Seminario 24/04 – Volker Schoer (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa): Discursive classroom interaction practices and student achievement in mathematics: Evidence using an International large-scale education dataset
Información
- Ponente: Volker Schoer (School of Economics and Finance, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa)
- Fecha: 08/Feb/2024 - 12:15 horas
- Lugar: Seminario de Métodos Cuantitativos. Universidad de Murcia
Improving the mathematics performance of school children is an objective for many policy makers around the world. It is obvious that mathematics teachers may have a key role to play in this process; however, robust examination of the teacher characteristics and practices of teachers that help to raise pupil mathematics achievement is relatively sparse, particularly in a cross-country setting. In this context, this paper utilises a large-scale education dataset for five countries, namely the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) dataset for the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, and Singapore to examine the relationship between mathematics’ teacher characteristics and teaching practices and the maths achievement of students in the 8th grade. We find that greater frequency of classrooms discussions is associated with higher student mathematics achievement, but none of the other discursive classroom interaction practices. Asking students to work in groups is at best not correlated with mathematics achievement. These results question the held assumption that discursive classroom interactions are important building blocks in the learners’ learning process of mathematics.
