Exploring the relationship between teacher profiles, professional development and learners’ reading literacy achievement

Abstract

This study, drawing on the Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) Literacy 2016 learner achievement data, aimed to examine the relationship between teacher profiles in terms of teachers’ age, years of experience and formal qualification, teachers’ participation in formal and informal professional development activities and South African Grade 4 learners’ reading literacy achievement when controlling for the socio-economic status of the learners. To accommodate all the variables used in the study, a new conceptual framework was developed. This study was initiated as a result of the PIRLS Literacy 2016 results which revealed that South African Grade 4 learners achieved the lowest reading literacy scores out of the 6 participating countries. This study is a secondary analysis utilising standard multiple regression analysis of the PIRLS Literacy 2016 achievement data and the contextual data from the teacher and school questionnaires. The study’s results revealed that there is no statistically significant relationship between South African teachers’ participation in either formal or informal professional development and learners’ reading literacy achievement. Based on the literature however, the emphasis was placed on the educational significance of teachers’ participation in effective professional development activities.