Kajsa Yang Hansen - Böcker

This open access book presents original research on effective and equitable teacher practice in mathematics and science education across Nordic countries. It focuses on three key aspects of teacher practice: what teachers teach, how teachers teach, and how teachers assess their students.To provide a comprehensive understanding of teacher practice, data from the IEA’s Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) from 2011 to 2019 was analyzed. TIMSS provides large-scale and representative data, allowing an in-depth investigation of the relations between teachers, their practices, and student outcomes. The findings highlight the changes in teacher practice over time and the extent to which such changes explain the differences in student outcomes. This research also contributes to understanding how the relationships between teacher practice and student outcomes vary across different student groups (i.e., gender, socioeconomic status, and language background). The empirical evidence presented not only adds a significant layer to the academic discourse but also offers practical implications. These insights are crucial in facilitating educational policymaking and classroom practices aimed at improving student outcomes and closing gaps in educational inequality.

This open access book presents original research on effective and equitable teacher practice in mathematics and science education across Nordic countries. It focuses on three key aspects of teacher practice: what teachers teach, how teachers teach, and how teachers assess their students.To provide a comprehensive understanding of teacher practice, data from the IEA’s Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) from 2011 to 2019 was analyzed. TIMSS provides large-scale and representative data, allowing an in-depth investigation of the relations between teachers, their practices, and student outcomes. The findings highlight the changes in teacher practice over time and the extent to which such changes explain the differences in student outcomes. This research also contributes to understanding how the relationships between teacher practice and student outcomes vary across different student groups (i.e., gender, socioeconomic status, and language background). The empirical evidence presented not only adds a significant layer to the academic discourse but also offers practical implications. These insights are crucial in facilitating educational policymaking and classroom practices aimed at improving student outcomes and closing gaps in educational inequality.

This book addresses problems and challenges that face educational measurement at a time when multipurpose usage of observational data from educational assessments, tests and international surveys has become a growing global trend. While the construction of educational measures and use of educational data offer many opportunities, they also require awareness of the numerous threats to validity and methods of reducing such threats. Written by leading international scholars, the book demonstrates the complexity of educational measurement by addressing three broad and interrelated topics. The first part discusses cognitive abilities, including studies on fluid intelligence, its improvement and its links to aptitude tests for admission to higher education. The second part focuses on the effects of school and teacher-related factors on school outcomes at individual and group levels, and uses international studies to analyze causes. The third part presents analytical techniques and measurement methods to improve reliability, for example factor analysis using Bayesian estimators, bi-factor analysis, model misfit and solutions, and discusses balance issues in reporting test results.The book provides examples of state-of-the-art analytical techniques for pursuing fundamental research problems, and the latest advances in measurement methods, with a focus on validity improvement. Eminent researchers discuss and provide insights into questions such as: Is it possible to train individuals to think at a higher level than normal for their age? What determines prospective preschool teachers’ skill to perceive mathematics-related preschool situations? Can international indicator design and instruments be improved to use trends and national context variables more efficiently? Can indicator data at national, school and class levels be compared easier? Are value-added measures of teacher effectiveness valid when it comes to hiring and promoting teachers? Is money better spenton teacher training than on smaller class-size? How do theory and empirical statistical data intertwine in building structures of understanding? This book is inspired by the career and personal influence of the Swedish scholar Professor Jan-Eric Gustafsson, renowned for his research on individual differences, especially the structure of cognitive abilities, and on the effects of education on knowledge and skills.