TEDS-M 2008 Results

Achievement and test scales
Scale Creation

The achievement scales were established using item response theory, specifically the Rasch model.

Scale scores range from 0 to 1000; the international scale mean and standard deviation are 500 and 100, respectively.

 

Anchor Points

Mathematics Content Knowledge (MCK) and Mathematics Pedagogical Content Knowledge (MPCK) are reported in reference to the following anchor points:

  • Primary
    • MCK scale
      • Lower (431)
      • Higher (516)
    • MPCK scale
      • [no label] (544)
  • Lower secondary
    • MCK scale
      • Lower (490)
      • Higher (559)
    • MPCK scale
      • [no label] (509)

The descriptions of the competencies of students at these anchor points were determined by means of a scale-anchoring process.

 
List of Achievement Scales

Future Primary Teachers

  • Mathematics Content Knowledge
  • Mathematics Pedagogy Content Knowledge

 

Future Lower Secondary Teachers

  • Mathematics Content Knowledge
  • Mathematics Pedagogy Content Knowledge
Questionnaire and background scales
Scale Creation

The TEDS-M database contains several scales for data on future teachers and educators.

Scales were calculated using item response theory (IRT), specifically the Rasch model.

 
List of Background Scales

Educator

  • Opportunities to learn (OTL)
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Assessment Practice
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Instructional Practice
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Teaching for Improving Practice
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Teaching for Diversity
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Teaching for Reflection on Practice
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Class Participation
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Class Reading
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Solving Problems
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - School Experience - Connecting Classroom Learning to Practice
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Assessment Uses
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Instructional Planning
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Program Coherence
  • Beliefs
    • Beliefs about the nature of mathematics - Rules and Procedures
    • Beliefs about the nature of mathematics - Process of Inquiry
    • Beliefs about learning mathematics - Teacher Direction
    • Beliefs about learning mathematics - Active Learning
    • Beliefs about mathematics achievement - Fixed Ability
    • Beliefs about the program as a whole - Preparedness for Teaching Mathematics

 

Future Teacher

  • Opportunities to learn (OTL)
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Tertiary Level Math - Geometry
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Tertiary Level Math - Discrete Structures & Logic
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Tertiary Level Math - Continuity & Functions
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Tertiary Level Math - Probability & Statistics
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - School Level Math - Numbers Measurement Geometry
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - School Level Math - Functions Probability Calculus
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Education Pedagogy - Foundations
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Education Pedagogy - Instruction
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Class Participation
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Class Reading
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Solving Problems
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Instructional Practice
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Instructional Planning
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Assessment Uses
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Math Ed Pedagogy - Assessment Practice
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Education Pedagogy - Social Science
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Education Pedagogy - Application
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Teaching for Diversity
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Teaching for Reflection on Practice
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Teaching for Improving Practice
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - School Experience - Connecting Classroom Learning to Practice
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Supervising Teacher Reinforcement of University Goals for Practicum
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Supervising Teacher Feedback Quality
    • Opportunities to learn (OTL) - Program Coherence
  • Beliefs
    • Beliefs about the nature of mathematics - Rules and Procedures
    • Beliefs about the nature of mathematics - Process of Inquiry
    • Beliefs about learning mathematics - Teacher Direction
    • Beliefs about learning mathematics - Active Learning
    • Beliefs about mathematics achievement - Fixed Ability
    • Beliefs about the program as a whole - Preparedness for Teaching Mathematics
    • Beliefs about the program as a whole - Quality of Instruction
Overview of key study results

Mathematics and mathematics pedagogy content knowledge

  • Teaching mathematics knowledge that future primary and secondary teachers acquired by the end of their teacher education varied considerably among individuals within every country and across countries.
  • The difference in mean mathematics content knowledge (MCK) scores between the highest- and lowest-achieving country in each primary and secondary program group was between 100 and 200 score points, or 1 and 2 standard deviations.
  • Differences in mean achievement across countries in the same program group on mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) were somewhat smaller, ranging from about 100 to 150 score points.
  • On average, future primary teachers being prepared as mathematics specialists had higher MCK and MPCK scores than those being prepared to teach as lower primary generalists.
  • On average, future teachers being prepared to teach lower and upper secondary grades had higher MCK and MPCK scores than those prepared to teach lower secondary grades only.

 

Beliefs

  • Future teachers in several countries (Chile, Chinese Taipei, Poland, the Russian Federation, Singapore, and Spain) endorsed the belief that mathematics learning consists of memorizing a set of rules and procedures.
  • In general, educators and future teachers in all countries were more inclined to endorse the pattern of beliefs described as conceptual or cognitive-constructionist in orientation.
    • Georgia’s endorsement of this pattern was relatively weak, however.
    • Educators and future teachers in Botswana, Georgia, Malaysia, Oman, the Philippines, and Thailand endorsed the pattern of beliefs described as computational or direct transmission; educators and future teachers in Germany, Norway, and Switzerland for the most part did not.
  • In some high-scoring countries on the MCK and MPCK tests, future teachers endorsed both beliefs—that mathematics is a set of rules and procedures, and that it is a process of enquiry. The TEDS-M findings thus showed endorsement for both of these conceptions within mathematics teacher education.

 

Opportunities to learn

  • Teachers who are expected to teach in primary—and especially the lower-primary—grades had few opportunities to learn (OTL) mathematics content beyond that included in the school curriculum.
    • The pattern among future secondary teachers was generally characterized by greater and deeper coverage of mathematics content.
    • However, there was more variability in OTL among those future teachers being prepared for lower secondary school (known in some countries as “middle school”) than among those being prepared to teach Grade 11 and above.
  • The countries with programs providing the most comprehensive opportunities to learn challenging mathematics had higher scores on the TEDS-M tests of knowledge.
    • In TEDS-M, primary-level and secondary-level teachers in high-achieving countries such as Chinese Taipei, Singapore, and the Russian Federation had significantly more opportunities than their primary and secondary counterparts in the other participating countries to learn university- and school-level mathematics.

 

Context and policy

  • TEDS-M showed that teachers’ careers and working conditions ranged
    • from those where teachers are carefully selected, well compensated, and highly regarded
    • to those where there is less selectivity, low salaries, and low status.
  • These careers and conditions were shaped in part by
    • the differences between the two major systems of teacher employment (career-based and position-based) found in the world’s public schools,
    • as well as by the various mixed or hybrid models.
  • The TEDS-M data indicated a positive relationship between the strength of quality assurance arrangements and country mean scores in the TEDS-M tests of mathematics content knowledge and mathematics pedagogy knowledge.
    • Countries with strong quality assurance arrangements, such as Chinese Taipei and Singapore, scored highest on these measures.
    • Countries with weaker arrangements, such as Georgia and Chile, tended to score lower on the two measures of future teacher knowledge.