Regional school context and teacher characteristics explaining differences in effective teaching behaviour of beginning teachers in the Netherlands

Abstract

This explorative study adopts a regional perspective on understanding differences in observable teaching quality by describing regional levels in teaching quality for specific regions and by examining the contribution of schools’ regional characteristics on effective teaching behaviour of 1,945 beginning teachers in secondary education. Beginning teachers working in schools located in regions of population decline have better basic teaching skills than beginning teachers working elsewhere. Multilevel analyses reveal that within the Randstad region, adaptive instruction skills are weaker in very urban areas. Schools’ changing student numbers influence the quality of adaptive instruction skills and teaching learning strategies. These findings indicate that differences in teaching quality become visible at lower regional levels and are of interest because these effects on student outcomes might not be captured in national figures. This approach adds to existing literature and is useful to tailor current professionalization programmes for beginning teachers to specific regional contexts.