University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

Student attitudes and Assesments

This case study includes observing teacher student interactions. I will observe the effect that the impending high stakes test has on teacher student interactions. I will gather the most information by requesting various teachers to permit me to place a video camera in their room for one class period. Then, I can analyze the recordings and break the data into categories. I understand that there will be some degree of unreliability because the teachers will know that they are being recorded. I will try to minimize this by asking the teacher�s permission to record their class with very little advance notice, so their lesson plan will not be modified.
I want to gather this data so that I can determine if the impending high stakes tests have an impact on teacher behavior and responses to student questions. Often teachers say that they would teach to a higher degree of understanding, or that they would take more advantage of �teachable moments� but they have to move on to cover as much content as possible prior to the CSAP.