如何识别优秀教师

    This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
    这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。

    In recent years, Bill Gates has given financial support to improve American education.
    近年来,比尔盖茨为改善美国教育提供了大量财政支持。

    Late last year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Measures of Effective Teaching project. The project tests new ways to recognize what makes a good teacher.
    去年年底,比尔和梅林达盖茨基金会推出了高效教学项目相关措施。该项目正测试一种识别优秀教师的新方法。

    Its goal is to help educators and policymakers identify and support good teaching.
    其目的是帮助教育工作者和决策者识别并鼓励好的教学。

    The study is being carried out in public school systems in seven American cities. Thousands of teachers volunteered to take part. They agreed to have their classes recorded on video, but only for observation by expert researchers.
    这项研究正在7个美国城市的公立学校系统执行。数千名教师自愿参加,他们同意拍摄他们的授课,但拍摄的内容仅允许提供给专业研究人员进行研究。

    Last spring, the project collected digital videos of thirteen thousand lessons in the classrooms taught by the teachers. They were in grades four through nine.
    去年春天,该项目收集了从4到9年级的1.3万个教师授课的视频,

    Researchers also collected information from students. They asked students to report their opinions of each teacher's classroom. Students were also tested in mathematics, English and biology.
    研究人员还通过学生收集信息。他们让学生对每个教师的授课提出自己的意见,还对学生进行了数学、英语和生物方面的测验。
     
    Officials recently released early results of the project study. The report says teachers' past success in raising student scores on state tests is one of the strongest signs of their ability to do so again. This is known as a teacher's "value-added."
    相关人员最近公布了这项研究的早期结果。研究报告称,教师在提高学生全美测试成绩上的成功经历,是他们能重现辉煌的最重要的标志之一。这些成功经历被成为教师的“附加值”。

    The teachers with the highest value-added scores on state tests also help students understand math or show reading ability.
    在全美测试中附加值最高的教师同时还帮助学生理解数学或提高阅读能力。

    The results also say students know effective teaching when they experience it. The students gave comments on whether or not their teachers cared about them. They also gave opinions on how much teachers controlled or managed student behavior in the classroom.
    研究结果还表示,学生能识别出高效教学。学生们就老师是否关注他们给出看法,他们还就有多少教师在课堂上管控学生行为给出了意见。

    The report found that classrooms where students reported positive experiences were more likely to show greater learning gains.
    研究发现,学生报告了积极经历的课堂中,学生的学习收获可能更好。

    Another finding shows that combining different sources of information helps administrators provide better comments and suggestions to teachers. In many cases, administrators had been basing their comments on student test scores only.
    另一项结果显示,综合不同渠道的信息能帮助校方领导给教师提出更好的意见和建议。在很多案例中,校方领导只以学生成绩论英雄。

    The Measures of Effective Teaching project continues through twenty twelve when final results will be released. Researchers plan to test a new measure that examines what a teacher knows about how to teach a subject. Experts say these findings could also help create better training and development for teachers.
    高效教学项目的相关措施将持续到2012年最终结果公布。研究人员计划测试一项新措施,用以检查教师在如何教某门课上知道多少。专家称这些发现还也将有助于为教师创造更好的培训和发展。