RTOP Tool Helps Teachers Improve Learning
After gathering background information on the students, their classroom, and the teacher’s goals for the lesson, a trained observer watches the lesson, then uses the RTOP to assign scores of 0–4 to indicate the degree to which the teacher exhibited each desirable characteristic during the class. Each score from 0–4 on each characteristic comes with a descriptor. The observer compares the teachers’ behavior to the descriptors and selects the score that is the best match. Scores are shared with the teacher so that he or she can reflect on the information and use it to provide continuously improving learning experiences for students.
“RTOP cannot be used without extensive training,” said Larry Dukerich, CRESMET director of science professional development and one of the workshop leaders. “There is always a certain amount of judgment involved in deciding which descriptor-score best describes how the teacher acts. In our training, we spend a lot of time showing videos of classrooms and getting trainees to match teacher-behavior with descriptor scores.”
The goal is to achieve “inter-rater reliability,” or a basic agreement among observers of what the desired behavior looks like at each interval along the scoring line from 0 to 4.
Joining Mr. Dukerich in conducting the workshop were Jo Anne Vasquez, CRESMET director of policy, outreach and professional development, and Nora Ramirez, the center’s director of mathematics professional development.
The Arizona Department of Education asked CRESMET to conduct the workshop so that trainees could incorporate RTOP into their districts’ plans for supporting teachers’ professional development.
RTOP was first designed, piloted and implemented with funding from the National Science Foundation in 2000. The RTOP development team was led by evaluation expert Daiyo Sawada and ASU Professor Michael Piburn, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education.
For information on RTOP training contact larry.dukerich@asu.edu