Frequency of General Collaboration Among Math Teachers

From APEC HRDWG Wiki

Teacher quality is an important aspect of any education system and although debate exists as to what exactly constitutes a teacher quality indicator, most observers agree that teacher collaboration is one element that relates to the quality or effectiveness of the teacher. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is administered to 4th and 8th grade students across various APEC economies to test student curriculum-based knowledge. The TIMSS also administers a teacher questionnaire to the teachers of the students surveyed. This questionnaire includes many items related to teacher quality, such as collaboration among teachers. Although not all APEC economies participate in the TIMSS, the data that is available allows for a comparison of various factors across participating APEC economies. The rest of this page contains information on the frequency of general collaboration among Mathematics teachers of those teachers surveyed during the 2007 TIMSS in the selected participating APEC economies.

For other information on teacher quality, please visit the Teacher Quality Portal page.

Summary

In the majority of the selected APEC economies and on average internationally, most 4th grade Mathematics teachers collaborated with other teachers 2 to 3 times a month. The greatest percentage of teachers that never or almost never collaborated was 20% in Chinese Taipei and the greatest percentage of teachers that collaborated daily or almost daily was 50% in the Russian Federation.

For the selected economies that appeared on both graphs, a greater percentage of 8th grade Math teachers than 4th grade Math teachers reported never or almost never collaborating with other teachers. Similarly, Japan and Hong Kong were the only economies in which the percent of teachers reporting daily or almost daily collaboration increased from 4th to 8th grade teachers. In other words, although the majority of both 4th and 8th grade Math teachers reported collaborating 2 to 3 times a month, the percentage reporting never or almost never collaborating increased between 4th and 8th grade, while the percentage of daily or almost daily collaboration decreased between 4th and 8th grade teachers.

(Not all of the economies were included in both graphs because of data availability).

Chart 1. Frequency of General Collaboration Among 4th Grade Math Teachers 

Chart 2. Frequency of General Collaboration Among 8th Grade Math Teachers