Does formal teacher competence matter for students’ mathematics achievement? Results from Swedish TIMSS 2019

Figures & data

Table 1. Teacher education categories in primary school 1972 – today.

Years	Teacher category
1972–1988	Lower primary teacher grades 1–3
	Upper primary teacher grades 4–6
1988–2001	Mathematics and sciences grades 1–7
	Swedish and social sciences grades 1–7
	Mathematics and sciences grades 4–9
	Swedish and another language grades 4–9
	Social sciences grades 4–9
2001–2011	Teacher degree Earlier grades 1–5/6
	Teacher degree Later grades 6/7–9
2011–	Lower primary teacher Preschool class – grade 3
	Upper primary teacher grades 4–6

Table 2. Demographics of participating teachers in TIMSS 2019.

	N	Percent
Gender female	2786	70.3
Teacher age
Under 25	43	1.1
25–29	459	11.6
30–39	692	17.5
40–49	1372	34.6
50–59	700	17.7
60 or more	303	7.6
Years been teaching
Less than 4	880	22.2
5–7	580	14.6
8–14	694	17.5
15–21	660	16.6
22+	656	16.5
Education primary	3120	78.7
Education secondary	492	12.4
Major mathematics	2216	55.9
Specialization mathematics	2816	71.0

Figure 1. Specialization for teaching primary mathematics.

Table 3. Frequencies of professional development in the past two years.

Professional development content area/context	Frequency	Percent
0 None	1269	32.0
1 Content area	765	19.3
2 Content areas	545	13.7
3 Content areas	114	2.9
4–7 Content areas	740	18.7
Total	3433	86.6
Missing	532	13.4
Total	3965	100

Table 4. Level of formal education completed.

	N	Percent
Did not complete upper secondary education	0	0
Upper secondary education	126	3.2
Post-secondary, non-tertiary education	29	0.7
Short-cycle tertiary education	221	5.6
Bachelor’s or equivalent level	2365	59.6
Master’s or equivalent level	395	10.0
Doctoral or equivalent	0	0
Missing	829	20.9
Total	3965	100

Table 5. Descriptive statistics of Lang, Books, and Math_ach.

Variable name	Label	N	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	SD
Lang	Often speak Swedish at home	3857	1	4	1.59	0.85
Books	Number of books in your home	3841	1	5	2.99	1.22
Math_ach	Mathematics achievement	3965	260.78	755.35	521.23	73.28

Table 6. Descriptive statistics of parent’s reported student skills before starting primary school.

	N	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	SD
Read sentences	3234	1	4	2.56	1.01
Write words	3245	1	4	2.98	0.89
Write numbers	3224	1	4	2.90	0.92

Figure 2. Measurement model of latent mathematics teacher competence on between level.

Note: Coefficients are significant at p < .001.

Figure 3. Relations between mathematics teacher competence for primary school and student achievement.

Note: The relations between mathematics teacher competence for primary school and student achievement, controlled for student SES and immigrant background/classroom composition at the individual/classroom level.

Table 7. Means, standard deviations and correlations for dependent variable and independent variables at classroom level.

	1.	2.	3.	4.	5.	6.	7.	8.
1. Formal	1.00
2. Pro_dev	0.13	1.00
3. Yrs	0.13	−0.10	1.00
4. Spec	0.33	0.05	0.18	1.00
5. Math_ach	0.08	0.04	0.11	0.12	1.00
6. Lang	0.00	0.05	−0.05	−0.06	−0.19	1.00
7. Books	0.07	0.03	0.09	0.10	0.44	−0.30	1.00
8. Early_litnum	0.06	−0.02	0.03	0.10	0.33	0.05	0.09	1.00
M	4.93	1.54	13.07	3.10	523.10	1.58	3.94	2.72
SD	0.78	1.80	10.67	1.38	72.70	0.84	1.14	0.75

Table 8. Relationships between student mathematics achievement and formal teacher competence for primary school.

Outcome	Predictor	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4
Mathematics achievement
Within	Books		.30*** (.02)		.29*** (.02)
	Lang			-.11*** (.02)	-.06* (.02)
Between	TCH_COMP	.51*** (.10)	.21* (.11)	.35*** (.10)	.21* (.10)
	Books		.74*** (.07)		.58*** (.09)
	Lang			-.59*** (.07)	-.26** (.08)
	TCH_COMP with Lang			-.20 (.12)	– .20 (.12)
	TCH_COM with Books		.33*** (.11)		.34** (.11)
ICC		0.185	0.186	0.186	0.185
R^2w			.09*** (.01)	.01** (.00)	.09*** (.01)
R^2b		.26* (.13)	.70*** (.06)	.55*** (.08)	.74*** (.06)
χ^2 (df) (SD)		2.33 (2)	3.77 (4)	5.66 (4)	6.40 (6)
RMSEA (SD)		.01 (.00)	.00 (.00)	.01 (.00)	.00 (.00)
CFI (SD)		.99 (.01)	1.00 (.00)	.99 (.00)	1.00 (.00)
TLI (SD)		.98 (.03)	1.00 (.00)	.97 (.01)	1.00 (.00)
SRMRw (SD)		.00 (.00)	.00 (.00)	.00 (.00)	.00 (.00)
SRMRb (SD)		.03 (.00)	.04 (.00)	.04 (.00)	.04 (.00)

Notes: Standardized estimates at the within/between level.

*Coefficients are significant at p < .05.

**Coefficients are significant at p < .01.

***Coefficients are significant at p < .001. Clusters N = 224, average cluster size = 17.70.

Table

Outcome	Predictor	Regression 1	Regression 2	Regression 3	Regression 4	Regression 5	Regression 6	Regression 7	Regression 8	Regression 9
Mathematics achievement
Within
Between	Formal	.21*** (.06)					.10 (.08)	.09 (.08)	.14 (.08)	.13 (.08)
	Spec		.23** (.08)				.17 (.10)	.16 (.10)	.17 (.09)	.16 (.09)
	Yrs			.26** (.08)			.26**(.09)		.19* (.09)
	Yrs_cat				.30*** (.08)			.25**(.09)		.21** (.09)
	Pro_dev					.07 (.07)	.09 (.07)	.08 (.07)
ICC		0.188	0.184	0.183	0.183	0.184	0.193	0.193	0.190	0.190
R^2		.05 (.03)	.05 (.04)	.07 (.04)	.09 (.05)	.005 (.01)	.15** (.06)	.14* (.06)	.12* (.05)	.12* (.05)
AIC (SD)		35539.10 (38.33)	44893.70 (40.78)	39284.13 (42.45)	39280.23 (42.63)	38131.97 (38.40)	33171.38 (41.49)	33172.47 (41.42)	34833.64 (41.26)	34832.54 (41.36)
BIC (SD)		35550.59 (38.33)	44918.84 (40.78)	39308.74 (42.45)	39304.84 (42.63)	38156.46 (38.40)	33213.25 (41.49)	33214.34 (41.42)	34869.82 (41.26)	34868.72 (41.36)

*Coefficients are significant at p < .05.

**Coefficients are significant at p < .01.

***Coefficients are significant at p < .001.

Table

Level	Indicator	CFA1	CFA2	CFA3^a
Between	Formal	.53*(.15)	.51* (15)	.64* (.22)
	Spec	.67* (.15)	.53* (.12)	.78* (.17)
	Yrs	.28* (.06)
	Yrs_cat		.41* (.09)	.69* (14)
AIC		2622.242	1904.403	1670.021
BIC		2677.862	1960.971	1770.585

Note: Clusters N = 224, average cluster size = 17.70.

*Coefficients are significant at p < .001.

^a All indicators are treated as categorical.