Are teachers' knowledge of dyslexia, perceived teaching ability and warmth during teaching related to Chinese students' reading development?

BACKGROUND: Teachers' characteristics have been linked to their students' reading development. However, previous research has primarily focused on the early phase of reading development in Western societies. AIMS: We examined the associations between teachers' knowledge of dyslexia, perceived ability to teach reading and warmth during teaching and Chinese students' reading development across primary grades. SAMPLE: Fifty-four Chinese language arts teachers and their 1517 students in Grades 1 to 5 (mean age = 8.63 years, SD = 1.39, 51.2% female) participated in the study. METHOD: The teachers completed a questionnaire assessing their knowledge of dyslexia, perceived ability to teach reading and warmth during teaching. The students were assessed on their reading skills (sentence reading efficiency and passage reading comprehension) in the middle and at the end of the school year. RESULTS: Multilevel modelling showed that teachers' perceived ability to teach reading was associated with their students' reading gains over time after controlling for other teacher variables and students' age, gender and earlier reading skills. In contrast, their knowledge of dyslexia was not significantly associated with students' reading skills, either for the whole class or for lower-performing students. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that teachers' self-efficacy (operationalized as perceived teaching ability) may play a role in Chinese students' reading development.