A systematic approach to comparing how observation frameworks decompose teaching: The NICE model

The growing interest in observationally assessing instruction has led to the proliferation of observation frameworks, creating the need to compare across frameworks. We introduce the NICE (Noticing, Interpreting, and Combining Evidence) model, which systematically compares items from different frameworks on three steps: (1) what lesson events are noticed or attended to; (2) how lesson events are interpreted; and (3) how interpreted lesson events are aggregated to generate summary codes or scores. The paper uses the NICE model to compare items from the Protocol for Language Arts Teaching Observation (PLATO), the Joint Action framework in Didactics (JAD-MTQ), and International Comparative Analysis of Learning and Teaching (ICALT), using both math and language arts lessons from Nordic lower secondary classrooms. Results highlight both similarities and differences in how the three frameworks decompose and make sense of instructional practice. We find that NICE provides a systematic and nuanced way of comparing items across frameworks.