Fresh evidence on the relationship between years of experience and teaching quality

Abstract

It is commonly assumed that experienced teachers are more proficient than beginners. However, evidence supporting this premise is complicated by diverging research traditions and mixed results. We explore the fundamental relationship between years of experience and teaching quality using a comprehensive pedagogical model. Our analysis of 990 lessons, taught by 512 primary teachers in New South Wales during 2014–15 and 2019–21, found no significant differences in pedagogy across the experience range (< 1–24 + years). We canvass two possible explanations: that initial teacher education (ITE) performs better than is typically assumed; and/or that experience, including ongoing participation in many forms of professional development (PD), has minimal impact on pedagogical quality. The important lesson from this study, however, is that the continual positioning of beginning teachers and ITE as deficient is unwarranted and, instead, we should focus on providing teachers with access to high-impact PD throughout their careers.