Practical measures of science teacher learning: Conceptualizing organizational functions and affordances

Eleanor R. Anderson, Jennifer Richards*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In this paper, we build on a growing body of research on practical measurement for educational improvement, contributing a conceptualization of the organizational functions of measurement in processes of persistence and change. Our work is grounded in theoretical understandings of micro-institutional change that foreground processes of reproduction and disruption of organizational categories, priorities, assumptions, and practices. Drawing together measurement discourses from multiple fields of study, we identify four metaphors for organizational functions that measures can serve: carriers, windows, exercises, and drivers. We propose a conceptual framework illustrating relationships and pathways among these functions as they operate in context. We then apply the framework in the context of co-designing three practical measures of science teacher learning in a large urban district, illustrating varied pathways through which the practical measures seemed to function, and documenting their respective affordances and constraints in driving reproduction and/or disruption in the organization's work to support science teacher learning. This line of work extends prior research on practical measurement through its focus on measures of science teacher learning and its attention to how practical measures can function to shape broader processes of organizational transformation and stability. This paper is part of the special issue on Teacher Learning and Practice within Organizational Contexts.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)238-265
Number of pages28
JournalScience Education
Volume109
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2025

Funding

Many thanks to all the district PL facilitators and a university partner, Ashley Walter, with whom we had the honor and pleasure of collaborating on the design process reported on here. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2021 conference of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) (see Anderson & Richards, 2021 ). Our thanks to the session participants for their thoughtful engagement, and to ISLS for permission to reuse materials from the copyrighted proceedings. We would also like to thank Kara Jackson and Hannah Nieman for their insightful reflections in an early conversation about practical measures. Finally, we are grateful for the constructive feedback provided by anonymous reviewers and the gracious and generative editorial guidance provided by Kathryn Hayes and Carrie Allen as part of this special issue. This study was supported by funding from the Steans Family Foundation (18\u20102206) and the Chicago Public Education Fund. All findings, opinions, and recommendations herein are those of the authors.

Keywords

  • organizational change
  • organizational functions
  • practical measurement
  • teacher learning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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