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Role of teacher characteristics and school resources in early mathematics learning

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Abstract

The authors investigated the degree to which school-level teacher characteristics and resources are related to the mathematics learning of kindergarten children using a sample drawn from a large US database. Kindergarten-level teacher characteristics were operationalised as collective teacher efficacy, teacher experience and teacher preparation; kindergarten resources were operationalised as efforts that schools make to reach out to parents, classrooms with mathematics manipulatives, and classroom technology. Kindergarten students learned more in mathematics over a year in schools where teachers’ collective efficacy was high. School resources yielded a range of significant yet mixed results in young children’s mathematics achievement. Notably, younger students and students entering kindergarten with lower levels of mathematical skills benefited greatly from classroom resources. Overall, the presence of classroom technology as a school-level resource was positively related with older kindergarten students’ learning. Based upon the findings, organisational and policy implications are discussed.

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Notes

  1. The reason for combining these particular ethnic groups was based on past research that suggested that there are greater similarities between Caucasian and Asian students concerning school learning influences and that their average reading achievement scores are more similar to each other than to those of the other groups (Lee et al. 2006).

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  1. Department of Child and Family Studies, Syracuse University, 426 Ostrom Avenue, Syracuse, NY, 13244, USA

    Eunjoo Jung

  2. University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

    Elizabeth T. Brown & Karen S. Karp

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  1. Eunjoo Jung
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Jung, E., Brown, E.T. & Karp, K.S. Role of teacher characteristics and school resources in early mathematics learning. Learning Environ Res 17, 209–228 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-014-9159-9

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