School Improvement Research Series （学校改进研究系列）.pdf

School Improvement Research Series Research You Can Use Close-Up #4 Monitoring Student Learning in the Classroom Kathleen Cotton INTRODUCTION The body of educational research literature which has come to be known as the effective schooling research identifies the practice of monitoring student learning as an essential component of high-quality education. The careful monitoring of student progress is shown in the literature to be one of the major factors differentiating effective schools and teachers from ineffective ones. Indeed, those analyses which have sought to determine the relative effect sizes of different instructional practices have identified monitoring student progress as a strong predictor of student achievement. What does monitoring student learning involve? The American Heritage dictionary defines monitoring as KEEPING WATCH OVER; SUPERVISING and also gives another more specific meaning: TO SCRUTINIZE OR CHECK SYSTEMATICALLY WITH A VIEW TO COLLECTING CERTAIN SPECIFIED CATEGORIES OF DATA. As the term is used in educational settings, monitoring takes in both these meanings and is closely connected with the related functions of record keeping, reporting, and decision making. DEFINITION For our purposes here we shall define monitoring as ACTIVITIES PURSUED BY TEACHERS TO KEEP TRACK OF STUDENT LEARNING FOR PURPOSES OF MAKING INSTRUCTIONAL DECISIONS AND PROVIDING FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS ON THEIR PROGRESS. When educators speak of classroom monitoring, they generally refer to the following teacher behaviors: Questioning students during classroom discussions to check their understanding of the material being taught Circulating around the classroom during seatwork and engaging i