Biographical Sketch

Gabriele Kaiser holds a bachelor and a master’s degree as a teacher for mathematics and humanities for lower and upper secondary level, which she completed at the University of Kassel in 1978. After having worked in different schools and after completing her second degree, she worked as a scientific assistant at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Kassel. She completed her doctorate in mathematics education (rer. nat.) in 1986 focusing on applications and modelling, under the supervision of Werner Blum and Arnold Kirsch. After receiving a grant for Postdoctoral Research by the German Research Society (DFG) she undertook her post-doctoral study in pedagogy on international comparative studies at the University of Kassel, which she completed in 1997. From 1996 until 1998 she was holding a guest professorship at the University of Potsdam. Since 1998, she has been professor in mathematics education at the Faculty of Education of the University of Hamburg.

Her main research interests are modelling and applications in schools, international comparative studies, gender and cultural aspects in mathematics education and empirical research on teacher education. From 2006 until 2010, she carried out the IEA Teacher Education Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) along with Sigrid Blömeke and Rainer Lehman (both from Humboldt University in Berlin), and she compared the efficiency of teacher education in various countries. This project was supported by the German Research Society (DFG). In 2004 until 2008 she participated in TEDS' pilot study. Based on this study, other qualitatively oriented supplementary studies on future teachers’ professional knowledge were conducted in Hong Kong and Australia. Most recently, Gabriele Kaiser has carried out a follow-up study, TEDS-M, funded by the German Research Society. Another project afterwards, TEDS-FU used an enriched framework of TEDS-M and additional video-based evaluation instruments. Furthermore, she was participating in another study led by Sigrid Blömeke, in which the framework of TEDS-M was extended to future teachers of mathematics, German and English (TEDS- LT), funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research. Another study that she participated was curried out from 2008 until 2012 and was funded by the German Telekom Foundation. This study examined the development of the professional knowledge of future mathematics teachers at the beginning of their study. Her most recent work (TEDS-INSTRUCT) focuses on the structural relation of the professional competencies of practicing teachers measured with instruments developed in the study TEDS-FU and on the gain of students’ achievements taught by the evaluated teachers. A validation study of this design has just been implemented in the Federal State of Thuringia, funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (TEDS-VALIDATE). A supplementary study (EAST-WEST) funded by the European Union in the frame of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme, evaluates whether the theoretical framework and the instruments developed in Western countries can be transferred to East Asian countries.

In October 2010 she took up the position as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Education being responsible for research, promotion of young researchers and international cooperation. Since 2005 she serves as Editor-in-chief of ZDM Mathematics Education (formerly Zentralblatt fuer Didaktik der Mathematik), published by Springer. She is the Convenor of the 13th International Congress on Mathematics Education (ICME -13), which will take place at the University of Hamburg in 2016, expecting several thousands of mathematics educators.

Abstract

Innovative assessment approaches and new paradigms within the assessment of teachers’ professional competencies

Recent research on the professional competencies of mathematics teachers, which has been carried out during the last decade, is characterized by different theoretical paradigms on the conceptualization and assessment of teachers’ professional competencies, namely cognitive versus situated approaches. Building on the international IEA Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS - M) and its Follow -up study, TEDS -FU, the presentation will describe cognitive and situated approaches to assessing the professional competencies of teachers. In TEDS -FU the cognitive oriented framework of TEDS -M has been enriched by a situated orientation including the novice -expert framework and the noticing concept as theoretical approaches on teachers’ competences f or analys ing classroom situations. Correspondingly, the assessment instruments were extended by using video- vignettes for assessing teachers’ perception, interpretation and decision- making competencies in addition to cognitive oriented knowledge tests. The presentation will discuss the different kinds of theoretical paradigms, namely cognitively oriented versus situated oriented. Based on this distinction the necessity to develop new innovative assessment formats will be argued for , namely video- based assessment instruments getting closer to actual teaching situations and thus evaluating situated facets of the professional competencies of teachers complementing common knowledge tests with open and closed items focusing on knowledge -based facets of the p rofessional competencies of teachers. The staged video -vignettes focus on these situated competence facets evaluating the teachers noticing competences, i.e. to perceive particular events in an instructional setting, i nterpret the perceived activities in a n instructional setting to develop decision options eit her as anticipating a response to students’ activities or as proposing alternative instructional strategies . The strengths and weaknesses of both assessment approaches will be contrasted based on the i nstruments and the results of TEDS -M and TEDS -FU .

Furthermore, connecting the results of TEDS -FU with TEDS -M allows comprehensive insight into the structure and development of the professional competencies of mathematics teachers, the complex interplay be tween the different facets of teachers’ competencies and the high relevance of teaching practice for the development of these competencies. The presentation will show on the one hand that both approaches – cognitive and situated – are needed for a comprehe nsive description of teachers’ professional competencies. On the other hand it will be shown that both approaches can be integrated in a prolific way.

The prospects will discuss possible cultural elements of these assessment paradigms drawing on newly established studies broadening TEDS -FU towards the evaluation of structural relations between teachers competencies and students achievement gains mediated by instructional quality (TEDS - INSTRUCT). First tentative results of a national study transferring TE DS -INSTRUCT to another Federal State of Germany (TEDS -VALIDATE) will be described as well as first insight from an international study aiming to transfer these studies into East Asia (TEDS -EAST -ASIA).