Abstracts - Earli

alternative approaches. Those alternative approaches often take on a situated perspective (Borko,2004) and are linked to national educational reform efforts. However, the question as to whetherone particular approach is more effective than the other depends on scientifically based research.Educational researchers rely on evaluation tools to make evidence-based judgements. Thissymposium brings together researchers dealing with professional development approaches indifferent countries using different evaluation tools. Central questions being dealt with in thesymposium are: - Which tools are … - … being used for evaluating teacher professionaldevelopement? - … adequate for different professional development approaches? - … beingaccepted by the teachers themselves? - … well suited to provide information on the effects ofprofessional development on - teacher cooperation and quality development, - teachers’ views onteaching and learning, - changes in classroom practices (methods, used classroom materials, …) or- learning outcomes on the side of the students? The researchers present an array of differentevaluation tools that are currently beeing used to analyze those aspects. To name some, evaluatorsemploy teacher and student questionaires, performance tests, classroom observations, or teacherportfolios. In the symposium advantages and disadvantages of different tools will be discussed onthe basis of empirical findings linked to different teacher professional development programs.Because teacher professional development is strongly dependend on the cultural context, thesymposium brings together examples from four different countries, namely the USA, Austria,Switzerland and Germany. Borko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning:Mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher, 33(8), 3-15.Adaptive teaching competency and student learningChristian Bruehwiler, University of Teacher Education St. Gallen, SwitzerlandMarion Rogalla, University of Teacher Education St. Gallen, SwitzerlandFranziska Vogt, University of Teacher Education St. Gallen, SwitzerlandIn this study the adaptive teaching competency of 49 primary and secondary school teachers andthe learning achievement of their 890 students are examined. Ideally, teaching takes situatedfactors such as students’ preconditions into account. Teachers’ constant adjustment of planningand teaching to the individual learning processes of diverse students is what we mean by ‘adaptiveteaching competency’. At the heart of adaptive teaching competency is students’ learning forunderstanding. To measure adaptive teaching competency new tools were developed. A vignettewas employed to measure adaptive planning competency, a video test to measure adaptiveimplementation competency and a teacher science test to measure teachers’ subject knowledge.The theoretical structure of adaptive teaching competency is confirmed empirically employingconfirmatory factor analysis. Results of multilevel analyses and structural equation modelling arepresented. Primary findings show a correlation between adaptive teaching competency and thequality of teaching as perceived by the students. High adaptive teaching competency for exampleseems to correlate with a better fit of teaching methods on students’ preconditions, with higherstudent participation and higher teaching quality. These results can be interpreted as criterionrelatedvalidation of the construct adaptive teaching competency. In addition, first analyses showthat students of highly adaptive teachers demonstrate larger achievement gains than students ofteachers with lower adaptive teaching competency. Teachers’ diagnostic planning competencyseems to be especially relevant for student success.– 410 –