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Does Teacher Training Make Teachers More Effective? Evidence from TIMSS.

Schwarz, Christina LU and Maschmann, Lukas LU (2021) NEKN01 20211
Department of Economics
Abstract
Several countries have recently increased their efforts to improve teaching quality by focusing their attention on pre- and in-service teacher training. This raises the question whether such training makes teachers actually more effective. Yet, the existing literature on teacher training is limited and inconclusive. Using cross-sectional data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), we follow a within-student fixed effects approach and show that in-service teacher training does significantly benefit student achievements. More specifically, teachers’ participation in professional development increases students’ standardized test scores by 0.031-0.040 of a standard deviation. Moreover, we identify a dose... (More)
Several countries have recently increased their efforts to improve teaching quality by focusing their attention on pre- and in-service teacher training. This raises the question whether such training makes teachers actually more effective. Yet, the existing literature on teacher training is limited and inconclusive. Using cross-sectional data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), we follow a within-student fixed effects approach and show that in-service teacher training does significantly benefit student achievements. More specifically, teachers’ participation in professional development increases students’ standardized test scores by 0.031-0.040 of a standard deviation. Moreover, we identify a dose response pattern suggesting that increasing participation hours in such programs are associated with rising teacher effectiveness. In contrast, we do not find any evidence that pre-service teacher training has a significant impact on student performance. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Schwarz, Christina LU and Maschmann, Lukas LU
supervisor
organization
course
NEKN01 20211
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
teacher training, student achievement, professional development, education, TIMSS
language
English
id
9050964
date added to LUP
2021-07-05 13:28:02
date last changed
2021-07-05 13:28:02
@misc{9050964,
  abstract     = {{Several countries have recently increased their efforts to improve teaching quality by focusing their attention on pre- and in-service teacher training. This raises the question whether such training makes teachers actually more effective. Yet, the existing literature on teacher training is limited and inconclusive. Using cross-sectional data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), we follow a within-student fixed effects approach and show that in-service teacher training does significantly benefit student achievements. More specifically, teachers’ participation in professional development increases students’ standardized test scores by 0.031-0.040 of a standard deviation. Moreover, we identify a dose response pattern suggesting that increasing participation hours in such programs are associated with rising teacher effectiveness. In contrast, we do not find any evidence that pre-service teacher training has a significant impact on student performance.}},
  author       = {{Schwarz, Christina and Maschmann, Lukas}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Does Teacher Training Make Teachers More Effective? Evidence from TIMSS.}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}