Slice Up - The Thin Slices Procedure: Application to Instruction and the Analysis of Judgement Processes

Slice Up project focuses on first impressions as a possible approach to assessing instructional quality. The so-called Thin Slices Procedure (Ambady & Rosenthal, 1992) has already been applied in various fields of psychological research with many studies demonstrating high predictive validity of first impressions. In studies using the Thin Slices Procedure behavioral tendencies and personality of the target subjects are usually judged using short video clips (between five seconds and five minutes). In the area of research on instruction the application of the Thin Slices Procedure can be seen as a potential economic alternative to the time-consuming and cost-intensive approaches of classroom observation which have been considered the most suitable method of assessing instructional quality so far. The Slice Up project continues research from a previous project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in which empirical evidence could be gathered demonstrating that Thin Slices Ratings can reliably and validly assess aspects of instructional quality (see Begrich, Fauth, Kunter & Klieme, 2017; Begrich, Fauth & Kunter, 2020). Slice Up is a joint project between the German Youth Institute DJI (PD Dr. Susanne Kuger) and the DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education (Prof. Dr. Mareike Kunter). By reanalyzing existing data from different video-studies on instruction (TALIS, PLUS, Phi-Actio) the replicability of the results from the first phase of the project is being examined as well as further indications of the validity of Thin Slices Ratings on instructional quality are gathered. In addition, cognitive processes underlying Thin Slices Ratings of instructional quality will be investigated in different studies. Finally, a meta-analysis will be conducted to examine the state of research on the predictive validity of Thin Slices Ratings across different research areas.

1. Deeper investigation of the Thin Slices Procedure as a potential approach of video-based assessment of instructional quality.
2. Examination of cognitive processes underlying Thin Slices Ratings of instructional quality.
3. Examination of the state of research concerning reliability and validity of Thin Slices Ratings across the various research fields.

Begrich, L., Fauth, B., Kunter, M., & Klieme, E. (2017). Wie informativ ist der erste Eindruck? Das Thin-Slices-Verfahren zur videobasierten Erfassung des Unterrichts Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 20, 23–47. doi:10.1007/s11618-017-0730-x

Begrich, L., Fauth, B., & Kunter, M. (2020). Who sees the most? Differences in students’ and educational research experts’ first impressions of classroom instruction. Social Psychology of Education, 23(3), 673-699. doi: 10.1007/s11218-020-09554-2

Begrich, L., Kuger, S., Klieme, E., & Kunter, M. (2021). At a first glance–How reliable and valid is the thin slices technique to assess instructional quality?. Learning and Instruction, 74, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2021.101466

Ambady, N., Bernieri, F. J., & Richeson, J. A. (2000). Toward a histology of social behavior: Judgmental accuracy from thin slices of the behavioral stream. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 32, pp. 201-271). Academic Press.

Ambady, N., & Rosenthal, R. (1993). Half a minute: Predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness. Journal of personality and social psychology, 64(3), 431.

Babad, E. (2005). Guessing teachers’ differential treatment of high-and low-achievers from thin slices of their public lecturing behavior. Journal of nonverbal behavior, 29(2), 125-134.

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