Joining together what belongs together. An international comparison of competence profiles at the end of teacher training

Untersucht wird, ob sich in 14 Ländern, die an der "Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M)" der IEA teilgenommen haben, angehende Lehrkräfte identifizieren lassen, die ein vergleichbares Muster an Professionswissen und professionellen Überzeugungen aufweisen. Die Identifikation solcher Kompetenzprofile erfolgt auf Basis der Item-Response-Theorie, sodass Gruppenzugehörigkeit personenorientiert und nicht-deterministisch modelliert wird. In den meisten Ländern lassen sich am Ende der Ausbildung zwei Profile identifizieren: Lehrkräfte mit einem kognitiv anspruchsvollen und dynamisch-konstruktivistisch akzentuierten Kompetenzprofil sowie leistungsschwächere Lehrkräfte mit stärker statischen und transmissionsorientierten Überzeugungen. Erklärende Merkmale der Profilzugehörigkeit sind das Geschlecht, fachliche und insbesondere fachdidaktische Lerngelegenheiten sowie die Kohärenz der Ausbildung. Aus den Ergebnissen lassen sich Hinweise auf Reformpotenzial in der Lehrerausbildung ableiten. (DIPF/Orig.)The authors examine whether, in the 14 countries which took part in the Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M), carried out by the IEA, future teachers can be identified who exhibit comparable patterns of professional knowledge and professional beliefs. The identification of such competence profiles is carried out on the basis of the item-response-theory, so that group membership is modeled in a person-oriented and non-deterministic way. In the majority of the countries investigated, two profiles could be identified at the end of teacher training: teachers with a cognitively ambitious and dynamic-constructivist accented competence profile and less efficient teachers with more static and transmission-oriented beliefs. Explanatory attributes of profile membership are gender, subject-related and, above all, subject-specific didactic learning opportunities as well as coherence in teacher training. The results point to potential reforms of teacher training. (DIPF/Orig.

Teacher Education Effectiveness: Quality and Equity of Future Primary Teachers’ Mathematics and Mathematics Pedagogical Content Knowledge

The effectiveness of teacher education was examined by taking two indicators into account (Creemers and Kyriakides, “The dynamics of educational effectiveness: a contribution to policy, practice and theory in contemporary schools”, 2008): future teachers’ mean achievement on a paper-and-pencil test as an indicator of quality and the variability of teacher achievement due to background characteristics as an indicator of equity. In detail, the effects of gender and language on mathematics content knowledge and mathematics pedagogical content knowledge were examined. The analyses were embedded in IEA’s “Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics” (TEDS-M) and they referred to primary teachers from 15 countries in their final year of teacher education. The study revealed significant cultural differences in the effectiveness of teacher education. Gender and language effects could be decomposed into direct and indirect effects. The latter represented a combination of differential choices of teacher education programs according to background characteristics and differential achievement of teachers from these programs. Implications for educational policy are discussed

TEDS-M: Diagnosing teacher knowledge by applying multidimensional item response theory and multiple-group models

Researchers are still struggling to define a concept of pedagogical content knowledge that separates this dimension from content knowledge. Based on data from TEDS-M, an International Association of Educational Achievement (IEA) study of mathematics teacher education in 16 countries, this paper aims to contribute to this discourse by using different multidimensional approaches to modeling teacher knowledge. Another question of cross-cultural research is whether the characteristics of the latent traits examined and their interplay are homogeneous across countries (measurement invariance) or if it is necessary to treat the countries as separate groups. Our basic hypothesis is that more sophisticated multidimensional and multiple-group item response theory (IRT) models lead to valuable additional information that gives diagnostic insight into the composition of teacher knowledge. This is demonstrated using the TEDS-M data

Resolving the chicken-or-egg causality dilemma: The longitudinal interplay of teacher knowledge and teacher beliefs

To examine the longitudinal relation between knowledge and beliefs and to determine cause and effect, 183 mathematics teachers were assessed three times during their first years of teacher education on their mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) and their beliefs about teaching and learning. The data revealed that prior MPCK predicted later achievement. Prior beliefs also determined later ones. In addition, MPCK affected later beliefs: Higher MPCK at the first measurement resulted in more constructivist beliefs at later time points. By contrast, beliefs did not predict later MPCK. If constructivist teacher beliefs are to be fostered, teacher education should strengthen MPCK

Wie situationsbezogen ist die Kompetenz von Lehrkräften? Zur Generalisierbarkeit der Ergebnisse von videobasierten Performanztests

Untersucht wird die Situationsabhängigkeit der Performanz von Lehrkräften mithilfe eines videobasierten Assessments, das im Rahmen von TEDS-FU, einer Follow-up-Studie zur Teacher Education and Development Study: Learning to Teach Mathematics (TEDS-M), entwickelt wurde. Dabei werden zwei Anforderungen betrachtet: pädagogische Aufgaben des Klassenmanagements und fachdidaktische Aufgaben des Unterrichtens von Mathematik. Ob und - wenn ja - wie stark die Umsetzung der dafür benötigten situationsbezogenen Fähigkeiten von den jeweiligen Unterrichtssituationen des Assessments abhängig ist, wird dabei mit denselben Videos erfasst, sodass sich Unterschiede zwischen pädagogischen und mathematikdidaktischen Fähigkeiten herausarbeiten lassen. Als konkurrierende Hypothesen werden keine, teilweise oder vollständige Situationsabhängigkeit der Itembearbeitung angenommen. Die durchgeführten Modellvergleiche zeigen, dass die intraindividuelle Variation von Lehrerperformanz in den verschiedenen Situationen im Bereich Pädagogik stärker ausgeprägt ist als im Bereich Mathematikdidaktik. (DIPF/Orig.)Using a video-based assessment developed in the follow-up study of the Teacher Education and Development Study: Learning to Teach Mathematics (TEDS-M), the authors examine whether and to what extent teacher performance depends on differences in classroom situations. Two teaching challenges are focused upon: general pedagogical tasks related to classroom management and subject-specific tasks related to teaching mathematics. The assessment of situation-specific skills necessary to master these two tasks is done with video-vignettes. Since each time the same video-vignettes are used, differences between general pedagogical and subject-specific skills can be examined. The authors test competing hypotheses of having no, partial, or complete item-dependency on classroom situations. Findings reveal that intra-individual variation of teacher performance is more pronounced in the area of general pedagogy than in the area of mathematics pedagogy. (DIPF/Orig.

The relation between content-specific and general teacher knowledge and skills

The relation between teacher knowledge and skills and how these were influenced by teacher education was examined with 171 secondary mathematics teachers. Six paper-and-pencil and video tests were applied to assess content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and general pedagogical knowledge as well as diagnostic, teaching and classroom management skills. It was hypothesized that the relation between these six cognitive facets was best approximated by distinguishing between levels of generalizability across different mathematics teaching situations. The data strongly supported this model in confirmatory factor analyses. The data also revealed the hypothesized differential relations between teacher cognitions and teacher education

Leistungstests zur Messung der professionellen Kompetenz frühpädagogischer Fachkräfte

Im Unterschied zur Lehrerforschung ist über das professionelle Wissen frühpädagogischer Fachkräfte kaum etwas bekannt. Der Beitrag stellt eine Testbatterie vor, die auf die Diagnose unterschiedlicher Ausprägungen des pädagogischen, mathematikdidaktischen und mathematischen Wissens angehender Frühpädagogen auf Gruppenebene ausgerichtet ist. In Mehrebenen-Mehrgruppen-Analysen basierend auf einer Vier-Kohorten-Stichprobe (N = 1851) weisen die Tests konfigurale und metrische sowie annäherungsweise skalare Messinvarianz über die Kohorten, das Geschlecht und die sprachliche Herkunft auf. Die aus der Lehrerforschung übernommene dreidimensionale Wissensstruktur konnte repliziert werden (faktorielle Validität), allerdings weist eine sparsamere zweidimensionale Modellierung eine ebensogute Passung auf. Vorhergesagte Zusammenhänge zwischen Testscores und Mathematik- bzw. Deutschnoten indizieren konvergente und diskriminante Validität. Die Tests sind sensitiv, indem sie vorhergesagte Unterschiede zwischen Fachschülern und Fachhochschülern sowie Ausbildungsbeginn und -ende abbilden. Fachschüler lösen selten Items, die basale Fachsprachlichkeit oder Bezüge auf Theorien erfordern. This article does not exactly replicate the final version published in the journal Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie. It is not a copy of the original published article and is not suitable for citation

Zusammenhänge zwischen professionellen Kompetenzen von Mathematiklehrkräften und fachspezifischer Unterrichtsqualität

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