Currently reading: “Why do teachers matter?” by López-Martín et al. (2023)

The study I am summarising here is a meta-analysis of 40 studies on how teacher characteristics influence secondary-school students, and they find that teacher characteristics and competencies explain 9% of the difference in student performance!

The most important teacher characteristic in that is reflexivity, reconsidering own beliefs and knowledge actively, carefully, and persistently for a more deliberate teaching practice. Teachers’ self-efficacy is also important. Both of these can be trained and practised, and they build on, for example, good planning practices. And, interestingly, teacher training itself also has a positive influence on students’ learning outcomes. So the implication of this study is then that teacher professional development is a) important and should b) focus on fostering reflection and self-efficacy over knowledge.

In other news: Windy morning cold dip a couple of days ago. Could I have posted only one wave picture? Sure. Did I choose to? Nope. Because waves are awesome! Just look at the long waves with all the small capillary waves on top, and how at steep angles you can look into the water and see the sandy seafloor or just more water, whereas at shallow angles you see the reflection of the sky!

And here another one.

Look at all those small structures on the surface!

And last one for today, with a spilling breaker!

López-Martín, E., Gutiérrez-de-Rozas, B., González-Benito, A. M., & Expósito-Casas, E. (2023). Why do teachers matter? A meta-analytic review of how teacher characteristics and competencies affect students’ academic achievement. International Journal of Educational Research, 120, 102199.