Teacher Preparation Experiences and Early Teaching Effectiveness

A new report finds both differences in how teachers prepare for certification in the field and that certain experiences are related to improving student test scores in the classroom. The findings provide a detailed look into current teacher preparation practices and identify potential avenues for improving them.

The Institute of Education Sciences released a report today (September 30th) entitled Teacher Preparation Experiences and Early Teaching Effectiveness. This report from the National Center for Education Evaluation (NCEE) surveyed nearly 3,300 new elementary school teachers about their pre-certification training and development experiences.

The survey asked about their experiences learning specific teaching strategies that span two categories of classroom instruction: “Creating a productive learning environment” and “Promoting analytic thinking skills.” For each strategy, teachers reported how often within their preparation they engaged in four different ways of learning them: coursework, observation of other teachers, practice within a classroom setting, and instructor feedback on their classroom practice.  The study describes the frequency of these experiences and which experiences may matter for teachers’ effectiveness in improving student test scores.

Key findings include:

• Of the four ways of learning—coursework, observation, practice and feedback—teachers’ preparation experiences most frequently included coursework and least frequently included receiving feedback on their practice.

• Practice in “Creating a productive learning environment” was the only way of learning related to teaching effectiveness in English/Language Arts (ELA) and math.  More frequent observation of others and feedback from program staff or their cooperating teacher was also related to improved teaching effectiveness, but only in ELA.  The frequency of coursework on creating a productive learning environment was not related to how effective teachers were in either subject once they got to the classroom, despite coursework being the most common learning opportunity teachers experienced.

• Having more preparation experience with “Promoting analytic thinking skills”—through any of the four learning opportunities--was unrelated to teaching effectiveness.  It would be premature to conclude that experiences focused on these teaching strategies are not important components of effective preparation; however, it does suggest more investigation into the nature of these strategies is needed to guide improvements in preparation.