Teacher Characteristics and Student Test Scores in Tanzania
Student learning outcomes in African countries such as Tanzania are usually relatively low compared to their counterparts in developed countries. The reasons behind the low education achievement in the developing countries have been studied by numerous researchers and it was found that teacher characteristics, such as teacher knowledge of the subjects they teach, teacher absence, have consequential effects on educational outcomes. In my study, I examined which teacher characteristics (teacher knowledge of the subjects they teach, classroom management skills and pedagogy) are correlated with higher student test scores in the context of Tanzania. I used a dataset from EQUIP-T and ran an OLS regression to test the correlation between these teacher characteristics and student test scores. As a result, I found that teacher knowledge of the subjects they teach, classroom management skills and pedagogy were all not significantly correlated with student test scores. In the regions the data was collected, most teachers did not possess adequate level of knowledge to teach, could not use classroom management skills wisely, and had poor pedagogy. Therefore, these three teacher characteristics did not show significant correlation with student test scores.