ICALT 3 in Spain: teaching effectiveness research with diverse educational agents

Abstract

Several factors determine students’ academic achievement. Teachers’ teaching activity is undoubtedly one of the central issues as long as educators’ decisions determine in an important way what takes place inside the classroom. In order to study in a deep and rigorous approach the teaching effectiveness construct, a scientific approach is required. The current work presents the development of the ICALT3 project in Spain. This project is based on a model of teaching effectiveness developed by Van de Grift (2007) which considers six domains: learning climate, classroom management, clarity of instruction, activating teaching, teaching – learning strategies, and differentiation. The manuscript presents the four phases concerning the implementation of the project (translation and adaptation of instruments; data collection with questionnaires; observation phase; and the design of teaching induction programs) and also points out some of the evidences which prove the usefulness of the project in Spain, taking into account the studies and observations made with students and teachers. The results obtained so far validate the construct of teaching effectiveness and conclude that it does depend on the already mentioned six teaching domains. It can also be noted that certain personal and contextual variables may be influencing teaching effectiveness and students’ engagement