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The Professional Functions of Elementary School Teachers

Author(s):
Bukatko, Patricia A.; Reynolds, Anne; Rosenfeld, Michael
Publication Year:
1992
Report Number:
RR-92-53
Source:
ETS Research Report
Document Type:
Report
Page Count:
150
Subject/Key Words:
Elementary School Teachers, Elementary Schools, Job Analysis, Praxis Series, Teacher Role, Test Validity

Abstract

Three job analysis studies were conducted to provide data that would define the domain of teaching and provide evidence supporting the content validity of the performance assessment measures to be developed for Stage III of The Praxis Series: Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers. The goal of the studies was to identify a core set of tasks that are performed by and judged to be important for newly licensed teachers. Three separate but parallel studies were conducted to reflect three school levels: elementary, middle and secondary. This report focuses primarily on the elementary school job analysis, but summaries of results for the middle and secondary school studies as well as a comparison of similarities and differences between school levels are provided in the summary. Each study was conducted in two phases. Phase I involved a series of meetings with experts to establish an initial inventory of tasks; Phase II was a large- scale survey to solicit the judgments of large numbers of educational professionals with knowledge of teaching. In both phases of the study, judges in each category were chosen from different types of constituencies and different areas of the country. Care was taken to include members of minority groups as well. The most important tasks were found in the job dimensions of planning and preparing for instruction, managing the classroom, implementing instruction, and evaluating student learning and instructional effectiveness. The job analysis survey at the elementary school level identified 53 of 85 tasks that met the 3.50 eligibility standard for administrators, teacher educators, teachers and relevant subgroups of teachers. The bulk of the report is presented in 12 appendices that describe the study participants, the materials and the results of the various stages of the job analysis. (JGL) (150pp.)

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