Dialogic teaching practices and student performance in mathematics in Asian countries

Improving the mathematics performance of school children is an objective for many policy-makers around the world. Student-centered interactive pedagogies like classroom discussions and other dialogic interaction practices have been considered the best practice to engage learners effectively in the l...

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Main Authors: Volker Schöer, Jose G. Clavel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AIMS Press 2024-10-01
Series:AIMS Mathematics
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Online Access:https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/math.20241391?viewType=HTML
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author Volker Schöer
Jose G. Clavel
author_facet Volker Schöer
Jose G. Clavel
author_sort Volker Schöer
collection DOAJ
description Improving the mathematics performance of school children is an objective for many policy-makers around the world. Student-centered interactive pedagogies like classroom discussions and other dialogic interaction practices have been considered the best practice to engage learners effectively in the learning process. However, dialogic teaching practices are least used in most Asian countries that on average achieve the highest mathematics scores in international assessments. Based on this conundrum, this paper utilized a large-scale education dataset for five Asian countries, namely the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) dataset for learner data from Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore to examine the relationship between dialogic classroom interaction teaching practices and the mathematics performance of 8th-grade learners. Using a within-learner-between-subject estimation strategy to account for endogeneity, we established that learners who are taught more frequently through dialogic interactive teaching practices in mathematics classes achieve higher mathematics scores. Our results confirm that interactive pedagogies do provide learning benefits, even in countries that use them sparingly. Thus, our findings challenge the held assumption that the efficacy of dialogic classroom interaction practices is context and learning culture specific. Nevertheless, our study also shows that the highly endogenous nature of the teaching and learning environment and learner performance limits the ability of any study that uses observational data to establish the true impact of dialogic practices on learner mathematics performance.
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spelling doaj-art-617c973810e247d0a995b8c101d59ab42025-08-20T02:12:14ZengAIMS PressAIMS Mathematics2473-69882024-10-01910286712869710.3934/math.20241391Dialogic teaching practices and student performance in mathematics in Asian countriesVolker Schöer0Jose G. Clavel 11. School of Economics and Finance, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 2. School of Business and Economics, University of Tübingen, Germany3. Department of Quantitative Methods, Universidad de Murcia, SpainImproving the mathematics performance of school children is an objective for many policy-makers around the world. Student-centered interactive pedagogies like classroom discussions and other dialogic interaction practices have been considered the best practice to engage learners effectively in the learning process. However, dialogic teaching practices are least used in most Asian countries that on average achieve the highest mathematics scores in international assessments. Based on this conundrum, this paper utilized a large-scale education dataset for five Asian countries, namely the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) dataset for learner data from Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore to examine the relationship between dialogic classroom interaction teaching practices and the mathematics performance of 8th-grade learners. Using a within-learner-between-subject estimation strategy to account for endogeneity, we established that learners who are taught more frequently through dialogic interactive teaching practices in mathematics classes achieve higher mathematics scores. Our results confirm that interactive pedagogies do provide learning benefits, even in countries that use them sparingly. Thus, our findings challenge the held assumption that the efficacy of dialogic classroom interaction practices is context and learning culture specific. Nevertheless, our study also shows that the highly endogenous nature of the teaching and learning environment and learner performance limits the ability of any study that uses observational data to establish the true impact of dialogic practices on learner mathematics performance.https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/math.20241391?viewType=HTMLtimssplausible valuesteaching mathematics strategiesstudent achievementdialogic classroom interaction pedagogiesasian teaching and learning culturechinese learner paradox
spellingShingle Volker Schöer
Jose G. Clavel
Dialogic teaching practices and student performance in mathematics in Asian countries
AIMS Mathematics
timss
plausible values
teaching mathematics strategies
student achievement
dialogic classroom interaction pedagogies
asian teaching and learning culture
chinese learner paradox
title Dialogic teaching practices and student performance in mathematics in Asian countries
title_full Dialogic teaching practices and student performance in mathematics in Asian countries
title_fullStr Dialogic teaching practices and student performance in mathematics in Asian countries
title_full_unstemmed Dialogic teaching practices and student performance in mathematics in Asian countries
title_short Dialogic teaching practices and student performance in mathematics in Asian countries
title_sort dialogic teaching practices and student performance in mathematics in asian countries
topic timss
plausible values
teaching mathematics strategies
student achievement
dialogic classroom interaction pedagogies
asian teaching and learning culture
chinese learner paradox
url https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/math.20241391?viewType=HTML
work_keys_str_mv AT volkerschoer dialogicteachingpracticesandstudentperformanceinmathematicsinasiancountries
AT josegclavel dialogicteachingpracticesandstudentperformanceinmathematicsinasiancountries