This study explored whether and how teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching contributes to gains in students’ mathematics achievement. The authors used a linear mixed-model methodology in which first and third graders’ mathematical achievement gains over a year were nested within teachers, who in turn were nested within schools. They found that teachers’ mathematical knowledge was significantly related to student achievement gains in both first and third grades after controlling for key student- and teacher-level covariates. This result, while consonant with findings from the educational production function literature, was obtained via a measure focusing on the specialized mathematical knowledge and skills used in teaching mathematics. This finding provides support for policy initiatives designed to improve students’ mathematics achievement by improving teachers’ mathematical knowledge.

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Effects of Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching on Student Achievement:

The role of improved schooling, a central part of most development strategies, has become controversial because expansion of school attainment has not guaranteed improved economic conditions. This paper reviews the role of cognitive skills in promoting economic well-being, with a particular focus on the role of school quality and quantity. It concludes that there is strong evidence that the cognitive skills of the population – rather than mere school attainment – are powerfully related to individual earnings, to the distribution of income, and to economic growth. New empirical results show the importance of both minimal and high level skills, the complementarity of skills and quality of economic institutions, and robustness of the relationship between skills and growth. International comparisons incorporating expanded data on cognitive skills reveal much larger skill deficits in developing countries than generally derived from just school enrollment and attainment. The magnitude of change needed makes clear that closing the economic gap with developed countries will require major structural changes in schooling institutions.

The role of cognitive skills in economic development

In both the United States and Europe, concerns have been raised about whether preservice and in-service training succeeds in equipping teachers with the professional knowledge they need to deliver consistently high-quality instruction. This article investigates the significance of teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge for high-quality instruction and student progress in secondary-level mathematics. It reports findings from a 1-year study conducted in Germany with a representative sample of Grade 10 classes and their mathematics teachers. Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge was theoretically and empirically distinguishable from their content knowledge. Multilevel structural equation models revealed a substantial positive effect of pedagogical content knowledge on students’ learning gains that was mediated by the provision of cognitive activation and individual learning support.

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Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge, Cognitive Activation in the Classroom, and Student Progress:

The role of improved schooling, a central part of most development strategies, has become controversial because expansion of school attainment has not guaranteed improved economic conditions. This paper reviews the role of cognitive skills in pro- moting economic well-being, with a particular focus on the role of school quality and quantity. It concludes that there is strong evidence that the cognitive skills of the population—rather than mere school attainment—are powerfully related to indi- vidual earnings, to the distribution of income, and to economic growth. New empiri- cal results show the importance of both minimal and high level skills, the comple- mentarity of skills and the quality of economic institutions, and the robustness of the relationship between skills and growth. International comparisons incorporating expanded data on cognitive skills reveal much larger skill deficits in developing coun - tries than generally derived from just school enrollment and attainment. The mag- nitude of change needed makes clear that closing the economic gap with developed countries will require major structural changes in schooling institutions.

/pdf/the-role-of-cognitive-skills-in-economic-development-4mrvfvvdzy.pdf

The Role of Cognitive Skills in Economic Development

This literature review focuses on education and health in its examination of the role that households and families play in choosing how to invest the human capital of their members. The introductory section describes the history of the development of economic models of the household and reviews how theoretical developments have become linked with data collection. The second section of the report looks at the effects of income on nutritional status and the reverse influence of nutrition (health) on labor productivity (income). Despite the controversies existing in the literature and the difficulties in choosing among the array of solutions to defined problems there is little doubt that investments in education and health enhance productivity fertility child health and child educational attainment. In an attempt to shed light on the underlying mechanisms in these relationships Section 3 focuses on the estimation of reduced form demands for human capital and considers the measurement of human capital; the effects of determinants such as education household resources and community resources; endogenous program placement and selective migration; and the possible estimation bias imposed by fertility and mortality selection. Section 4 continues this investigation by considering the process underlying the production of human capital in terms of the empirical issues involved in estimation of static and dynamic production functions as well as applications to child health and applications to educational attainment. Section 5 relates labor productivity to education and considers data issues the functional form of studies ability family background and school quality. Recent developments in modeling household behavior in a dynamic setting are reviewed in Section 6 and Section 7 describes links among individuals households and families. The concluding section notes that continued integration of survey data collection with theoretical frameworks will lead to a substantial improvement in our understanding of the magnitude of the significance of the effects predicted by the theory.

Human resources: empirical modeling of household and family decisions.

Education policy in developing countries is often expressed as a tradeoff between quality of schools and equity of access by students. The analysis behind this book demonstrates that such a distinction may be artificial. The research, which emerged from an effort to improve educational performance in rural northeast Brazil, shows that improving the quality of schools could lead to gains in efficiency that more than offset the direct costs of the improvements. Through the cost savings they generate, quality improvements can also increase equity of access. This quantitative assessment of eduational performance and school promotion in primary schools is unique in its ability to address directly a range of important policy concerns facing developing countries. The study relies on longitudinal data collected over seven years to evaluate the EDURURAL project, an educational intervention by the Brazilian government supported by the World Bank. The extensive data base permits more precise analysis of the underlying determinants of student achievement and promotion than was previously possible. The study includes a standard investigation of teachers and resources. In addition it examines the relationships between both achievement and promotion and student health and promotion and considers the likely effects of differences in teachers' skills and knowledge of subject matter.

Harbison, Ralph W. Hanushek, Eric A.

Papers

Educational Performance of the Poor: Lessons from Rural Northeast Brazil