Teacher characteristics and student learning in secondary science

The question of how best to prepare and support K-12 science teachers for reformed teaching is a critical and unresolved issue. As described in the research review in chapter 2, many intermediate steps have been examined and documented however, the link between teacher characteristics and student learning in science is not well studied. This study contributes to the knowledge base for the design of effective professional development for teachers of science.This study examined relationships between teacher characteristics and student learning gains in secondary science. Participants in the study consisted of teachers (N = 15) and students (N = 1,250) in 8th grade public school science classrooms in a large school district in western Washington. Two measures were used to quantify student learning: student scores on the science portion of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), and student pretest-posttest gain on researcher-designed content tests. Two instruments were used to collect information about teacher characteristics: the Epistemological Beliefs Assessment for Physical Science (EBAPS), and a Teacher Questionnaire.A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to predict student gain scores from student WASL scores and teacher characteristics. The results of Step 1 of this analysis indicated that WASL score accounted for a significant amount of the gain variability, R 2 = .08, F(1, 640) = 52.04, p < .001. Step 2 of the analysis indicated that teacher-related measures accounted for a small but statistically significant proportion of the student gain after controlling for student WASL score, R2 change = .04, F(3, 637) = 9.09, p < .001. The full model accounted for approximately 11% of the variance in the criterion, R2 = .11, adjusted R2 = .11.Consistent with previous research, relationships between student learning and individual teacher characteristics were mixed. Both teacher years of experience and teacher combined coursework were negatively correlated with student gain score (r = -.16, p < .001, and r = -.21, p < .001, respectively). Teacher EBAPS score was positively correlated with student gain score, r = .12, p < .001.A second hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to examine relationships between teacher EBAPS score (criterion variable) and teacher years of experience and combined coursework (predictor variables). No significant correlation was found between the predictors and the criterion neither the Step 1 regression model nor the full regression model was statistically significant.