Students' perceptions regarding their teachers' instructional qualities and practices

The purpose of this research study was to identify those effective instructional qualities and practices that would assist students academically as well as to pass major standardized assessments (e.g., the Ohio Ninth Grade Proficiency Test). A 40 question survey was then developed based on a review of previous research that linked particular teaching characteristics with greater student learning and test performance. Approximately 1,227 freshman students who had passed the Ohio Ninth Grade Proficiency Test on their first attempt as eighth graders were administered this survey. Twenty-eight additional freshman students who had also passed this test on their first try were individually surveyed with this same instrument. All of these surveyed students attended one of five different high schools in three similar suburban school districts in central Ohio. Based on the perceptions of these surveyed students who had passed this high stakes assessment on their initial attempt, several effective instructional qualities and practices were revealed from a frequency distribution as being prevalent among their teachers. These effective teaching characteristics were then highlighted. Many other qualities and practices of effective teaching were not, however, found to be predominate among the surveyed students' teachers. In response to this finding, the rationale was discussed that additional student demographic variables may also significantly contribute to students' success on large scale standardized assessments such as the Ohio Ninth Grade Proficiency Test. A summary of the individually surveyed students' comments also suggested several teaching improvements that would assist them to learn. And last, as a result of a construct analysis, several added characteristics of good and poor teachers that the surveyed students noted were also presented in detail. Implications from this research study's findings suggested that the results could be used by board of education members, administrators, and teachers to improve the quality of instruction, both in terms of staff training and hiring. Suggestions for related future research were also presented.