Teaching Quality and Student Outcomes: Academic Achievement and Educational Engagement in Rural Northwest China (Comments AND Notes) (Report‪)‬

A central task of educational researchers has been to uncover factors that improve student academic achievement. Research in both developed and developing nations during the past few decades has analysed the links between educational outcomes and school physical resources, teacher quality and children's demographic and family background. (1) Importantly, research on teacher and school effects in developing countries has focused on factors such as human capital, economic resources and physical infrastructure, the so-called input factors in the "black box" production function model of school outcomes. Fewer studies have focused on the "softer" classroom process factors that might be seen as important mechanisms of the production function, such as teaching style, the quality of teacher-student interactions and student academic engagement. This study investigates the sensitivity of academic achievement and educational engagement to student experiences in the classroom: teaching style, teacher-student interactions and classroom environment. This study is first placed in the theoretical context of comparative educational research, then in the context of recent education reform initiatives in China. Next follows a description of the data which came from a survey of primary school students, teachers and principals in rural Northwest China that was carried out in the summer of 2000. Multivariate analyses of achievement and engagement are presented and the paper closes with a discussion of the implications of the findings.