Effective teaching, teacher-student relation, student engagement and student mathematical achievement

This study tries to investigate the effects of effective teaching of mathematics on teacher-student relationship (TSR), student engagement (StEn) and student mathematical achievement. A questionnaire is developed to measure the above three constructs in this study, and examination results at the end of the academic year are obtained as the measure of achievement. Confirmatory factor analysis shows that the constructs measured by the questionnaire have reliability and validity. Structural equation modelling confirms the proposal that effective teaching will affect TSRs, StEn, and mathematical examination scores. Teaching effectiveness as measured by students’ responses to the questionnaire can account for 14% of the variance of students’ final examination score. This study may shed light on the causal effects of effective teaching on TSR, StEn and mathematical achievement. Findings of this study may inform teachers of approaches in teaching to enhance students’ achievement in mathematics.