Teachers’ instructional strategies and their impact on learner performance in Grade 9 mathematics: Findings from TIMSS 2015 in South Africa

Abstract

Teachers use a variety of instructional strategies when they teach various mathematical topics and concepts. Some of these strategies have been found to positively affect the performance of learners while others do not. This study analysed the teacher questionnaire data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS) 2015 study in which the teachers indicated the instructional strategies that they used in the mathematics classrooms. The five instructional strategies that were determined from the groupings of the questions were teacher-teacher interaction, teacher-learner interaction, teacher explanation of the content, problem solving with direct teacher guidance and problem solving without direct teacher guidance. The results indicate that the two instructional strategies of problem solving with direct teacher guidance and teacher-teacher interaction were found to be significantly associated with learner performance across the four content domains of algebra, numbers, geometry and data and chance.