Classroom Context

Classroom context includes factors related to teachers, attributes of students that limit teaching, and students’ attitude toward learning a subject. The overwhelming majority of fourth and eighth graders in Middle Eastern schools were taught by university graduates, but there was no clear relationship between teachers’ major and student achievement in mathematics and science. Teachers in all countries participated in professional development in a variety of areas, two of which comprised future needs: “integrating technology into instruction” and “improving students’ critical thinking skills”. However, the time spent on professional development made little impact on reading achievement. The association between teachers’ job satisfaction and students’ achievement was not consistent across countries, but average scores were generally higher among students of the “very satisfied” teachers as compared to those with the “somewhat satisfied” teachers. Teaching was limited by students not ready for instruction due to lack of prerequisite knowledge or skills and hunger, leading to substantial differences in average student scores between classrooms where teaching was limited “a lot” and other classrooms. Students who liked, valued, or were confident in a subject scored much higher, on average, than those who did not like, value or were confident in that subject.