Upcoming dissertations

Final seminar

Zahra Hasani Yourdshahi, IPS 

Does Teaching Quality Compensate for Educational Inequity in Swedish Science classrooms

Date and time: January 30th 10.00-12.00
Place: A1 336, Hus A, Pedagogen, Västra Hamngatan 25  
Zoom: Zoom Link Meeting ID: 683 8007 5018 | Passcode: 353366
 

Despite the recognized importance of teacher practices in enhancing equitable and effective learning, much of the research on teachers’ impact on student outcomes has been conducted outside the Nordic context and has predominantly focused on mathematics. This dissertation explores the role of teaching quality in promoting educational equity in science education by examining whether teachers’ practices can mitigate the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on student achievement in Swedish grade eight. Grounded in the Teacher Quality Framework (Goe, 2007) and the Three Basic Dimensions of Teaching Quality (Klieme et al., 2009), the dissertation investigates relations between teachers’ cognitive activation practices (generic and subject-specific), teacher characteristics, classroom SES composition, and student achievement in biology, chemistry, and physics. It further applies the Expectancy-Value Theory (Eccles, 2002) to examine the relationship between teaching quality, individual students’ motivational beliefs, classroom motivation climate, and achievement across the three science subjects. Drawing on Swedish data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015, 2019, and 2023 cycles, the dissertation adopts a quantitative methodology including Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling (MSEM), and within-student between subjects fixed-effects analyses, using student reported and teacher-reported measures of instructional practices, student-reported motivational beliefs, and achievement outcomes. Across the studies, the results show limited evidence that teachers’ cognitive activation practices predict science achievement or mitigate socioeconomic disparities.

Study I, using Swedish TIMSS 2019 data and MSEM, found that biology achievement was positively related to teaching experience, while chemistry teachers’ education level was negatively related to receptive scientific practices and teaching experience was positively related to hands-on scientific practices in chemistry and physics. Classroom SES composition was positively related to achievement in biology, chemistry, and physics. However, teachers’ cognitive 
activation practices (generic and subject-specific) did not impact the relationship between student home educational resources and achievement across the three science subdomains. 
Study II, drawing on TIMSS 2019 and MSEM, showed that student confidence in biology, chemistry, and physics was positively associated with achievement at the individual level. The 
findings further suggest that instructional clarity plays the most meaningful role in supporting achievement, primarily indirectly through classroom motivation climate in chemistry, whereas 
other teaching quality dimensions and classroom motivation showed limited mediating effects, and contextual factors such as SES composition continued to exert strong direct effects largely 
unmediated by teaching quality or motivation climate. 

Study III, using TIMSS 2015, 2019, and 2023 and student fixed-effects models exploiting within-student variation across science subjects, found null within-student effects of cognitive activation on science achievement and no evidence of an SES gradient.
Taken together, the findings highlight the continued importance of socioeconomic context for science achievement and indicate that the compensatory role of the examined teaching quality dimensions is limited in Swedish lower-secondary science classrooms. The 
results underscore the need for further in-depth research on the conditions and mechanisms through which teaching practices translate into learning gains and educational equity in 
biology, chemistry, and physics.

Seminar leader: Sally Windsor, docent, University of Gothenburg
Opponent: Nani Teig, Professor of Science Education, Department of Teacher Education and School Research University of Oslo, Norway
Supervisor: Kajsa Yang Hansen, professor, University of Gothenburg
Assisting supervisor: Linda Borg and Leah Natasha Glassow, University of Gothenburg. 

The seminar is in english. Contact Zahra Hasani Yourdshahi if you have any questions. 

Past dissertations

Mari Lindström

Relationships with student achievement 

Date: May 23 
Time: 13:00
Place: Kjell Härnqvistsalen (AK2 155) Hus A, Pedagogen, Västra hamngatan 25
The dissertation is broadcasted via the following Zoom-link. 

Disputation Mari Paloniemi Lindström |University of Gothenburg

Teacher competence is a widely-debated topic in the educational research. While it is acknowledged that the quality of teachers matters for student learning and performance, there is ongoing discussion about which aspects of quality matter most. This thesis explores how various aspects of teachers’ professional competence and working conditions relate to student achievement in the Swedish middle school context (grades 4-6). The thesis comprises three empirical studies and utilizes International large-scale assessment data (TIMSS and PIRLS) as well as register data to explore these relationships. Studies I and II investigate how different teacher qualifications, teachers’ reading specializations, reading comprehension activities, and cognitive activation strategies in grade 4 are associated with student performance in mathematics and reading in grade 4 and across multiple subjects in grade 6. Study III explores the influence of teachers’ working conditions and school climate on teacher job satisfaction and student achievement in grade 4. 

The findings lend support to the importance of formal education level and teachers’ subject-specific specializations for student performance. The findings further suggest that teachers’ reading comprehension activities and their cognitive activation strategies in grade 4 may have positive long-term cross-subject influences. In addition, the thesis highlights the importance of a positive school climate for both teacher job satisfaction and student performance

Opponent: professor, Rolf Vegar Olsen, Oslo University (UiO)
Supervisor: docent Stefan Johansson, University of Gothenburg
Assisting supervisor: Senior researcher Linda Borger, University of Gothenburg

Teachers' Professional Competence and Working Conditions in Swedish Schools. Relationships with Student Achievement

Lena Asp

A student perspective of a mathematics classroom

Date: June 13th 
Time: 09:00
Place: AK2 137, Pedagogen Hus A, Västra hamngatan 25
The dissertation will be broadcasted via Zoom webbinarium. Link will be published shortly before. 

Disputation Lena Asp | Göteborgs universitet

High-quality teaching is assumed to provide students with learning opportunities that may mitigate educational inequities and narrow achievement gaps. However, empirical findings are mixed, while some studies report significant, positive relations between teaching quality and student learning outcomes, others do not. Measuring the multidimensional construct of teaching quality presents conceptual and methodological challenges. In the thesis, teaching quality is operationalised through aggregated student perceptions of mathematics teachers’ practices and instruction, yielding a valid and reliable measure.

This thesis comprises three empirical studies using secondary data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 for Grade 4. Study I examines the construct validity of the mixed-worded mathematics confidence scale and the linguistic equivalence across translated questionnaire items. Study II investigates the relationships between aspects of teaching quality and the two outcomes of mathematics confidence and mathematics achievement in Sweden, both at the student and classroom levels. Study III extends the analysis to include a cross-national comparison of four Nordic countries, investigating classroom composition effects while accounting for student background factors.

The findings showed that classroom management related positively to mathematics achievement, while instructional clarity was significantly related to mathematics confidence. There are indications that teaching quality may mitigate the negative influence of low SES on academic achievement. Classroom level composition effects were observed across the Nordic countries, with SES and home language as key factors for classroom-level mathematics achievement.

Opponent: Leonidas Kyriakides, professor, University of Cyprus
Supervisor:  Alli Klapp, docent, University of Gothenburg
Assisting supervisor: Victoria Rolfe, senior researcher, University of Gothenburg

You can read the entire publication in the link below:
http://hdl.handle.net/2077/85610