Page 5 - IDEA Studie 5 2022 Vyucovaci metody

Study 5 / 2022 The intensity of teachers’ use of teaching methods and its impact on learning outcomes2 MARCH 2022 VÁCLAV KORBEL Summary • One of the two principal aims of the Czech Republic’s national Strategy for Education Policy up to 2030+ is to transform both the content of school curricula and the methods used to teach them. For example, greater emphasis is to be placed on group activities, project-based teaching, the application of knowledge to various contexts and enquiry-based learning. Yet, to date, rather few studies have analysed how different types of teaching methods are used by primary school teachers in the Czech Republic or at the equivalent level abroad and what impacts their use has on learning outcomes. • This study uses longitudinal data from a representative sample of primary school pupils to analyse what percentage of lessons — in the Czech Republic and abroad — make use of four specific teaching approaches: 1) lecturing, 2) appropriation, 3) comprehension and 4) testing. We then look into the relationship between these teaching methods and pupils’ progress in reading skills and mathematics between the fourth and sixth years of primary school. The data on teaching methods was gathered from fourth year primary school teachers via a questionnaire as part of TIMSS 2011. To estimate the relationship between teaching methods and learning outcomes, we make use of the fact that the pupils were tested in two subjects in both years. This means that we can estimate the difference in progress made when pupils are taught using each method with greater or lesser intensity in the two subjects (pupil level fixed-effects). 2 This study represents the author’s own views and not the official position of the Czech Academy of Sciences’ Economics Institute nor the Charles University Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education CERGE). The author would like to thank Barbara Pertold-Gebicka, David Greger, Filip Pertold, Daniel Münich, and Jiří Münich for their valuable comments and advice. Any remaining errors are the authors’ own. The study was produced also with support from the MPI Czech Republic, and Czech Academy of Sciences as part the of the Strategy AV21 program Society in Motion and Public Policies. 3