Predictors of Teachers’ Instructional Practices

Over the last several years, new measurement tools and analytic models for quantifying teacher quality have helped researchers understand not only the distribution of teacher effectiveness, but also what contributes to making some teachers more effective than others. Studies indicate, for example, that students learn more from teachers who have mathematics-specific higher degrees, strong content and/or pedagogical content knowledge, and more classroom experience (Author, 2005; Chetty, et al, 2011; Wayne & Youngs, 2003).  While this work helps describe characteristics of effective teachers, much less is known about factors that predict effective teaching. That is, which elements in teachers’ backgrounds and environments are related to the quality of their instructional practices?

We investigate teacher career and background characteristics, personal resources, and school and district resources that predict an array of instructional 3 practices identified on a mathematics-specific observational instrument, MQI, and a general instrument, CLASS.