What role do characteristics such as school climate, staff composition and collaboration play in the quality of teaching? The project shows how government and school administrators can shape the working environment for teachers and thus systematically improve the quality of teaching in schools.
Overview
Duration: 2018 – 2021
Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Subsidy: 19 066 Euro
Principal Investigators: Prof. Doris Holzberger
If there are differences in the quality of teaching in schools, this can have a strong impact on school selection processes on the part of parents and students. But are such differences systematic? And what role do characteristics such as the school climate, the social composition of the teaching staff or the cooperation between teachers play?
In the project, we researched what influence these school characteristics actually have on the teaching and motivation of teachers. Therefore, we focused on the reciprocal exchange between the teachers as persons and their working environment. We examined these person-environment interactions using a re-analysis of PISA 2003 and TALIS 2018 data.
We concluded that teaching quality is indeed dependent on systematic factors. According to this, schools can positively influence teaching quality by acting on school characteristics such as school climate, the social composition of the teaching staff or teacher cooperation. Teachers' perceptions of teaching quality were more important than those of school administrators. Our findings open up the possibility for school administrators and politicians to systematically improve the quality of teaching in schools by shaping the working environment of teachers.
The project received funding within the framework of the DFG Young Researchers Academy "Secondary Analyses of Multidisciplinary Data Sets in Educational Research".
Publications in the Project
Holzberger, D. & Schiepe-Tiska, A. (2021). Is the school context associated with instructional quality? The effects of school composition, principals, teacher collaboration, and school climate. Manuscript accepted for publication in School Effectiveness and School Improvement. doi: 10.1080/09243453.2021.1913190
Holzberger, D., & Prestele, E. (2021). Teacher self-efficacy and self-reported cognitive activation and classroom management: A multilevel perspective on the role of school characteristics. Manuscript accepted for publication in Learning and Instruction, 75. *both authors have contributed equally to the manuscript. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2021.101513
Publications in the Project
Holzberger, D. & Schiepe-Tiska, A. (2021). Is the school context associated with instructional quality? The effects of school composition, principals, teacher collaboration, and school climate. Manuscript accepted for publication in School Effectiveness and School Improvement. doi: 10.1080/09243453.2021.1913190
Holzberger, D., & Prestele, E. (2021). Teacher self-efficacy and self-reported cognitive activation and classroom management: A multilevel perspective on the role of school characteristics. Manuscript accepted for publication in Learning and Instruction, 75. *both authors have contributed equally to the manuscript. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2021.101513