Teacher Effectiveness and Years of Experience: A Literature Review

Introduction

Parents commonly prefer to enroll their children in schools whose teachers are hardworking and experienced in delivering effective instruction. Teacher effectiveness can be gauged, in large part, by students' academic achievements. The following literature review examines previously published research on whether teachers' effectiveness increases with their years of teaching experience.

Teaching Quality and Classroom Observation in Australian Primary Schools

Research has shown that teachers' years of experience can improve their teaching quality, ultimately resulting in better student grades. A study was conducted among 18 preparatory-year teachers, 28 teachers of Grade 1, 20 teachers of Grade 2, and 14 teachers of Grade 3 (Graham et al., 2020). The sample was drawn from primary schools in Queensland, Australia, with student enrolments ranging from 210 to 760 per school. All participating teachers held master's degrees and had a mean teaching experience of 9.23 years. Data were collected through annual classroom observations using a standardized instrument called the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Each observation session lasted 30 minutes, and a team of certified observers monitored Prep to Grade 3 classes for a total of two hours. A certified K-3 CLASS trainer was also included to maintain consistency across the first 10 observation cycles. The entire observation process was completed within two months and was organized around three domains and ten dimensions. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS, with descriptive statistics covering the three CLASS domains: emotional support, instructional support, and classroom organization.

The results revealed that, among the 80 teacher participants, the majority scored highest on emotional support and classroom management, while scores for instructional support were comparatively lower. Notably, the findings were consistent with prior literature in showing that teachers in their beginning years (0–3 years) and more experienced teachers (more than 3 years) did not differ significantly across the three domains or ten dimensions measured by CLASS. It was also interesting to find that during the early years of teaching experience, a teacher's ability and quality are not necessarily inferior. However, the findings did suggest that placing teachers based on content expertise, certification, and access to high-quality mentoring would improve teaching quality. Overall, while Australian teachers were observed to struggle with behavior management, high scores on classroom organization indicated that combining teaching experience with targeted professional development in behavior management could lead to multidimensional improvements in teaching quality and, ultimately, positive academic results.

Ontario Regulation 274 and the Complexity of Experience as a Hiring Criterion

Another study challenged the widely held belief that teaching experience straightforwardly increases teaching effectiveness (Irvine, 2019). This relationship was questioned in the context of Canadian teacher-hiring policies that prioritized teaching history as a proxy for student achievement. The relationship between experience and effectiveness was found to be complex and nuanced, particularly when measured against students' academic achievements. The article scrutinizes Ontario Regulation 274, arguing that teacher-hiring practices within Ontario, Canada, needed to move beyond basing decisions solely on previous teaching experience. In Ontario, job advertisements for new teaching vacancies had previously required prior experience within a specific district and jurisdiction. Substitute teachers, while qualified and somewhat experienced, were not given responsibility for long-term instructional planning beyond individual lesson plans. Concerned that this system could lead to partiality or nepotism, the Ontario government introduced Regulation 274, which allowed substitute teachers to apply for long-term occasional (LTO) positions. To be eligible, substitute teachers were required to complete at least one of four qualifying assignments within a four-month period, and the top five candidates on LTO rankings could be hired without restriction based solely on prior experience.

There was considerable opposition to this regulation, as school administrators argued that interviews were a better method of determining which teachers were the best fit for specific schools. The study at the heart of this article sought to answer whether teaching experience has a meaningful relationship with teaching effectiveness, assessed across three elements: value-added measures, classroom observations, and surveys of students, peers, and administrators. The concluding remarks revealed scarce evidence that teaching experience alone certifies student academic achievement. A notable argument was also made that as student bodies become increasingly diverse, schools need teachers who bring culturally diverse professional backgrounds — a major factor in the academic success of students from varied ethnic communities — rather than those selected purely on the basis of years in the classroom.

Conclusion

The literature reviewed on teacher effectiveness and years of experience confirms that teaching experience is generally beneficial for student accomplishments. Teachers are encouraged to grow professionally as their careers progress, given the continuous evolution of educational systems across all grade levels, from kindergarten through university. It becomes imperative for teachers to raise student achievement through their accumulated experience. Although the studies reviewed differ in their variable selection and analytical models, and although results have varied across different periods, the literature now converges on one important qualification: teaching experience alone should not be treated as the sole indicator of student success or teaching effectiveness.

Emerging factors have come to the fore that contribute to professional effectiveness beyond years of service — notably, cultural competence and the ability to design classroom management structures conducive to learning for students from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Several studies also supported the finding that in the early years of teaching, student gains — and thus teaching effectiveness — can be high, driven by passion and career motivation. Ultimately, the definition of teaching experience itself has broadened over time, encompassing professional development, collaborative working environments, subject-matter depth, and interpersonal competencies, all of which together shape genuine teaching quality and effectiveness.

References

Burroughs, N., Gardner, J., Lee, Y., Guo, S., Touitou, I., Jansen, K., & Schmidt, W. (2019). A review of the literature on teacher effectiveness and student outcomes. IEA Research for Education (A Series of In-depth Analyses Based on Data of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement), 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16151-4_2

Graham, L. J., White, S. L. J., Cologon, K., & Pianta, R. C. (2020). Do teachers' years of experience make a difference in the quality of teaching? Teaching and Teacher Education, 96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103190

Irvine, J. (2019). Relationship between teaching experience and teacher effectiveness: Implications for policy decisions. Journal of Instructional Pedagogies, 22. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1216895.pdf

Muhammad, L. (2021). The effects of teachers' academic qualification and experience on students' achievement and interest in Accounting in Kaduna State. Global Journal of Education, Humanities and Management Sciences, 3(1), 242–252.

Podolsky, A., Kini, T., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2019). Does teaching experience increase teacher effectiveness? A review of US research. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 4(33).