Associations between student-perceived teaching quality and students’ mathematics confidence and mathematics achievement: A study of Swedish grade 4 TIMSS 2019

Abstract Students’ socioeconomic background is a strong predictor of academic achievement. Likewise, teaching quality is considered an important prerequisite influencing students’ educational opportunities and their academic achievement and affective outcomes. Empirically, there is still a need for research on these presumed relations. Especially on the associations between younger students’ perceptions of teaching quality and students’ mathematics achievement and mathematics confidence. Drawing theoretically on educational effectiveness research, this study investigated relationships between aspects of teaching quality (classroom management and instructional clarity) and mathematics achievement and mathematics confidence. These relationships were explored in a secondary analysis of students’ perceptions of their teacher’s activities and instructions as indicators of teaching quality. The rationale is that students experience and perceive the teacher’s actions in the classroom, and they may be influenced differently. Aggregating students’ perceptions at the classroom level will decrease the bias of individual ratings. The sample comprised grade four data from the Swedish 2019 cycle of the IEA Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) ( N = 3,965). Multilevel structural equation modelling was used to keep classroom variation separate from individual variation when exploring associations between classroom management and instructional clarity and mathematics achievement, and mathematics confidence. Results showed that at the classroom level, mathematics achievement is strongly related to aggregated classroom management. At the individual level, classroom management was associated significantly with mathematics achievement, and instructional clarity with mathematics confidence. Additionally, teaching quality could be beneficial for students with lower SES backgrounds, as findings indicated an achievement gap between classrooms in Sweden. Limitations and implications are discussed.