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Teacher confidence in teaching
Teachers were asked two sets of questions about their confidence in teaching: one set for literacy topics and the other for numeracy topics. The questions were phrased as: ‘How do you find teaching the following aspects of literacy/numeracy?’. Their response options were limited to a four-point scale: ‘Very difficult’, ‘Difficult’, ‘Easy’, and ‘Very easy’.
Confidence in teaching literacy
For reporting purposes, teachers who responded with ‘Easy’ or ‘Very easy’ were considered to demonstrate confidence in teaching a particular topic.
Table RCTT#5 shows the percentage of students whose teacher expressed confidence in teaching literacy topics.
Overall, most students in both year levels had teachers who were confident in teaching literacy topics. In both year levels, the proportions of students with such teachers ranged from 70% to 88%.
Across both year levels, areas where a lower proportion of students had teachers who expressed confidence were: quality of ideas (Year four, 70%; Year six, 73%), organisation and structure (Year four, 70%; Year six, 75%), phonemic awareness (Year four, 75%; Year six, 75%), and grammar and syntax (Year four, 78%; Year six, 79%).
Areas with the highest proportions of students having teachers who expressed confidence were spelling and punction (Year four, 87%; Year six, 88%); vocabulary (Year four, 86%; Year six, 87%); reading comprehension (Year four, 83%; Year six, 87%); and oral language (Year four, 83%; Year six, 85%).
Areas where more students had confident teachers appear to be rules-based subjects or those with more established teaching criteria, such as spelling, punctuation and vocabulary.
Areas where fewer students had confident teachers appear to be in areas with more subjective, or more complex, teaching and assessment criteria, such as quality of ideas and organisation and structure in writing.
The same questions were asked of teachers in the 2018 PILNA cycle and results from both the 2018 and 2021 cycles of PILNA are presented here for comparison. Table RCTT#5A shows the differences in the percentages of students who had a teacher confident in teaching the various literacy areas between 2018 and 2021 PILNA cycles.
Compared with the 2018 PILNA cycle, more students in 2021 had teachers who expressed confidence in teaching literacy across all areas. Every literacy area saw an increase in the proportion of students who had a teacher confident in teaching it. This was true across both year four students and year six students.
Confidence in teaching literacy and teacher qualities
A regional scale focused on measuring teachers’ confidence in teaching literacy based on teachers’ responses was established. Higher scores on this scale indicate higher levels of confidence in teaching literacy.
The literacy teaching confidence scores were analysed against teacher demographics (gender, age, teaching experience, and qualification level). The significant findings are listed below.
- Female teachers were more confident in teaching literacy than male teachers.
- Teachers who had a degree level or higher qualification were more confident than teachers who did not.
- Teachers who were in the younger age range (20–35 years old) were more confident in teaching literacy than teachers in the older age range (over 35 years old).
- Teachers with less experience in teaching (less than 10 years) expressed more confidence in teaching literacy than teachers with more experience (more than 10 years).
Confidence in teaching numeracy
Table RCTT#6 below shows the percentage of students whose teacher expressed confidence in teaching numeracy topics.
Most students in both year levels had teachers who were confident in teaching numeracy topics. In both year levels, the proportion of students with confident teachers in the numeracy topics ranged between 77% and 94%, a slightly higher range than for literacy topics.
Across both year levels, the topics where a lower proportion of students had teachers who expressed confidence were geometry (Year four, 76%; Year six, 79%) and data and chance (Year four, 77%; Year six, 78%).
Topics with the highest proportions of students whose teacher expressed confidence were: place value (Year four, 93%; Year six, 94%), numbers and patterns (Year four, 94%; Year six, 93%), and operations (Year four, 88%; Year six, 90%).
The same questions were asked of teachers in the 2018 PILNA cycle and results from both the 2018 and 2021 cycles of PILNA are presented for comparison. Table RCTT#6A shows the differences in the percentages of students who had a teacher confident in teaching the various numeracy areas between 2018 and 2021 PILNA cycles.
Similar findings were found in numeracy as in literacy. In every numeracy area, across both year levels, a higher proportion of students had a teacher confident in teaching the areas in 2021 than in 2018.
Confidence in teaching numeracy and teacher characteristics
A regional scale with nine items focused on measuring teachers’ confidence in teaching numeracy based on teachers’ responses was established. Higher scores on this scale indicate higher levels of confidence in teaching numeracy.
As with literacy, the numeracy teaching confidence scores were compared to teachers’ demographic groups (gender, age, teaching experience, highest qualification). There were no gender differences for numeracy teaching confidence, but significant differences were found.
- Teachers who had a degree level or higher qualification were more confident in teaching numeracy than teachers who did not.
- Teachers who were in the younger age range (20–35 years old) were more confident in teaching numeracy than teachers in the older age range (over 35 years old).
- Teachers with less experience in teaching (less than 10 years) expressed more confidence in teaching than teachers with more experience (more than 10 years).
