EAPSI: How Personal and Contextual Factors Impact the Effects of Teacher Training on Student Math and Science Performance

Ma Yanling, Auburn AL

Investigators

Abstract

This study investigates the challenging issue of adolescents? math and science achievement, which impacts retention, graduation, and future academic and career orientation and success. Specifically, the project will examine the effect of teacher training on student math and science performance and identify the factors that may impact training effects using a sample of 1,400 Chinese middle school students. This project will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Yuantao Sun, an expert on educational practice, at Zhejiang University in China. It is expected that the project will contribute to improved understanding of the characteristics of effective teacher math and science training practices for different contexts. It will also foster mutual understanding of teaching and learning principles between U.S. and Chinese education researchers. Mathematics and Science, as central elements of middle school curriculum, are influenced by multiple personal and contextual factors directly and interactively. Despite the significance of teacher training, surprisingly the effects of training are not always shown to be beneficial for student outcomes. One possible reason may be the pervasiveness of single-shot, one-day, low-intensity training which lacks continuity and accountability. Different from U.S. teachers who seldom receive intensive, content-focused professional trainings in math/science courses, the teachers in China are required to attend mandated, sustained workshops frequently. The results of this project could help researchers, practitioners, and policy makers better understand the efficacy of more intensive, sustained, content-focused teacher training on adolescent math and science performance. In addition, the findings also identify both individual (e.g., initial condition, gender, and age) and contextual (e.g., class climate and peer influence) moderators when testing training effects among a large Chinese adolescent sample. This award is expected to facilitate international collaborations among researchers examining factors that moderate the impact of teacher training on adolescent math and science performance in two different countries. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.