New teachers’ working experience. A cross country comparison based on data collected from the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey

Author(s):

Andres Sandoval-Hernandez(presenting / submitting)Steffen Knoll Ben Jensen

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

09. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement

Format:

Paper

Session Information

09 SES 04 B, Findings from International Comparative Achievement Studies: Perspectives on Teaching

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

09:00-10:30

Room:

FCT - Aula 15

Chair:

Pekka Antero Kupari

Contribution

The quality of teaching received by students has the greatest impact on their education outcomes outside the impact of individual and family characteristics (Hanushek, 1992; Wright, et al., 1997; Hanushek, et al., 1998; Hanushek, et al., 2005; Leigh, 2010). From a policy perspective, improving the quality of teachers and their teaching in schools is the most effective method to improve student outcomes (Leigh, 2010).

The effectiveness of teachers new to the profession is an important policy issue given the impact of teachers on student learning. However, greater experience in front of a classroom is often considered important to develop the skills required for effective teaching (OECD, 2005). Nevertheless, an effective school education system requires new teachers to provide high-quality education to students (OECD, 2009).

This work analyzes key aspects of teachers’ work experience to inform policy development aimed at increasing the effectiveness of new teachers. The paper is structured around four key policy issues: 1) New teachers and the schools in which they work, 2) Support and development initiatives for new teachers, 3) The work of new teachers, 4) The efficacy of new teachers. Comparisons are made between new and more experienced teachers – new teachers defined as having two years or less of teaching experience. In this way, our main objective is to identify significant differences between new and experienced teachers related to the policy issues mentioned above, and discuss its policy implications.

The data analyzed stems from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2008 carried out by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 24 countries to collect information regarding the lower secondary education teachers and their working conditions. The analysis includes 23countries participating in TALIS 2008 (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Republic of Korea, Lithuania, Malta, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Turkey).

These areas have been analysed because they are important to policy makers and are suitable issues to be analysed with the TALIS 2008 dataset.

Method

The main analytical strategy consisted in calculating mean differences between new and experienced teachers for different indicators about the schools in which they work, the support and development initiatives available for them, their work and their efficacy as teachers. Because of TALIS complex sampling design, we made use of sampling weights to produce estimates that can be generalized to the population they come from. Estimates presented in this work were calculated using the corresponding sampling weights included in the TALIS 2008 dataset. Additionally, TALIS 2008 followed a stratified two-stage sampling probability design. This means that teachers were randomly selected from the list of in-scope teachers within each of the randomly selected schools. To account for the sampling error arising from this complex design, the Balanced Repeated Replication (BRR) method was used to estimate the sampling error of the estimates. Finally, in order to provide a measure of the accuracy of the information presented in this document, the coefficient of variation (CV) was calculated for each estimate and ad-hoc cut points were established.

Expected Outcomes

The results of the analysis provide a picture of the working lives of new teachers in comparison with the more experienced teachers. Here, we briefly highlight four policy implications from the results of our analysis that may offer the greatest opportunities for improving schooling in the analyzed countries. 1) In comparison to more experienced teachers, new teachers reported lower levels of self-efficacy in teaching their students. They also reported reduced teaching and learning time in their classrooms. 2) More new teachers (than experienced teachers) considered the appraisal and feedback they received to be fair and helpful in their development as a teacher. It also showed a positive impact on their job satisfaction and job security. 3) On average, new teachers who worked in schools with mentoring and induction programs were not significantly more likely to receive appraisal and feedback than new teachers working schools without these programs. In fact, of the new teachers who work in schools with these programs, nearly half reported that the programs do not facilitate regular feedback. 4) The practical classroom skills of classroom management and dealing with problems of student discipline are difficult issues for especially for new teachers.

References

Hanushek, E. (1992), "The Trade-off between Child Quantity and Quality", Journal of Political Economy”, Vol. 100, pp. 84-117. Hanushek, E., et al., (1998), “Teachers, Schools and Academic Achievement”, Cambridge, MA, NBER Working Paper Series, No. 6691. Hanushek, E., et al. (2005), “The Market for Teacher Quality”, Cambridge, MA, NBER Working Paper Series, No. 11154. Leigh, A. (2010), "Estimating Teacher Effectiveness from two-year Changes in Students’ Test Scores", Economics of Education Review, No. 29, pp. 480-488. OECD (2009), Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments: First Results from TALIS, Paris. OECD (2005), Teachers Matter: Attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers, OECD, Paris. Wright, S. P., S. P. Horn, et al. (1997), "Teacher and Classroom Context Effects on Student Achievement: Implications for Teacher Evaluation", Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, No. 11, pp. 57-67.

Author Information

Andres Sandoval-Hernandez (presenting / submitting)

International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, Germany

Steffen Knoll

IEA

Data Processing and Research Center

Hamburg

Ben Jensen

Grattan Institute, Australia

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