Teacher professional development and student achievement in mathematics: a cross-national analysis of TIMSS

Over the years, policy making has been globally concerned about the degree of
effectiveness of Teacher Professional Development (TPD) on teacher practices and student achievement. Educational research has contributed by identifying core features of these activities that are relevant to generate positive impacts. According to empirical evidence, one feature of TPD learning activities (focus on content knowledge, instead of generic behaviours for teaching) is likely to be particularly important for student achievement. However, this interaction may be sensitive to contextual conditions, therefore larger scale and comparative
designs are needed to estimate this association across multiple contexts. This study explores the specific contribution of TPD focused on mathematics content knowledge on student achievement. Through a secondary analysis of cross-national data produced in the context of the recent "Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)" 2011, this link is examined with focus on US data. Following and Ordinary Least Squares strategy, the analysis explores contrasts with Japan, Finland and England, while student and teacher characteristics are used as control variables. Findings indicate that TPD focused on mathematics content is rather innocuous to student achievement in the US and that in countries such as England and Japan, the association can be even negative, though with small effect sizes.