We acknowledge that this study does not incorporate a detailed analysis of actual classroom interactions that occurred over the course of the year, nor does it fully investigate instructional impacts on student learning.
Larger effect sizes (in ascending order of estimated impact): instructional materials, computers or instructional technology, teacher training, smaller classes, smaller learning groups within classes, ability grouping (tracking), student and teacher performance incentives, and contract or volunteer teachers.
Richardson (1996) argued beliefs and conceptions are both personal constructs that guide instructional decisions and impact the representation of content.
Just as the outcomes of an instructional strategy can impact a teacher's beliefs or attitudes, these changes in the personal domain can change how an instructor views certain outcomes.
It is generally accepted that matching an individual's learning style with the appropriate form of an instructional intervention significantly impacts upon the performance of the student and his/her achievement of learning outcomes.
The ever-growing interest in student learning and conceptions in biology is yielding not only more information on student alternate conceptions, but also new insight into how instructional materials are impacting those conceptions.
The overall focus of the study was to map and model the logic of pedagogical instruction, the intellectual quality of knowledge work in classrooms, and the impact of instructional practice on student achievement while controlling for student and family characteristics.
Some evidence is found of the influence of the duration and nature of instructional development on its impact.
Our conceptual framework indicates that communication channels and both contextual and individual influences will impact the instructional innovation-decision process (Fig. 1).
