During the past decades, teacher collaboration has received increasing attention from both the research and the practice fields. However, little has been said about its relationship with student achievement. In the present study, using data from the representative PISA 2012 German sample, we investigate the effects that the three forms of teacher collaboration proposed by PISA namely instruction-project-and organization related have on student achievement. We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to test the factorial validity of the instrument. After some re-specifications to the questionnaire, the results from a full structural equation model suggest that a small positive effect can be seen, only when teachers specifically discuss student achievement. Implications for research and praxis are also presented and discussed.
According to the literature, collaboration among teachers can be regarded as a subject that can positively influence numerous aspects of the school. However, factors influencing the extent to which collaboration takes place have received less attention. For example, gender differences are usually not examined. We carry out a secondary analysis of the representative PISA 2012 German teacher sample to measure the state of teacher collaboration through three different collaboration forms namely instruction-, project-, and organization related. Because of the stratification of the German school system in secondary education, variations by school type should be taken into account. We conducted a MANCOVA to investigate the differences and effects that gender and school type of the lower secondary education have on the frequency with which teachers collaborate. Results show that women collaborate minimally more than men, that the higher the formal education of a school, the less frequently collaboration occurs and that the overall level of collaboration is weak. There is no interaction effect between these two variables. Suggestions for future research as well as implications are presented.
We investigated the effects of principal instructional leadership (IL) on the frequency of two forms of teacher collaboration (TC) namely exchange and coordination of teaching (EXCHT) and professional collaboration (PROFCOLT) and their influence on student achievement (SA). Using data from the representative German PISA 2015 sample, we carry out structural equation modeling analysis to estimate the direct effects of IL on TC and of TC on SA, as well as the indirect effects of IL on SA. The analyses were conducted at the school level and only teachers belonging to the non-science group in PISA 2015 were included. After testing for the factorial validity of the instrument, only the collaboration form (EXCHT) could be retained. Our analysis suggests that principal instructional leadership can positively influence teachers’ collaboration frequency and that the remaining form of teacher collaboration is not positively related to student achievement. Our study builds on and extends research on student achievement by adding evidence about the relations between principal leadership and teacher collaboration in Germany.
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