Automating the Measurement and Assessment of Classroom Discourse

August 12, 2013

A computer program under development will allow much easier coding of classroom discourse for classroom research, teacher education, and professional development. Some years ago Martin Nystrand and colleagues developed the computer program CLASS, which has identified key instructional variables promoting reading achievement. CLASS (Classroom Language Assessment System) is now used for teacher education at Michigan State and Ohio State Universities. The current version requires a team of researchers and research assistants to operate. Automating CLASS will simplify the coding of classroom discourse, reduce its cost, and increase its potential use. CLASS 5.0 will result from cutting edge research in speech recognition, discourse classification, and natural language understanding. This research is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. More information is available here.