Title: Do teacher characteristics matter? Findings from the PISA performance of Kosovar students

Authors: Arif Shala; Albulenë Grajcevci; Fadil Latifi

Addresses: AAB College, Prishtine, Kosovë ' University 'Isa Boletini' Mitrovicë, Mitrovica, Kosovë ' AAB College, Prishtine, Kosovë

Abstract: PISA continues to fundamentally influence educational policies and approaches globally. The present paper aims to explore the link between teacher characteristics and PISA student performance in the 2015 and 2018 assessments. Teacher characteristics such as providing feedback, showing an interest in students, providing help and assistance in most lessons are linked to higher achievement of students across all domains and years, compared to cases when teachers rarely or never show interest, provide feedback and help. Additionally, the findings showed that Kosovar students performed worse in the PISA 2018 compared to PISA 2015. While there is a small increase in reading literacy and mathematics between 2018 and 2015, this increase is not significant. The performance in science has significantly decreased in 2018, compared to 2015. Furthermore, the performance gap between public and private schools has increased significantly, by almost 100 points, with private schools continuing to perform higher across all domains.

Keywords: teacher characteristics; PISA; performance; teacher feedback; student achievement; international assessment; private schools; public schools; teacher assistance; Kosovo.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2021.119357

International Journal of Management in Education, 2021 Vol.15 No.6, pp.580 - 597

Received: 09 May 2020
Accepted: 02 Mar 2021
Published online: 01 Dec 2021 *

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