Evidence-based research is crucial as it provides a foundation of reliable and objective information, enabling informed decision-making, improving outcomes, and ensuring the most effective allocation of resources.
Professional standards for teachers that focus on teaching were created in Australia over ten years ago with an aim to improve learner outcomes. Our What’s the Evidence study shows the need for a refocus of the educational research and policy agenda to build support for teacher quality to address both the high attrition rate of early career teachers and to aid capacity building for experienced teachers.
Developing a robust construct of teacher quality was essential for clarity and consistency when identifying and measuring indicators of teacher quality.
The ‘What’s the Evidence' project ran from 2020 to 2024 with funding from the NSW Department of Education over three key phases:
The research team conducted a large scale scoping literature review, examining empirical research publications from 2011 – 2021. The review identified 1004 relevant articles. An analysis of the articles identified 3370 data points of teacher quality. Using content analysis, the indicators were coded into seven components containing 50 indicators of teacher quality.
Four components of the seven were within the scope of the study. They included intellectual qualities, interpersonal qualities, affective qualities and intrapersonal qualities. Indicators in the three other components of Teacher quality (i.e., external influences, pedagogical qualities, and qualifications and experience) were viewed as important to teacher quality but were out of scope for the WtE study.
Figure: Seven components of Teacher Quality
Background information related to the scoping review terms and data points may be found here.
Indicators belonging to the first four components became the basis of our Teacher Quality Construct, articulating the intellectual, interpersonal, affective, and intrapersonal qualities of teachers. [see table below]
Intellectual Qualities |
Interpersonal Qualities |
Affective Qualities |
Intrapersonal Qualities |
Analytical
|
Adaptability
|
Collegiality
|
Initiative
|
Table 1: Teacher Quality Construct list of indicators for four components in WtE study.
The team conducted a series of focus groups with education experts and professional associations, as well as a sequence of surveys open to NSW Department of Education teachers across NSW. The focus groups and surveys were designed to determine which indicators of the Teacher Quality Construct were considered essential for early career teachers. Through this process, we were able to identify the top three qualities stakeholders reported as essential for early career teachers, motivation, respect for diversity, and reflective practice, as well as fit for purpose measurement tools.
In the last phase of the study the team conducted a measurement process for teacher quality with early career teachers in NSW Department of Education schools. Principals and early career teachers at eligible schools were invited to participate in our research through completing a survey measuring their levels of motivation, respect for diversity, and reflective practice. Eligible schools were also offered the opportunity to attend a half-day professional development workshop exploring these qualities in more depth. However, the study took place in the complex post-Covid pandemic environment at a time when teacher shortages impacted on the capacity of schools to participate in research. So, a new data collection process was devised for Phase 3.
In the revised process standard setting workshops were run with teachers and school executive leadership using discussion to provoke insight to how cut scores for performance on indicators teacher quality could be established. A subset of one of the previously used measurement instruments on reflective practice was adopted. This exercise was used to gather evidence on the feasibility of the methods and served as a demonstration of building a measurement scale.
This second process enabled the research team to present a research-informed framework for identifying key indicators of teacher quality, situating these indicators within a local and targeted context (namely, early career teachers in NSW Department of Education schools) and contribute to the validation and standard setting of existing teacher quality measures in relation to these indicators.
An agreed construct of teacher quality is essential to inform and shape effective education policy. While education systems tend to prioritise what can be measured, current metrics often fail to capture the qualities that stakeholders (i.e., teachers, students, school leaders, and communities) truly value. Our future work seeks to bridge this gap by continuing to identify meaningful indicators of teacher quality, alongside robust, fit-for-purpose, and valid measures to assess them. Future projects will focus not only on advancing this construct and its measurement, but also on building capacity within the teaching profession. This vision will help us to better connect policy, practice, teacher development and ultimately student learning.
Developing a robust construct is essential for clarity and consistency when identifying and measuring indicators of teacher quality. Especially if findings are going to inform future practise and inform policy decisions.
Prior research and practice in education shows that being a teacher requires cognitive processing abilities (Bardach & Klassen, 2020; Darling-Hammond, 2000), relationship-building abilities (Grönqvist & Vlachos, 2008), the ability to relate to others and be relatable (Klassen et al., 2018), and the ability to take personal responsibility for professional conduct (Klassen et al., 2018; Klassen & Tze, 2014). The conceptual definition that informs our study aligns with this prior work.
Therefore, construct of teacher quality, which we have adopted for the What’s the Evidence project refers to a composite of intellectual, interpersonal, affective, and intrapersonal attributes, knowledges and skills possessed and practised reflexively by an individual.
As the profession of teaching impacts directly the immediate and lifelong welfare and wellbeing of other human beings, teacher quality supposes an ethics of care, so the construct accounts for a moral dimension. The construct enables us to derive an operational definition from the literature (Braun et al., 2002) that will help us measure what we value as the distinctive attributes possessed by quality teachers.
