Teacher experience and self-efficacy : Is there a relationship with student mathematics performance in EQAO testing?

There is much concern about the declining mathematics performance of primary education students on the Ontario Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) standardized test over the past decade. Both teachers and students have been identified as having essential roles in leading to higher achievement. As such, the aim of this research was to examine the relationship between teacher professional experience and student mathematics self-efficacy and how they predict student mathematics performance, since both factors have been reported as positive contributors. A quantitative study was designed to examine the relationship between teachers’ total years of teaching experience and students’ mathematics self-efficacy beliefs in relation to students’ mathematics performance. The data obtained from the EQAO contained the 2019 test results from grades 3 (N = 130,534) and 6 (N = 137,769) students, plus grade 3 (N = 5,437) and grade 6 (N = 4,822) teachers. The data measures used were the students’ results from the EQAO standardized mathematics test, the students’ mathematics self-efficacy survey results and the teachers’ total years of teaching experience survey results. These measures were analyzed using Spearman’s correlation and ordinal logistic regression test with proportional odds. Results indicated that there was a moderate positive correlation for both grades 3 and 6 students’ mathematics self-efficacy and students’ mathematics performance. The correlation between teachers’ total years of teaching experience and students’ mathematics performance was significant, however very minimal. Both students’ mathematics self-efficacy and teachers’ total years of teaching experience produced statistically significant odds ratios with student self-efficacy attaining higher results for both grade levels. A comparison of the odds ratios between grades 3 and 6 revealed that grade 6 students had greater self-efficacy and there were minimal differences between teacher experience. Furthermore, this research contributes to the idea that it is important for students to find ways to develop a strong mathematics self-efficacy and teachers use their experience to help foster these beliefs in their students as a way to help increase students’ mathematics performance