The Influence of Teacher Gender on Student Human Capital Development - An Empirical Study Based on Data from China Education Panel Survey

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bulrr

Based on China Education Panel Survey data, the study examines how teacher gender influences student human capital development at the junior secondary level. Findings show that female teachers more effectively promote both cognitive and non-cognitive ability development for girl and boy students than male teachers. In addition, increases in the proportions of male teachers in a class or school are significantly and negatively associated with students’ cognitive and non-cognitive performance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Data and Variables

Source of Data

Variable Selection

Balance Check

Research Findings

The Influence of Teacher Gender on Student Human Capital Development

The Teacher-Student Gender Matching Effect

The Influence of Teacher Gender on Student Human Capital Development: An Empirical Study Based on Data from China Education Panel Survey Wenyan Liang, 1 Tao Li,2 Qian He 1 1. Faculty of Education/Capital Institute for Economics of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. 2. Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai 200433, China | Abstract: Based on data from China Education Panel Survey, this article examined the impact of teacher gender on student human capital development at the junior secondary education level. The research findings showed that female teachers were more capable of promoting cognitive and non-cognitive ability development of both girl and boy students than their male counterparts; and that student cognitive and non-cognitive performance was significantly and negatively related to the increase in the percentages of male teachers in the class and school.
Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2023; 13(2):1703-1707.
Doi: [10.15354/bece.23.ar036](10.15354/bece.23.ar036) | | --- | | How to Cite: Liang, W., Li, T., & He, Q. (2023). The influence of teacher gender on student human capital development: An empirical study based on data from China education panel survey. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 13(2):1703-1707. | Keywords: Teacher Gender, Gender Imbalance, Cognitive Ability, Non-Cognitive Ability, Human Capital Development Correspondence to: Wenyan Liang, Faculty of Education/Capital Institute for Economics of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, [China. E-mail:](China. E-mail: wenyan_liang@163.com)[ ](China. E-mail: wenyan_liang@163.com)[wenyan_liang@163.com](China. E-mail: wenyan_liang@163.com) [Conflict of Interests](Conflict of Interests: None.)[: None.](Conflict of Interests: None.) © 2023 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 License ([http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed by the Insights Publisher. Introduction Over the past several decades, Chinese basic education staff have been increasingly feminized. From 2001 to 2020, the percentages of female full-time teachers in Chinese primary and junior secondary schools increased from 49.65% and 40.37% to 74.67% and 86.23%, respectively. It sparked wide concern that teacher gender imbalance may pose an unfavorable impact on basic education students, especially boy students, as they are in the critical stage of human capital development (Heckman et al., 2006) . As a result, in the teacher training sector, some scholars proposed to encourage male students to apply for universities of teachers by offering preferential conditions such as lowered admission scores and tuition fee reduction to expand the number of male teacher candidates (Zhai, 2013) . Some teachers’ colleges have formulated and implemented special enrollment policies with which male students could be admitted with lower Gaokao scores, and some local education departments have launched free pre-service education projects for male students. Can teacher gender balance policies successfully promote student human capital development? This study utilized data from China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) 2014-2015 to examine the impact of teacher gender and gender composition on student human capital development and paid special attention to indicators of student cognitive and non-cognitive performance which are closely related to male teachers’ advantages. Data and Variables Source of Data This study was based on CEPS’ baseline data in the academic year of 2013-2014 and follow-up data in the academic year of 2014-2015. The sample was made u

FAQs

What dataset does the study use to analyze teacher gender effects?

The study uses China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) baseline data from the 2013-2014 academic year and follow-up data from 2014-2015.

How do female and male teachers differ in promoting student human capital?

Female teachers are more capable of promoting both cognitive and non-cognitive ability development for both girl and boy students than male teachers.

What is the relationship between the share of male teachers and student outcomes?

Student cognitive and non-cognitive performance is significantly and negatively related to increases in the percentages of male teachers at both class and school levels.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bulrr