Lack of skills and teachers harm students

Research has linked low academic skills when children start school and a lack of qualified maths teachers with Australia’s poor showing on international tests.

Australian students were starting school with lower literacy and numeracy skills compared to the international average.

A lack of academic skills upon starting school coupled with a shortage of specialist mathematics teachers could be contributing to Australian students’ poor performance on international tests.

New analysis of the latest Trends in International Maths and Science Study has revealed that Australian primary school students were half as likely to receive specialist maths teaching than their international peers — just 16 per cent compared with 32 per cent.

Students were also starting school with lower literacy and numeracy skills compared to the international average, it found, particularly at schools deemed at socio-economic disadvantage.

The analysis, conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research, sought to examine factors behind Australia’s 2019 TIMMS results, which revealed that 30 per cent of Year 4 students struggled with basic maths, causing the nation to be ranked 27th out of 58 partici­pating countries.

ACER deputy chief executive Sue Thomson said lower student literacy and numeracy skills at the time of starting school could be contributing to Australia’s poor achievement.

Those skills, as observed by school principals, included recognising and writing letters of the alphabet, reading and writing some words, including the child’s name, counting higher than 10 and doing simple addition and subtraction.

Dr Thomson said the problem was more marked at disadvantaged schools, where student’s literacy and numeracy skills were substantially lower upon school entry than at more affluent schools and maths teachers were less likely to have a specialist maths qualification.

“You could say it’s a double whammy, in that they’re behind when they start and they’re not getting what they need to catch up,” Dr Thomson said.

“It’s vital we have teachers with strong pedagogical knowledge to be able to help students whatever their needs.”

The analysis, which comes as policymakers grapple with a chronic shortage of qualified maths teachers and amid a federal government-ordered review into initial teacher education, also examined the impact of teaching and school environment on student achievement in TIMMS.

Students who reported a “high clarity” of instruction during lessons, defined as a teacher who makes clear their expectations, explains maths concepts well, answers questions and explains a topic again when students don’t understand, scored significantly higher than those who reported “low clarity” instruction – an average 49 points higher in Year 4 and 53 points higher at Year 8.

Almost three-quarters of Year 4 students benefited from such instruction, while at Year 8 it was 40 per cent.

School ethos and academic expectations were also found to have an impact on student achievement, with students who attended schools where principals claimed a very high emphasis on academic success scoring on average 106 points higher in Year 8 maths. In contrast, poor discipline and disorderly classrooms were linked with lower scores.

Australian students reported higher levels of disorderly behaviour than the international average, with three-quarters of Year 4 students reporting disorderly behaviour, such as disruptive noise levels or interruptions to the teacher, in some lessons and 17 per cent in most lessons. At Year 8, 65 per cent of Australian students reported disorderly behaviour in some lessons and 24 per cent in most lessons.

Dr Thomson said the government’s proposal to entice more professionals to become teachers, such as the Teach for Australia program, faced numerous barriers, including teaching being a low-pay, low-status profession.