Students’ Perceived Mathematics Teacher Competence: Longitudinal Associations with Learning Outcomes and Choice of College Major

Dongjo Shin,Jaekwoun Shim

doi:10.3390/educsci11010018

Abstract

The quality of teaching and teacher plays a significant role in enhancing students’ cognitive and motivational development. The purpose of this study was to identify longitudinal trajectories of student perceptions of mathematics teachers’ professional competence, and to examine how these trajectories were related to students’ engagement and achievement in mathematics and their choice of college major. The data used for analysis were obtained from the Seoul Education Longitudinal Study, a study of 2714 secondary students who were followed up for five successive years. Results showed four heterogeneous trajectories of students’ perceptions of teacher competence, and these trajectories were associated with students’ engagement and achievement in mathematics. In addition, those who consistently perceived their mathematics teachers to be highly competent and whose perceptions of their teachers’ competence became more positive over time were more likely than other students to choose math-intensive majors. These findings imply longitudinal links between mathematics teachers’ professional competence as perceived by their students and students’ choice of college major as well as their engagement and achievement in mathematics.

Highlights

Teachers play a significant role in enhancing students’ cognitive and motivational development [1,2]
Ratings of teachers’ classroom management skills predicted their academic achievement and that their ratings of teachers’ cognitive activation and supportive climate predicted their interest in subjects even after the teacher popularity was controlled. These findings indicate that, even at the elementary level, student-rated teaching practices can be used as a useful measure of teacher quality, and they should be taken into account when evaluating teacher effectiveness [18]
Considering the importance of teachers to student development, the present study explored changes in students’ perceptions of mathematics teachers’ competence (SP-MTC) over five years

Summary

Introduction

Teachers play a significant role in enhancing students’ cognitive and motivational development [1,2]. Teacher quality has been assessed by teachers’ qualifications, including professional credentials, college degrees, and teacher test scores [6], because it was believed that a teacher’s qualifications were positively correlated with students’ academic success [7]. Recent studies have provided conflicting evidence regarding the relationship between teachers’ test scores and their students’ academic achievement [8,9,10]. Researchers have sought to conceptualize essential aspects of good teaching in terms of teachers’ personal characteristics (e.g., instructional knowledge and motivation [11]) and teaching quality (e.g., classroom management and learning support [12]) and found positive effects of these aspects on student learning of mathematics [13,14,15]

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion