The Effect of Teacher Communication on African-American Student Achievement

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Introduction1

Background of study2

Problem Statement6

Purpose of the Study7

Significance of the Study7

Nature of the study7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW9

Students Achievement9

Place of Teacher in Student Achievement9

Teacher Qualities and Teaching Practices13

Urban Issues15

Teacher Expectations and Achievement16

Teacher Quality and Student Achievement17

Teaching Quality19

Progress of African American Students21

Performance of Low Achieving African American Students22

The Effect of Language on Student Achievement25

The Need to Understand the African American Child in Urban Classrooms25

Language26

Language Styles of Traditional Educators27

Urban Classroom Language Styles29

African American Language Styles30

The Effect Of Language On Building Trust31

Learning Styles of African American Students33

Reflection of Progress to Encourage Participation35

African American Students and Motivation37

Role of Teachers in African American Students' Achievement39

Culturally responsive teachers and Communication Practices41

Conceptual Framework43

REFERENCES48

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Introduction

There was an incident when I received a call from my daughters' school teacher that she did not listen well that day in class. I asked what happened. The teacher said that she told my daughter to do something during class and she refused. Considering that this particular child had never been a behavior problem before I asked for more detail about what was actually told and what was the exact response. What was discovered is the teacher suggested, why don't you do this?” the response from my child addressed why she chose not to do it. The teacher had wanted to guider her to a decision that she wanted and ended up with an answer to her question. The answer was seen as a refusal and handled as a discipline issue. I understand that this is a small example and I was able to explain to the teacher and my daughter different ways of handling the situation, but a question that stayed with me from my child was “If that is what she wanted then why didn't she just say so?” Unfortunately similar incidents much like this one happens regularly with African American students in urban classroom settings. Although the incident that occurred with my child was not an academic one, the type of miscommunication between teachers and students is very common in our school district. Donoghue and Siegel (2005) define communication as "a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding" (p. 9). The process of communication involves many skills including observation, reading, speaking, and listening. In education, how these skills are used in the development of literacy and academic excellence must be a collaborative effort between teacher and student (Cavanagh et al, 2006).

Recent longitudinal and cross-sectional research with new analysis methods suggest that teacher characteristics and practices play important roles on student achievement. Findings from research on teaching give mixed signals to educational practitioners and researchers about the impact of teachers' characteristics and practices for student achievement.

Research on teaching slightly suggests that teacher characteristics, defined as educational degree, major, pedagogical knowledge, and experience, have significant effects on student achievement (Olson, 2008). Students whose teachers have advanced degrees, majored in related subjects, and at least three years of experience grow academically more than ...