0000000000015796
AUTHOR
Dace Namsone
STUDENT GRAPHICAL INFORMATION LITERACY IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
Among the most important 21st century skills that every student needs are the ability to work with information. The key for implementing competency based approach to learning will be related to how students' ability to apply skills acquired in, for example, mathematics can be transferred to other subject contexts. Newest OECD PISA results presented in 2016 show a recurring tendency that in Latvia there is a small number of students whose performance is in accordance to the 5th and 6th level of the framework. These two levels represent students' ability to apply deep thinking skills in new learning contexts. It is necessary to analyze the causes of this situation in order to identify opportu…
Mācīšanās lietpratībai
Grāmatā atklāta kompetences jēdziena būtība, aplūkota mācīšanās iedziļinoties un mācīšanās paradigmas pakāpeniska maiņa skolu praksē. Atsegtas kompetences kā kompleksa snieguma vērtēšanas iespējas. Analizēts jau esošo valsts līmeņa pārbaudes darbu potenciāls mērīt kompleksu sniegumu, ieviest formatīvo vērtēšanu regulārā skolu praksē. Analizētas skolotājiem nepieciešamās prasmes šādas pieejas īstenošanā, iespēja mērīt skolotāju prasmes mācīšanās vajadzību apzināšanā un būvēt atbilstošu ilgtermiņa praksē balstītu skolotāju mācīšanos un inovāciju pārnesi skolā un starp skolām. Aplūkota digitālās pratības attīstīšanas nepieciešamība un informācijas tehnoloģiju iespējas snieguma vērtēšanā. Autor…
PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT IN SCIENCE NATIONAL LEVEL DIAGNOSTIC TESTS
National Centre of Education of the Republic of Latvia in 2016 lunched national project of the renewal of the curriculum for education funded by the European Social Fund. One of the key priorities of successful implementation of the new education curriculum is transforming national level assessment system.Assessment system measuring student performance must meet different requirements from the traditional measurement instrument assessing content knowledge.Analysing 2017 national level science assessment diagnostic tests of 15-16 years old students, it is impossible to discriminate student different level of performance. Student, demonstrating singly stored pieces of knowledge, integrating p…
ACQUISITION OF STUDENT SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY SKILLS: CENTRALISED EXAMINATION RESULTS IN CHEMISTRY
From 2011, the new educational standard in Latvia in the framework of the educational reform on the centralised examination (CE) in chemistry stipulates students to demonstrate the inquiry skills they have mastered. The purpose of this study is to find out the students’ inquiry skills by analysing the CE results in chemistry. This study addresses the following research questions: (a) To what extent are the centralised examination inquiry skills measured according to the standard outcomes? (b) What information on how students have mastered the inquiry skills in chemistry is available from the CE results for the period of 2011-2015? (c) Does measuring the inquiry skills using inquiry-based la…
TEACHER TEAMS AND SCHOOLS BECOME LEADERS TO DISSEMINATE INNOVATIVE PRACTICE
We will introduce a study about teachers taking part in networking for personal development and becoming teacher leaders. In 2011 a multilevel national joint collaboration network of schools with innovative experience was created to foster dissemination of new teaching and learning experiences among teachers. In order to organize learning for teachers, a lesson based collaborative continuous teacher professional learning model was implemented. The research shows that conducting and analyzing lessons has helped participants become more competent professionals and develop skills that are crucial for a good leader. Categories characterizing teacher leaders and lead schools were identified. Fac…
DESIGNING & PILOTING ONLINE TESTS AS PART OF A TEACHER COMPETENCE ASSESSMENT
Approaches for competence assessment are becoming increasingly important to plan school development goals, especially during complex educational changes. This paper outlines authors’ experience and recommendations from the designing and piloting of teacher online tests as part of a wider competence management process. A developed theoretical model of a universal teacher competence profile is presented. Tests represent four thematic parts related to teacher performance in classroom to facilitate: student cognitive activation, student self-regulation, student collaboration, and leveraging digital. Test questions were developed based on a framework of teacher performance assessment that consis…
INTERPRETING LARGE SCALE NATIONAL LEVEL ASSESSMENT DATA IN MATHEMATICS BY USING RASCH ANALYSIS
Latvia is undergoing a nation-wide curriculum reform in general education, with an aim to help students to develop 21st century skills. In order to successfully implement reform, not only teacher performance in the classroom is important, but also the transformation of the school culture is of high priority. One of the key dimensions that is characteristic for a school as learning organization culture is whether it has data-driven culture and is using data on continuous basis to improve student achievement. Large scale national level assessment data is used for many different purposes, however, this data only rarely is recognised as useful data source for planning actions to improve student…
IDENTIFYING FACTORS INFLUENCING SCHOOL LEADERSHIP PRACTICES: CASE STUDY OF LATVIA
Based on the analysis of research literature and empirical data, the study aims to identify significant factors affecting school leadership practices in Latvia. In addition to studies of scientific literature, the authors used qualitative research methods – in-depth interviews with 7 school leadership teams of the same municipality and expert focus group discussion to describe the influencing factors that are relevenat in the context of Latvia. As a result of the study, the authors identified that school leaders’ work experience, beliefs and mental models, social skills and impact of the external parties have an influence on their practices.
LINKING TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS WITH APPROPRIATE SOLUTIONS: INSIGHTS FROM AN INIATIVE IN LATVIA
International surveys have stated that each year teachers spend, on average, more than 10 days engaged in different professional development activities. The purpose for this investment in teacher professional development (TPD) is clear: teachers’ competence must develop according to changes in curriculum and 21st century requirements. In previous research we have developed a theoretical teacher competence framework, implemented it to identify teacher (N=263) groups competence gaps and professional development needs. The goal of this research is to link identified professional development needs related to the instruction of 21st century skills (criteria - instructional design, learning goals…
TEACHING TO USE IN SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS PREVIOUSLY ACQUIRED SKILLS
Goal of the research is to analyse how students currently succeed in using basic skills acquired in mathematics, in science and real-life contexts, before new reforms in Latvia for the development of students' competence have been started. Only about 20% of students in the national testing for 9th grade were able to do it. The research analysed students’ papers, results, and study aids, as well as teacher performance in lessons.
How science teachers learn to reflect by analyzing jointly observed lessons
The aim of the article is to present a teacher's professional learning model implemented within the project PROFILES of FP7 Science in Society. The article reveals the contribution of the joint observation in real-life classroom environment and lesson analyses to the development of the capability of teachers' reflection skills. The survey of teachers, conclusions of experts and teachers' feedback all demonstrate that the model enhances the development of science and mathematics teachers' reflection skills. At the same time the article gives guidelines to follow when this model is practiced with different groups of teachers. Efficient teaching of inquiry skills in the school is impossible wi…
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHERS SELF- ASSESSMENT TO TEACH 21ST CENTURY SKILLS
The context of educational reforms taking place in many countries gives special relevance, as the curriculum enters the 21st century skills or so-called transversal skills. It is necessary to ascertain how successful the teaching of these skills is already so that the school management together with teachers develop evidence-based or data-driven professional development solutions. The aim of the research is to create a theoretical framework and corresponding self-assessment tools, how the teacher can assess for himself to what extent he has succeeded in achieving the competence to teach students in the 21st century skills required to achieve the goals set by the school in the context of the…
A Collaborative Classroom-Based Teacher Professional Learning Model
This article reviews the Latvian experience of exploring a teacher continuous professional learning model, with an emphasis on teacher collaboration for professional learning. The developed model focuses on lessons taught in real-life classrooms and their subsequent analysis. The model consists of a set of regularly scheduled workshops in a period of a school year. It is based on the idea of a multiple activity cycle of “observe–reflect–write–discuss” conducted several times during every workshop. Every participant has an opportunity to experience two roles: that of a leader, teach a demonstration lesson to his/her colleagues, and that of a learner, observe, analyse and reflect on a colleag…
COGNITIVE DEPTH OF TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS IN BIOLOGY FROM 7TH TILL 9TH GRADE
From OECD PISA Science test results presented in 2016 shows that in Latvia only 3,4% of students performance is in accordance to the 5th and 6th performance level (higher order cognitive skills (HOCS) measured), which is below OECD average. In Latvia from 2016 started Curriculum Development and Implementation project, which one of the priorities is student’s ability to apply HOCS (higher order cognitive skills) to improve these results. The development of deeper thinking (cognitive activity) is one of the most advanced skills in all subjects, including biology. In order to reduce the risks, it is necessary to analyze introducing new reforms the opportunities for students to develop HOCS th…
EXPLORING THE INPUT OF COMPETENCE ASSESSMENT TO GOAL-SETTING IN VARIOUS TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONS
The aim of the present research is to investigate the existing practices of linking competence assessment to organizational goal-setting in various organisations in Latvia. The importance of linking employee competences to goal-setting within organizations has been established in scientific literature. Nevertheless, there is evidence gathered in this interdisciplinary research that existing methods of competence assessment used by various organizations in Latvia do not translate well into organizational goal-setting. The research is based on information gathered from semi-structured interviews with representatives of managerial positions in private and public, including educational service …
What Research Shows about Mathematics Teachers' Learning Needs: Experience from Latvia
<p><em>The implementation of new skills (competencies) according to education regulation documents in 2006 – 2008 demanded a change in the Mathematics and Science teaching practice in Latvia. Work on the new education reform started this year (2015). The aim of the research is to look for the answers to the following questions – do the changes in learning approach occur and are teachers’ skills sufficient for organizing a different teaching process? What are the learning needs expressed by teachers and concluded by experts? The range of cognitive activity, collaboration and focusing on students’ learning are the criteria set for lesson observations. The research shows a tendency…