FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren

What is the importance of teachers instruction for students? What aspects of teaching quality promotes learning outcome in mathematics and science?And do students in schools with high shares of minorities and low socio-economic status (SES) receive different teaching quality than in schools with low shares of minorities and high SES? In other words, is there an unfair distrubution of high quality teachers? These are key questions in the project Teachers Effect on Student Outcome, TESO, wich started in 2019. Most previous research is either based on small scale studies causing low reliability, or large-scale studies that only capture one moment in time. The project TESO aims to dig deeper by following a group of students over time. We have followed students and their teachers who participated in «Trends In Mathematics and Science Study», TIMSS 2019, from grade 5 to 6. TIMSS measure students' competence in mathematics and science, and both students and teachers answer questionnaires. This study has a representative sample, meaning that one may generalize findings. In addition, a representative sub-sample of these students and their teachers in Oslo participated in a video study. This video study was carried out in autumn 2019 and spring 2020 for the same classes that participated in TIMSS 2019. The project managed to film all the schools selected to participate before the pandemic came in March 2020. The project has linked the video study with the results from TIMSS 2019. This allows us to investigate the teaching quality from spring 2019 (via questionnaires) and autumn 2019/spring 2020 (via video studies) and connect this to student achievement of spring 2019. We are currently analysing the data, and findings will be presented in a TESO conference taking place in spring 2024. The results show that students' learning outcome is improved if the teachers provide better classroom management, challange students cognitively, and provide both professional and psycho-social support. In science, inquiry based practices promotes learning in science, yet very few teachers provide inquiry based instruction. Further, preliminary findings show that results from the student questionnaires are aligned with those of the video student. These findings show that classes with high shares of high SES students, have low shares of minority students, and are provided with teaching characterised by more professional and psycho-social support, more cognitive challanges, and better classroom management than classes with high shares of low-SES students. In other words, there is an unfair distribution of good teachers; school with advantaged students also get the best teachers, especially in Oslo.

Teacher and their instruction matter more to student outcomes than any other school factor. It is hence vital to establish the relations between teacher competences, instructional practices, and student outcome. However, the relations between these three are complex, and it is yet unclear what aspects of teacher competences and instructional practices that facilitate student outcome. Furthermore, studies in this field focus almost entirely on cognitive outcome, while there is an increasing need to disentangle how teachers may improve also student motivation and well-being. With the increasing drop-outs from schools and immigration, there is further a need to address how to sustain equity. Yet few studies investigate the differential effects of teachers? competence and their instruction across different groups of student. In Norway, most studies on teachers and their instruction have been either small scale studies or international large-scale studies with a cross-sectional design from which no causal inferences can be made. This is problematic, as Norwegian educational policy and practice need to make evidence based decisions. To address this issue, the present study seeks to identify what aspects of teacher competences and instructional practices that facilitate growth in student motivation, achievement, and well-being across different groups of students (i.e., across gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status). A longitudinal extension of the international large-scale study TIMSS 2019 (N= 5800) along with an in-depth observational video study of a sub-sample (N= 1200) will be conducted. Multi-level, multi-group latent growth models will be implemented within the frame of structural equation models. For policy and practice, knowledge derived from longitudinal studies with representative samples is important to make generalizable inferences. The project will provide generalizable inferences on how to best foster equity, student learning, motivation and well-being.