Classroom Context: The Classroom Context for Year 5 Students' Mathematics and Science Achievement in 2006

Background

Characteristics of mathematics and science teachers

Gender

The majority of primary school teachers around the world are women. In New Zealand, around three-quarters of Year 5 students were taught mathematics and science by female teachers, as shown in Table 1. Across the TIMSS countries, the percentage of students taught mathematics and science by female teachers in 2006/07 was 79 percent. In Italy, Slovenia and most of the Eastern European countries, over 95% of students were taught mathematics and science by female teachers. In contrast, at least half of the students in Denmark, Morocco, and Yemen were taught by male teachers.

Note: Standard errors are not presented here for ease of reading but can be found in Table 32 in the Appendix.

Source: Adapted from Exhibits 6.1 Mullis, Martin and Foy & 6.1, Martin, Mullis and Foy, 2008.

Age and teaching experience

The profile of primary school teachers varies in both age and experience across countries. On average, New Zealand mathematics and science teachers were a little younger and had less experience than teachers in many countries. Just over half of New Zealand students were taught mathematics and science by teachers under 40 years of age (around 56%), compared with around 47 percent across all of the TIMSS countries. On average, New Zealand TIMSS teachers had 11 years of teaching experience at the time of the study, the same as in 2003, and somewhat less than the international average of 17 years experience (see Table 2).

Note: n/a indicates that the country did not participate in the 2002/03 study at this level. 
Standard errors are presented in parentheses.

Source: Adapted from Exhibits 6.1 Mullis, Martin and Foy & 6.1, Martin, Mullis and Foy, 2008.

Educational qualifications

As shown in Table 3, 75 percent of Year 5 students in New Zealand were taught mathematics and science by teachers who had completed a degree or postgraduate degree at university. Internationally, 70 percent of TIMSS students had teachers with university degrees or postgraduate degrees, with a higher proportion of teachers having postgraduate degrees on average than in New Zealand. The results of this study do not show any clear links between teachers’ educational qualifications and achievement of their students in mathematics and science.

A teacher’s education level may be related to the way teacher training is organised within their country. Among comparative countries, around a third of TIMSS students in Kazakhstan, Singapore and the Russian Federation were taught by teachers who had completed post-secondary education but not at university. In contrast, in Australia, the Czech Republic, Georgia, the Slovak Republic, and the United States, at least 40 percent of students were taught by teachers with a postgraduate degree.

Currently in New Zealand, 15 educational institutions provide teacher training for primary school teachers, either as part of a university degree course, or as a postgraduate diploma. While university is the most common provider of teacher education, postgraduate training is also available through wānanga and private training establishments.

Note: Standard errors are presented in parentheses.

Source: Adapted from Exhibits 6.2 Mullis, Martin and Foy, 2008 & 6.2 Martin, Mullis and Foy, 2008.

In New Zealand, primary teachers are expected to be able to teach all subjects covered under the primary curriculum and opportunities to teach in particular subject areas are limited. In New Zealand only 14 percent of students were taught mathematics by teachers who had a post-secondary major or specialisation in mathematics, which is quite low compared with the international average of 39 percent.

New Zealand primary teachers are also unlikely to have specialised in science at post-secondary level. Only 13 percent of our students’ teachers were science graduates compared with 37 percent across the TIMSS countries.

Professional development

Opportunities for teachers to engage in professional learning and development can have substantial impact on student learning (Timperley, Wilson, Barrar and Fung, 2007). TIMSS asked teachers to indicate their participation in professional development across the six areas listed in Table 4 for the two years prior to the TIMSS 2006/07 assessment.

Mathematics

New Zealand had one of the highest levels of participation in professional development in mathematics. In five of the six areas examined (see Table 4), the percentage of students taught by teachers who had taken part in professional development in the previous two years was much higher than average participation reported across the TIMSS countries. Highest participation levels for mathematics were in content, pedagogy/instruction, and curriculum, whilst a smaller proportion of teachers had taken part in courses about integrating information technology into mathematics.

As well as asking the same questions across all countries, participation in TIMSS gives individual countries the opportunity to ask their teachers about things specific to the local education system. New Zealand took the opportunity to ask about participation in Numeracy Development Projects (NDPs). Responses show that 86 percent of students had teachers who had taken part in professional development courses in the Advanced Numeracy Project. Thus, the high level of participation in professional development among New Zealand teachers will be mainly due to the Numeracy Development Projects (NDPs).

Science

It is less common for teachers to undertake professional development in science than in mathematics, both in New Zealand and overseas. Forty-seven percent of students had teachers who had completed a course in improving students’ critical thinking and inquiry skills, but overall New Zealand had low levels of participation in science-based courses relative to other TIMSS countries (see Table 4). In the other five topics listed, less than 20 percent of students had teachers who had taken courses in these topics. These results reflect the focus in recent years, in the New Zealand primary education system, on improving numeracy and literacy skills.

Note: Standard errors are presented in parentheses.

Source: Adapted from Exhibits 6.4 Mullis, Martin and Foy, 2008 & 6.5, Martin, Mullis and Foy, 2008.

Teachers’ preparedness to teach mathematics

Teachers were generally positive about their preparedness to teach mathematics. Specifically, teachers were asked how well prepared they felt to teach 20 topics in the TIMSS framework with the response options: very well prepared, somewhat prepared, not well prepared. Table 5 summarises teachers’ responses to this question. Most New Zealand teachers (i.e. the teachers of 77% of students) reported that they felt ‘very well prepared’ to teach all of the three content domains in mathematics. Teachers felt most prepared teaching in the area of data display but less so in geometric shapes and measures. Across all 20 mathematics topics, the proportions of teachers who felt well prepared in many other countries in TIMSS were similar to New Zealand (72% on average internationally). However, it is interesting to note that only 35% of Japanese students were taught by teachers who felt very well prepared to teach mathematics.

Of the 10 topics in the number domain, New Zealand teachers felt more prepared to teach whole numbers, number sentences and number patterns (more than 80% of students) than adding and subtracting involving fractions and decimals (just over 60% of students).

As mentioned earlier, teachers were generally less confident in the area of geometric shapes and measures. Within this domain, teachers felt they were more prepared to teach students about finding area and perimeters with 76 percent of students taught by teachers who felt very prepared in this topic. Teachers were least confident teaching comparing and drawing angles (55% of students).

More New Zealand teachers felt prepared to teach data display topics than number or geometric shapes and measures; 86 percent of students were taught by teachers who felt very well prepared in this topic area.

Note: Standard errors are presented in parentheses.

Source: Adapted from Exhibit 6.6 Mullis, Martin and Foy, 2008.

Teachers’ preparedness to teach science

Teachers were less positive about their preparedness to teach science topics compared with mathematics. The question was the same as mathematics, with 22 topics from the TIMSS framework listed. Table 6 summarises the teachers’ responses to this question. As mentioned earlier, teachers are less likely to receive professional development opportunities in science than in mathematics, which may be a contributing factor, as professional development is likely to help teachers develop confidence in teaching science.

In New Zealand, only 42 percent of the Year 5 students in the TIMSS study had teachers who felt ‘very well prepared’ to teach the science topics, on average. Internationally teachers also felt less prepared to teach the science topics than mathematics, but were more positive than New Zealand teachers (54% of students on average internationally).

Of the three content areas in science: life science, physical science, and Earth science, teachers felt most confident teaching Earth science topics (48% on average). Within Earth science, the strongest topic area was the solar system (57%) whereas teachers were least confident about the topic of fossils of animals and plants (32%).

Within life science topics, teachers were most confident about teaching changes in environments with 52 percent of students taught by teachers who felt very prepared for this topic, and least confident with the topic of major body structures and their function in humans and other organisms (36% of students).

The weakest subject area for teachers was physical science; on average, 35 percent of students were taught by teachers who felt very prepared to teach topics in this domain. The strongest topic was common energy sources/forms and their practical uses (44%), and the weakest topic was forming and separating mixtures (21%).

Note: Standard errors are presented in parentheses.

Source: Adapted from Exhibit 6.7 Martin, Mullis and Foy, 2008.

Relationship between teachers’ preparedness and student achievement

The relationship between teachers’ preparedness to teach mathematics and science and students’ achievements in these subjects was not clear-cut among countries in TIMSS. Some of the countries whose teachers reported high levels of preparedness, overall, had relatively low student achievement. In contrast, some of the countries with relatively high student achievement had relatively low proportions of teachers who felt very well prepared to teach mathematics and science. For example, only 23 percent of Japanese students had teachers who felt very well prepared to teach science. However, the average achievement of Japanese students was high compared to other countries. This indicates that there may be some cultural aspect to responses about preparedness.

Of concern, however, is the relatively low proportion of New Zealand students who had teachers who felt very well prepared compared to countries with similar cultural backgrounds. New Zealand had the lowest levels of reported teacher preparedness across English-speaking countries as well as the lowest achievement (see Table 7).

Note: Standard errors are presented in parentheses.

Source: Adapted from Exhibits 1.1 & 6.6 Mullis, Martin and Foy, 2008, and Exhibits 1.1 & 6.7 Martin, Mullis and Foy, 2008.