An important way to improve student achievement is to improve weak teaching. What factors are the most important for improving teaching – teachers’ resumé characteristics (their training, qualifications and experience) or their classroom practices.

A study from the Universities of Oxford and London, in the UK, has investigated what teacher practices and characteristics matter most for improving pupil achievement. Past studies have examined the influence of teacher training, qualifications and experience on student achievement, but the relevance of classroom practices and teaching techniques in raising achievement levels has rarely been tested. The study does the analysis in both private and public school systems in Pakistan.

Previous studies have found that pupil achievement is often not affected by the standard teacher characteristics such as certification, training and experience. Nevertheless, such teacher traits are popularly used as indicators of teacher ‘quality’ and to determine teacher pay. This research disputes this: if more able and ambitious students choose to study in schools where teachers have higher certification, training and experience, then any effect from higher qualifications on student achievement may in fact be because smarter children happen to be taught by more qualified teachers. In this case, there will be a positive link between teacher qualifications and student achievement and yet better achievement is not necessarily a result of higher teacher qualifications.

This study estimates the effects of teacher characteristics as well as of teaching practices on pupil achievement by examining achievement variation across subjects for the same pupil, and relating that to the characteristics and teaching practices of the teachers who teach the different subjects. It uses data on nearly 2,000 students of grade 8 from a survey of 65 schools (25 government and 40 private) in urban and rural areas of Lahore district in Punjab province, Pakistan, from 2002 to 2003. The data matches students’ language and mathematics test results to the teachers teaching those subjects. The researchers found that:

• Most of the standard teacher resumé characteristics (like training and qualifications) do not affect students’ achievement at school. This means that teachers (especially in government schools) are rewarded for characteristics that do not improve pupil achievement.
• Girls benefit from being taught by female teachers.
• The teaching process (time on different classroom tasks) used by individual teachers has a strong impact on student achievement. Pupils benefit substantially from lesson planning, being asked questions during class and being quizzed on previous lessons.
• In the government schooling system, the better schools hire more ‘effective’ teachers, such as those with better English language skills and who spend more time quizzing students on past material.
• Good private schools also hire more ‘effective’ teachers but pupil achievement depends on a teaching methodology that promotes pupil testing and an interactive teaching approach in lessons. They retain the more effective teachers by extending their contracts.

The study suggests the following policy changes:

• As girls profit from being taught by female teachers, it would be efficient to encourage greater female participation in the teaching profession, and especially in schools where girls are taught.
• The fact that teachers are being rewarded for characteristics unconnected to pupil achievement highlights the need for reform of teacher pay structures.

Source(s):
‘What can Teachers do to Raise Pupil Achievement?’ Centre for the Study of African Economies Working Paper Series 2007-14, by Monazza Aslam and Geeta Kingdon, 2007 (PDF) Full document.
Further details about this research project ‘Improving the Outcomes for Pro-Poor Development: Breaking the Cycle of Deprivation’ Full document.
See also the portal to the Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty (RECOUP) Full document.

Funded by: This paper forms part of the Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty (RECOUP), funded by the Department for International Development, 2005 to 2010.

id21 Research Highlight: 13 July 2008

Further Information:
Monazza Aslam
Department of Economics
University of Oxford
Manor Road
Oxford OX1 3UQ
UK

Tel: +44 1865 271089
Contact the contributor: monazza.aslam@economics.ox.ac.uk

Department of Economics, University of Oxford, UK

Geeta Kingdon
Chair of Education Economics and International Development
Institute of Education
University of London
20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL
UK

Tel: +44 20 30738316
Contact the contributor: G.Kingdon@ioe.ac.uk

Institute of Education, University of London, UK

Other related links:
'Gender violence in Pakistan: Breaking the cycle'

'New directions needed for gender in education'

'Gender equality in higher education in low-income countries'