Attending to General and Content-Specific Dimensions of Teaching: Exploring Factors Across Two Observation Instruments

New observation instruments used in research and evaluation settings assess teachers along multiple domains of teaching practice, both general and content-specific. However, this work infrequently explores the relationship between these domains. In this study, we use exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of two observation instruments – the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) and the Mathematical Quality of Instruction (MQI) – to explore the extent to which we might integrate both general and content-specific views of teaching. Importantly, bi-factor analyses that account for instrument-specific variation enable more robust conclusions than in existing literature. Findings indicate that there is some overlap between instruments, but that the best factor structures include both general and content-specific practices. This suggests new approaches to measuring mathematics instruction for the purposes of evaluation and professional development.