Twin study bolsters arguments for good teachers

23-4-2010


Twin Study Bolsters Arguments for Good Teachers


Florida researchers compared the reading achievement of identical and fraternal twins taught by different elementary teachers

A new study focusing on pairs of identical and fraternal twins in Florida schools bolsters a growing body of evidence on the importance of good teachers.


For the study, which is being published today in the journal Science, researchers from Florida State University in Tallahassee draw on data for a racially and ethnically diverse group of more than 800 pairs of twins in 1st and 2nd grade classrooms across the state. Among identical twins with different teachers, the study found, those whose teachers were judged to be more effective in teaching reading tended to have higher scores on tests of oral literacy than siblings with less effective teachers.

Looking at both the fraternal and the identical twins, the researchers also found that there was more variation attributable to genetics among the twins in higher-achieving classrooms than was the case in classrooms with lower average achievement. According to the researchers, that suggests that teachers play a role in “moderating” students’ achievement—helping them, in other words, to grow to their full potential.


“I don’t want to give the impression that a high-quality teacher will get all children miraculously to a high level of reading,” said lead author Jeanette Taylor, an associate professor of psychology at FSU. “But a teacher provides a supportive environment for the individual differences that kids are already bringing to that environment.”


In education, a handful of studies in recent years have drawn on “value added” calculations of students’ learning gains to measure the impact of good or bad teachers. Critics have argued, though, that those studies don’t always adequately account for unmeasured differences in classes of students when the school year begins.


By studying twins growing up in the same homes, though, researchers are able to eliminate some other factors, such as genetics or parents’ wealth, that might explain differing rates of academic growth among students. Identical twins share 100 percent of their genes, according to the study, while fraternal twins share half. (Education News)