Development of a Classroom Authority Observation Rubric

Abstract

When student end-of-course ratings are not commensurate with instructor skill and effort, one possible reason may be that students question the instructor's authority. It is proposed here that such doubts about authority are reinforced by specific instructor behaviors. This pilot study attempts to identify these behaviors in the interest of reducing their occurrence in the classroom. In order to control for identity characteristics (e.g., gender, race, sexual orientation), which can also lead to doubts about authority, this study is limited to white females. Using the constant comparative method, videotapes of four instructors from different disciplines were analyzed. Twenty behaviors were identified and classified into four categories: voice and diction, body language, focus of attention, and classroom management. These were compiled into a rubric-the Authority Observation Rubric-which can be used to identify teacher behaviors that affect classroom authority. This article includes a review of the literature, the methods used to develop the tool, the rubric itself, and a discussion of the findings and implications.

Evaluating medical student engagement during virtual patient simulations: a sequential, mixed methods study

“…This research uncovered exciting potential for photographic data analysis. In the future we intend to continue to evolve the codes and categories in the photographic analysis rubric and conduct a rater reliability study [ 47 ]. During this implementation, VPS authors experimented with gamification elements adding a community healthcare thematic back drop, connecting characters from case to case and constructing care dilemmas with three different levels of patient outcome: a patient recovers fully, a patient requires surgery reducing quality of life, or a patient dies.…”

“…Authors looked to other disciplines to obtain insight in developing an analysis rubric. Middendorf and McNary [ 47 ] developed a classroom observation rubric for observing social science faculty using video review of classroom interactions. Riley-Tillman, Methe, and Weegar [ 48 ] rated class-wide engagement of elementary school children, and observed whether students were on task by using an observation protocol and check marks for on task behavior.…”

Analysis of Students’ Difficulties about Rotational Dynamic Topic Based on Resource Theory

“…In the first phase, the students' wrong answers were grouped according to the option they chose. Secondly, students' reasons were inventoried from each group of choices; then they were grouped into several categories of resources which were activated by students using the constant comparative method (Luehmann, 2009;Middendorf & McNary, 2011;Anderson & Wall, 2015;Demirdogen, 2016). Interviews were also conducted to deepen further the students' reasons in answering the questions.…”

Z posluchárny za katedru: Mocenské vztahy ve výuce studentů učitelství

“…Moc je tedy jednou ze stránek autority učitele (Middendorf & McNary, 2011), ale může být i prostředkem sloužícím žákům jak k plnění edukačních cílů (viz Šedová, 2011), tak i ke konfrontaci těchto cílů. Stejně jako může učitel moc ve škole využívat i zneužívat, mohou tak činit i žáci.…”