This study explores how aspects of teacher quality are related to student achievement and students' perceptions of instructional quality on the basis of eighth grade TIMSS 2011 data for Sweden. ...Indicators of teacher quality are coursework in mathematics as measured by the number of semesters of studying mathematics, years of teaching experience and teacher self-efficacy beliefs. The study employs confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling as primary methods. Results indicate that teachers with higher self-efficacy beliefs were rated by students as delivering higher instructional quality. However, this was not reflected in student achievement levels. Instead, with student socio-economic and immigrant background under control, there was a significant positive relationship between coursework in mathematics and student mathematic achievement levels, as well as between student perceptions of instructional quality and achievement. Relations between teaching experience and student achievement followed a non-linear pattern, with the effect of teaching experience increasing up to 19 years and declining afterwards.
Given that teacher shortage is an international problem, teacher job satisfaction merits closer attention. Not only is job satisfaction closely related to teacher retention, but it also contributes ...to the well-being of teachers and their students, overall school cohesion and enhanced status of the teaching profession. This study investigates the relations between teacher job satisfaction, school working conditions and teacher characteristics for eighth grade mathematics teachers. The study employs TIMSS 2015 (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) data from Sweden. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling are used as main methods. Results demonstrate a substantial association between school working conditions and teacher job satisfaction. More specifically, teacher workload, teacher cooperation and teacher perceptions of student discipline in school were the factors most closely related to teacher job satisfaction. As to teacher characteristics, female teachers, teachers with more exposure to professional development and more efficacious teachers tended to have higher levels of job satisfaction. In addition, it was found that the relationship between the extent of teacher cooperation and job satisfaction was more pronounced for male teachers, while student discipline was more important for job satisfaction of teachers with lower self-efficacy beliefs. Implications for policy are further discussed.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
At an international level, teachers’ work is increasingly circumscribed and regulated. Notions of accountability have shifted from primarily inputs to primary outcomes, and investment in ...strengthening teacher performance evaluation has expanded. At the same time, investment in enhancing the quality of teacher education programs is contested in many countries. Occupational professionalism, that is, a traditional, historic form characterized by discretionary decision-making, collegial authority, and trust in the practitioner, has been replaced by organizational professionalism that incorporates target-setting and performance review. The overarching question in this study concerns the meaningfulness and appropriateness of using student perceived instructional quality for the estimation of teaching quality in comparison to teacher specialization. The study investigates relations between fourth grade students’ reading achievement levels, teacher specialization, and student perceptions of instructional quality, based on the Swedish PIRLS 2011 data. Performing two-level structural modeling with latent variables, this study revealed a positive relationship between teacher specialization relevant for the grade and subject taught, and student reading achievement. By contrast, there was no association between student perceptions of instructional quality and student reading achievement, or between instructional quality and teacher specialization. The results raise questions about the benefit of student evaluations of teacher classroom practices from both a validity perspective, as well as from a teacher professionalization perspective. However, the cross-sectional data used does not allow for causal inference, and further research on the relationships between teacher specialization, student perceived instructional quality, and student achievement is therefore needed.
Bullying is a substantial problem in schools worldwide and it can have severe consequences for individuals in both short and long-term. One aim of this study was to explore the bullying prevalence ...among 10-year-olds in school-systems participating in TIMSS 2015. Another aim was to examine the variability in bullying prevalence across schools in the participating countries to, finally, explore how school-related factors could reduce bullying prevalence. The main method was multilevel modeling. Overall, the results showed relatively high bullying prevalence even though the variability was large among the 50 countries. Some countries had substantial school differences and these were selected for further scrutiny. While socioeconomic status did not impact on bullying prevalence in a sub-sample of countries, factors like school climate and a sense of school belonging had an effect in most of them. Implications of the results were discussed.
•Relatively high bullying prevalence in many countries participating in TIMSS 2015.•Large variability in bullying prevalence among the 50 countries.•Schools with good climate and a sense of school belonging had lower level of bullying prevalence in most countries.
Background Cultural capital in families and especially, the educational level of parents, has during the last decades been found to be the most important dimension of socio‐economic influence on ...school performance. How the transmission of cultural capital over generations is concretized is however not yet fully investigated.
Aims The aim is to unfold the influence of home background and more specifically, to reveal some important mediating factors between the educational levels of parents and the reading achievement levels of children.
Sample Data comes from the Swedish participation in Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2001 conducted by the The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement and comprises some 10,000 students in grade 3.
Methods The effects of parents' education on reading achievement are estimated with structural equation modelling.
Results The results reveal that the total effect of parents' education is substantial and that almost half of this effect is mediated through other variables, i.e. the number of books at home, early literacy activities, and emergent literacy abilities at the time for school start. The article thus identifies some of the mechanisms through which parents' education exert an influence on children's literacy development.
Conclusions Cultural reproduction starts in the very early childhood, in informal settings where reading aloud is an important activity. The knowledge of written language that children have at the time for school‐start influences further reading acquisition.
This study investigates the relationship between teacher specialization and the reading achievement of fourth-grade students in Sweden. The empirical base is data from PIRLS 2011. The main method of ...analysis is a two-level regression. Results revealed a positive relationship between reading achievement and teacher education relevant for subject and grade level while there was no relationship between reading achievement and teaching experience. The relation between reading achievement and teacher specialization remained significant when the influence of parents' educational levels and students' early reading abilities were controlled for. A tendency of compensatory effects could be observed, with teacher specialization having a stronger effect in low-performing classrooms. The findings support the conclusion that relevant teacher education is of importance for teacher effectiveness.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study investigates the influence of teacher competence on 3rd-grade students' reading achievement in public and independent schools in Sweden. The data come from the Swedish participation in ...PIRLS 2001 (Progress in Reading Literacy Study 2001) and comprise some 10,000 students. Students in independent schools achieved better on the reading test than did students in public schools, but when parents' education was controlled for, the effect on students' achievement of school type disappeared. Teacher certification for teaching in the early grades had a strong effect on students' mean reading test scores in both school types, while no significant effects of teacher experience, age, gender, in-service training or cooperation could be established. Though school type had no influence of itself, it was a mediating factor for both parents' education and teachers' education. These effects, however, worked in opposite directions.
It has been widely documented that accountability systems, including school inspections, bring with them unintended side effects. These unintended effects are often negative and have the potential to ...undo the intended positive effects. However the empirical evidence is limited. Through a European comparative study we have had the rare opportunity to collect empirical evidence and study the effects (both intended and unintended) of school inspections (a key system of accountability) in a systematic way, across seven countries. We present the findings of the unintended effects in this paper. Survey self-report responses from school principals in each country, with differing school inspection systems, are analysed to measure the prevalence of these unintended effects and to investigate the part played by pressure to do well in inspections. A key finding is that increasing pressure in school inspection systems is associated with the undesired effect of the narrowing and refocusing of the curriculum and instructional strategies. We also show that a proportion of school principals admit to misrepresenting the school in data sent to the inspectorate and show evidence for formalisation/proceduralisation (excessive focus on records) and ossification (fear of experimentation in teaching), although these factors are less related to changes in pressure.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The main aim of this study was to investigate the impact of formal teacher competence on pupils' reading achievement. The data comes from the Swedish participation in PIRLS 2001 in grade 3. ...Information was obtained from pupils (n = 5271) and teachers (n = 351). The analyses were conducted using 2-level structural equation modeling. Teacher competence was operationalized with multiple observed indicators and defined as a latent variable. Two measures of achievement were used: PIRLS 2001 reading test results and teacher judgement of pupil performance in the Swedish language. The results reveal that teacher competence was positively and similarly related to both achievement measures. No selection effects in terms of pupil socioeconomic status were found. The current study provides evidence for a strong impact of teacher competence on pupil reading achievement.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
PDF
