Educational-teaching Practices and Achievement Timss – Mathematics

This paper examines the IEA’s Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data for Greece and more specifically POP2 (8th grade). The paper focuses on the teacher’s educational-teaching practices in the classrooms and analyses these with factor analysis. We also investigate the relationship between teaching practices and student achievement with regression analysis. Educational / teaching practices in the field of mathematics have aquired increasing importance. They are of high interest as a research subject as they are considered an essential parameter in the process of learning. In the 1990’s the "mathematics education population", meaning students and teachers, constituted the main research focus. This paper explores students’ perceptions of their teachers’ practices in the classroom. Factor analysis resulted in eight factors, including innovative as well as traditional teaching practices. The regression analysis explored if and how these practices are related to the student achievement in mathematics. In the final model it appears that traditional and pragmatic teaching practices are positively correlated to student achievement, while the remaining six factors identifying practices such as innovative teaching, emphasis on the new theme are negatively correlated. INTRODUCTION This paper analyzes data from the IEA’s Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). More specifically, we examine the answers of the 8th grade Greek students on questions concerning their educational experience. The paper aims to explore the relationship between educational-teaching practices and student achievement in mathematics. The effort to record, understand and study what goes on in education on the basis of the research question: "how is student achievement in mathematics related to teaching practices that are applied in school" renders exploration of this relationship very important. Moreover, the hierarchical EDUCATIONAL-TEACHING PRACTICES AND ACHIEVEMENT TIMSS – MATHEMATICS Chryssa Sofianopoulou, University of Athens, Greece Ntelikou Maria, University of Athens, Greece Dimitris Boulamatsis, University of Athens, Greece results of student achievement in mathematics must also be studied in relation to those factors that formulate this achievement at the school system level as well as the classroom level (Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, Solomon, Stamelos, 2000, p.3). In order to investigate this relationship between achievement and educationalteaching practices in the classroom, factor analysis was performed on the various practices which indicated the frequency that these practices are applied during class and when a new theme is introduced. The extracted factors were related to student achievement using regression analysis, and more specifically, the non-automated best regression model selection. This method is used in exploring the relation between a qualitative variable and one or more qualitative or quantitative variables. For this specific study student achievement is the quantitative variable (as it was measured by TIMSS) while the factors presented in table 4, which express educational-teaching practices in class, were treated as qualitative variables. We have taken into consideration all the characteristics that indicate the teachers’ practices in mathematics class. We considered it important to include all the characteristics that are related to the teaching of mathematics according to students’ perceptions. In order to explore the relationship between student achievement and educational-teaching practices, all ways of learning in mathematics should be studied, including teaching a "new theme". Baralos (2002), while presenting various teaching practices through relative studies (Crosswhite, 1987, Lapointe, Mead & Askew, 1992, Robitaille, Taylor & Orpwood, 1996, Colgan & Harrison, 1997) mainly refers to the introduction to a new theme by the teacher. DATA ANALYSIS Factor analysis was performed on the nineteen teaching practices that led to the extraction of eight (factors) practices that are: Before analyzing the data it is important to clarify two important meanings: traditional and alternative, as they characterize educational practices and the teachers who apply them in the context of this paper. Tradition basically refers to every human practice, belief, institution or creation that is passed on from generation to generation (Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 1992). In this paper, the term traditional educational-teaching practices signifies any type of teaching that contains elements of the previous generation’s teacher culture. This term characterizes all educational-teaching practices that are included in the notion that ideas and values that have been cherished over time have acquired a certain degree of objectivity and constitute the substance of the culture to be passed on to new generations. According to this notion, teaching is the action of transmitting knowledge, theory and practice that are often organized in school material and cognitive fields (Bertrand, 1999). The terms "traditional" and "traditional teaching" (as they are used in this paper) refer to long-standing educational practices, some of which have occasionally been questioned while others have received much support. Furthermore, the use of these terms is influenced by Giddens’ views (2002): "Traditions have always incorporated power whether their construction was deliberate or not. [...] Those who follow a tradition do not feel the need to look for alternative practices. [...] Tradition offers a frame of action that is, to a large extent, considered uncontradictable. [...] Tradition’s specific distinction is solemnity and repetition". Table 1: Factor Analysis On Teaching Practices Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis, Rotation Method: Varimax wirh Kaiser Normalization. Source: IEA, Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), 1994-95, Hellenic Coordinating Center of IEA, University of Athens (HCC/IEA). The term alternative teaching practices characterizes educational-teaching practices that focus on the students’ activity. It is the students who, with their teachers’ incentive, select, analyze and organize the facts in order to construct new knowledge. In this case neither the teacher nor the textbook constitutes authority in the classroom. Baralos (2002) claims that teachers who have social constructivist opinions view their role in class as facilitators; i.e., they present problems that provide incentives to create an environment that favors exploration, and offers students opportunities to discuss their emerging understandings. During mathematics calss... F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 Use of calculatiors 0.8 Use of computers 0.8 Students work in pairs or small groups 0.6 0.3 New theme-work in pairs or small roups 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.3 New theme-previous knowledge 0.7 New theme-follow the textbook 0.7 New theme-examples 0.7 Students check each other’s homework 0.8 Discussion about homework 0.8 Problem solving with every day life 0.8 examples New theme-relation with every day life 0.8 New theme-explaining the rules 0.7 Homework assignment 0.7 Students copy from the board 0.9 The teacher shows how to solve problems 0.3 0.6 Take written quizzes or tests 0.7 0.3 The teacher checks homework 0.3 0.4 0.6 Students begin homework in class 0.7 Papers, projects 0.3 0.6 % of variance 9.4 8.4 8.1 7.7 7.6 6.8 6.4 6.0 Total variance explained 60.4 A lt er n at iv e