Teachers as learners: Assessing teaching effectiveness in classrooms

Lee, associate professor and chair, Critical Literacy, Technology & Multilingual Education Department (CLTM), works alongside her CLTM colleague, Marjorie Madden, associate professor, to assist educators and, in turn, their students. 

Initially, a collaborating team plans a lesson, a teacher teaches it and the team observes the instruction. Afterward, they conduct a debriefing, review student evidence and revise the lesson, which is taught to another group. Lee and Madden conducted a similar study partnering teachers with school principals. 

Teachers are change agents who can share their knowledge with each other and build on that, said Lee, advisor of the undergraduate Reading Education program. In the lesson study environment, University faculty regard teachers as experts while supplying valuable research, Lee said.

“We have seen some powerful results. It impacts their instruction. It helps our instruction as we prepare preservice teachers,” she said.

Lee and Madden are analyzing how lesson study influences preservice teachers tutoring K-12 students in Rowan’s 90-year-old Reading Clinic. 

“That could not only impact the field of lesson study but help us better understand our preservice teachers when they tutor in our clinic,” said Lee, whose work with collaborators has been supported by nearly $1 million in grants. 

In addition, Lee and doctoral student Lorena Silva de Andrade Dias are exploring how these preservice teachers view their preparation to teach literacy. The longitudinal study will assess the program’s impact on clinical reading experience, following graduates into their first few years of teaching. 

“After years of working with veteran teachers in the field, I’m excited to turn our attention to preservice teachers tutoring in our reading clinic,” said Lee.