Low (linear) teacher effect on student achievement in pre-academic physics education

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of physics education on students' achievement in a large-scale quantitative study of pre-academic high school students throughout the Netherlands. Two aspects of teacher characteristics as perceived by their students are included: their pleasantness principally defined by their perceived friendliness and positive feedback and their centeredness principally defined by the perceived teacher centeredness in the lessons. Furthermore, this study includes four student aspects: their general capability, their quantity of work, their quality of work, and their interest in the lessons. Structural Equation Modeling is used in order to cluster the different variables defining the perceived pleasantness and the perceived centeredness of the teacher and the general capability, interest, and learning attitudes of the students. Furthermore, interrelations among these components and students' achievement are analyzed. Eventually, a very large effect of the students' general capability (6172%) and a remarkably smaller effect of the remaining parameters