Abstract:

It is often desirable to evaluate a teachers’ usage of certain practices that are generally believed to positively impact their classroom environments and enhance their students’ learning. Though not well defined, such practices are often grouped under the general heading of “best practice.” Two common methods for obtaining such evaluations are via third party classroom observations and teacher surveys. Both methods have serious shortcomings. Observations can be done only intermittently and it is difficult to ascertain the effect of the observer’s presence, and teachers are prone to overestimate their use of best classroom practices.

We propose a third evaluation tool in addition to classroom observations and teacher surveys: student surveys. To this end, the Student Perceptions of Teacher Practices (SPoTS) survey instrument was developed to evaluate middle-school mathematics teachers’ use of certain classroom practices related to the promotion of students’ math conceptual knowledge and self-efficacy. Exploratory and confirmatory analysis supported the validity and reliability of SPoTS scores from student ratings of their teachers on the instrument’s 7 items (e.g., My teacher praises me when I am working hard, My teacher gives me opportunities to explain my answers aloud) [Stevens, et at, 2013].

The purpose of the current study is to investigate how much of SPoTS ratings can be attributed to actual teacher practice and whether student and/or teacher level of self-efficacy influence the results. Preliminary data collected from 24 teachers and 1186 students was analyzed using a two level regression analysis with students’ self-efficacy for completing the day’s lesson predicting SPoTS scores at level 1, and teacher rated teaching efficacy for classroom practices related to instruction and student engagement at level 2. The analysis revealed significant effects of teachers’ engagement and instructional efficacy on the students’ self-efficacy and SPoTS ratings. In general, these preliminary results suggest that students’ perceptions of teacher practices are influenced by individual student attributes as well as by teacher qualities. Details of this preliminary analysis and possible ramifications are presented in the paper.

References:
[1] Stevens T, Harris G, Liu X, Aguirre-Munoz Z. (2013) Students’ ratings of teacher practices, IJMEST, 44(7): 984-995.

Keywords:

Student ratings, teacher practice, middle-school math.