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A0863
Title: The impact of professional development on teacher job satisfaction: Evidence from a multilevel model Authors:  Mike Smet - KU Leuven (Belgium) [presenting]
Abstract: Numerous studies in different countries find evidence for high rates of teacher turnover, leading to shortages and potential quality issues. Job satisfaction is found to be an important antecedent of turnover. We investigate the impact of various aspects of professional development for teachers (as well as interactions of these aspects) on their job satisfaction, using data from the 2018 wave of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), which was conducted by OECD. Our empirical analysis consists of 49378 teachers, nested in 3128 schools, nested in 20 regions. The hierarchical structure of the data requires the use of an appropriate estimation technique: multilevel or hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) with three levels: teachers, schools and regions. We find a significant positive relationship between job satisfaction and the need for professional development for teaching diversity and special needs, which is (negatively) moderated by the number of professional development activities a teacher had participated in in the 12 months prior to the study. Another indicator, measuring the need for professional development in subject matter and pedagogy shows a significant negative relationship with job satisfaction and is (positively) moderated by the number of professional development activities.