The Impact of Teacher Quality on Student Motivation, Achievement, and Persistence in Science and Mathematics
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Reviewer’s Report
Manuscript ID: education-1897917
Title: The Impact of Teacher Quality on Student Motivation, Achievement, and Persistence in Science and Mathematics
Journal: Education Sciences
In this paper, a novel methodology was introduced, which means that teacher quality is taken as the related factor within the social cognitive career theoretical model. A comprehensive and robust model includes teachers' motivation, qualifications, and self-reported practices. Authors have examined the extent to which high school students' mathematics and science teachers’ beliefs, professional backgrounds, and instructional practices relate to students’ motivation, achievement, and future career plans in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Their results indicate that mathematics and science teachers’ professional backgrounds, motivational beliefs, and self-reported instructional practices have a significant impact on students' motivation, persistence, and achievement outcomes in science and mathematics. This study offers further evidence that solid mathematics preparation in high school plays a critical role in retaining students in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields and provides a higher understanding of the type of science and mathematics instruction associated with greater academic performance in these subjects.
This study has the potential to be cited.
I recommend to the Editorial Office to consider this manuscript for publication in the present form.
Author Response
Reviewer 1 did not state/recommend any revisions to be made. We appreciate Reviewer 1’s comment about the novelty of the methodology that guided this study. The collective and comprehensive approach to teacher quality was one of the strengths of the study which was noticed by the Reviewer 1. We also appreciate Reviewer 1’s foreseeing of citation potential of the paper.
Reviewer 2 Report
The topic is not novel, but it is interesting and fits the journal scope. Authors' review of the literature indicates that the topic is well researched, and the influence of teacher factors on students' interests, achievement and educational and career choices is unquestionable, including in relation to STEM. For this reason, I would suggest that the need for the study be better argued, especially with regard to the use of data from more than a decade ago.
A limitation of the study also indicates that the data used does not include information on the connection between teachers and students (the possibility of staff changes). Therefore, the conclusions drawn should be better justified, especially since the analyses conducted are interesting and valuable. Indeed, the article lacks consideration of additional factors that may have a greater impact on students' decisions, such as role of the class teacher/tutor, participation in interesting extracurricular activities, the influence of the family environment, or the variation of students' career plans.
Author Response
We appreciate the opportunity given by Reviewer 2 to expand on or otherwise clarify certain elements in the paper.
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Reviewer Comment |
Authors’ Response |
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1. The topic is not novel, but it is interesting and fits the journal scope. Authors' review of the literature indicates that the topic is well researched, and the influence of teacher factors on students' interests, achievement and educational and career choices is unquestionable, including in relation to STEM. For this reason, I would suggest that the need for the study be better argued, especially with regard to the use of data from more than a decade ago.
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We agree that the topic may not seem novel, however, the methodology is—the first in the literature that integrates teacher quality into SCCT, and the most comprehensive approach to teacher quality to date. This uniqueness of the study is presented in “Limitations of the Extant Literature” section on page 5 and in Figure 1. Although all the elements related to the topic of this study is well researched before, they were studied in isolation from each other. For example, “the impact of teacher practices on student motivation or student achievement” and “the relation between teacher beliefs and student outcomes” were studied before; however, combining the types of teacher factors and investigating their “collective” impact on student outcomes has not been done before. Similarly, the relation between teacher factors and students’ STEM career plans has not been studied before. We feel that these points were also argued well in several places including “Teacher Factors and Student STEM Outcomes” and “Limitations of the Extant Literature” sections. After reading these sections again, we feel that the points raised by Reviewer 1 are already addressed in the paper and at an adequate level. Regarding the timeline of the dataset, HSLS:09 is a longitudinal study; even though it started more than a decade ago, the data used in this study included more recent data points as well. |
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2. A limitation of the study also indicates that the data used does not include information on the connection between teachers and students (the possibility of staff changes). Therefore, the conclusions drawn should be better justified, especially since the analyses conducted are interesting and valuable.
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The connection between teachers and students are present in this study but not to the extent where a hierarchical linear modeling, which could arguably produce more robust results, is possible. The possibility of teacher changes is very likely; however, we do know that the students included in the study had their teachers for at least one year. We tried make this point clearer by adding the following statement in conclusion section: These results should be interpreted cautiously in the light limitations stated above. To reiterate, this study serves as a steppingstone for future studies by providing strong hypotheses based on robust results rather than causal inferences. |
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3. Indeed, the article lacks consideration of additional factors that may have a greater impact on students' decisions, such as role of the class teacher/tutor, participation in interesting extracurricular activities, the influence of the family environment, or the variation of students' career plans.
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The focus of this paper was specifically on teacher quality. We do acknowledge the importance other factors; however, they are not in the scope of this study. Further studies may include the other factors. We added the following short paragraph in the conclusion section to address this point: Future studies may consider inclusion of additional contextual factors besides teachers. Such models will have potential to expand more on the SCCT framework and to provide a more comprehensive approach to understanding student STEM career plans. Researchers may consider additional factors such as extracurricular STEM activities or parental factors. This study is the first step in integrating teachers into the SCCT framework. Future studies should expand on this approach and consider other contextual variables. |
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4. English language and style are fine/minor spell check required
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Checked by a native English-speaking colleague. Changes were marked by using the track changes feature. |
