Providing differentiated instruction (DI) is considered an important but complex teaching skill which many teachers have not mastered and feel unprepared for. In order to design professional development activities, a thorough description of DI is required. The international literature on assessing teachers’ differentiation qualities describes the use of various instruments, ranging from self-reports to observation schemes and from perceived-difficulty instruments to student questionnaires. We question whether these instruments truly capture the complexity of differentiation. In order to depict this complexity, a cognitive task analysis (CTA) of the differentiation skill was performed. The resulting differentiation skill hierarchy is presented here, together with the knowledge required for differentiation, and the factors influencing its complexity. Based on the insights of this CTA, professional development trajectories can be designed and a comprehensive assessment instrument can be developed, enabling researchers and practitioners to train, assess, and monitor teaching quality with respect to providing differentiated instruction.

Observation systems are increasingly used around the world for a variety of purposes; 2 critical purposes are to understand and to improve teaching. As observation systems differ considerably, individuals must decide what observation system to use. But the field does not have a common specification of an observation system, nor does it have systematic ways of thinking about how observation systems are similar and different. Given this reality and the renewed global interest in observation systems, this article first defines the observation system concept and then presents a framework through which to understand, categorize, and compare observation systems. We apply the framework to 4 well-known observation systems that vary in important ways. The article concludes with a discussion of the results of the application of the framework and some important implications of those findings.

This paper describes how an interdisciplinary design team used the Four-Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) model and its accompanying Ten Steps design approach to systematically design a professional development program for teaching differentiation skills to primary school teachers. This description illustrates how insights from a cognitive task analysis into classroom differentiation skills were combined with literature-based instructional design principles to arrive at the training blueprint for workplace-based learning. It demonstrates the decision-making processes involved in the systematic design of each of the four components: learning tasks, supportive information, procedural information, and part-task practice. While the design process was time and resource-intensive, it resulted in a detailed blueprint of a five-month professional development program that strategically combines learning activities to stimulate learning processes that are essential for developing the complex skillproviding differentiated instruction in a mathematics lesson.

Assessment for Learning (AfL) is complex requiring teacher competences for collecting, analysing and interpreting evidence of student progress, and for adapting instruction and learning accordingly. In this study, the four-component instructional design (4C/ID) model for complex learning was used to design a teacher professional development (TPD) programme for developing teachers’ AfL competences. The evaluation of the implementation of the program showed that teachers were positive about the relevance and usability of the program, and about the AfL knowledge, skills and attitudes gained. This study yields important lessons about how to support teachers in learning to apply AfL in their classrooms. The study shows that the 4C/ID model can provide the learning-psychological basis for the design of TPD programmes for the acquisition of complex teacher skills, that require the integration of skills, knowledge and attitudes.

In this study, it was investigated if student feedback promoted teachers’ insight into where they could improve their lessons and their reflection on their lessons. It was also studied in what ways teachers worked on improvement, based on the student feedback, and whether it affected the quality of their teaching. Student perceptions of teaching quality were measured by means of a smartphone application for providing teachers with feedback on their lesson. Teachers in this study (N = 60) were randomly assigned to the control or experimental group. The smartphone application was used several times by teachers to obtain student feedback. The teachers reported that they gained insight into where they could improve their lessons. They reported improvement-oriented actions in response to the student feedback. According to students, teachers first slightly improved their teaching quality. However, teachers did not seem to reflect significantly more on their lessons and their improvement did not sustain. Explanations for the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.