Teaching strategies and differential effectiveness across learning contexts: Evidence from PISA 2012

Journal article

Modern educational theories emphasise effectiveness enhancing factors at the classroom level and differential effectiveness for sub-groups of students and across different learning contexts. Theoretical developments, however, are generally based on national evidence and have been criticised for lacking cross-cultural perspectives. This study used PISA 2012 data to examine how subject-specific teaching strategies related to mathematics performance of students across education systems whilst considering curvilinear associations and interactions with the socio-economic and instructional context. The results provide consistent evidence of a positive curvilinear relationship between cognitive activation strategies and mathematics performance. The association tends to be stronger in schools with a positive disciplinary climate and for students from advantaged socio-economic backgrounds, but not in every education system. Teacher-directed strategies are positively related to mathematics performance, but the association tends to become negative for high levels of teacher-directed instruction. Associations of student-oriented strategies with mathematics performance are inconsistent. The cross-national evidence contributes to the knowledge base of educational theory.

Authors: Caro Vasquez, D; Lenkeit, D; Kyriakides, L

• Publication status: In press
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Studies in Educational Evaluation
• Publication date: 2016-01-01
• Acceptance date: 2016-01-04
• ISSN: 1879-2529
• Keywords: teaching strategies; educational effectiveness; PISA