ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 examines “Traditional and Non-Traditional Approaches to Teacher Quality”. Teacher quality has been traditionally measured through indirect outcomes like student achievement and other student outcomes. Therefore, this chapter examines more closely what previously used measures of teacher quality have been and how closely connected they are to the actual behavior, activity, and qualifications of teachers. In answering the question, “What is teacher quality from a traditional and non-traditional perspective?”, this chapter then examines teacher quality variables that are considered “traditional” by past research and other variables that are “non-traditional” that have been used by Indian educators and policymakers to define teacher quality. Traditional measures of teacher quality of teacher qualification, teacher certification, and professional development and selected non-traditional teacher quality variables of teacher salary and performance pay, teacher absenteeism, teacher qualified in mathematics, and teacher attitude, are operationalized in the Indian context and their perceived association or non-association with students’ outcomes is discussed in light of previously reported empirical studies.
