What Works Best? Novice and Expert Teachers’ Beliefs About School Effectiveness

• In Event: Sustained Teacher Professional Development

Abstract

Beliefs are a central component of teachers’ professional competence that has been shown to influence classroom processes. This study analyses novice and expert teachers’ beliefs concerning determinants of student achievement and their congruence with results of school effectiveness research. Participants were asked to estimate effect sizes for several determinants of student achievement, which were subsequently compared with empirical effect sizes. Our findings suggest that teachers’ beliefs about school effectiveness are related to professional experience: Expert teachers showed a stronger congruence with empirical evidence, reaching higher means in achievement-related variables and lower means in variables concerning surface- and infrastructural conditions of schooling. Results are discussed with regard to teacher-education practices that emphasize research findings and challenge existing beliefs of teachers.

Authors

• Johanna Fleckenstein, IPN - Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education

• Friederike Zimmermann, Institute of Psychology, Kiel University

• Olaf Koeller, Leibniz Institute for Science and Math Education

• Jens Moeller, University of Kiel