The roles of teaching styles and curriculum in Mathematics achievement: Analysis of TIMSS 2011

Abstract

This article provides empirical evidence about the link between Mathematics achievement, curriculum, teaching methods and resources used in the classroom. More specifically, this research explores common teaching styles and topics taught across countries with respect to their Mathematics achievement. In order to do so, we make use of the fifth TIMSS survey, which provides a rich set of information regarding aspects of the curriculum (e.g., the emphasis on problem solving and interpreting data sets), resources used by teachers in the classroom (e.g., calculators and textbooks) and teaching styles (e.g., how often students are asked to take written tests, to work out problems individually rather than with teachers' guidance), along with measures of achievement in Mathematics gathered in 2011. Although TIMSS is administered to students and their teachers in both Grades 4 and 8 (Years 5 and 9 respectively, within England), analysis in this research is restricted to the Grade 8 students (aged 14). When analysing data aggregated at jurisdictional level, this allows us to explore relationships in the Mathematics achievement of 15 year-olds as measured by PISA 2012.