Objectives and Research Question

International comparative research has repeatedly shown that students across countries differ in their academic achievement and that these differences can only partly be explained by individual student characteristics. To further clarify the variance in average achievement, investigations commonly focus on classroom, school, and national levels. The classroom level is of interest for policymakers in particular, as it constitutes malleable structures and characteristics, closest to the individual level of achievement.

Since the institutionalization of education, researchers and practitioners alike, search for the best instructional method and the ‘good teacher’ (Weinert & Helmke, 1996). Further, meta-analyses by Hattie (2009) have shown that school characteristics and instructional variables influence the knowledge gain of students. The relationship between classroom characteristics and students’ academic achievement has however mainly been evaluated within national contexts (Palardy & Rumberger, 2008). From an international comparative perspective respective comprehensive studies are lacking.

Lankes and Carstensen (2007) have made a first step to describe country-specific instructional profiles, analyzing data from 13 countries that participated in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006. Profiles were based on the characteristics of good instruction, which Köller (2012), based on Hattie’s meta-analyses (2009), has recently validated to be associated with students’ academic achievement. These characteristics include: cognitive activation, methodological diversity, and individual support. In their analyses Lankes and Carstensen (2007) identified instructional profiles of teachers with regard to those characteristics, and showed that countries yield one of these profiles as a dominant type. 
So far it has, however, not been asked whether different dominant instructional profiles across countries are related with students’ academic achievement.

Based on these former findings, the paper investigates whether the instructional profiles can be replicated including further countries/provinces. It moreover asks whether there is a relationship between instructional profiles and average student achievement across countries. Moreover, the paper examines if relationships between different instructional profiles and average achievement of students, who were taught by teachers of this profile, vary significantly between countries.

Hattie, J. A. C. (2009). Visible learning. A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Oxon: Routledge. Köller, O. (2012). What works best in school? Hatties Befunde zu Effekten von Schul- und Unterrichtsvariablen auf Schulleistungen [Hattie’s findings on effects of school and teaching variables on academic achievement]. Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht. 59, 72 – 78. Lankes, E.-M. & Carstensen, C. H. (2007). Der Leseunterricht aus der Sicht der Lehrkräfte [Reading instruction from teachers‘ perspective]. In W. Bos, S. Hornberg, K.-H. Arnold, G. Faust, L. Fried, E.-M. Lankes, K. Schwippert & R. Valtin (Hrsg.), IGLU 2006. Lesekompetenzen von Grundschulkindern in Deutschland im internationalen Vergleich (pp. 161-193). Münster: Waxmann. Palardy, G. J. & Rumberger, R. W. (2008). Teacher effectiveness in first grade: the importance of background qualifications, attitudes and instructional practices for student learning. Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 30 (2), 111-140. Weinert, F. E. & Helmke, A. (1996). Der gute Lehrer: Person, Funktion oder Fiktion? [The good teacher: person, function, or fiction?]. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 34, 223-233.