Session Information
10 SES 09 C, Research on Professional Knowledge and Identity in Teacher Education
Paper Session
Contribution
Giving increasing importance to teacher quality has become an international trend in education policy. This renewed interest is related to the demonstrated impact of teachers on student learning (Babcock et al. 2010, Barber & Mourshed 2008, OECD 2009).
Indeed, international evidence indicates that both teacher subject knowledge and pedagogical skills are positively associated with student achievement (Darling-Hammond, Wei, & Johnson 2009, Nye, Konstantopoulos, & Hedges 2004).
Following this rationale, actions at different levels—such as attracting the best secondary education graduates to the profession, providing high-quality initial teacher training, certifying teacher competences and retaining good teachers in classrooms—have been suggested (OECD 2005). This study focuses specifically on initial teacher education.
In Chile, concerns regarding quality of teachers have not been absent from policy debates. Thus, for example, an important chapter of the OECD report on the Chilean education system (OECD 2004) was devoted to teachers. This and other national reports have paid particular attention to the need for improving the heterogeneous quality of initial teacher training supply.
This issue is particularly critical in countries where it is not possible to significantly raise teaching programmes entry requirements in the short term, due to structural deficiencies of the educational system. In these contexts, training quality is better conceptualized as the contribution of training programmes to pre-service teachers learning gains, namely, programme effectiveness (measured as the difference in performance for students at the beginning and end of training programmes).
Hence, identifying the factors that have an impact on the effectiveness of initial teacher training is key to policies aimed at improving pre-service teacher education programmes. This study aims to estimate the effectiveness of teacher education programmes, and analyze the impact of training providers’ characteristics on student teachers learning gains.
Additionally, due to the Chilean performance on the Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) as well as the results of the new national assessment for recent graduate teachers ‘INICIA’ (implemented annually since 2008), there is a clear diagnosis of the poor subject knowledge of Chilean graduate primary teachers. According to the former study, teacher quality heavily depends on subject knowledge training.
Therefore, by using a method inspired in value-added assessment (Thomas 2010), the results of Chilean recent teaching graduates on a subject knowledge assessment will be compared to the results in the same assessment obtained by the students in their first year of teacher training. Their progress in learning, controlled for socioeconomic variables as well as academic background, will be considered an indicator of programme effectiveness.
Furthermore, data regarding financial cost,institutional academic quality (accreditation status and academic staffing), academic selectivity, programme scheme, curricular offerings and students’ perception of preparedness in subject and teaching skills will be collected. Thus, the relationship between these variables and different levels of effectiveness in subject knowledge training will be analyzed.
The results are expected to be particularly informative for countries experimenting accelerated growth of teacher training supply and aiming to set up criteria to supervise and improve its quality.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Babcock, J et al. 2010, Initial Findings from the Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) , Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education, College of Education, Michigan State University, Michigan. Barber, M & Mourshed, M 2008, How the Best Performing School Systems Come Out on Top, Media. London. Beaton, AE, Mullis, IVS, Martin, MO, Gonzalez, EJ, Kelly, DL, Smith, TA 1996, Mathematics Achievement in the Middle School years: IEA's Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Center for the study of Testing, Evaluation and Educational Policy, Boston College, Massachusetts . Darling-Hammond, L, Berry, B & Thoreson, A 2001, ‘Does Teacher Certification Matter? Evaluating the Evidence’, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 57-77. Darling-Hammond, L, Holtzman, DJ, Gatlin, SJ, & Heilig, JV 2005, ‘Does Teacher Preparation Matter? Evidence about Teacher Certification, Teach for America, and Teacher Effectiveness’, Education Policy Analysis Archives, vol. 13, no. 42, pp. 1-48. Darling-Hammond, L, Wei, R & Johnson, C 2009, ‘Teacher Preparation and Teacher Learning: A Changing Landscape’, in G Sykes, B Schneider, and D Plank (eds.), Handbook of Educational Policy Research, Routledge, New York. Goldstein, H 1986, ‘Multilevel Mixed Linear Model Analysis using Iterative Generalized Least Squares’, Biometrika, vol. 73, pp. 43-76. Nye, B, Konstantopoulos, S & Hedges, LV 2004, ‘How Large are Teacher Effects?’, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 237-257. OECD 2004, Reviews of National Policies for Education Chile, OECD Publishing, Paris. OECD 2005, Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers - Final Report: Teachers Matter, OECD Publishing, Paris. OECD 2009, Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments, first results form TALIS, Teaching and Learning International Survey, OECD Publishing, Paris. Thomas, S 2010, ‘Assessment and the Evaluation of Institutional Effectiveness’, in B McGaw, P Peterson and E Baker (eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education, Elsevier.
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