TEACHER QUALITY AND PARENT EDUCATION: THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS

Abstract: Aim: The main aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between student mathematics achievement, teacher quality (educational level/ specialization) and parents’ educational level in Nordic and Gulf countries. Furthermore, this thesis seeks to investigate interactions between teacher quality and parents’ educational level in their relation to student mathematics Achievement. Theory: This thesis applies Shulman’s theory of content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The theoretical framework emphasises the significance of studying the impact of teachers’ knowledge, general content knowledge as well as pedagogical knowledge. Method: The data comes from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015. Data from (a) teacher background questionnaire, (b) home environment support questionnaire, and (c) student mathematics achievement levels of fourth-grade students in Nordic and Gulf. Teacher quality and parents’ educational level were independent variables in order to investigate the relationship between student mathematics achievement with teacher quality and parents’ educational level on each country. ANOVA and linear regression were main methods of analysis. The data analysed using Statistic Software Program (SPSS). Results: The results showed that parents’ educational level had a significant positive relationship to student mathematics achievement levels in all countries. However, teacher quality (educational level/ specialization) did not show relation in the majority of the countries. The study concludes that parent education plays a major role on student achievement irrespective of the country. On the other hand, the teacher quality is found to be the statistically not significant contribution to student mathematics achievement in the majority of Nordic and Gulf countries except Oman and Finland. However, the specialization of teacher significantly did not affect the student mathematics achievement except Denmark and Bahrain.