Education

There have been many developments in education and educational philosophy from the latter half of the 20th century to date. The greatly varying performance results of children in schools have also resulted in a large amount of research in an attempt to standardize education in such a way to optimize it for the sake of education and the young people of the future. One of the issues predominating educational philosophy is the correlation between the quality of teachers and student performance. Particularly, the focus in the rest of this document is on the influence of teacher experience on the quality of education and student performance.

If separated from all other factors, logic suggests that teachers with more years of experience should have a better effect on student performance than teachers who do not (Public Policy Institute of California, 2003). Teachers with more experience, for example, have an understanding of exactly what students need in order to optimize their performance. Students also react better to these teachers, as they tend to display more confidence than the less experienced teacher.

Research also suggests, however, that there are several other factors that should also be taken into consideration. While it is so that more experience tends to correlate with better experience, this only holds for about three years of experience, after which the correlation becomes more level with less teaching experience. One possible reason for this, according to Darling-Hammond (2000), is that teachers who have been in the profession for a long time may become tired of their jobs, or stagnate because of a lack of opportunity to further their own education. On the other hand, more experienced teachers who do focus on improving themselves constantly, yield consistently improving results in student performance. Darling-Hammond also emphasizes that well-prepared teachers with less experience also yield favorable results. In general, it therefore appears that more experience tends to yield better student performance.

Sources

Darling-Hammond, Linda (2000, Jan 1). Teacher quality and Student Achievement: A Review of State Policy Evidence. Education Policy Analysis Archives, Vol. 1, No. 8. http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8n1/

Public Policy Institute of California (2003, August). Research Brief: New Insights into School and Classroom Factors Affecting Student Achievement. Issue #76. www.hewlett.org/NR/rdonlyres/985FC747-BAB7-4E08-8133-F763472A37C8/0/ppicsandiegobrief.pdf