The Relations between Teaching Strategies, Students’ Engagement in Learning, and Teachers’ Self-Concept

Good teaching strategies may not only engage students in learning but may also promote teachers’ self-concept about teaching. The present study empirically investigated the contributions of four popular teaching strategies, namely, feedback, scaffolding, active learning, and collaborating, to students’ engagement in learning and teachers’ self-concept in teaching. The study adopted a quantitative design, which surveyed 208 Australian primary school teachers by using a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire. The structure of the questionnaire was first explored by an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and then through a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in order to provide an account for validity. The results of correlations showed that all the four teaching strategies were positively associated with both students’ engagement and teachers’ self-concept. The results of the structural equation modelling found that the strength of these relations varied. While feedback, scaffolding, and active learning strategies all positively contributed to teachers’ self-concept, collaborating neither significantly predicted students’ engagement nor teachers’ self-concept. Only scaffolding had a positive path to students’ engagement, implying that scaffolding may be the best strategy among the four teaching strategies to engage primary students. The study suggested to teachers that they need to consider the age of learners when implementing teaching strategies.