Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions of Effective Physics Teacher Characteristics

Abstract

Problem Statement: What do teachers and students in Turkey perceive asthe common characteristics of effective physics teachers?Purpose of Study: The first aim was to investigate the commoncharacteristics of effective physics teachers by asking students andteachers about the effects of teacher characteristics on student physicsachievement and motivation. The second aim was to explore whether theeffects of these characteristics were significantly associated with thegeographical region, grade level, and gender of students, as well as withthe region, gender, and year of teaching of teachers.Methods: The data were gathered via a questionnaire that wasadministered to 2,177 high school students and 214 physics teachers in 9cities from 3 geographical regions in Turkey. A mean score table wasprepared, to compare effective physics teacher characteristics. Factoranalysis was used to categorize these characteristics. After conductingmissing data analysis and identifying descriptive statistics, MANOVA wasused to test the null hypothesis.Findings and Results: Teachers perceived teacher characteristics as having agreater effect on student motivation and achievement than did students.The eight main categories of effective physics teacher characteristics eachhad a strong effect on student motivation and achievement. Thesecharacteristics affected student achievement more than studentmotivation, according to teachers. Female students declared more thanmale students that physics teacher characteristics affected their motivationand achievement. Mediterranean-region students declared more thanstudents from other regions that these characteristics significantly affected their motivation and achievement. Eleventh grade students declared morethan tenth and ninth grade students that these characteristics affected theirmotivation and achievement.Conclusions and Recommendations: The findings suggested that bothstudents and teachers perceived physics teacher characteristics as affectingstudent achievement and motivation. The category that included the mosteffective characteristics was ‘Pedagogical and Subject Matter Knowledge’.Physics teachers should be aware of their characteristics, and thecharacteristics of teachers should be taken into account in the process ofselecting and assigning teachers.