices. Whether adapting existing assignments or creatively designing new opportunities for their students to learn, instructors focused on helping students make meaning and demonstrate their learning outside of the traditional, face-to-face classroom setting. This resource distills the elements of assignment design that are important to carry forward as we continue to seek better ways of assessing learning and build on our innovative assignment designs.

On this page:

Rethinking traditional tests, quizzes, and exams.

• Examples from the Columbia University Classroom
• Tips for Designing Assignments for Learning

Reflect On Your Assignment Design

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Cite this resource: Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2021). Designing Assignments for Learning. Columbia University. Retrieved [today’s date] from https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/teaching-with-technology/teaching-online/designing-assignments/

Traditional assessments tend to reveal whether students can recognize, recall, or replicate what was learned out of context, and tend to focus on students providing correct responses (Wiggins, 1990). In contrast, authentic assignments, which are course assessments, engage students in higher order thinking, as they grapple with real or simulated challenges that help them prepare for their professional lives, and draw on the course knowledge learned and the skills acquired to create justifiable answers, performances or products (Wiggins, 1990). An authentic assessment provides opportunities for students to practice, consult resources, learn from feedback, and refine their performances and products accordingly (Wiggins 1990, 1998, 2014). 

Authentic assignments ask students to “do” the subject with an audience in mind and apply their learning in a new situation. Examples of authentic assignments include asking students to: 

• Write for a real audience (e.g., a memo, a policy brief, letter to the editor, a grant proposal, reports, building a website) and/or publication;
• Solve problem sets that have real world application; 
• Design projects that address a real world problem; 
• Engage in a community-partnered research project;
• Create an exhibit, performance, or conference presentation ;
• Compile and reflect on their work through a portfolio/e-portfolio.

Noteworthy elements of authentic designs are that instructors scaffold the assignment, and play an active role in preparing students for the tasks assigned, while students are intentionally asked to reflect on the process and product of their work thus building their metacognitive skills (Herrington and Oliver, 2000; Ashford-Rowe, Herrington and Brown, 2013; Frey, Schmitt, and Allen, 2012). 

It’s worth noting here that authentic assessments can initially be time consuming to design, implement, and grade. They are critiqued for being challenging to use across course contexts and for grading reliability issues (Maclellan, 2004). Despite these challenges, authentic assessments are recognized as beneficial to student learning (Svinicki, 2004) as they are learner-centered (Weimer, 2013), promote academic integrity (McLaughlin, L. and Ricevuto, 2021; Sotiriadou et al., 2019; Schroeder, 2021) and motivate students to learn (Ambrose et al., 2010). The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning is always available to consult with faculty who are considering authentic assessment designs and to discuss challenges and affordances.   

Examples from the Columbia University Classroom 

Columbia instructors have experimented with alternative ways of assessing student learning from oral exams to technology-enhanced assignments. Below are a few examples of authentic assignments in various teaching contexts across Columbia University. 

• E-portfolios: Statia Cook shares her experiences with an ePorfolio assignment in her co-taught Frontiers of Science course (a submission to the Voices of Hybrid and Online Teaching and Learning initiative); CUIMC use of ePortfolios ;
• Case studies: Columbia instructors have engaged their students in authentic ways through case studies drawing on the Case Consortium at Columbia University. Read and watch a faculty spotlight to learn how Professor Mary Ann Price uses the case method to place pre-med students in real-life scenarios;
• Simulations: students at CUIMC engage in simulations to develop their professional skills in The Mary & Michael Jaharis Simulation Center in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Helene Fuld Health Trust Simulation Center in the Columbia School of Nursing; 
• Experiential learning: instructors have drawn on New York City as a learning laboratory such as Barnard’s NYC as Lab webpage which highlights courses that engage students in NYC;
• Design projects that address real world problems: Yevgeniy Yesilevskiy on the Engineering design projects completed using lab kits during remote learning. Watch Dr. Yesilevskiy talk about his teaching and read the Columbia News article . 
• Writing assignments: Lia Marshall and her teaching associate Aparna Balasundaram reflect on their “non-disposable or renewable assignments” to prepare social work students for their professional lives as they write for a real audience; and Hannah Weaver spoke about a sandbox assignment used in her Core Literature Humanities course at the 2021 Celebration of Teaching and Learning Symposium . Watch Dr. Weaver share her experiences.  

​Tips for Designing Assignments for Learning

While designing an effective authentic assignment may seem like a daunting task, the following tips can be used as a starting point. See the Resources section for frameworks and tools that may be useful in this effort.  

Align the assignment with your course learning objectives 

Identify the kind of thinking that is important in your course, the knowledge students will apply, and the skills they will practice using through the assignment. What kind of thinking will students be asked to do for the assignment? What will students learn by completing this assignment? How will the assignment help students achieve the desired course learning outcomes? For more information on course learning objectives, see the CTL’s Course Design Essentials self-paced course and watch the video on Articulating Learning Objectives .  

Identify an authentic meaning-making task

For meaning-making to occur, students need to understand the relevance of the assignment to the course and beyond (Ambrose et al., 2010). To Bean (2011) a “meaning-making” or “meaning-constructing” task has two dimensions: 1) it presents students with an authentic disciplinary problem or asks students to formulate their own problems, both of which engage them in active critical thinking, and 2) the problem is placed in “a context that gives students a role or purpose, a targeted audience, and a genre.” (Bean, 2011: 97-98). 

An authentic task gives students a realistic challenge to grapple with, a role to take on that allows them to “rehearse for the complex ambiguities” of life, provides resources and supports to draw on, and requires students to justify their work and the process they used to inform their solution (Wiggins, 1990). Note that if students find an assignment interesting or relevant, they will see value in completing it. 

Consider the kind of activities in the real world that use the knowledge and skills that are the focus of your course. How is this knowledge and these skills applied to answer real-world questions to solve real-world problems? (Herrington et al., 2010: 22). What do professionals or academics in your discipline do on a regular basis? What does it mean to think like a biologist, statistician, historian, social scientist? How might your assignment ask students to draw on current events, issues, or problems that relate to the course and are of interest to them? How might your assignment tap into student motivation and engage them in the kinds of thinking they can apply to better understand the world around them? (Ambrose et al., 2010). 

Determine the evaluation criteria and create a rubric

To ensure equitable and consistent grading of assignments across students, make transparent the criteria you will use to evaluate student work. The criteria should focus on the knowledge and skills that are central to the assignment. Build on the criteria identified, create a rubric that makes explicit the expectations of deliverables and share this rubric with your students so they can use it as they work on the assignment. For more information on rubrics, see the CTL’s resource Incorporating Rubrics into Your Grading and Feedback Practices , and explore the Association of American Colleges & Universities VALUE Rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education). 

Build in metacognition

Ask students to reflect on what and how they learned from the assignment. Help students uncover personal relevance of the assignment, find intrinsic value in their work, and deepen their motivation by asking them to reflect on their process and their assignment deliverable. Sample prompts might include: what did you learn from this assignment? How might you draw on the knowledge and skills you used on this assignment in the future? See Ambrose et al., 2010 for more strategies that support motivation and the CTL’s resource on Metacognition ). 

Provide students with opportunities to practice

Design your assignment to be a learning experience and prepare students for success on the assignment. If students can reasonably expect to be successful on an assignment when they put in the required effort ,with the support and guidance of the instructor, they are more likely to engage in the behaviors necessary for learning (Ambrose et al., 2010). Ensure student success by actively teaching the knowledge and skills of the course (e.g., how to problem solve, how to write for a particular audience), modeling the desired thinking, and creating learning activities that build up to a graded assignment. Provide opportunities for students to practice using the knowledge and skills they will need for the assignment, whether through low-stakes in-class activities or homework activities that include opportunities to receive and incorporate formative feedback. For more information on providing feedback, see the CTL resource Feedback for Learning . 

Communicate about the assignment 

Share the purpose, task, audience, expectations, and criteria for the assignment. Students may have expectations about assessments and how they will be graded that is informed by their prior experiences completing high-stakes assessments, so be transparent. Tell your students why you are asking them to do this assignment, what skills they will be using, how it aligns with the course learning outcomes, and why it is relevant to their learning and their professional lives (i.e., how practitioners / professionals use the knowledge and skills in your course in real world contexts and for what purposes). Finally, verify that students understand what they need to do to complete the assignment. This can be done by asking students to respond to poll questions about different parts of the assignment, a “scavenger hunt” of the assignment instructions–giving students questions to answer about the assignment and having them work in small groups to answer the questions, or by having students share back what they think is expected of them.

Plan to iterate and to keep the focus on learning 

Draw on multiple sources of data to help make decisions about what changes are needed to the assignment, the assignment instructions, and/or rubric to ensure that it contributes to student learning. Explore assignment performance data. As Deandra Little reminds us: “a really good assignment, which is a really good assessment, also teaches you something or tells the instructor something. As much as it tells you what students are learning, it’s also telling you what they aren’t learning.” ( Teaching in Higher Ed podcast episode 337 ). Assignment bottlenecks–where students get stuck or struggle–can be good indicators that students need further support or opportunities to practice prior to completing an assignment. This awareness can inform teaching decisions. 

Triangulate the performance data by collecting student feedback, and noting your own reflections about what worked well and what did not. Revise the assignment instructions, rubric, and teaching practices accordingly. Consider how you might better align your assignment with your course objectives and/or provide more opportunities for students to practice using the knowledge and skills that they will rely on for the assignment. Additionally, keep in mind societal, disciplinary, and technological changes as you tweak your assignments for future use. 

Now is a great time to reflect on your practices and experiences with assignment design and think critically about your approach. Take a closer look at an existing assignment. Questions to consider include: What is this assignment meant to do? What purpose does it serve? Why do you ask students to do this assignment? How are they prepared to complete the assignment? Does the assignment assess the kind of learning that you really want? What would help students learn from this assignment? 

Using the tips in the previous section: How can the assignment be tweaked to be more authentic and meaningful to students? 

As you plan forward for post-pandemic teaching and reflect on your practices and reimagine your course design, you may find the following CTL resources helpful: Reflecting On Your Experiences with Remote Teaching , Transition to In-Person Teaching , and Course Design Support .

The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is here to help!

For assistance with assignment design, rubric design, or any other teaching and learning need, please request a consultation by emailing [email protected] . 

Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework for assignments. The TILT Examples and Resources page ( https://tilthighered.com/tiltexamplesandresources ) includes example assignments from across disciplines, as well as a transparent assignment template and a checklist for designing transparent assignments . Each emphasizes the importance of articulating to students the purpose of the assignment or activity, the what and how of the task, and specifying the criteria that will be used to assess students. 

Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) offers VALUE ADD (Assignment Design and Diagnostic) tools ( https://www.aacu.org/value-add-tools ) to help with the creation of clear and effective assignments that align with the desired learning outcomes and associated VALUE rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education). VALUE ADD encourages instructors to explicitly state assignment information such as the purpose of the assignment, what skills students will be using, how it aligns with course learning outcomes, the assignment type, the audience and context for the assignment, clear evaluation criteria, desired formatting, and expectations for completion whether individual or in a group.

Villarroel et al. (2017) propose a blueprint for building authentic assessments which includes four steps: 1) consider the workplace context, 2) design the authentic assessment; 3) learn and apply standards for judgement; and 4) give feedback. 

References 

Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., & DiPietro, M. (2010). Chapter 3: What Factors Motivate Students to Learn? In How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching . Jossey-Bass. 

Ashford-Rowe, K., Herrington, J., and Brown, C. (2013). Establishing the critical elements that determine authentic assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 39(2), 205-222, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.819566 .  

Bean, J.C. (2011). Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom . Second Edition. Jossey-Bass. 

Frey, B. B, Schmitt, V. L., and Allen, J. P. (2012). Defining Authentic Classroom Assessment. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. 17(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.7275/sxbs-0829  

Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C., and Oliver, R. (2010). A Guide to Authentic e-Learning . Routledge. 

Herrington, J. and Oliver, R. (2000). An instructional design framework for authentic learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 48(3), 23-48. 

Litchfield, B. C. and Dempsey, J. V. (2015). Authentic Assessment of Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 142 (Summer 2015), 65-80. 

Maclellan, E. (2004). How convincing is alternative assessment for use in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 29(3), June 2004. DOI: 10.1080/0260293042000188267

McLaughlin, L. and Ricevuto, J. (2021). Assessments in a Virtual Environment: You Won’t Need that Lockdown Browser! Faculty Focus. June 2, 2021. 

Mueller, J. (2005). The Authentic Assessment Toolbox: Enhancing Student Learning through Online Faculty Development . MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. 1(1). July 2005. Mueller’s Authentic Assessment Toolbox is available online. 

Schroeder, R. (2021). Vaccinate Against Cheating With Authentic Assessment . Inside Higher Ed. (February 26, 2021).  

Sotiriadou, P., Logan, D., Daly, A., and Guest, R. (2019). The role of authentic assessment to preserve academic integrity and promote skills development and employability. Studies in Higher Education. 45(111), 2132-2148. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1582015    

Stachowiak, B. (Host). (November 25, 2020). Authentic Assignments with Deandra Little. (Episode 337). In Teaching in Higher Ed . https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/authentic-assignments/  

Svinicki, M. D. (2004). Authentic Assessment: Testing in Reality. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 100 (Winter 2004): 23-29. 

Villarroel, V., Bloxham, S, Bruna, D., Bruna, C., and Herrera-Seda, C. (2017). Authentic assessment: creating a blueprint for course design. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 43(5), 840-854. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1412396    

Weimer, M. (2013). Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice . Second Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 

Wiggins, G. (2014). Authenticity in assessment, (re-)defined and explained. Retrieved from https://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/authenticity-in-assessment-re-defined-and-explained/

Wiggins, G. (1998). Teaching to the (Authentic) Test. Educational Leadership . April 1989. 41-47. 

Wiggins, Grant (1990). The Case for Authentic Assessment . Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation , 2(2). 

Wondering how AI tools might play a role in your course assignments?

See the CTL’s resource “Considerations for AI Tools in the Classroom.”

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Teaching excellence & educational innovation, teaching principles.

Teaching is a complex, multifaceted activity, often requiring us as instructors to juggle multiple tasks and goals simultaneously and flexibly. The following small but powerful set of principles can make teaching both more effective and more efficient, by helping us create the conditions that support student learning and minimize the need for revising materials, content, and policies. While implementing these principles requires a commitment in time and effort, it often saves time and energy later on.

Effective teaching involves acquiring relevant knowledge about students and using that knowledge to inform our course design and classroom teaching.

Effective teaching involves aligning the three major components of instruction: learning objectives, assessments, and instructional activities..

Taking the time to do this upfront saves time in the end and leads to a better course. Teaching is more effective and student learning is enhanced when (a) we, as instructors, articulate a clear set of learning objectives (i.e., the knowledge and skills that we expect students to demonstrate by the end of a course); (b) the instructional activities (e.g., case studies, labs, discussions, readings) support these learning objectives by providing goal-oriented practice; and (c) the assessments (e.g., tests, papers, problem sets, performances) provide opportunities for students to demonstrate and practice the knowledge and skills articulated in the objectives, and for instructors to offer targeted feedback that can guide further learning.

Effective teaching involves articulating explicit expectations regarding learning objectives and policies.

There is amazing variation in what is expected of students across American classrooms and even within a given discipline. For example, what constitutes evidence may differ greatly across courses; what is permissible collaboration in one course could be considered cheating in another. As a result, students’ expectations may not match ours. Thus, being clear about our expectations and communicating them explicitly helps students learn more and perform better. Articulating our learning objectives (i.e., the knowledge and skills that we expect students to demonstrate by the end of a course) gives students a clear target to aim for and enables them to monitor their progress along the way. Similarly, being explicit about course policies (e.g., on class participation, laptop use, and late assignment) in the syllabus and in class allows us to resolve differences early and tends to reduce conflicts and tensions that may arise. Altogether, being explicit leads to a more productive learning environment for all students. More information on how clear learning objectives supports students' learning. (pdf)

Effective teaching involves prioritizing the knowledge and skills we choose to focus on.

Coverage is the enemy: Don’t try to do too much in a single course. Too many topics work against student learning, so it is necessary for us to make decisions – sometimes difficult ones – about what we will and will not include in a course. This involves (a) recognizing the parameters of the course (e.g., class size, students’ backgrounds and experiences, course position in the curriculum sequence, number of course units), (b) setting our priorities for student learning, and (c) determining a set of objectives that can be reasonably accomplished.

Effective teaching involves recognizing and overcoming our expert blind spots.

We are not our students! As experts, we tend to access and apply knowledge automatically and unconsciously (e.g., make connections, draw on relevant bodies of knowledge, and choose appropriate strategies) and so we often skip or combine critical steps when we teach. Students, on the other hand, don’t yet have sufficient background and experience to make these leaps and can become confused, draw incorrect conclusions, or fail to develop important skills. They need instructors to break tasks into component steps, explain connections explicitly, and model processes in detail. Though it is difficult for experts to do this, we need to identify and explicitly communicate to students the knowledge and skills we take for granted, so that students can see expert thinking in action and practice applying it themselves.

Effective teaching involves adopting appropriate teaching roles to support our learning goals.

Even though students are ultimately responsible for their own learning, the roles we assume as instructors are critical in guiding students’ thinking and behavior. We can take on a variety of roles in our teaching (e.g., synthesizer, moderator, challenger, commentator). These roles should be chosen in service of the learning objectives and in support of the instructional activities.  For example, if the objective is for students to be able to analyze arguments from a case or written text, the most productive instructor role might be to frame, guide and moderate a discussion.  If the objective is to help students learn to defend their positions or creative choices as they present their work, our role might be to challenge them to explain their decisions and consider alternative perspectives. Such roles may be constant or variable across the semester depending on the learning objectives.

Effective teaching involves progressively refining our courses based on reflection and feedback.

Teaching requires adapting. We need to continually reflect on our teaching and be ready to make changes when appropriate (e.g., something is not working, we want to try something new, the student population has changed, or there are emerging issues in our fields).  Knowing what and how to change requires us to examine relevant information on our own teaching effectiveness.  Much of this information already exists (e.g., student work, previous semesters’ course evaluations, dynamics of class participation), or we may need to seek additional feedback with help from the university teaching center (e.g., interpreting early course evaluations, conducting focus groups, designing pre- and posttests). Based on such data, we might modify the learning objectives, content, structure, or format of a course, or otherwise adjust our teaching. Small, purposeful changes driven by feedback and our priorities are most likely to be manageable and effective.

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Learning Forward

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The elements of effective teaching

Professional learning moves vision, framework, and performance standards into action

By Joellen Killion and Stephanie Hirsh

December 2011, vol. 32 no. 6.

Student success depends on effective teaching— not just occasionally, but every day in every classroom and school. Effective teaching impacts students’ academic, physical, socialemotional, and behavioral well-being. Effective teaching occurs best when all education stakeholders, including parents, policymakers, community members, and educators, share responsibility for continuous improvement and student achievement. For teachers in classrooms, effective professional learning is the single most powerful pathway to promote continuous improvement in teaching.

Consistently great teaching — every day, in every classroom, and in every school — emerges from a clear vision for teaching and learning. This vision is then translated into an instructional framework that details rigorous outcomes for student and educator performance. The framework and outcomes form the basis for the system for professional learning that makes them possible.

A vision for teaching and learning describes how students experience learning and the role of teaching in achieving that vision. Such a vision is grounded in learning theories and models selected to explain how learning happens, who the learners are, and the context in which students learn. The vision emerges from communitywide conversations among stakeholders who come together to describe the learning experience they want for students to prepare them for the future.

The following sample vision, based on the work of a national task force, describes teaching and learning based on the possibilities available through technology. Once a district establishes a vision, an instructional framework moves the vision from a dream to reality by describing how to achieve it.

“Imagine a high school student in the year 2015. She has grown up in a world where learning is as accessible through technologies at home as it is in the classroom, and digital content is as real to her as paper, lab equipment, or textbooks. At school, she and her classmates engage in creative problem-solving activities by manipulating simulations in a virtual laboratory or by downloading and analyzing visualizations of real-time data from remote sensors. Away from the classroom, she has seamless access to school materials and homework assignments using inexpensive mobile technologies. She continues to collaborate with her classmates in virtual environments that allow not only social interaction but also rich connections with a wealth of supplementary content. Her teacher can track her progress over the course of a lesson plan and compare her performance across a lifelong ‘digital portfolio,’ making note of areas that need additional attention through personalized assignments and alerting parents to specific concerns” (National Science Foundation Task Force on Cyberlearning. 2008. p. 5).

Whether an instructional framework is detailed or simple, it guides instructional decisions and builds accountability and consistency into learning experiences to improve results for students. See the sidebar below for examples of what such frameworks might include.

Visions for teaching and learning and instructional frameworks must be coupled with rigorous outcomes for student learning that specify what students are expected to know and be able to do as well as performance standards for educators. The Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics become an essential component of effective teaching because they specify the expectations for student learning. Without clearly articulated outcomes, teaching may be fragmented or unfocused. These standards have been fully adopted in 44 states and the District of Columbia and partially adopted in one additional state; variations of these standards exist in other states or in individual school systems.

ASSESSMENT MATTERS

Generating a vision, developing an instructional framework, and delineating student learning outcomes by themselves are insufficient to produce effective teaching. Effective teaching requires not only explicit performance standards for educators but also processes for improving and assessing effective practice. Performance standards for teachers define instructional expectations and inform the individual improvement and criteria for measuring effectiveness. The Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC), a collaborative of more than 30 states, provides model teacher standards for individual states and districts to use in developing their own performance standards (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2011). Others have contributed standards for effective teaching that are used as the basis for developing performance criteria such as those defined in Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching (Danielson, 2007) and Classroom Assessment Scoring System (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008). For school leaders, the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium provides model standards for school leaders (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2008). These standards contribute to a rich vision for leadership, teaching, and learning to establish a process of continuous improvement. See the diagram that demonstrates this relationship on p. 11.

Effective teaching emerges from a vision for teaching and learning, an instructional framework, standards for student learning, and performance expectations for educators coupled with a convergence of policy, planning, and goals at the state, school system, and school levels. Educators, policymakers, community members, and decision makers work collaboratively to develop and implement these components that serve as the backbone of effective teaching. Yet without professional learning to support implementation, these components are relegated to words on pages rather than actions in classrooms.

Effective teaching is possible in every classroom by ensuring every educator experiences substantive professional learning within a culture of collaboration and shared accountability. Effectiveness in teaching is a journey, rather than a destination. Each year, teachers experience new challenges to refine and expand their teaching practices. Each year, teachers face new students with different learning needs. They strive to implement new technologies in their classrooms to accelerate learning. Benchmarks for student learning continue to change. New research on effective instruction is released. New colleagues and leaders join the faculty to support teaching practice and student learning. Systems of professional learning are the only way to ensure these challenges become opportunities to improve student and educator performance.

Absent professional learning, teachers lack access to the information and support they need to refine and enrich teaching throughout their career. At each stage along the career continuum, effective teaching broadens from the core elements of teaching to include expanded responsibilities of a master or mentor teacher whose work includes supporting peers and assuming leadership roles within their schools and beyond that focus on improving student learning. Professional learning is the only strategy in school systems that moves the vision, instructional framework, standards for students, and standards for educators into action.

COMMON ATTRIBUTES

Effective professional learning for effective teaching has seven core attributes, which Learning Forward has defined as Standards for Professional Learning . Professional learning that doesn’t include these attributes is unlikely to produce the same high level of results for educators and their students that effective professional learning will. (See the full list of the Standards for Professional Learning below.)

A common attribute of effective schools is collaboration among educators. Engagement in one or more learning communities provides teachers opportunities to moderate their practice and expectations with their peers, to examine and reflect on their work together, to learn from one another, to challenge one another professionally, and to solve complex problems within the context of their unique work environment. Learning communities generate collective responsibility and accountability for effective teaching and student learning and engage teachers in school-based, ongoing learning focused on strengthening teachers’ day-to-day practice and reducing variation in the effectiveness of teaching from classroom to classroom within a school so that every student, regardless of his or her classroom, experiences the same high level of teaching each day.

Students benefit when teachers learn from peers. C. Ki-rabo Jackson & Elias Bruegmann (2009) report that when the quality of a teacher’s colleagues improve, the students of that teacher benefit. These results occur most likely because teachers organize the focus of learning within their communities on challenges relevant to their students’ success. Effective teaching and student learning are the benefits that spread from classroom to classroom and even from school to school.

Effective teaching requires skillful leadership to build capacity and structures to support learning. Leaders, both administrators and teachers, advocate professional learning as a key lever for continuous improvement of teaching and student results. While individual teachers may engage in professional learning aligned to their professional goals, universal effectiveness in teaching depends on making it a priority within a school or school system, creating a culture and systems to support it, and developing teacher leaders to skillfully facilitate collaborative learning.

In addition to leadership, successful schools and school systems invest resources to support effective teaching. Some of these resources include time for professional learning and collaboration, classroomand school-based support in the form of coaching, technology to seek information, models, networks, and research, and access to external experts who provide specialized knowledge and skill development when the needed expertise is unavailable within the school or district. The effects of these resource investments can be measured in increased student achievement.

Measures of increased effectiveness in teaching and student achievement depend on the use of formative and summative assessments that provide data about teaching performance and student achievement. These data plus data gleaned from examining student work and engagement, individual and collaborative teacher reflection, coaching, and other forms of peer interactions provide both informal and formal data the inform decisions related to improving teaching. These data also provide information to link results for students with changes in teaching practices. Without a regular stream of data about multiple variables related to effective teaching and student learning, teachers, their peers, and supervisors lack valid, reliable, and tangible evidence about effective teaching. These data provide a continuous stream of information against which teachers benchmark their progress and continuous improvement. Because of the significance of data in teaching and professional learning, effective teaching requires extensive assessment literacy and skill in using data to identify, plan, and measure the effects of ongoing professional learning.

Data allow teachers to identify the focus for their professional learning. The effectiveness of the learning experience is measured not only by the content, but also by the design of the learning experience. When professional learning for teachers models effective teaching practices, particularly those that are aligned with the vision of teaching and learning and the instructional framework, those engaged in the learning have an added advantage of learning both the content and processes about learning.

Effective designs integrate learning theories and research and foster active engagement and collaboration with colleagues. Learning designs vary to accommodate the expected outcomes, learners’ preferences, experience levels, school culture, and other factors. Teaching practices are enhanced through mentoring, coaching, and team learning that focus on clearly defined outcomes for teachers and their students.

Learning transfers to practice when mentors, coaches, and team members provide schooland classroom-based support sustained over time that draws on research about individual and organization change. Frequently, efforts to refine or extend teaching practices fail because the improved practices are not fully implemented with fidelity to the design. The use of constructive feedback based on predetermined criteria that describe effective teaching is also essential to continuous improvement of teaching.

CONTINUOUS LEARNING

Performance standards such as those described by Charlotte Danielson, Robert C. Pianta, Karen M. La Paro, and Bridget K. Hamre, InTASC’s model core teaching teaching standards, or state or district performance standards become an integral part of efforts to increase teaching effectiveness. Standards such as these align closely with the vision for teaching and learning and the instructional framework and define excellence in teaching. Coupling performance standards with student learning outcomes such as those defined in the Common Core State Standards creates a coherent set of criteria for both practice and results of effective teaching.

Effectiveness in teaching is a process of continuous learning that occurs over time without a termination point. As described in the InTASC standard 9, Professional Learning and Ethical Practice — “The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate his or her practice, particularly the effects of his or her choices and actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner” (Council of Chief State School Officers, p. 18) — effective teaching includes reflection using data, engaging in professional learning, and adapting practice to meet the learning needs of students.

School systems have responsibilities to develop and embrace a vision for teaching and learning, adopt an instructional framework that guides how the vision moves into action, and establish standards that serve as the criteria for measuring effectiveness. Effective teaching results from comprehensive efforts of the entire community who come together to create the core components of a state and local system for teaching effectiveness. This system is fundamental to guarantee that every student, not just some, experiences effective teaching every day, and every educator, not just some, understands his or her role in increasing student achievement.

Joellen Killion and Stephanie Hirsh

Joellen Killion ([email protected]) is senior advisor and Stephanie Hirsh (stephanie.hirsh@ learningforward.org) is executive director at Learning Forward.

Council of Chief State School Officers. (2008, April). Educational leadership policy standards: ISLLC 2008 as adopted by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration. Washington, DC: Author.

Council of Chief State School Officers. (2011, April).

InTASC model core teaching standards: A resource for state dialogue. Washington, DC: Author.

Danielson, C. (2007). Enhancing professional practice: A framework for teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Jackson, C.K. & Bruegmann, E. (2009). Teaching students and teaching each other: The importance of peer learning for teachers. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 1(4), 85-108.

National Science Foundation Task Force on Cyberlearning. (2008). Fostering learning in the networked world: The cyberlearning opportunity and challenge.

Washington, DC: National Science Foundation.

Pianta, R.C., La Paro, K.M., & Hamre, B.K. (2008).

Classroom assessment scoring system. Baltimore: Brookes Publishing.

Joellen Killion

Joellen Killion is a senior advisor to Learning Forward and a sought-after speaker and facilitator who is an expert in linking professional learning and student learning. She has extensive experience in planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of high-quality, standards-based professional learning at the school, system, and state/provincial levels. She is the author of many books including Assessing Impact , Coaching Matters , Taking the Lead , and The Feedback Process . Her latest evaluation articles for The Learning Professional are “7 reasons to evaluate professional learning” and “Is your professional learning working? 8 steps to find out.”

• Joellen Killion /author/joellen-killion Coaching heavy, coaching light: How to deepen professional practice
• Joellen Killion /author/joellen-killion Evaluating professional learning
• Joellen Killion /author/joellen-killion 7 reasons to evaluate professional learning
• Joellen Killion /author/joellen-killion Is your professional learning working? 8 steps to find out.

Stephanie Hirsh

Stephanie Hirsh retired in June 2019 after 31 years with Learning Forward, an international association of more than 13,000 educators committed to increasing student achievement through effective professional learning. Hirsh led the organization as its executive director for the last 13 years where she presented, published, and consulted on Learning Forward’s behalf across North America.

• Stephanie Hirsh /author/stephanie-hirsh Transforming Teaching Through Curriculum-Based Professional Learning: The Elements
• Stephanie Hirsh /author/stephanie-hirsh The evolution of Standards for Professional Learning
• Stephanie Hirsh /author/stephanie-hirsh New curriculum demands new support
• Stephanie Hirsh /author/stephanie-hirsh The art of listening

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Teaching Online: Effective Practices

If you’re teaching online for the first time or looking to hone your skills, you might ask yourself:  What’s different about teaching online?  

Online classes have the same rigor and expectations for students’ time and effort, and the same week-by-week teaching pace and regular interaction with students. You use many of the same evidence-based teaching strategies and frameworks, such as backward design, that you use in a physical classroom. 

On the other hand, online classes often require additional time to design and build before they’re taught, have different needs for communicating expectations and instructions, and introduce different ways of thinking about and estimating credit hours and seat time. You’ll also need to use specific assignment approaches and teaching strategies proven to work well online. 

Teaching effective online courses involves special considerations related to the course's format and administrative components, the technology you use (particularly  CarmenCanvas ), and your choice of appropriate teaching methods. 

Get started with this    printable checklist of effective practices for online teaching , and refer back to it every time you teach online. Each item on the checklist is explained below.  

Online Course Approvals

The university and individual colleges and departments have curricular and delivery standards related to accreditation, federal regulations, and student experience and access. For temporary remote approvals during the 2020-21 school year, the Office of Academic Affairs worked with each academic unit to create a common Course Assurance process , based on the effective practices on this page. Consult with your academic leaders and curriculum committee for approval processes and any additional requirements for your unit.

Format, Rigor, and Integrity 

How can you ensure the quality and rigor of your course is equivalent to an in-person course? This section covers university policies and expectations for online courses, such as accreditation standards, attendance tracking for federal financial aid, and academic integrity considerations.  

A number of federal and state regulations dictate requirements for the format and pacing of your online course.

• Students have opportunities for  regular and substantive  academic interactions with the instructor. These interactions must be initiated by you, regular and frequent, and meaningful or academic in nature. The myth that online learning is solitary comes from an earlier day when we knew far less about how students learn and succeed online. Your online course will only be successful if you establish a strong instructor presence and facilitate constructive interactions with your students.
• Students have a required participation activity  at least once each week.  This ensures that you can pinpoint when a student last participated and verify their “attendance,” which is an institutional requirement related to student financial aid. A few examples of participation activities are submitting an assignment, taking a quiz or exam, submitting a discussion post, or participating with you in an email exchange that is academic in nature.
• Learning outcomes and instruction time are equivalent to an in-person class of the same number of credit hours .  Online courses must meet federal guidelines for equivalent “class time,” or direct instruction, and “out-of-class” time. Class time examples include lectures, discussions, and quizzes or exams, while out-of-class activities may include readings, study, or papers and projects.
• The  syllabus provides clear expectations about any required synchronous, or live and scheduled, sessions.  Students often expect online courses to be completely asynchronous, meaning that work can be done each week according to their own schedules. Make them explicitly aware of required synchronous sessions, ideally in both your syllabus and in the class schedule in BuckeyeLink. 

Learn more about Online Instructor Presence ,  Attendance in Online Classes , and Policies for Online Teaching .

Academic integrity is a student’s commitment to abide by Ohio State’s code of academic conduct. It involves moral and ethical academic behavior, including adherence to course guidelines and avoidance of plagiarism or cheating. Online learning presents unique challenges to academic integrity since misconduct can arise from a lack of awareness or understanding due to unclear expectations and instructions.  

How can you promote an environment of academic integrity in your online course?

• The course syllabus includes policies about academic integrity that are specific to online learning . Including this information—and discussing it openly with students—will help them understand your course's academic integrity expectations and guidelines for online courses at the university in general. Consider using the Online and Hybrid Course Syllabus Template, which includes online-specific language regarding academic integrity.
• Major assignments include specific academic integrity parameters in the directions . For example, students need to know if they are allowed to work in groups, use past work, use notes or the book for a quiz or exam, and so on.
• Course technologies, such as online proctoring or plagiarism detectors, or other strategies are in place to deter cheating . These tools help you monitor whether specific academic integrity criteria are met when students turn in assignments or take quizzes, midterms, or final exams. Learn more about Honorlock  and Turnitin , an anti-plagiarism tool that integrates with Carmen.

Learn more in Strategies and Tools for Academic Integrity in Online Environments  and A Positive Approach to Academic Integrity .

Technology and Materials 

Students perform best in courses that are clear, navigable, welcoming, functional, and accessible. The structure you set up for your course using CarmenCanvas and other instructional technologies is central to creating a supportive online learning environment. 

Follow these guidelines to ensure students can successfully access and navigate your materials, Carmen course, and chosen technologies.

 For both ethical and legal reasons, all materials in your course must be accessible and meet copyright and fair use requirements.

• The documents, instructions, and materials in the course are in formats that are accessible for all students . When materials are " accessible, ” they can be used and navigated by students with vision, auditory, motor, or cognitive disabilities. Providing accessible materials gives all students the ability to access course content at the same time. It is easier to create your materials with accessibility in mind than to retroactively make them accessible—follow accessibility best practices from the get-go when building your course. Learn more about  Digital Accessibility Services.
• Copyrighted materials are either provided to students securely through the library or a detailed fair use claim has been documented . Teaching online necessitates additional considerations around copyright law. If you show students a PowerPoint presentation or video clip in a face-to-face class, you aren’t giving them access to the material forever. But in an online environment, the works you share are easier for students to copy or distribute. Be sure to follow best practices when using licensed library materials and copyright exceptions, such as the TEACH Act or fair use. Learn more about  Copyright Services at the University Libraries.

An organized and transparent Carmen course helps students navigate your content and learning activities with ease.

• Content and activities are organized into weekly modules or another clear navigation structure .  Using  Modules to house your content in Carmen provides a clear organization and structure, so students know how your course will run. The way you sequence your modules can show the “big picture” of your course, clarify the relationships between topics, and create a logical flow. 
• Clear, consistent directions are included in Carmen about what students are expected to do with all materials and activities .  Providing transparent instructions for new materials, assignments, and learning activities helps students contextualize them with your course content and goals.
• The course is built with an online-learning-specific Carmen course template .  Using a consistent template for your course helps students easily navigate content and concentrate on learning rather than searching for files and directions. It also makes your course-building process more efficient and streamlined. Download the Carmen Course Template .

Learn more about  Carmen Common Sense: Best Practices.

It’s easy to assume your online students are digital natives, but in fact, they come to your course with a range of technological experiences and skills. Students will benefit from guidance on the technology they need to access course materials and complete activities.

• The course syllabus lists all required technology, with instructions for how to access technical support for those technologies . Provide explicit instructions on how students can get technical support for tools used in your course, especially if they cannot get that assistance from the Ohio State IT Service Desk .
• The course syllabus includes accessibility, data privacy, and cost information for any non–Ohio State technologies .  Share information on how students can get accessibility accommodations if required, how their data is used and stored, and any fees or costs beyond the cost of required textbook(s). 

See the Online and Hybrid Syllabus Template Instructions .

Teaching Strategies 

As with any class, you should employ evidence-based approaches to design and deliver your online course. Research repeatedly shows that four areas significantly impact online students’ learning, engagement, and satisfaction:  instructor presence, student-student interaction, a variety of teaching methods , and  student support and metacognition . 

Several teaching methods are suggested below, but the list is not comprehensive. Successful courses need not employ all of these strategies and may incorporate additional approaches. 

We know that students are more engaged when they perceive their instructor as a frequent and positive presence in the course. Some strategies for accomplishing this in your course include:

• Regular and planned instructor communications with the class via announcements or weekly check-ins
• Instructional content, such as video, audio, or interactive lessons, that is visibly created or mediated by the instructor
• Regular instructor participation in class discussion, either in  Carmen Discussions  or synchronous sessions
• Regular opportunities for students to receive personal instructor feedback on assignments 

Learn more about  Online Instructor Presence .

Students also engage more in courses when they have opportunities to interact with their peers and feel they are part of a community of learners. To foster peer connection in your course, it is important to provide:

• Opportunities for students to interact academically with classmates through regular class discussion or group assignments
• Opportunities for students to interact socially with classmates, such as through video conference sessions or a course Q&A forum 

Learn more about Student Interaction Online . 

Students understand and engage with your course material in a variety of ways. Overall, student success is maximized when you provide frequent and varied learning activities. You can accomplish this by including:

• Opportunities for students to receive course information through a variety of different sources, including indirect sources, such as textbooks and lectures, and direct sources, such as scholarly resources and field observation
• A variety of activity and assignment formats to provide students with multiple means of demonstrating learning
• Opportunities for students to apply course knowledge and skills to authentic, real-world tasks in assignments

Learn more about Creating and Adapting Assignments for Online Courses .

Students have successful, meaningful experiences when they understand how the components of a course connect, receive guidance on how to study, and are encouraged to take ownership of their learning. Consider including the following to support students in your course:

• Instructor explanations about the learning goals and overall design or organization of the course
• Context or rationale to explain the purpose and relevance of major tasks and assignments
• Guidance or resources for ancillary skills necessary to complete assignments, such as conducting library research or using technology tools
• Opportunities for students to take ownership or leadership in their learning, such as by choosing topics of interest for an assignment or leading a group discussion or meeting
• Opportunities for students to reflect on their learning process, including their goals, study strategies, and progress
• Opportunities for students to provide feedback on the course

Learn more about Supporting Student Learning and Metacognition.

• Effective Practices for Online Teaching (checklist)
• Online and Hybrid Course Syllabus Template
• Carmen Course Template

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Related teaching topics, carmen common sense: best practices, creating and adapting assignments for online courses, online instructor presence, policies for online teaching, student interaction online, related toolsets, carmencanvas, search for resources.

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Heather C. Hill

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... Read more about Andrew Ho

Thomas J. Kane

... Read more about Thomas J. Kane

Matthew Kraft

Bill Penuel

... Read more about Bill Penuel

Jonah Rockoff

While research has generated substantial information regarding the characteristics of effective mathematics teachers and classrooms, scholars have rarely tested multiple aspects of teachers or teaching within a single study. Without testing multiple variables simultaneously, it is difficult to identify specific aspects of mathematics teachers and teaching that may be particularly impactful on student learning, and to understand the degree to which these characteristics are related to one another. This plenary draws on data from a three-year study measuring multiple components of teacher and teaching quality to investigate these issues.

Best Foot Forward Project

Did video technology improve the classroom observation process?

The Best Foot Forward Project investigated whether video technology can make the classroom observation process easier to implement, less costly, and more valid and reliable. In a randomized controlled trial, the study team put cameras in the hands of teachers and allowed them to select their best lessons for evaluation. Researchers aimed to learn whether digital video made the observation process more acceptable to teachers and administrators.... Read more about Best Foot Forward Project

Developing Common Core Classrooms Through Rubric-Based Coaching

What is the impact of rubric-based coaching on teacher instructional practice and student achievement outcomes?

This research study included the development and implementation of the MQI Coaching Cycle, as well as a rigorous evaluation of the program’s effectiveness using a teacher-level random assignment design.... Read more about Developing Common Core Classrooms Through Rubric-Based Coaching

Exploring Methods for Improving Teachers’ Mathematical Quality of Instruction

What is the optimal level of facilitation in teachers’ discussions and the effect of  contributing their own video ?

This study is investigating the conditions of effective video-based math professional development and the use of an observational instrument as a common language for teachers to use to talk about their practice.... Read more about Exploring Methods for Improving Teachers’ Mathematical Quality of Instruction

Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching Measures: Refreshing the Item Pool

How do we measure the specialized content knowledge required to teacher mathematics?

The Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) instrument is a tool for measuring the specialized knowledge K-8 teachers of mathematics use in teaching. Since its creation, MKT items have been widely used in evaluating teacher learning in professional development programs and investigating the relationship between teachers’ knowledge and practice.... Read more about Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching Measures: Refreshing the Item Pool

Mathematical Quality of Instruction (MQI)

The MQI is a Common Core-aligned observational rubric that provides a framework for analyzing mathematics instruction in several domains. Within each of the five domains, individual codes contain score points that categorize instruction into different levels of quality. The MQI was developed in order to provide a both multidimensional and balanced view of mathematics instruction.... Read more about Mathematical Quality of Instruction (MQI)

MET Project

CEPR Faculty Director Tom Kane led the the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project, a $52 million study sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dramatically better student outcomes will require dramatically different teaching. And dramatically different teaching will require better feedback for teachers. The project brought together 3,000 teacher volunteers in six different school districts with dozens of education experts and researchers to reinvent the way teacher evaluations are done. 1

Middle School Mathematics Teachers and Teaching Survey

What is the current state of mathematics education in the United States?

We suspect that mathematics teaching has changed tremendously in the last two decades, as new teaching methods, technologies and curriculum materials have appeared in classrooms. This study has been designed to understand the consequences of these changes for instruction.... Read more about Middle School Mathematics Teachers and Teaching Survey

National Center for Teacher Effectiveness

How are multiple measures used in teacher evaluation related to one another and student learning? 

In July 2009, NCTE commenced a six-year effort to join disparate strands of education research, and develop a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of how to measure teacher and teaching effectiveness.... Read more about National Center for Teacher Effectiveness

The project team is still awaiting student test data to complete the evaluation, but this brief provides a short update on survey results. Students of MQI-coached teachers report that their teachers ask more substantive questions, and require more use of mathematical vocabulary as compared to students of control teachers. Students in MQI-coached classrooms also reported more student talk in class. Teachers who received MQI Coaching tended to find their professional development significantly more useful than control teachers, and were also more likely to report that their mathematics instruction improved over the course of the year.

(2016). Findings from a National Study on Research Use Among School and District Leaders (Technical Report No. 1) . National Center for Research in Policy and Practice. Read the report (NCRPP Website)

Recent investigations into the education production function have moved beyond traditional teacher inputs, such as education, certification, and salary, focusing instead on observational measures of teaching practice. However, challenges to identification mean that this work has yet to coalesce around specific instructional dimensions that increase student achievement. I build on this discussion by exploiting within-school, between-grade, and cross-cohort variation in scores from two observation instruments; further, I condition on a uniquely rich set of teacher characteristics, practices, and skills. Findings indicate that inquiry-oriented instruction positively predicts student achievement. Content errors and imprecisions are negatively related, though these estimates are sensitive to the set of covariates included in the model. Two other dimensions of instruction, classroom emotional support and classroom organization, are not related to this outcome. Findings can inform recruitment and development efforts aimed at improving the quality of the teacher workforce. 

This document provides information on the grades 4 and 5 mathematics test modules developed as a joint Harvard/ETS venture from 2009 to 2012. Hundreds of items that were initially developed were then culled by a series of reviews, revisions, pilot tests, cognitive interviews, and field tests. 

The SDP Toolkit for Effective Data Use is a resource guide for education agency analysts who collect and analyze data on student achievement. Completing the toolkit produces a set of basic, yet essential, human capital and college-going analyses that every education agency should have as a foundation to inform strategic management and policy decisions.

An important assumption underlying meaningful comparisons of scores in rater-mediated assessments is that measurement is commensurate across raters. When raters differentially apply the standards established by an instrument, scores from different raters are on fundamentally different scales and no longer preserve a common meaning and basis for comparison. In this study, we developed a method to accommodate measurement noninvariance across raters when measurements are cross-classified within two distinct hierarchical units. We conceptualized random item effects cross-classified graded response models and used random discrimination and threshold effects to test, calibrate, and account for measurement noninvariance among raters. By leveraging empirical estimates of rater-specific deviations in the discrimination and threshold parameters, the proposed method allows us to identify noninvariant items and empirically estimate and directly adjust for this noninvariance within a cross-classified framework. Within the context of teaching evaluations, the results of a case study suggested substantial noninvariance across raters and that establishing an approximately invariant scale through random item effects improves model fit and predictive validity.

Education Decision Makers Need More Timely, Actionable Data

CEPR Executive Director Jon Fullerton and Proving Ground Director Bi Vuong discuss the need to utilize short-term intermediate measures of success to effectively manage interventions within school districts in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. ... Read more about Education Decision Makers Need More Timely, Actionable Data

How to Get Better

The Best Foot Forward Toolkit, as well as its potential for helping teachers become better educators, is referenced in the following HGSE Usable Knowledge blog post.... Read more about How to Get Better

Partnering in Education Research Program Accepting Applications

Learn more about the Partnering in Education Research (PIER) Program from the following HGSE article. ... Read more about Partnering in Education Research Program Accepting Applications

Using video in the classroom to help teachers and students

The Best Foot Forward project is highlighted in the following Education Dive article about video observations in the classroom. ... Read more about Using video in the classroom to help teachers and students

The Benefits of Adding Video to Teacher Evaluations

CEPR Director of Education and Communications, Miriam Greenberg, shares the benefits of video technology to teacher feedback in the following the following eSchool News article. ... Read more about The Benefits of Adding Video to Teacher Evaluations

Harvard Center Releases Report on First Full Year of Common Core Implementation

Research Shows Teachers Embraced New Standards and Adjusted Instruction to Meet Higher Bar; Provides New Evidence on Strategies Related to Improved Student Performance.... Read more about Harvard Center Releases Report on First Full Year of Common Core Implementation

Report: Teacher-Controlled Video Observations Improve Teacher Assessment Process

The Best Foot Forward Project's report on video observations for teachers is featured in the following The Journal article.... Read more about Report: Teacher-Controlled Video Observations Improve Teacher Assessment Process

A Toolkit for Video in the Classroom How Classroom-Based, Teacher-Controlled Video Can Improve the Observation Process

The Best Foot Forward Project's newly released toolkit is featured in the following Usable Knowledge blog post.... Read more about A Toolkit for Video in the Classroom How Classroom-Based, Teacher-Controlled Video Can Improve the Observation Process

Let’s Rewind

Miriam Greenberg, Director of Education and Communications, shares the importance of video technology to teacher feedback in the following HGSE Usable Knowledge blog post. ... Read more about Let’s Rewind

Harvard Center’s Best Foot Forward Project Shares Results on the Use of Video in Classroom Observations

Research shows the use of video in teacher observations is an effective tool for improving evaluation feedback. majority of teachers found process fairer and more useful overall.... read more about harvard center’s best foot forward project shares results on the use of video in classroom observations.

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SOCIAL STUDIES

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Instructional Practices

10 Effective Teaching Strategies for Every Classroom

Many teaching strategies work for any classroom, no matter what the age of the students or the subject. When a teacher implements a combination of effective teaching strategies, their students have more opportunities to perform better in class.

There are many different approaches you can use in your classroom. Which ones will work best depends on your and your students’ preferences, as well as your schedule. Let’s take a look at some of the best practices in teaching that you can employ.

10 Best Practices  in Teaching You Can Use Right Now

1. model as you teach.

When presenting a new subject to your class, it helps to include a demonstration. While some students will be able to grasp a new concept by hearing the information alone, others will prefer to see it.

In certain classes, this is practically required. For example, when you’re teaching a math unit, you’ll usually need to display your work on the board, or else your students will be completely lost. This is how the class can follow along with better comprehension.

Some students will need to see more than one example to get a good understanding. Make sure that you include several different demonstrations for each new unit, as repetition is a big part of committing new ideas to memory. 

2. Make Mistakes

Teachers are the ultimate resource for students when it comes to learning. When you are presenting your lesson plans, you usually show an example of a way to do things. This is a great way to introduce a concept, but you also want to solicit a more in-depth understanding.

A great way to do this is to make intentional mistakes and ask the class to fix them. If you’re an English teacher, you can write an excerpt on the board and riddle it with grammar mistakes. Instruct your students to identify these mistakes and rewrite the passage correctly.

This teaching method requires kids to apply the knowledge they’ve gained in class. It also gives you a chance to evaluate how well each student comprehends the subject.

Once everyone has completed the assignment, you can review it as a class. Show each student how the passage should be written and address any questions that may arise.

3. Work As a Team

Splitting the class up into small groups to complete an assignment is a classroom teaching strategy that works wonders, especially at age groups where students insist on always working with their tight-knit circle of friends. Group assignments encourage teamwork and help your class to succeed.

For instance, in science, you can split the class into small groups for lab-based assignments and give each person a certain job to complete. You might have one person perform the experiment, another write notes, and someone else read instructions, for example.

Make sure to pair children who need extra support with those who have a better understanding of the material. This way, those who are stronger in the subject can share their knowledge to help their peers. All in all, group work is a fun and interactive way to teach a lesson.

4. Encourage Learning from Experience

The best lessons often happen outside of the classroom. Getting out into the real world offers a new perspective for children and can help them gain a more profound understanding of what goes on in the classroom.

Studying the different types of fish in a local pond is an excellent example of learning from experience. You would start in class, going over the different species and how each animal contributes to the environment around it. Once you’ve completed the lesson, take the class to the local pond. Have them search for the different animals you discussed in class. After locating each animal, they will be able to observe the roles discussed earlier in class.

Field trips like this offer valuable, real-world experiences to students. They’ll gain confidence and motivation in class since they will be able to see that everything they learn has a connection to the world around them.

5. Let the Students Teach

Letting students lead the class in teaching requires preparation and a deep understanding of coursework. You can assign this task individually or break up students into groups.The goal of this strategy is to get your students to display the knowledge they have and to share it. In order to give a quality lesson, they will need to put extra time into making sure they fully comprehend the project. If they struggle in some areas, they will be motivated to ask questions in order to get the grade.

You can help students prepare for this assignment by offering a rubric that outlines the areas in which they’ll be graded. You might give points based on lesson length, preparation, and creativity. The weight of each section will depend on the project and your preferences. Some teachers also allow the class to grade a section of the assignment. If you choose to go this route, it can be helpful to pass out a scoring guide to the class. This way, each student knows how to grade the “teacher.”

6. Integrate Technology Into the Classroom

Technology is perhaps the most powerful tool you have at your disposal. It’s an essential part of modern jobs and has a lot to offer in the way of education. Computers, laptops, and tablets can allow you to enhance your lesson plans with online educational activities. There are several free resources that you can access with a simple Google search. Try looking up educational videos or playing free math and science games.

Your students will not only enjoy the time they spend online but also gain a deeper understanding of your classwork. Use all the resources you have at your disposal to your advantage — you’ll have a more engaged and motivated group of students as a result.

7. Try Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers , such as pie charts and Venn diagrams , are a great way to display information visually. When you ask your class to create one, your students will have to apply their knowledge in a visual way. This will also help them form connections and understand similarities and differences.

8. Emphasize Classroom Management

Classroom management is an important part of being a teacher. Teaching strategies often give you plenty of structure regarding how to teach a class, but not how to manage it. We have many articles to help you manage your classroom , which delve deeply into common themes, such as establishing routines and building relationships with students. There are also tools, like HMH Classcraft , to help manage classrooms. Look for tools that give insights into student performance and behavior and, ideally, offer activities and lessons to meet students exactly where they are. By way of example, Classcraft has a few features to help you manage your classroom:

• The Control Panel is the educator-only view that provides access to ready-made, standards-aligned lessons. From this view, educators can plan instruction with built-in teacher notes, view real-time insights on student performance and readiness, and adapt instruction to meet individual student or whole-classroom needs.
• The Active Student Panel keeps students on task and encourages ownership of learning. From this view, students can interact with instructional tools like Learning Goals, Turn and Talk, and Polls, collaborate with classmates or respond independently, and may even have their screens paused by educators to ensure they are staying on task.
• The Classroom Panel is the whole-classroom instruction view. From this view, educators can control what is being displayed in the front of the classroom, share student responses anonymously to encourage further discussion, and use classroom management tools like a timer, stopwatch, grouping, and volume meter.

9. Utilize Visual Aids

Visual aids, such as smartboards and projectors, can ramp up your lesson in class. Some children prefer to absorb information and have a deep understanding of it from hearing a lecture alone. Others prefer visual aids to help them organize information. Try displaying informative graphics that relate to your lesson on the board or projector. Reference these illustrations as you speak to allow everyone in your class to get what they need out of the lesson.

10. Implement Inquiry- based Learning

Inquiry-based learning is an effective teaching technique  used to appeal to your students’ curiosity. Implementing it in the classroom means allowing the students to identify questions that interest them and to explore those questions in an educational setting.

Once your students have identified a topic of interest, they’ll need to research their chosen subject and deliver a presentation to the class. You must be there to offer support, such as by helping your students identify reliable online sources for research.

After the presentation is over, ask your students to reflect on the project as a whole. You want them to evaluate what went well, what didn’t, and what could be done differently in the future. Moreover, you want your students to focus on not only what they learned but also how they learned it. This builds independent, confident learners who have a clearer path to success.

It's a smart idea to have a few teaching practices in your back pocket to use in the classroom. These best teaching practices are sure to get your students thinking, learning, and staying engaged with your lessons each day.

This article was adapted from a blog post initially developed by the education technology company Classcraft, which was acquired by HMH in 2023. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.

*** Transform your classroom and engage every student with HMH Classcraft , a solution that pairs evidence-based ELA and math content with research-based lesson plans.

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Formative Assessment of Teaching

What is formative assessment of teaching.

How do you know if your teaching is effective? How can you identify areas where your teaching can improve? What does it look like to assess teaching?

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment of teaching consists of different approaches to continuously evaluate your teaching. The insight gained from this assessment can support revising your teaching strategies, leading to better outcomes in student learning and experiences. Formative assessment can be contrasted with summative assessment, which is usually part of an evaluative decision-making process. The table below outlines some of the key differences between formative and summative assessment: 

By participating in formative assessment, instructors connect with recent developments in the space of teaching and learning, as well as incorporate new ideas into their practice. Developments may include changes in the students we serve, changes in our understanding of effective teaching, and changes in expectations of the discipline and of higher education as a whole.

Formative assessment of teaching ultimately should guide instructors towards using more effective teaching practices. What does effectiveness mean in terms of teaching?

Effectiveness in Teaching

Effective teaching can be defined as teaching that leads to the intended outcomes in student learning and experiences. In this sense, there is no single perfect teaching approach. Effective teaching looks will depend on the stated goals for student learning and experiences. A course that aims to build student confidence in statistical analysis and a course that aims to develop student writing could use very different teaching strategies, and still both be effective at accomplishing their respective goals. 

Assessing student learning and experiences is critical to determining if teaching is truly effective in its context. This assessment can be quite complex, but it is doable. In addition to measuring the impacts of your teaching, you may also consider evaluating your teaching as it aligns with best practices for evidence-based teaching especially in the disciplinary and course context or aligns with your intended teaching approach. The table below outlines these three approaches to assessing the effectiveness of your teaching:

What are some strategies that I might try? 

There are multiple ways that instructors might begin to assess their teaching. The list below includes approaches that may be done solo, with colleagues, or with the input of students. Instructors may pursue one or more of these strategies at different points in time. With each possible strategy, we have included several examples of the strategy in practice from a variety of institutions and contexts.

Teaching Portfolios

Teaching portfolios are well-suited for formative assessment of teaching, as the portfolio format lends itself to documenting how your teaching has evolved over time. Instructors can use their teaching portfolios as a reflective practice to review past teaching experiences, what worked and what did not.

Teaching portfolios consist of various pieces of evidence about your teaching such as course syllabi, outlines, lesson plans, course evaluations, and more. Instructors curate these pieces of evidence into a collection, giving them the chance to highlight their own growth and focus as educators. While student input may be incorporated as part of the portfolio, instructors can contextualize and respond to student feedback, giving them the chance to tell their own teaching story from a more holistic perspective.

Teaching portfolios encourage self-reflection, especially with guided questions or rubrics to review your work. In addition, an instructor might consider sharing their entire teaching portfolio or selected materials for a single course with colleagues and engaging in a peer review discussion. 

Examples and Resources:

Teaching Portfolio - Career Center

Developing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy and Teaching Portfolio - GSI Teaching & Resource Center

Self Assessment - UCLA Center for Education, Innovation, and Learning in the Sciences

Advancing Inclusion and Anti-Racism in the College Classroom Rubric and Guide

Course Design Equity and Inclusion Rubric

Teaching Demos or Peer Observation

Teaching demonstrations or peer classroom observation provide opportunities to get feedback on your teaching practice, including communication skills or classroom management.

Teaching demonstrations may be arranged as a simulated classroom environment in front of a live audience who take notes and then deliver summarized feedback. Alternatively, demonstrations may involve recording an instructor teaching to an empty room, and this recording can be subjected to later self-review or peer review. Evaluation of teaching demos will often focus on the mechanics of teaching especially for a lecture-based class, e.g. pacing of speech, organization of topics, clarity of explanations.

In contrast, instructors may invite a colleague to observe an actual class session to evaluate teaching in an authentic situation. This arrangement gives the observer a better sense of how the instructor interacts with students both individually or in groups, including their approach to answering questions or facilitating participation. The colleague may take general notes on what they observe or evaluate the instructor using a teaching rubric or other structured tool.

Peer Review of Course Instruction

Preparing for a Teaching Demonstration - UC Irvine Center for Educational Effectiveness

Based on Peer Feedback - UCLA Center for Education, Innovation, and Learning in the Sciences

Teaching Practices Equity and Inclusion Rubric

Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS)

Student Learning Assessments

Student learning can vary widely across courses or even between academic terms. However, having a clear benchmark for the intended learning objectives and determining whether an instructor’s course as implemented helps students to reach that benchmark can be an invaluable piece of information to guide your teaching. The method for measuring student learning will depend on the stated learning objective, but a well-vetted instrument can provide the most reliable data.

Recommended steps and considerations for using student learning assessments to evaluate your teaching efficacy include:

Identify a small subset of course learning objectives to focus on, as it is more useful to accurately evaluate one objective vs. evaluating many objectives inaccurately.

Find a well-aligned and well-developed measure for each selected course learning objective, such as vetted exam questions, rubrics, or concept inventories.

If relevant, develop a prompt or assignment that will allow students to demonstrate the learning objective to then be evaluated against the measure.

Plan the timing of data collection to enable useful comparison and interpretation.

Do you want to compare how students perform at the start of your course compared to the same students at the end of your course?

Do you want to compare how the same students perform before and after a specific teaching activity?

Do you want to compare how students in one term perform compared to students in the next term, after changing your teaching approach?

Implement the assignment/prompt and evaluate a subset or all of the student work according to the measure.

Reflect on the results and compare student performance measures.

Are students learning as a result of your teaching activity and course design?

Are students learning to the degree that you intended?

Are students learning more when you change how you teach?

This process can be repeated as many times as needed or the process can be restarted to instead focus on a different course learning objective.

List of Concept Inventories (STEM)

Best Practices for Administering Concept Inventories (Physics)

AAC&U VALUE Rubrics

Rubric Bank | Assessment and Curriculum Support Center - University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Rubrics - World Languages Resource Collection - Kennesaw State University

Student Surveys or Focus Groups

Surveys or focus groups are effective tools to better understand the student experience in your courses, as well as to solicit feedback on how courses can be improved. Hearing student voices is critical as students themselves can attest to how course activities made them feel, e.g. whether they perceive the learning environment to be inclusive, or what topics they find interesting.

Some considerations for using student surveys in your teaching include:

Surveys collect individual and anonymous input from as many students as possible.

Surveys can gather both quantitative and qualitative data.

Surveys that are anonymous avoid privileging certain voices over others.

Surveys can enable students to share about sensitive experiences that they may be reluctant to discuss publicly.

Surveys that are anonymous may lend to negative response bias.

Survey options at UC Berkeley include customized course evaluation questions or anonymous surveys on bCourses, Google Forms, or Qualtrics. 

Some considerations for using student focus groups in your teaching include:

Focus groups leverage the power of group brainstorming to identify problems and imagine possible solutions.

Focus groups can gather both rich and nuanced qualitative data.

Focus groups with a skilled facilitator tend to have more moderated responses given the visibility of the discussion.

Focus groups take planning, preparation, and dedicated class time.

Focus group options at UC Berkeley include scheduling a Mid-semester Inquiry (MSI) to be facilitated by a CTL staff member.

Instructions for completing question customization for your evaluations as an instructor

Course Evaluations Question Bank

Student-Centered Evaluation Questions for Remote Learning

Based on Student Feedback - UCLA Center for Education, Innovation, and Learning in the Sciences

How Can Instructors Encourage Students to Complete Course Evaluations and Provide Informative Responses?

Student Views/Attitudes/Affective Instruments - ASBMB

Student Skills Inventories - ASBMB

How might I get started?

Self-assess your own course materials using one of the available rubrics listed above.

Schedule a teaching observation with CTL to get a colleague’s feedback on your teaching practices and notes on student engagement.

Schedule an MSI with CTL to gather directed student feedback with the support of a colleague.

Have more questions? Schedule a general consultation with CTL or send us your questions by email ( [email protected] )!

References:

Evaluating Teaching - UCSB Instructional Development

Documenting Teaching - UCSC Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning

Other Forms of Evaluation - UCLA Center for Education, Innovation, and Learning in the Sciences

Evaluation Of Teaching Committee on Teaching, Academic Senate

Report of the Academic Council Teaching Evaluation Task Force

Teaching Quality Framework Initiative Resources - University of Colorado Boulder

Benchmarks for Teaching Effectiveness - University of Kansas  Center for Teaching Excellence

Teaching Practices Instruments - ASBMB

Publications

• Journal Articles
• Books: Books, Chapters, Reviews
• Working Papers
• Effective schools: Teacher hiring, assignment, development, and retention

Susanna Loeb

Tara Beteille

Demetra Kalogrides

The literature on effective schools emphasizes the importance of a quality teaching force in improving educational outcomes for students. In this paper, we use value-added methods to examine the relationship between a school’s effectiveness and the recruitment, assignment, development and retention of its teachers. Are effective schools effective because they happen to have recruited good teachers or do effective schools systematically recruit, develop and retain more effective teachers each year? Our results reveal four key findings. First, we find that more effective schools are able to attract and hire more effective teachers from other schools when vacancies arise. Second, we find that more effective schools assign novice teachers to students in a more equitable fashion. Across all schools we find that novice teachers are assigned lower achieving students than their more experienced colleagues at their school; however, the magnitude of this relationship is weaker in more effective schools. Third, teachers who work in schools that were more effective at raising achievement in a prior period improve more rapidly in a subsequent period than do those in less effective schools. Finally, we find that more effective schools are better able to retain higher-quality teachers. The results point to the importance of personnel, and perhaps, school personnel practices, for improving school outcomes.

Primary Research Area:

• Teaching and Leadership Effectiveness

Topic Areas:

• Educator Preparation and Development , Teacher Labor Markets , Teacher Quality

Education Level:

• School Leadership Research

APA Citation

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Student Teaching Assignments

1. overview of the assignments.

Your assignments are designed with respect to your developmental needs and abilities, and serve to provide you with an opportunity to reflect on your work and to promote your personal and professional development. The timeline for completing specific tasks and assignments may vary somewhat by cohort. Your university supervisor will provide you with a syllabus that specifies the exact requirements of the experience and the timeline for completing tasks and assignments.

2. Orientation to the Placement

After the placement is secured and conveyed to you, it is important to get to know more about the community, district, school building, mentor teacher, and students. Building a strong relationship with the mentor teacher should be among the first of your goals. After receiving permission from the university supervisor, you should initiate communication with the mentor teacher by phoning or emailing the teacher at the school. You are encouraged to visit the teacher at the host school prior to the start of your student teaching.

In addition to building a healthy working relationship, initial contact with the mentor teacher is an important opportunity to gather and exchange some critical information. You are required to provide your mentor teacher with the website address of this Student Teaching Handbook . Some additional items to consider are:  

• Exchanging of phone numbers, email addresses, and mailing addresses;
• Confirming the expected date, time, and location of the first day of student teaching;
• Becoming familiar with the mentor teacher’s daily and weekly schedule;
• Discussing the courses, subjects, units, topics, etc., that will likely be taught;
• Determining whether curriculum materials such as texts, software, district curriculum guides should be picked up prior to the start of student teaching;
• Asking for a copy of any school or classroom rules, guidelines for classroom management, and other policies, relevant to managing the learning-teaching environment;
• Other items as suggested by the university supervisor.

Note: University supervisors often require student teachers to send a written communication, thanking the mentor teacher for his or her willingness to host a student teacher. A copy of the letter is to be sent to the university supervisor, as well.

3. Assignments

3.1. daily lesson "learning" plans.

As a Penn State student teacher, you are required to demonstrate the ability to effectively plan and implement learning activities and assessments in the classroom. Lesson plans assist in the identification of specific learning outcomes, materials, procedures, and assessment techniques to be used in planning effective lessons. Lesson planning is a process composed of many decisions. All teachers spend time thinking about a series of important instructional decisions before their lessons begin. The written plans document your thoughts. The written plans also provide a window into your philosophies of teaching and learning, as well as allow the mentor teacher and university supervisor to assist with your development in that area. Experienced teachers plan lessons in many different ways and at many different times. Unlike you, experienced teachers often do not produce formal written plans for the lessons they will teach. Many experienced teachers believe that producing a written plan, in fact, improves their planning and, subsequently, their teaching. Beginning teachers and prospective teachers, however, are still in the process of developing an understanding of lesson planning and learning about the multitude of factors that must be considered in planning high quality instruction. Therefore, Penn State expects all student teachers to engage in the process of planning. You document your planning in the form of written lesson and unit plans. The development of the written lesson plan serves three purposes. First, it stimulates and strengthens the mental process of planning a lesson. Second, it provides concrete evidence that you have considered important decisions and factors in planning. This then fulfills the third purpose: the detailed planning makes your thought process explicit so that your mentor teacher and university supervisor can help you plan more effectively. Written plans are required for all lessons and learning activities that you expect to implement. Your mentor teacher must approve your lesson plans in advance. (A typical window is at least 24 hours in advance of teaching—but may vary by mentor.) Advanced planning provides a point of discussion with your mentor teacher that can facilitate cooperative planning, clarification and trouble-shooting. If your written lesson plans are not submitted at least 24 hours in advance, your supervisor may recommend that you not teach the lesson.

3.2. Inquiry Into Teaching: Planning, Teaching, and Reflecting

3.2.a. Inquiry into Community, School, and Classroom The purpose of this beginning phase of student teaching is to help you to become familiar with the community, the school, and your assigned classroom context. You will need to locate and review documentation and Internet resources about the community and school. Beyond a web search, data about the community and school can be obtained by unobtrusive observations and brief, informal interviews with key community and/or school personnel. Although some of this information can be collected prior to the start of student teaching, much information can only be collected after the student teaching practicum has begun. A written summary/report following the outline below, accompanied by any relevant supporting materials, including the Orientation to The School assignment, observations of other teachers, and shadowing a student should be completed by the date specified by your university supervisor. The summary may include:  

• Community and district-level information/factors (e.g., rural/suburban/urban, population demographics, dominant community business/influences, potential resources available for your teaching, etc.)
• School-level factors (e.g., academic environment, school philosophy, physical layout, school initiatives, strategic planning goals, involvement of parents, areas of promise and problems, etc.)
• Classroom-level factors and student characteristics (e.g., classroom layout, demographics, formally identified special needs such as learning or physical disability, informally identified needs such as shyness, accommodations described in IEPs, classroom learning environment, academic and behavioral expectations, etc.).

Unit Plan -- Once oriented to the community, school, and classroom, your focus shifts to greater collaboration with your mentor teacher for planning, teaching, and assessment. You will engage in activities ranging from assessing or tutoring individual students, to working with a small group, to co-teaching the whole class. You also will participate in tasks such as preparing new instructional materials, grading, etc. While many opportunities to plan, teach, assess, and reflect during student teaching, will arise, all Penn State student teachers plan, teach, and assess the impact of a standards-based unit of instruction. In consultation with your university supervisor and mentor teacher, you will implement a unit of instruction (Often simply called, “The Unit.”) that lasts for a recommended length of no fewer than ten lessons, depending on the context. This core assignment has several major components: 3.2.b. Inquiry into the Curriculum Note: The following sub-components should be clearly identifiable:  

• Identify Standards: Identify district and state academic standards that should be met by students upon completion of this unit of instruction . PA Academic Standards can be found at http://www.pde.state.pa.us/k12/site/default.asp (Click on “Academic Standards” along left column and follow the links to relevant subject area. These standards provide a framework to help teachers identify teaching and learning priorities and are necessary in guiding the design of curriculum, instruction, and assessments. Another valuable source can be the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Standards Aligned System (SAS). Information about SAS can be found at the following URL: www.pdesas.org
• Specify Learning Outcomes : In order to meet the specified district and state standard(s), what will the students need to know, understand and be able to do? Understanding is more than just textbook knowledge and basic skills. Understanding involves sophisticated insights of concepts and abilities. What concepts or “enduring understandings” should students develop by the end of the lesson sequence? In addition to the “big ideas,” what key knowledge/facts and skills should students demonstrate to meet the learning outcomes of the unit?
• Develop Assessment and Instruction Plan: Now that the end is clear, it is time to design the means for getting the students there. Using the standards and specific learning outcomes that were identified in (A) and (B) as the starting point, develop an integrated instruction and assessment plan of at least 10 lessons that builds on community and school context information and is aligned and keyed to the learning outcomes and standards specified above. At this point in the planning process, the instruction and assessment plan may take either of two forms: 1) a block plan that briefly states the specific learning outcomes, learning activities, formative assessment strategy, and key materials for each lesson; or (2) fully developed lesson plans for each day using the lesson plan format agreed upon by you, your mentor, and the university supervisor. If the block plan format is used in planning the unit, fully developed lesson plans for each lesson will need to be developed at least 24 hours in advance. If the fully developed lesson plan format is used in planning the unit, the daily lessons will need to be revised as necessary to adapt to student learning and the actual progress of instruction during the course of the unit. The revisions to the lesson plans should be completed at least 24 hours in advance.

Note: It is expected that the instructional plan for the unit meaningfully integrate instructional technology as appropriate for the learning outcomes and for the school/classroom context. You must consult with the mentor while developing this plan to be sure it can be implemented in the assigned classroom. Assessment is the act of determining the extent to which curricular goals are met, as well as analyzing the events and responses to your lessons that could not have been predicted. Often the unexpected proves to be the most enlightening. How will the teacher know if students have developed the understandings specified? What is accepted as evidence that students have developed the desired understandings? By planning assessments while planning instruction, the assessments can serve as teaching targets— helping to sharpen instructional plans to be sure they meet intended outcomes. The assessment plan must include:  

• Pre-assessments (diagnostic) to help you understand what students already know and are able to do and/or “diagnose” learning needs.
• Ongoing assessments (formative) that are used during the unit to monitor the development of understanding and provide data that help “to inform” you of the next instructive step.
• Post-assessments (summative), which may consist of selected response items (e.g., multiple choice, matching), constructed response items (e.g., short answer, label diagram, concept map), assignment artifacts (e.g., essay, drawing, journal entry), or performances (e.g., oral presentations, debate). In addition, informal assessments such as observations or clinical assessments such as an interview, think-aloud, or “science talk” are also suitable forms of post-instructional assessment. Post-assessments “summarize” student learning.
• Planning the Learning Environment. How have you encouraged an inviting, motivating, and productive atmosphere in your classroom? What included procedures address effective us of class time and resources, respond to potential student questions and concerns, and deal with off-topic or off-task behavior? The plan for the learning environment should be central to each lesson plan.
• Identify the students who may have difficulty with the lesson, or who have displayed the ability, background knowledge, or interest to quickly learn this type of lesson.
• Consider and then document how you could adapt or accommodate for those students for each lesson in the unit.

3.2.c. Teach the Unit After the unit is written and approved by your mentor teacher and university supervisor, gather necessary materials and supplies and begin teaching. Before teaching the unit, make arrangements to be formally observed at least once by your university supervisor and once by your mentor teacher. Formal observations provide useful information that can facilitate improvement as a teacher. In some cases, the supervisor or mentor may expect that at least one lesson be videotaped for self-analysis and/or that a journal be kept wherein you reflect on each lesson taught. 3.2.d. Inquiry into Student Learning This inquiry requires you to analyze and use student assessment data to characterize what has been learned during the unit. There are two parts to this inquiry.  

• Whole Class Assessment: The purpose is to organize and analyze assessment evidence in order to draw conclusions about student achievement of each of the specified learning outcomes. The best way to conduct this kind of assessment is to examine and compare pre-instructional assessments and post-instructional assessments targeting the same concept of understanding. It is not necessary to report analyses for each individual child. Rather, you should aggregate assessment information of the whole class to show what students learned and are now able to do. What patterns of performance are evident in the assessments? Are these the results expected? In what areas did the students perform best and worst? What misconceptions, if any, are revealed by the assessments?
• Individual Student Assessment : In this sub-component, the task is to organize and analyze assessment evidence for at least one student identified with special needs, exceptionality, etc. The purpose is to demonstrate your ability to monitor and interpret the academic performance of an exceptional child and reflect on your own ability to differentiate instruction. What patterns of performance are evident in the assessment? Are these the results expected? In what areas did the student (or students) perform best and worst? What misconceptions, if any, are revealed by the assessments?

3.2.e. Inquiry into My Teaching The purpose of this component is to scaffold your reflection on your own development as a new teacher. There are three parts to this inquiry.  

• Overall Self-Assessment: Provide an overall assessment of teaching strengths and limitations during this unit of instruction. The “Teacher Education Performance Standards” in the areas of Planning and Preparing for Student Learning, Teaching, Analyzing Student Learning and Inquiring into Teaching, and Fulfilling Professional Responsibilities are used to guide the reflection process. You are to indicate at least one strength and one limitation for each of the four performance domains. Examples from lesson plans, formal observations, videotapes, student assessment data, peer observation notes, etc., can be used to illustrate each strength and limitation in each of these performance areas.
• Perception of Effectiveness with Exceptional Student: You are required to assess the effectiveness of adaptations and accommodations made for an exceptional learner and provide reflections on the effectiveness of the instructional differentiation and resource adaptations utilized. Examples from lesson plans, formal observations, videotapes, student assessment data, peer observation notes, lesson analyses/reflections, etc. can be used to illustrate the assessment.
• Goal Setting: Student teaching is not the end; it is just the beginning of a rewarding career as a caring, effective educator. An appropriate conclusion to this inquiry into one’s teaching is to set achievable goals in each of the four performance domains for future growth and development.

3.3. Individual Learner Project: Response to Intervention

This semester long teacher inquiry project requires you to identify an exceptional student, gather data, analyze the data, prescribe and implement adaptations, and evaluate their effects. In addition to providing valuable assistance to an individual school student, this inquiry project aids in developing your sense of efficacy as a teacher. With confidentiality always a priority, you will consult with other professionals such as learning support teachers, school psychologists, and school counselors. You will research the student’s background and report on the student’s current level, strengths, and weaknesses at the beginning of the semester. After doing background research, you will define the targeted goal and gather baseline data on your student. You will then create an instructional plan for that student, identifying strategies to achieve these goals. You will continue to gather data as you implement your plan of intervention. Throughout this project, you will reflect on the strategies that you use and analyze their effectiveness. If your initial intervention does not work, you are encouraged to try other intervention strategies. Note: Your university supervisor will provide you with detailed guidelines appropriate for your specific classroom setting.

3.4. Journal Entries (may include some or all of the following):

3.4.a. Observation of Educators Observations of teachers and/or peers in and out of the assigned grade level or subject area can provide useful insights. For example, sometimes student teachers placed in a middle school setting wonder what it is like to teach high school seniors. Student teachers who primarily teach high performing students might like to visit a classroom with predominantly lower performers. It also can be useful to observe other professionals in the school to gain insight into how the whole school functions. The guidance counselor’s office, special education classrooms, ELL classrooms, and athletic facilities are just some of the places to find other educational professionals to observe. Both the mentor teacher and university supervisor should approve all observations of other educators before the observation takes place. You may be asked to prepare a journal entry or a brief report based on observations of other educators. It is recommended that you complete most observations early in the semester before assuming a full-time teaching load. Observations of other educators should be requested and arranged in advance. Professional courtesies and protocol should be observed, which includes thanking the person who provides the observation setting and, as always, maintaining confidentiality regarding what may be seen and heard in these observations. Early observations in the mentor teacher’s classroom help you to become familiar with the classroom environment, learning student’s names, recognizing classroom procedures, practicing systematic observation, and building teacher inquiry skills. Observations are most productive when made with a stated purpose or focus. You are expected to define (with the guidance of the mentor teacher and/or university supervisor) specific aspects of the situation to be observed before beginning the observation. Data collections should be part of every observation, followed by an analysis appropriate for the observation’s focus. 3.4.b. Lesson Analysis An analysis of lessons taught is critical to the development of teachers. You may be asked to prepare a written analysis of some or all of the lessons taught. As you reflect on the most and least effective aspects of the lesson and identify alternatives, you will develop abilities to inquire into your own practices that will foster continued professional growth and improvement. The analysis is conducted shortly after teaching a lesson. In an effort to analyze the effectiveness of the lesson, you should consider the following questions:  

• What did I learn through the process of planning and implementing this lesson?
• What did my students learn? How do I know what they learned?
• To what extent did I meet the needs of all of my learners? What evidence do I have to support this claim?
• What did I learn about teaching and learning this concept or skill?
• What did I learn about managing the learning environment during this lesson?
• What pleased me about this lesson?
• What disappointed me about this lesson?
• What alternative instructional and assessment strategies could I have used?
• What will I do next?

3.4.c. Personal Philosophy All student teachers bring beliefs about learning and teaching to the field experience. These beliefs include the way young people grow and develop, the purposes of schooling, the nature of learning, teaching, educational programs, and school climate and structure. This platform of beliefs is often based on one’s own experiences in schools and upon learning principles or theories studied. At the beginning of the practicum, you will be asked to express your personal philosophy in writing. You likely prepared a philosophy statement in courses prior to student teaching—it would prove helpful to take it out and review it when planning for instruction and interaction with students. You may find inconsistencies due to the fact that teaching is a process of continual inquiry—changes and modifications in philosophy are considered healthy and necessary. The student teaching practicum provides you with opportunities to test your beliefs and to determine the extent to which your aims or goals can be realized in your school. Activities to help clarify beliefs about teaching and learning can include:  

• Observing experienced teachers to identify instances of effective teaching strategies and methods
• Discussing and reflecting on these teaching strategies or methods with the mentor teacher to determine why these practices are used and to identify the underlying learning principles
• Using analysis/observations of classroom implementation and interaction by the supervisor and mentor teacher.

Near the end of the practicum, you should examine the philosophy written earlier in the semester to determine which of your beliefs prevailed. You may be asked to write a revised philosophy of teaching and learning that is appropriate for a job interview. 3.4.d. Video Analysis Analysis of a video or audio recording of a lesson taught provides you with an opportunity to (a) reflect more intensively on teaching and learning; and, to (b) use systematic observation to assess teacher-learner behaviors. The focus of your video may be on your own performance, the performance of your students, or your interactions with students. Prior to your recording of a lesson, you must become knowledgeable of any district policies regarding video or audio recording. Your mentor teacher can help you learn of school policy. The focus for analysis should be identified first. You can then (a) view the video, (b) collect relevant data from the viewing, and (c) prepare an analysis. The analysis should include any appropriate documentation (e.g., copy of the lesson plan, copy of a data summary sheet, a complete analysis). The following components should be included in the written video analysis:  

• Description of the area of focus and indication why this particular aspect of teaching was selected;
• Explanation of the rationale for the focus, and careful consideration of principles of learning and best practice;
• Collection and organization of data related to the focus from viewing the tape one or more times (e.g., chart of some other approach to systematic data organization);
• Summary of the findings and discussion of their meaning;
• Discussion of any unexpected discoveries that merit attention;
• Setting of specific goals for improvement and listing of at least two specific changes to be made that will help you to achieve identified goals.

Some areas for analysis might include:  

• Response to students’ answers, such as, (a) use of positive reinforcement statements; (b) verbatim repetition; (c) allowing students to elaborate on their answers or other students’ answers; or (d) seeking a correct response if a student’s answer is incomplete or inaccurate.
• Teacher clarity in giving directions, explaining content through task analysis, making explanations relevant to the process or the product, pacing).
• Types and frequency of praise and encouragement.
• Student engagement in small group activities.

Notes: (1) It is often helpful for you and your mentor teacher to view the video together. (2) Ask your supervisor to provide you with access to a SWIVL camera base with remote microphone that will allow you to track student conversations. 3.4.e. Reflective Writing Keeping a journal during student teaching encourages reflection in a less structured format. Entries may include experiences, reactions, activities and learning related to the art of teaching. It may be a reflective document that brings together events, reactions, and response to the school day. It also may be a tool for communication with your supervisor. Suggested topics for reflection include:  

• Comparison of teaching and management strategies among observed teachers.
• Thoughts and questions about topics such as parent/teacher relations, faculty interaction, and student affairs.
• Discussion of classroom/behavior management strategies.
• Reflections on abilities to work with special needs students, or with small and large groups.
• Insights about attitudes toward teaching and educational concerns.
• Periodic self-assessments in the areas of professional growth and development, including knowledge about children and teaching.
• Descriptions of peak experiences, crises, surprising occurrences or other events that appear significant to professional growth.
• Reactions to current professional literature or research.

3.5.The Penn State Education Teaching Portfolio

The Student Teaching Performance Portfolio is a purposeful and organized selection of evidence that demonstrates how you have accomplished the performance expectations set forth in the Penn State Teacher Education Performance Framework . The portfolio is different from the filing system being maintained, in that the filing system contains all paperwork and related items for the whole semester. The Student Teaching Performance Portfolio contains evidence that you carefully select and extract from your files that demonstrate what you have accomplished as a student teacher. The Student Teaching Performance Portfolio is the natural complement to the Penn State Performance-Based Assessment of Student Teaching form. It is the place to assemble and reflect on evidence used to derive ratings of performance. The portfolio allows you to:  

• Experience a professional portfolio process such as the one used in statewide beginning teacher programs in several states and used by experienced teachers seeking National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification.
• Provide specific examples of work related to all performance standards to your mentor teacher and university supervisor for discussion and reflection throughout the experience, especially during the performance assessment conferences.
• Have an organized collection of evidence of performance to use during job interviews.
• Share evidence of accomplishments with Penn State faculty so they can assess the quality of the teacher preparation program.

Organize your portfolio around each of the performance domains in the Penn State Teacher Educational Performance Framework. The level of performance achieved in each standard should be addressed by referencing at least two artifacts contained in the portfolio, with reference to at least one piece required at mid-semester to make a compelling argument of performance to that point in time. A significant value of the portfolio lies in your reflection about the process of selecting the artifacts you use as evidence to be included in the portfolio. A written justification will accompany each piece of evidence. Simply put, these justifications provide the rationale for its inclusion. Portfolios are most useful when they support your personal process of learning to teach, rather than merely the products of your learning.

3.6. Participation in the field (may include some or all of the following)

3.6.a Weekly Schedule Each week, you will submit a weekly teaching and activity schedule to your university supervisor, according to a specific format. The schedule should accurately reflect the general daily schedule and specify activities for which you are personally responsible. The schedule helps in the organization of your work and assists your supervisor in planning an efficient observation schedule. 3.6.b. Emergency Lesson Plans You are required to prepare emergency lesson plans to be used in unexpected situations such as schedule changes or absences. The emergency plans should be readily available for immediate use. The plans are written and contain the same parts needed in all good planning, such as objectives, materials, procedures, assessment of self and students. Emergency lesson plans may be independent of other lessons and need not be an integral part of the curriculum. The approximate length of emergency lesson plans should be varied (e.g., two or three plans to run between five and ten minutes; one plan for ten to twenty minutes; one for twenty to thirty minutes [or a class period]). All activities should be appropriate to the interest and grade level of the students. You should be able to put an emergency plan into action smoothly and without hesitation. In fact, the emergency plan should be developed well enough that any teacher could put the plan into action. Therefore, all materials should be ready to use without additional preparation. Activities for emergency plans may be challenging and thought-provoking (e.g., mind benders or mazes) and/or may be intended for one or more of the following:  

• Appreciation
• Developing creativity
• Reinforcement of a skill
• Reinforcement of facts needing later recall
• Greater breadth of application and/or understanding in any knowledge area previously present

3.7. Participation in seminar

All student teachers are required to participate in seminar.

3.8. Required Assignments for Student Teachers Involved with Short Term Student Teaching Abroad

A. Assignments to be completed in PA Placement 1. Inquiry into Teaching and Learning Project a. Inquiry into School and Community b. Inquiry into Curriculum c. Inquiry into Teaching and Learning d. Individual Learner Project 2. Mid-semester Performance Framework Portfolio B. Assignments to be completed in placement Abroad 1. Final Performance Framework Portfolio 2. Weekly journal entries submitted via email to PA Supervisor

Suggested topics: i. Orientation to international school and community ii. Comparison between PA school and host nation school (facilities, dress, student-teacher relationships, classroom management, assessment, etc.) iii. Reflections on accommodations for individual learners in the host nation school iv. Self-assessment of teaching, especially in reference to goals developed in PA placement v. Student/youth culture in the host nation (secondary) or views of childhood/children in host nation (elementary) vi. Cultural views on education in host nation (parental involvement, government support, private vs. public schools, etc.) vii. Reflection on the entire semester (How have you grown and changed? What have you learned?) viii. What conditions in an international setting would encourage you to teach outside the United States?

• Development Testing