Learning International Survey Research Articles

Do Teachers Spend Less Time Teaching in Classrooms With Students With Special Needs? Trends From International Data

Debates about the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms often overlook its impact on teachers. In this study, I analyze the concern that teachers may spend less time teaching in classrooms with children with special needs using survey data on 121,173 teachers from 38 participating countries and partners of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013. I further examine teacher, classroom, and school factors that may explain disparities in time spent teaching in classrooms with and without students with special needs. The findings indicate teachers, on average, spend marginally less class time on teaching in classrooms that include more students with special needs. The disparity in teaching time is mostly removed when accounting for students with behavioral problems in classrooms.

Professional development and teacher efficacy: evidence from the 2013 TALIS

ABSTRACTUsing the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) data, this study explored the relationship between professional development (PD) and teacher efficacy. In particular, the analysis focused on how 4 aspects of PD (format, content, duration, and quality) are statistically related to the overall as well as the 3 subscales of teacher efficacy in classroom management, instruction, and student engagement. This study found PD programs (a) in the formats that promoted job-embedded, inquiry-oriented, and collaborative learning and (b) that offered contents for curriculum, instructional skills, school management, and technology were statistically correlated with the overall as well as the subscales of teacher efficacy in a positive way. As for PD duration and quality, this study found the length of PD and teacher-perceived quality of PD were positively associated with some of the 4 teacher efficacy variables.

Professional development needs, support, and barriers: TALIS US new and veteran teachers’ perspectives

ABSTRACT Drawing on 1508 US secondary teachers’ data from Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013, this study examines new and veteran US teachers’ needs, support, and barriers for professional development (PD). The results indicated that both veteran and new teachers reported needing PD that addresses implementation of national/state curriculum standards or Common Core standards and technology, teaching students with special needs, and approaches to individualized learning. A larger proportion of each group also reported that they received neither a salary supplement nor non-monetary support for PD activities. However, more new teachers than veteran teachers reported receiving a salary supplement for PD activities outside working hours; veteran teachers reported more barriers for PD participation due to financial cost and lack of incentives and time outside the school contract. This study provided implications for PD design and implementation in the US context.

Teaching students with special needs: International trends in school capacity and the need for teacher professional development

Although educational opportunities have improved worldwide for children with disabilities, there are concerns about the preparation of teachers working with this student population. Using secondary data on 121,173 teachers from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013, this independent study examined the professional development needs of teachers in special education. Results show teachers in classrooms with a high percentage of students with special needs are likely to have the least qualifications and greatest professional development need. The shortage of teachers with special education competency and current professional development needs of teachers have policy implications for educating children with disabilities.

Selected Factors Contributing to Teacher Job Satisfaction: A Quantitative Investigation Using 2013 TALIS Data

ABSTRACT This study aims to analyze how selected student and school factors may affect teacher job satisfaction, in addition to teacher factors, through multilevel regression and commonality analysis of U.S. data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013. In the overall model of teacher job satisfaction, the factors of low achievers, behavioral problems, SES, classroom discipline climate, school location, principal job satisfaction, school autonomy for instruction, participation among stakeholders, experience, teacher self-efficacy, teacher-student relationship, teacher cooperation, and effective professional development are important predictors for teacher job satisfaction based on the values of beta weights and structure coefficients. Furthermore, the commonality analysis reveals that student, school, and teacher factors uniquely contribute 4.19%, 7.07%, and 6.41% of variance, respectively. Findings provide significant implications for educational policies on teacher job satisfaction and retention.

Collaborative teacher professional development in schools in England (UK) and Shanghai (China): cultures, contexts and tensions

ABSTRACTThis mixed method research explores the contexts, purposes, forms, practices, and effects of school provided collaborative professional development (PD) as experienced by teachers working in primary and secondary schools in England and Shanghai. The research is part of a larger partnership pilot study by the University of Nottingham and Shanghai Normal University, which focused on opportunities for and experiences of participation in formally organized professional development, using as a point of departure the findings of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013 report of teachers’ perceptions of their professional development. Given the differences between the two jurisdictions in their PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) rankings, and between national cultures, teacher expectations and conditions of work, professional development purposes, forms and practices in schools might be expected to differ. The research found that there was a similar emphasis in both jurisdictions upon ‘functional’ rather than ‘attitudinal’ oriented professional development, but that teachers in Shanghai schools experienced more of the latter than those in the English schools studied. Such differences in the relative emphasis between the two jurisdictions upon the ‘attitudinal’, challenge the benefits of focusing collaborative professional development primarily upon the ‘functional’ in English schools.

Secondary teacher’s dissatisfaction with the teaching profession in Latin America: the case of Brazil, Chile, and Mexico

ABSTRACTIn this study, descriptive and comparative in nature, I analyze teachers’ dissatisfaction with their profession in Chile, Brazil, and Mexico (N = 10,846). Using data from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), I question whether extrinsic and intrinsic elements of school organizations, in addition to teachers’ personal attributes, are associated with their dissatisfaction. Using multiple logistic regression, I found that Mexico is the country where teachers have the least likelihood of being dissatisfied compared with both Chile and Brazil. In agreement with the literature, I also found that collaboration among teachers and a culture of participation in the school are key characteristics associated with less dissatisfied teachers.

The ownership perception gap: exploring teacher job satisfaction and its relationship to teachers’ and principals’ perception of decision-making opportunities

ABSTRACT Research has shown that when principals provide teachers with opportunities to participate in meaningful decision-making opportunities, it leads to teachers’ feeling a greater sense of ownership and commitment to their profession and school. These positive feelings may in turn improve teachers’ job satisfaction. This paper investigates this theory by examining the relationship between the difference in teachers’ and principals’ perceptions of teachers’ involvement in decision-making and teachers’ reported job satisfaction. We used data from the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey of 2013 (TALIS 2013) to study the relationship between the gap between teachers’ and principals’ perception of teachers’ involvement in decision-making and teachers’ reported job satisfaction. We employ descriptive and inferential statistics to investigate this question in 29 countries. Our study finds large, cross-national differences in teachers’ and principals’ perceptions of teachers’ involvement in decision-making. Our findings show that though principals believe they are providing teachers with increased decision-making opportunities, teachers report that they still do not feel included in decision-making opportunities. Our results lend empirical support to the call for policies that support greater opportunities for shared decision-making as a policy lever that can be used to improve teacher job satisfaction.

Sustainability of Cooperative Professional Development: Focused on Teachers’ Efficacy

In this study, we aim to gain critical insights into how cooperative professional development affects teachers’ efficacy. To this end, the purpose of this study is to identify cooperative professional development types (CPD-type) and to reveal the relationship between CPD-type and teachers’ efficacy in Korean middle schools, controlling for gender, age, years of experience and school climate. The data of this study are derived from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) conducted by the OECD. The K-mean cluster analysis was used to identify distinct clusters of middle school teachers based on CPD. This process identified four specific groups: the disengaged group (36.8%), the collaborative group (11.3%), the activity-focused group (24.8%), and the coordinative group (27.1%). Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that all dummy variables of CPD-type were statistically significant, controlling for gender, age, years of experience, and school climate. Comparing the relative importance of each variable on teachers’ efficacy, the CPD1 (1 = the collaborative group) variable was most important. The results of this study provide a rationale for teachers to participate in collaborative professional development actively.

Singapore’s School Excellence Model and student learning: evidence from PISA 2012 and TALIS 2013

ABSTRACTThis study examines the relationship between key elements of the School Excellence Model (SEM) and student achievement in reading, mathematics and science as measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013, using a sample of 166 schools in Singapore. Strategies, quality and resources are identified as school-level dimensions commonly involved in the SEM to select variables in PISA 2012 and TALIS 2013. A multilevel data analysis was conducted using hierarchical linear modelling. The results indicate that a triangulated school strategy focused on strengthening teacher participation, principal commitment and school responsibility has significant relationships with student performance. In particular, teachers’ instructional improvement contributed to student achievement, while teacher ratio to support teaching staff accounts for the largest variance in student achievement. Finally, school extra-curricular activities promote well-rounded student development that enhances learning achievement. Findings highlight the importance of school-based accountability that empowers teachers, in building school capacity for student achievement.

Does Collaboration in Teaching Situations Help in Enhancing Teacher's Job Satisfaction?

Collaboration dismantles the compartmentalized structure of educational organizations and creates a safe and supportive environment for its teachers. This helps them to share valuable knowledge related to content or pedagogy, with the common interest of creating a better learning environment for the students. Collaboration supports teachers in instructional practices as well as contributes to their job satisfaction. The structure of this paper is guided by theoretical frameworks by DuFour, Eaker, and DuFour's (2005) on collaboration, Bandura's (1977, 1982) social cognitive theory, and Herzberg's (1987) theory of motivation and hygiene. The data from United States teachers' from The Teaching and Learning International Survey (2013) was used to explore the relationship between collaboration, instructional practices, and job satisfaction using structural equation modeling. The results showed that collaboration among teachers cannot directly predict the level of job satisfaction, but significantly predicts job satisfaction when mediated through the use of instructional practices.

Distributed leadership, professional collaboration, and teachers’ job satisfaction in U.S. schools

This study uses hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to investigate relationships among distributed leadership, professional collaboration, and teachers' job satisfaction in U.S. schools. Data are from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). Results revealed teachers’ perceptions of distributed leadership were significantly, positively associated with their job satisfaction after accounting for other individual and school culture variables, with reciprocal mediation between distributed leadership and professional collaboration. This study has policy implications for leadership in disadvantaged schools in addition to research implications, particularly regarding how leadership is reflected in the responses of different school stakeholders.

On the Differential and Shared Effects of Leadership for Learning on Teachers’ Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction: A Multilevel Perspective

Purpose: Over the past years “leadership for learning” (LFL) has become popular among educational scholars. LFL refers to the idea that effective leaders demonstrate a contextually contingent mix of instructional, transformational, and shared leadership practices that may have differential effects at various organizational levels. These assumptions have rarely been investigated within a coherent empirical design. We examine the shared and differential effects of LFL on teachers’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment, which are relevant antecedents for learning, improvement, and change on all levels of a school. Method: Drawing on survey data ( nteachers = 3,746, nschools = 126) from Germany and on well-established instruments like the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire or Teaching and Learning International Survey, multilevel associations of LFL and teachers’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment were explored. This was done by applying doubly latent structural equation models. Findings: Our results indicate that (1) it is statistically necessary to model perceived leadership practices as a multilevel construct, (2) shared leadership is a strong predictor of individual and shared job satisfaction and organizational commitment of teachers whereas (3) individual consideration only shows significant associations on the individual level (4) that LFL is contextually sensitive. Implications for Research and Practice: Findings make a strong case for studying LFL within a multilevel framework and also for applying complex study and analytical designs, which should take the complexity of the theoretical assumptions into consideration all the way along from questionnaire design, through the process of data collection up to the point of data analysis.

Marketing teacher quality: critical discourse analysis of OECD documents on effective teaching and TALIS

ABSTRACT This study uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) texts on teacher quality and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) framework. Specifically, it explores the forewords of documents written by OECD leaders, which we believe are charged with meanings related to the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) discourse. We suggest that CDA of the texts sheds light on the manner in which OECD leaders attempt to gain normative control in the teacher quality discourse. Based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework for studying discourse, our analysis shows that the OECD (a) uses a discourse of fear to market teacher quality in light of global changes, implicitly framing teachers as ‘bad teachers’; (b) advocates reliance on the organization as a protector and (c) promises a remedy by regulating teachers in the name of effectiveness and the knowledge economy. The study offers a nuanced insight into OECD efforts to promote normative control in the teacher quality discourse, using three dimensions of discourse (i.e. the textual micro linguistic dimension, the meso-interdiscursive dimension, and the macro sociocultural dimension) that help gain ideational powers.

Is Teacher Sorting a Global Phenomenon? Cross-National Evidence on the Nature and Correlates of Teacher Quality Opportunity Gaps

Although substantial evidence from the United States suggests that more qualified teachers are disproportionately concentrated in the schools and classrooms of academically and socioeconomically advantaged children, it is not clear whether the problem of teacher sorting is global in scope. This study uses data from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey to examine whether and how school- and classroom-level teacher distribution patterns vary across 32 education systems with diverse national contexts and education policies. We find that cross- and within-school teacher sorting is common in most countries but within-school sorting is more pronounced in higher income countries. We also identify several national policy variables that are significantly related to both cross-school and cross-classroom sorting of teachers.

A comparative study of factors associated with technology-enabled learning between the United States and South Korea

Using nationally representative data for lower secondary teachers from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey, we examined differences in factors associated with technology-enabled learning between the United States and South Korea. The results confirmed the importance of teachers’ self-efficacy and their participation in professional development for technology-enabled learning in both countries. However, we found differences in the degree to which participation in professional development mattered to technology-enabled learning between the two countries. In addition, we found that cooperation and gender were significant predictors of technology-enabled learning in South Korea but not in the United States. By contrast, having constructivist beliefs was a significant predictor in the United States, but not in South Korea. The article goes on to highlight differences in information and communication technology policy environments between the United States and South Korea that may potentially explain these between-country differences in factors associated with technology-enabled learning.

Do pupils from low-income families get low-quality teachers? Indirect evidence from English schools

Gaps between the educational attainment of pupils from higher and lower income families are widespread and persistent. Teacher quality is amongst the most important school-based determinants of pupil attainment, making the allocation of teachers to pupils a potentially important reason for this attainment gap. We use a range of well-evidenced indicators of teacher quality from the School Workforce Census and the Teaching and Learning International Survey to investigate the extent of social inequalities in access to teacher quality in England. Looking at the allocation of teachers between schools, we find that disadvantaged pupils are more likely to have unqualified, inexperienced or out-of-subject teachers. We present evidence that this reflects both demand from early-career teachers to work in such schools and a greater supply of vacant positions in these schools, due to poor staff retention. We find some evidence of an inequitable allocation of teacher quality to classes within schools, though this is limited to our teacher experience indicator. This is in part due to teachers with more experience at a specific school being better able to influence their allocation to less disadvantaged classes. Implications for policy are discussed.

The effect of teaching strategies on student achievement: An analysis using TALIS-PISA-link

The present study investigates the effects of different teaching strategies on student achievement using data from the so-called TALIS-PISA link created by the OECD. This is a recently developed instrument that allows for connecting data about teacher characteristics and practices collected in the TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey) survey with students’ academic performance measured in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). Our empirical strategy is based on an instrumental variable (IV) approach. Our results suggest that traditional teaching methods have a positive influence on students’ proficiency in mathematics, while the implementation of more innovative active learning strategies seem to have a negative impact on student achievement.

Exploring the effect of supportive teacher evaluation experiences on U.S. teachers’ job satisfaction

Teacher satisfaction is a key affective reaction to working conditions and an important predictor of teacher attrition. Teacher evaluation as a tool for measuring teacher quality has been one source of teacher stress in recent years in the United States. There is a growing body of evidence on how to evaluate teachers in ways which support their growth and development as practitioners. For this study, we inquired: What is the relationship between supportive teacher evaluation experiences and U.S. teachers’ overall job satisfaction? To answer this question, we employed a multilevel regression analysis to multiply-imputed data on U.S. lower-secondary teachers’ experiences from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). We found a small, positive relationship between the perceptions of supportive teacher evaluation experiences and U.S. secondary teachers’ satisfaction after controlling for other important teacher and school characteristics and working conditions. Further, teachers who felt their evaluation led to positive changes in their practice had higher satisfaction. Teachers whose primary evaluator was a fellow teacher as opposed to the principal also had higher satisfaction on average. We discuss the implications of these findings for school leaders as well as future teacher evaluation policy.

Explicación de la satisfacción en la dirección escolar a partir del desempeño de la función directiva

La dirección escolar y el ejercicio del liderazgo pedagógico son vinculantes en la mejora de la calidad de los centros educativos y en su funcionamiento. Es vital que las personas al frente del cargo estén satisfechas con la función de dirección que llevan a cabo, hecho que deriva en una mayor motivación y compromiso con su desempeño profesional. En este trabajo estudiamos la satisfacción laboral de los directores de centros de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, dada la relevancia del cargo para el buen funcionamiento de las instituciones escolares. Para ello, llevamos a cabo un análisis secundario a partir de datos obtenidos en la última edición del estudio Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) promovido por la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE en adelante) (OECD, 2014) con el objetivo de explicar la satisfacción en la dirección escolar a partir de variables que hacen referencia al ejercicio de la función directiva. Los resultados muestran mayor satisfacción de la dirección cuando esta hace partícipe a la comunidad educativa de la toma de decisiones, ejerciendo su labor de liderazgo pedagógico y fomentando una cultura de colaboración. Entre las tareas relacionadas con la insatisfacción laboral se encuentran aquellas vinculadas al modelo de gestión burocrático tradicional todavía vigente. Finalmente se ofrecen propuestas orientadas a la mejora de la satisfacción de la dirección basadas en la formación continua a través de itinerarios profesionales de dirección y la formación en competencias relacionadas con el liderazgo distribuido, la creación de espacios de colaboración entre los agentes educativos y la potenciación de las comunidades de aprendizaje.