Confident teachers boost students’ language, literacy skills
June 8th, 2010 - 3:07 pm ICT by ANIWashington, June 8 (ANI): A new research suggests that confident schoolteachers have a more positive effect on a child’s learning abilities.
However, in some cases students only saw gains when their teachers also had classrooms that emphasized emotional support for the children, the study found.
“Emotionally responsive relationships between teachers and children may be the way by which the self-efficacy of teachers can have a positive influence on children’s literacy,” said Ying Guo, co-author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in education at Ohio State University.
The research involved a large, multi-state study that included 67 teachers and 328 of their students. Participants were followed over the course of 30 weeks.
Teachers were assessed through a questionnaire that asked questions like “How much can you do to get through to the most difficult students?” and “How much can you do to keep students on task on difficult assignments?”
Trained coders analysed teacher-student interaction from videotapes collected during an approximately two-hour standardized classroom observation and students were given tests of language and literacy skills at the beginning and end of the 30-week period to assess improvement.
The results showed a relation between high self-efficacy of teachers and increased literary skills in students. However, children only showed gains in vocabulary knowledge skills when they had a classroom that offered emotional support in addition to having a teacher with high self-efficacy.
“Classroom quality is important, and students seem to learn more when they have emotional support in the classroom,” Guo said.
An interesting result showed that teachers who had more years of pre-school teaching experience also had lower levels of self-efficacy.
“Fresh teachers who are straight out of training think that they can change the world. Then, when they get into the work place they realize how serious and difficult their jobs really are. This is why we think self-efficacy may decline among some pre-school teachers through the years,” explained Laura Justice, co-author of the study and a professor in the School of Teaching and Learning at Ohio State.
The new study was published in a recent issue of the journal Teaching and Teacher Education. (ANI)
- Confident teachers help pre-schoolers learn more - Jun 08, 2010
- Confident teachers help tiny tots gain more skills - Jul 26, 2010
- Social and emotional learning programs boost students' skills - Feb 05, 2011
- Building character skills key to improved education - Jan 02, 2012
- Attentiveness in KG key to work-oriented skills - Jan 30, 2012
- AnimGraphix launches 3D educational tool - Dec 22, 2010
- Mobile, projectors to educate kids on health, hygiene in Gujarat - May 15, 2012
- Fearless kids less kind - Nov 14, 2010
- Poor behaviour doesn't always lead to poor grades - Mar 30, 2011
- Right friends matter most in middle school - Jan 13, 2011
- Pre-schoolers pick up language faster in classmates' presence - May 15, 2009
- China bars teachers from using harsh words - Dec 13, 2011
- Poor behavior students 'not always poor in academics' - Mar 30, 2011
- Preschoolers' language skills help boost their classmates' vocabulary - May 15, 2009
- Single-sex schools don't improve performance - Sep 23, 2011
Tags: classroom observation, co author, emotional support, knowledge skills, language and literacy, language literacy, literacy skills, ohio state university, participants, positive influence, postdoctoral researcher, pre school teaching, questionnaire, responsive relationships, schoolteachers, self efficacy, student interaction, teacher student, videotapes, vocabulary knowledge