Influence of teacher collaboration on job satisfaction and student achievement
Introduction
The turnover rate for teachers in the United States in the first three years of teaching is estimated to be 46% percent (Parker, Martin, Colmar, & Liem, 2012). A major contributing factor to teacher burnout is low job satisfaction due to feelings of isolation (Tatar & Horenczyk, 2003). Because teachers in the United States spend a majority of their working day in a classroom with students, there may be little opportunity for them to interact with other professionals in the school (Huberman, 1989). Collaboration may reduce feelings of isolation, and thereby reduce burnout, by increasing teacher job satisfaction, teacher confidence, and student achievement in their classes (e.g. Brownell et al., 1997, Cooper and Alvarado, 2006; Johnson et al., 2012, Wimberley, 2011).
Research describing the exact benefits of teacher collaboration in the United States has produced mixed results, largely due to the utilization of inconsistent definitions of collaboration in different studies (Kelchtermans, 2006, Lavié, 2006). Exploring the potential benefits of multiple forms of teacher collaboration in different educational systems would yield more specific recommendations that could be adopted in multiple contexts. In the current study, data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is examined to determine the unique influence that several different collaborative activities have on student achievement, teacher's job satisfaction, and teacher confidence in both the United States and Japan.
Despite having different cultures and educational systems, Japan was used as a comparison because of its low rate of teacher turnover and the emphasis placed on collaboration with the practice of lesson study, which is growing in prominence in the United States and other education systems across the world (Blum et al., 2005, Lewis and Tsuchida, 1997, Stigler and Hiebert, 1997). Given the various definitions of collaboration that exist and the many ways that collaborative activities can be structured, a strong argument could be made to increase the use of any forms of collaboration that positively impacts student achievement, teacher confidence, and job satisfaction in both countries. Any collaborative activity that only influences one or two variables in a single country should be further researched to determine its viability in a different culture or context.
Section snippets
Literature review
Educators and policy makers in the United States have recently advocated for increasing the amount of time that teachers collaborate when planning, administering, and evaluating their instruction (Huffman and Kalnin, 2003, Jorgenson et al., 2003, Klentschy, 2005). Numerous studies have found advantages to engaging in teacher collaboration. While there is no comprehensive theory that explains the effects of teacher collaboration (e.g. Kelchtermans, 2006, Lavié, 2006), there is evidence to
The current study
The current study was designed to address the following quantitative research questions: Do teachers in Japan and the United States participate in different types of collaboration activities? If they do, does the type of collaboration predict student achievement, teacher job satisfaction, and teacher confidence in the Japan and the United States?
The TIMSS survey contained questions related to five different types of collaborative activities: discussing how to teach a topic with other teachers;
Data
To examine the role of teacher collaboration on students' achievement and teacher's job satisfaction, we used eighth-grade mathematics achievement and teacher data from the 2011 TIMSS. Beginning in 1995 and every four years thereafter, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) has administered TIMSS with the purpose of gaining a deeper understanding of the effects of policies and practices across countries' different education systems (Mullis, Martin,
Results
In Table 2, we present descriptive statistics for variables used in the analysis from imputed data sets for Japan and the United States. Teachers in the USA showed higher level of mean scores in four indicators for collaboration. The lone exception was the item “visiting another classroom” which teachers in Japan had a higher average score on. Regarding instruction hours per week, American teachers taught math about one and half times more than Japanese teachers. About 70% of math teachers are
Discussion
Supporters of teacher collaboration often highlight potential benefits including improved student achievement, increased teacher job satisfaction, and improved teacher confidence (Cooper & Alvarado, 2006). However, the existing evidence supporting collaboration has produced mixed results possibly due to inconsistent definitions of collaboration across studies (Kelchtermans, 2006, Lavié, 2006). The current study extends the existing literature by simultaneously examining the effects of five
Limitations
The study had several limitations. First, collaboration occurs in the context of an individual school, educational system, and culture. As evidenced by the descriptive statistics, education in Japan and United States differ in many ways. For instance, Japanese students performed higher than American students on math achievement. Japan also had lower scores for mother's education level, student's attitude towards math, student's confidence in math, and how much students value math. Furthermore,
Conclusion
The five indicators of collaboration that were analyzed influenced student achievement, teacher job satisfaction, and teacher confidence differently in Japan and the United States. In Japan, sharing teaching experiences positively predicted teacher confidence. In United States, working together on new ideas negatively predicted teacher job satisfaction, visiting another classroom positively predicted teacher job satisfaction, and collaborating during planning positively predicted student
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