Leadership and Teachers' Science Content Expertise: A Correlational Study of Reported Instructional Support Using TIMSS

• In Event: 45.088 - Understanding and Analyzing Supervision in Policy and Practice

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine if grade eight teachers who have a background in science content (i.e., formal degree in a core area of science including biology, chemistry, earth science, physics) are provided different amounts of instructional support from leaders than their peers who do not have a formal degree in a core area of science. This study analyzes data from the 2015 Trends in Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS). Findings reveal that teachers in the U.S. hold fewer science degrees than teachers serving in the top three performing countries. Teachers in the U.S. and Singapore received statistically significant different amounts of support than their peers who did not hold a science degree.

Authors

• Kathleen M.W. Cunningham, University of South Carolina

• Matthew Phillip Cunningham, The University of Missouri-Columbia