Paper prepared for the ICSEI conference in Malmö, January 2012

WIM VAN DE GRIFT MICHELLE HELMS-LORENZ

University of GroningenThe Netherlands

CLASSROOM PRACTICE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

1. Theory and prior empirical research

2. Research questions

3. Sample

4. Method

5. Psychometric quality

6. Results

7. Conclusions

AGENDA

Linear models:

Fuller (1969,1970);

Dreyfus & Dreyfus (1986);

Berliner (1994, 2001);

Steffy & Wolfe (2001)

THEORIES OF PROFESSIONEL DEVELOPMENT (1)

LINEAIR GROWTH OF BOYS AND GIRLS

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

boys 76,6 88,9 98,1 105,8 113,1 120,1 126,6 132,8 138,3 143,2 148,2 154 160,9 168,2 174,4 178,7 181,3 182,6 183,2 183,6 184

girls 75,1 87,5 96,7 104,5 111,8 118,7 125,2 131,5 137,5 143,3 149,2 155,3 160,8 164,7 167,1 168,6 169,3 169,8 170,2 170,5 170,6

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Parabolic models:

Burke, Christensen, Fessler & Price (1987); Lynn (2002);

Day (2008);

Gonçalves (2009);Van de Grift, Van der Wal & Torenbeek (2011)

THEORIES OF PROFESSIONEL DEVELOPMENT (2)

PARABOLIC DEVELOPMENT OF GERMAN TEACHERS IN PRIMARY EDUCATION

-2,14

-1,64

-1,14

-0,64

-0,14

0,36

0,86

1,36

1,86

ξp -1,15 0,73 0,85 0,51 0,65 0,39 0,34 0,28

0 1 t/m 5 6 t/m 10 11 t/m 15 16 t/m 20 21 t/m 25 26 t/m 30 > 30

PRIOR EMPIRICAL STUDIES

Hargreaves (2005); Holloway (2003); Huberman (1989); Rosenholtz & Simpson (1990); Van de Grift, Van der Wal & Torenbeek (2011) found indications that teachers in the middle of their career experience serious problems

Lineair or parabolic development?

• Do teachers have higher teaching qualities the more years of experience they have?

or,

• Do teachers show a dip in teaching abilities around the middle of their career?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• Cross sectional research on 1604 teachers in 138 secondary schools

• 950 teachers licenced for lower secondary education

• 169 teachers licenced for upper secondary education

SAMPLE

• Independent classroom observations done by specially trained teachers using the ICALT observation instrument

• Scheffé test on 8 groups of teacher with different job experience

METHOD

RELIABILITY

Creating a safe and stimulating learning climate

4 3.3 .54 .84 .62 **

Efficient lesorganization 4 3.2 .55 .80 .65 **

Clear and structured instruction 7 3.1 .51 .85 .67 **

Activating lessons 7 2.8 .56 .84 .61 **

Teaching learning strategies 6 2.5 .65 .87 .47 **

Taking individual needs into account in instructions

4 2.3 .64 .81 .45 **

Student involvement 3 3.0 .65 .86    

# items

M sd

Cron-bach’alpha

R with student involvement

PSYCHOMETRIC QUALITY

MEAN SCORES

1

2

3

4

N=1604 3,32 3,18 3,1 2,82 2,49 2,28 2,95

climateorganiz-

ationinstruction

activate students

learning strategies

differen-tiation

student involv.

insufficient

sufficient

good

GENDER

1

2

3

4

male (536) 3,27 3,12 3,02 2,76 2,47 2,22 2,91

female (616) 3,38 3,24 3,14 2,87 2,49 2,38 3

significant ** ** ** ** ** *

climateorganiz-

ationinstruction

activate students

learning strategies

differen-tiation

student involv.

good

sufficient

insufficient

.20 .24.21

.17

.25

.14

LICENCED FOR LOWER OR UPPER SECOND. EDUCATION

1

2

3

4

lower (950) 3,28 3,17 3,07 2,79 2,45 2,27 2,91

upper (169) 3,36 3,16 3,1 2,85 2,61 2,23 2,92

significant ** **

climateorganiz-

ationinstruction

activate students

learning strategies

differen-tiation

student involv.

good

sufficient

insufficient

.25

.22

TEACHING SUBJECT

1

2

3

4

dutch (450) 3,37 3,28 3,14 2,87 2,57 2,39 2,98

eng (48) 3,4 2,97 3,15 2,73 2,32 2,13 2,9

f g s (46) 3,18 3,01 2,86 2,57 2,24 2,09 2,86

math (69) 3,36 3,21 3,15 2,89 2,7 2,36 3,05

science (39) 3,16 2,98 3,06 2,76 2,51 2,14 2,77

geog (79) 3,41 3,33 3,16 2,96 2,56 2,32 3,14

hist (134) 3,22 3,11 3,03 2,76 2,45 2,07 2,9

bio (70) 3,2 3,1 3 2,8 2,28 2,19 2,86

soc (101) 3,28 3,2 3,06 2,78 2,38 2,13 2,85

eco (38) 3,3 3,24 3,15 2,73 2,61 2,37 2,96

proj (45) 3,06 3,11 2,96 2,61 2,49 2,23 2,77

clim org instr act l strat diff s involve

good

sufficient

insufficient

SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL

1

2

3

4

bb/lwoo (109) 3,42 3,33 3,29 2,85 2,48 2,47 2,98

kaderb (201) 3,2 3,2 3,08 2,74 2,34 2,11 2,92

theor lw (159) 3,3 3,2 3,1 2,81 2,52 2,4 2,91

havo (535) 3,25 3,07 3 2,72 2,42 2,1 2,87

vwo (208) 3,38 3,18 3,11 2,9 2,6 2,33 3

significant bb/lwoo vwo bb/lwoo bb/lwoo vwo vwo bb/lwoo tl vwo

5% niveau vs kb vs havo vs kb vwo vs havo vskb havo vs kb havo

climate org instr acti l strat diff s involve

good

sufficient

insufficient

YEAR (STUDENT AGE)

1

2

3

4

1 (485) 3,31 3,25 3,13 2,81 2,48 2,34 2,96

2 (123) 3,17 3,09 3,08 2,72 2,27 2,17 2,88

3 (206) 3,27 3,08 2,98 2,78 2,47 2,19 2,87

4 (221) 3,32 3,12 3,03 2,77 2,54 2,17 2,85

5 6 (39) 3,51 3,31 3,24 3,16 2,95 2,54 3,24

significant 56 vs 2 56 vs 2 56 vs 1234 56 vs 1234 56 vs 4

climate org instr act l strat diff s involve

good

suffcient

insufficient

CLASSROOM SIZE

1

2

3

4

<15 (118) 3,34 3,2 3,09 2,86 2,41 2,39 3,05

15 20 (232) 3,35 3,32 3,21 2,85 2,57 2,43 2,92

20 25 (341) 3,28 3,13 3,03 2,78 2,42 2,2 2,91

25 30 (329) 3,35 3,16 3,05 2,79 2,46 2,22 2,95

>30 (48) 3,22 3,13 3,01 2,64 2,45 2,34 2,96

significant 15 20 vs 20 25 15 20 vs 20 25 15 20 vs 20 25

5% level and 25 30 and 25 30 and 25 30

climate org instr act l strat diff s involve

good

sufficient

insufficient

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

1

2

3

4

climate 3,28 3,2 3,36 3,35 3,6 3,01 3,08 3,39

organization 2,94 3,05 3,23 3,23 3,53 2,95 3,06 3,32

instruction 3,01 2,97 3,2 3,1 3,48 2,77 2,88 3,15

activating 2,66 2,66 2,9 2,88 3,22 2,57 2,52 2,95

learning strat 2,09 2,32 2,53 2,62 2,95 2,39 2,31 2,71

differentiation 2,04 2,12 2,31 2,31 2,7 2,08 2,1 2,49

student involv 2,9 2,85 3,05 2,99 3,38 2,59 2,7 3,05

< 1 1 5 5 10 10 15 15 20 20 25 25 30 > 30

sufficient

insufficient

good

TEACHING EXP. WITH CORR.

1

2

3

4

climate 3,17 3,15 3,35 3,32 3,56 3,26 3,26 3,37

organization 2,83 3,05 3,2 3,18 3,51 3,12 3,2 3,31

instruction 3 2,94 3,21 3,06 3,38 2,97 3,04 3,13

activating 2,59 2,65 2,9 2,83 3,09 2,73 2,68 2,91

learning strat 2,02 2,38 2,55 2,52 2,73 2,54 2,53 2,65

differentiation 1,9 2,09 2,29 2,25 2,51 2,19 2,22 2,46

student involv 2,76 2,81 3,02 2,93 3,37 2,73 2,85 3,03

< 1 1 5 5 10 10 15 15 20 20 25 25 30 > 30

sufficient

insufficient

good

RELIABILITY

Creating a safe and stimul. learn. climate 22.0Efficient lesorganization 14.3Clear and structured instruction 12.6Activating lessons 13.2Teaching learning strategies 21.2Taking individual needs into account 15.8

Average 16.5

% TEACHERS WITH 20-30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE STILL SCORING ON THE HIGH SIDE

Bèta covariates w. experience

clim org ins act stra act bet

Gender .09* .13* .13* .13* .08 .14* .10*

Licence .15* .09 .15* .07 .00 .01 .06

Subject -.01 .00 .00 .00 -.01 .00 .00

Year -.02 -.02 -.04 .00 .05 -.04 -.06

School level -.01 -.02 -.03 .00 .01 .02 .04

Class size .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 -.01 .00

EXPERIENCED vs NOVICE TEACHERS

1

2

3

4

experienced (906) 3,3 3,2 3,09 2,82 2,53 2,3 2,96

novice (131) 3,28 2,94 3,01 2,66 2,09 2,04 2,9

significant ** ** ** **

climateorganiz-

ationinstruc-

tionactivate students

learning strategies

differen-tiation

student involv.

insufficient

sufficient

good

.47

.41

.29.68

EXPERIENCED AND NOVICE TEACHERS SCORING INSUFFIC.

05

101520253035404550

experienced (906) 1 2,1 2,3 4,7 11,1 14,5 2,9

novice (131) 1,6 7,2 6,6 8,9 42,3 40,8 7,2

climateorganiz-

ationinstruc-

tionactivate students

learning strategies

differen-tiation

student involv.

80-85% of the teachers with 20-30 years of experience seem to have

a serious dip in their teaching abilities

Part of the explanation is the relatively large group of male teachers with a licence for lower secondary education only

MAIN CONCLUSIONS (1)

Before we might hint to longitudinal explanations (mid life crisis) we should explore:

* Mobility to other positions like school management, inspector, teacher trainer

* Quality of teacher training institutes about 25 years ago (NLO started between 1970-1980)

* Dramatic changes in teacher salaries in 1985 (HOS)

MAIN CONCLUSIONS (2)