Investigation of The Effect of Teacher and Class Characteristics on Mathematics Achievement in Turkey and European Union Countries

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of mathematics teacher characteristics on students’ mathematics achievement across Turkey, European Union countries by analysing the data collected from student and teacher background questionnaires and mathematics achievement test in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS-R). After home educational resources (HER) of students was taken as a control variable, explanatory models were built by using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). It was found that there were some differences in the factors affecting mathematics achievement significantly among the countries except mean of home educational resources which had positive significant effect on mathematics achievement in all the countries. In Turkish model, the classes of male teachers were more successful and teacher experience, time spent on tests and quizzes, use of textbooks, disciplined class climate and class mean of home educational resources were found to have positive significant effect on student achievement. It is recommended that the factors that were found to have significant effects on student learning should be explored in experimental settings and in-service teacher training courses should be organized which enables teachers to improve themselves