0000-0001-5939-0726 
ztenoriopo@ucvvirtual.edu.pe
Mendive. Journal on Education, April-June 2025; 23(2), e4143
Translated from the original in Spanish
Original article
Teacher performance and meaningful learning in Peru: analysis of some influential variables
Desempeño docente y aprendizaje significativo en Perú: análisis de algunas variables influyentes
Desempenho docente e aprendizagem significativa no Peru: uma análise de algumas variáveis influentes
Zulmi Consuelo Tenorio Polo1 0000-0001-5939-0726 ztenoriopo@ucvvirtual.edu.pe
1 University César Vallejo. Peru.
Received: 30/01/2025
Accepted: 6/05/2025
ABSTRACT
The importance of teacher performance in students' meaningful learning has been widely addressed by numerous researchers due to its influence in this field. The objective of this article was to explore the treatment given to the relationship between teacher performance and meaningful learning in the Peruvian education system. Document analysis, specifically content analysis, was used to determine the internal structure of the information from inference and deduction of non-quantifiable data; and auxiliary methods such as analysis-synthesis, deduction-induction, and comparative education were used. Data and texts referring to teacher performance and meaningful learning and the correlation between the two, published between 2020 and 2024 in journals indexed in the SciELO, DOAJ, Dialnet, Latindex, and LatinRev databases, were used. The search was carried out using the conventional search engine Google, with the keywords: teacher performance, meaningful learning, Peru, and the Felo AI Search engine, to contrast the information obtained by conventional search engines. The results in Regular Basic Education included the following variables: teacher performance and leadership, organizational climate, school management, digital competencies, and meaningful learning. In University Education, a relationship was found between teacher performance, learning, and academic achievement. Felo AI Search identified trends related to pedagogical practices related to student participation and creativity, moderate teacher performance, and ongoing training. Despite progress, difficulties remain in achieving meaningful learning for students, which requires improved teacher performance.
Keywords: meaningful learning; teacher performance; Peru.
RESUMEN
La importancia del desempeño docente en el aprendizaje significativo de los estudiantes ha sido ampliamente abordada por numerosos investigadores debido a la influencia que tiene en este ámbito. El objetivo de este artículo fue explorar el tratamiento dado a la relación desempeño docente y aprendizaje significativo en el sistema educativo peruano. Se emplearon el análisis documental, específicamente el análisis de contenido, para determinar la estructura interna de la información desde la inferencia y la deducción de datos no cuantificables; y métodos auxiliares como el análisis-síntesis, deducción-inducción y la educación comparada. Se usaron datos y textos referidos al desempeño docente y al aprendizaje significativo y la correlación entre ambos, publicados entre 2020-2024 en revistas indexadas en las bases de datos SciELO, DOAJ, Dialnet, Latindex y LatinRev; se llevó a cabo mediante el motor de búsqueda convencional Google, con las palabras clave: desempeño docente, aprendizaje significativo, Perú, y el motor de búsqueda Felo AI Search, para contrastar la información obtenida por los motores de búsqueda convencionales. Los resultados en la Educación Básica Regular fueron las variables: desempeño docente y liderazgo directivo, clima organizacional, gestión escolar, competencias digitales y aprendizaje significativo. En la Educación Universitaria se encontró la relación desempeño docente, aprendizaje y rendimiento académico. Felo AI Search identificó tendencias referidas a las prácticas pedagógicas en relación con la participación y creatividad del alumno, desempeño docente moderado y formación continua. A pesar de los avances, se aprecian dificultades en el logro de aprendizajes significativos por los estudiantes, lo que precisa la mejora del desempeño de los docentes.
Palabras clave: aprendizaje significativo; desempeño docente; Perú.
RESUMO
A importância do desempenho docente na aprendizagem significativa do aluno tem sido amplamente abordada por vários pesquisadores devido à influência que exerce nessa área. O objetivo deste artigo foi explorar o tratamento dado à relação entre o desempenho docente e a aprendizagem significativa no sistema educacional peruano. A análise documental, especificamente a análise de conteúdo, foi utilizada para determinar a estrutura interna das informações a partir da inferência e dedução de dados não quantificáveis; e métodos auxiliares como análise-síntese, dedução-indução e educação comparativa. Foram utilizados dados e textos referentes ao desempenho docente e à aprendizagem significativa e à correlação entre ambos, publicados entre 2020 e 2024 em periódicos indexados nas bases de dados SciELO, DOAJ, Dialnet, Latindex e LatinRev; isso foi feito usando o mecanismo de busca convencional Google, com as palavras-chave: desempenho docente, aprendizagem significativa, Peru, e o mecanismo de busca Felo AI Search, para contrastar as informações obtidas pelos mecanismos de busca convencionais. Os resultados na Educação Básica Regular foram as variáveis: desempenho docente e liderança gerencial, clima organizacional, gestão escolar, competências digitais e aprendizagem significativa. Na Educação Universitária, foi encontrada a relação entre desempenho docente, aprendizagem e desempenho acadêmico. A Felo AI Search identificou tendências relacionadas às práticas pedagógicas em relação à participação e criatividade dos alunos, desempenho moderado dos professores e treinamento contínuo. Apesar do progresso, há dificuldades em obter uma aprendizagem significativa por parte dos alunos, o que exige melhoria no desempenho dos professores.
Palavras-chave: aprendizagem significativa; desempenho docente; Peru.
INTRODUCTION
The correlation between teacher performance and significant student learning has been addressed in numerous studies, both in the Peruvian educational context and internationally.
In a study in the Peruvian educational field, Espinosa-Suárez (2023) points to teacher performance as a very important factor in the student learning process and the reason why many researchers conduct studies on its impact on the educational process; at the same time, he notes that the poor results obtained in achieving significant learning in the different national and international assessments have been the subject of research.
The main originator of the theory of meaningful learning is Ausubel (1968). In the words of Bryce and Blown (2024), some 60 years ago David Ausubel inspired diverse lines of research in learning and school instruction, by formalizing the view that people learn new ideas based on their own current knowledge. This was a time when interest in developmental psychology and its importance for education was considerable. Ausubel argued that, as students seek ways to assimilate new concepts and ways of thinking, they can be helped to integrate them with what they already know, and this is the way to promote meaningful learning.
Ausubel himself (1968) states it in a well-known maxim: "The most important factor influencing learning is what the student already knows. Find this out and teach accordingly" (Ausubel, 1968, p. vi).
Bryce and Blown (2024) point out that sometimes acquired knowledge is successfully assimilated, resulting in what Ausubel has called meaningful learning. Sometimes integration is weak, leaving students with the alternative of learning by heart, a term many teachers use today, though with subtle differences in emphasis.
Ausubel's work emphasizes the role of prior knowledge, composition, formulation, and the cognitive structure of what the student knows. He also offered instructional strategies to foster meaningful student learning.
Ausubel (1968), in his research on instruction and learning, argued that teachers can provide what he called advance organizers for new material, which better ensure its meaningful learning. He defined the term advance organizers as: "appropriately relevant and inclusive introductory materials (...) introduced prior to learning (...) and presented at a higher level of abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness" (Ausubel, 1968, p. 148).
In the opinion of Bryce and Blown (2024)", such organizers highlight what is new and important in upcoming lessons; and provide reminders of previous ideas and how they relate to the new. They, mentally, orientate (or "put") the learner to learn in the desired way. All of these strategies strive to actively engage the student's mind.
Analyzing what has been presented so far, it is evident that to ensure that students learn meaningfully, teachers must direct their work toward that goal. From this, the second essential term in this article, teacher performance, can be inferred.
For Martínez et al. (2017) teaching performance is seen as:
(…) a set of pedagogical actions organized in compliance with the demands of the profession, reflected in the behavior and interpersonal relationships that are created to solve the problems of their work, hence the teaching performance, in turn, depends on multiple factors related to the quality in the initial and permanent training of teachers, to achieve levels of excellence in education (p. 86).
Teacher performance is associated, among other research variables, with educational quality indices and students' academic performance. Chávez et al. (2022) point out that teachers are directly linked to students' academic progress; hence the importance of their work performing with quality and efficiency.
The relationship between teacher performance and meaningful learning in the Peruvian education system has also been addressed.
In the Peruvian context, there are studies dedicated mainly to Regular Basic Education (EBR) and Higher Education. Regarding Regular Basic Education, it can be mentioned Espinoza-Suárez (2023) and Vasquez-Calderón (2024). In Higher Education, see, for example, Gonzales (2022), Martínez et al. (2017) and Soria et al. (2020), among others.
Regarding teacher performance, Gonzales (2022) states that:
"(…) it becomes a decisive element in providing quality education, regardless of an appropriate curriculum design and the institution's budget. Teacher performance, being a human aspect, is the key to achieving professional practice in line with the requirements of society and the times (p. 26)."
Overall, these studies highlight the importance of teacher performance as a key factor in meaningful learning and highlight some of the remaining shortcomings. Therefore, the objective of this article is to explore the treatment given to the relationship between teacher performance and meaningful learning in the Peruvian education system.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
For this study, the empirical method of document analysis, specifically content analysis, was used to determine the internal structure of the information through inference and deduction from non-quantifiable data. This involved the use of auxiliary methods such as analysis-synthesis, deduction-induction, and comparative education.
The investigative approach assumed the following tasks:
RESULTS
The following articles were found on Regular Basic Education (EBR), focusing on:
Teaching performance:
Meaningful learning:
Teacher performance and meaningful learning:
The following research was accessed regarding Higher Education:
The main variables addressed in the different teachings were the following:
Regular Basic Education (Initial, Primary and Secondary)
Primary Education
University Education
Trends identified by Felo AI Search regarding the relationship between teacher performance and meaningful student learning:
DISCUSSION
Regarding the findings in Regular Basic Education (EBR) regarding the variable of teacher performance, in relation to managerial leadership and management skills, Palacios et al. (2024) found a significant and direct relationship between them in 55.6% of the documents analyzed. For these authors, the aforementioned result:
(…) indicates not only the existence of a positive but also a negative relationship, performance is related to the way in which the teacher is motivated. Therefore, the most relevant theory revealed by the analysis of the selected articles has been transformational leadership at 77.8%, being the one that best adapts to the social demands of current education, and the one that focuses more on the development of social leaders, with a humanistic vision (Palacios et al., 2024, p. 644).
As a general conclusion to their study, Palacios et al. (2024) argue that the development of pedagogical leadership is the starting point for enhancing teacher performance. This position is shared by this author, as she believes that teacher performance depends largely on the actions of the educational institution's pedagogical leaders, in particular, and on other levels of management.
Yllesca et al. (2024) studied the relationship between teacher performance and organizational climate and found it to be statistically significant, as it confirmed a high and direct correlation, interpreted in such a way that the higher the level of organizational climate perceived by teachers, the higher the level of teacher performance.
In their research, these authors also found a moderate correlation between organizational climate and the teaching-for-learning dimension (…), indicating a significant correlation of 0.531. For them, the analysis of the results "indicates that there are significant levels of relationship between pedagogical leadership and teacher performance, which has a proportional influence, whether negative or positive" (Yllesca et al., 2024, p. 644).
Regarding the relationship between the organizational climate and the participation dimension in management, Yllesca et al. (2024) found a moderate correlation, which is related to the findings of Chávez et al. (2022) on the relationship between school management and teacher performance.
Regarding the influence of school management on teacher performance, Chávez et al. (2022) concluded that the relationship is statistically significant. According to these authors, management deficiencies are due to teachers' refusal to implement the new curricular proposals of the Peruvian Ministry of Education, which promote optimal teacher performance in order to improve pedagogical practice. Among the causes found are teachers' failure to consider collegial work as an enabling context for planning pedagogical activities; the implementation of professional learning communities outside of school -which, in the author's opinion, decontextualizes activity and can also lead to absences and demotivation- and teachers' failure to positively accept the monitoring and support of principals.
In general, Chávez et al. (2022) emphasize that school management is not aimed at achieving quality learning in students and focuses on school administration. In this regard, Velásquez and Moreno (2022) agree with these results when they point out that: "(…) the theoretical tendency highlights that the application of an educational management model is of utmost importance if we want to improve the efficiency of teachers in Primary Education in Peru, and no research can be found that has a model applicable to this reality" (p. 174).
An influential variable in teacher performance and meaningful learning for students in the EBR program in Peru is teachers' digital competencies and pedagogical performance. Paredes-Montano et al. (2022) determined a high and highly significant positive correlation between these variables; the greater the development of digital competence, the higher the teacher performance. The findings in dimensions such as information and literacy and teacher performance are not surprising, with a moderate and highly significant positive correlation. This allowed them to infer that teachers, who navigate, search, evaluate, and store information show higher performance in their pedagogical work. The communication and collaboration dimension and teacher performance performed similarly, with a high and highly significant positive correlation.
For Paredes-Montano et al. (2022), this indicates that teachers who interact on devices with digital applications, share information, work collaboratively, use hashtags, and manage their digital identity, show better performance in their teaching practice. The authors themselves report a highly significant, moderately positive correlation between the digital content creation dimension and teaching performance (Paredes-Montano et al., 2022).
Digital skills are crucial in Peru's contemporary educational context. In our experience, teachers are not always trained to use digital tools in the teaching process. The digital divide persists and is widening in the most vulnerable areas, which hinders the achievement of meaningful and lasting learning.
Espinoza-Suárez's (2023) study on the variables of teacher performance and meaningful learning in students and teachers at a primary school reveals a significant correlation between the two; this confirms the findings of Chávez et al. (2022) regarding the direct link between teachers and students' academic progress, hence the importance of teachers performing their work with quality and efficiency.
For her part, Vasquez-Calderón (2024) determined the influence of teaching strategies on the meaningful learning of students at a primary school. This author found a relationship between the variables studied and argues as follows:
This implies that these strategies, which comprise pedagogical methods and approaches used by teachers, have the power to shape students' learning experiences. When teaching strategies are effectively designed, they foster active, participatory, and relevant learning in students (p. 256-257).
University education has also addressed the analysis of the relationship between the variables of teaching performance and meaningful learning.
Gonzales (2022) concludes in his study, carried out in the Architecture program at the "César Vallejo" University, that teaching performance has a significant relationship with the learning achievement of university students:
This indicates that improved teacher performance will have an impact on students' academic performance and learning achievement. This requires teachers to demonstrate experience in developing the content they teach, their teaching processes to be clear, and evidence of appropriate professional responsibility. Within current teaching processes, planning becomes a highlight. Research results indicate a direct relationship between teaching planning and improved learning achievement. It is essential that teachers devote the necessary time to preparing the topics to be taught (p. 39).
In a similar study, in the Accounting degree, Pérez-Tello et al. (2022) found that "(…) there is a medium-high positive relationship between teaching performance and the academic performance of accounting students at a Peruvian public university at 95% confidence, which implies that the higher the level of teaching performance, the better the academic performance of university students (p. 5).
However, in the research by Pérez-Tello et al. (2022), "the dimensions of preparation for learning, teaching for learning, and participation in the articulated management of the teaching performance variable had medium and low relationships with respect to the academic performance variable" (p. 5), unlike what was found by Gonzales (2022) regarding planning and its relevance in the teaching-learning process.
It is important to pay special attention to the results obtained by Pérez-Tello (2022), regarding the low correlation between the dimensions of preparation for learning and teaching for learning, with the variable teacher performance. Here, some causal elements of students' low academic performance could be evidenced, as an expression of success in learning or of meaningful learning itself.
Also in the university context, Soria et al. (2020) addressed the variables of teacher performance and learning among students in the Early Childhood Education and Primary Education programs at the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences of the National University of Ucayali. The results obtained by these authors show:
(…) a strong relationship between the performance of teachers in Early Childhood and Primary Education programs and student learning. This relationship was observed to be very strong and positive with respect to the deep, high-performance learning approach, so it can be deduced that teachers are promoting approaches oriented toward the acquisition of truly meaningful knowledge; that is, they seek to generate lasting, effective knowledge in students that can be applied both in their personal and professional lives (p. 14).
Soria et al. (2020) also found a very positive relationship between the teaching approach and high-performance learning. In this regard, they suggest that teachers foster students' desire -or need- to achieve high grades, which may also be influenced by the academic demands placed on them by employers, especially among early childhood and primary school students, as was the case study.
At the university level, the results obtained by Gonzales (2022) and Soria et al. (2020) are noteworthy. These learning-centered teaching approaches, particularly important for education students, are shared. Future teachers have been trained in a highly positive teaching model, which they can put into practice in their own classrooms upon graduation.
Regarding the findings of Felo AI Research, Martos-Huamán (2024) in her study noted that "the vast majority of regular basic education teachers in Peru, who participated in the studies analyzed, present moderate or regular professional performance" (p. 280). The author derives this assessment from the evaluation of variables related to teacher performance, such as: educational management, leadership, organizational climate, and digital skills, as argued by Felo AI Research, although the reference she provides does not exist.
At this point, it's worth noting that, although the use of various artificial intelligence applications available to the general public and technically is very popular and common due to the benefits they provide, they should be used with caution in more specialized fields. While these artificial intelligence applications have abundant amounts of data that they can process very quickly, and regularly, the references they provide are unreliable, and this anomaly has not yet been resolved. It is therefore a shortcoming in the current stage of development of artificial intelligence applied in different contexts, and is very visible in the academic context.
Regarding the influence of continuing education in the context of EBR in Peru, Mera et al. (2023) argue that teacher performance should be monitored, evaluated, and improved through the implementation of educational policies, continuing education, and pedagogical leadership, an opinion generally shared by the studies referenced in this article.
Some of the regularities identified when analyzing the results are the following:
Improving curriculum planning processes, which consider competencies and capabilities, active teaching methods, and teaching strategies appropriate to the diagnosis and context of the students and the institution, and which are particularly focused on meaningful student learning, can, together with effective institutional support, positively influence meaningful student learning.
The results presented suggest the need to include, in teacher training sessions, the discussion of the contribution of teacher performance to meaningful student learning. At the same time, there is evidence of research offering teaching strategies that promote this objective, which can be used by teachers and administrators from different educational subsystems. Teaching that is intentionally focused on meaningful student learning guarantees a strengthening of the teaching process and success in achieving the expected results.
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Conflict of interest
Authors declare no conflict of interests.
Authors' contribution
The authors participated in the design and writing of the article, in the search and analysis of the information contained in the consulted bibliography.
