• Home
• What We Do
• Who We Are
• Current Activities
• How You Can Join Us
• Other Resources

For educators and government officials who shape teacher preparation, certification, and school staffing policies, the fundamental question about teachers' knowledge of mathematics and pedagogy is how it affects student learning.

This line of quantitative research should yield valuable empirical evidence about the relationship between teacher knowledge and student achievement. It will also allow us to contribute to discussion of consequent policy issues.

What We Do

How Does Teacher Mathematical and Pedagogical Knowledge Influence Student Achievement?

The Mid-Atlantic Center research team conducting quantitative research on teacher knowledge and student achievement is addressing three specific questions:

• What is the relationship between teachers' mathematical and pedagogical understandings, beliefs, and dispositions and their students' achievement, and how is that relationship moderated by student and school demographic conditions?
• How are teachers' mathematical and pedagogical understandings, beliefs, and dispositions related to characteristics of their teacher preparation programs or routes to certification?
• How do teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and dispositions develop as they accumulate teaching experience, and how is that development affected by further professional studies and by student and school demographics of their work settings?

Faculty researchers for this line of work are: Patricia Campbell, Anna Graeber,
Paul Smith, and David Monk.

Teacher Knowledge and Student Achievement

To answer the research questions about teacher knowledge and student achievement, we will assess the mathematical and pedagogical knowledge of 175 upper elementary and 175 middle school teachers who are in their first 5 years of teaching, spacing data collection over three consecutive school years. We will also administer a background survey to characterize the participants’ teacher preparation programs, certification routes, and professional development experiences. In each study year, we will also collect data indicating mathematics achievement by students of the participating teachers.

In order to collect additional longitudinal data, the pedagogical knowledge assessment and the section of the survey addressing formal and informal teacher professional development experiences will be re-administered on an annual basis in Study Years 2 and 3 to 60 teachers randomly selected from those who participated in the first year of data collection.

Analysis of the data will allow us to statistically model the effects of teacher knowledge on student achievement, while also considering possible effects of teacher preparation programs and student and school demographic characteristics.

© Copyright 2005 Mid-Atlantic Center for Mathematics Teaching and Learning