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Do Teachers' College Majors Affect Students' Academic Achievement in the Sciences? A Cross-Subfields Analysis with Student-Teacher Fixed Effects

Author

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  • Inoue, Atsushi

    (Nippon Institute for Research Advancement)

  • Tanaka, Ryuichi

    (University of Tokyo)

Abstract

We examine whether and how teachers' major fields of study affect students' achievement, exploiting within-student variation across subfields in natural science (i.e., physics, chemistry, biology, and Earth science). Using middle-school students' data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and controlling student-teacher fixed effects, we find that teachers with college majors in natural sciences improve students' achievement of subfields in natural sciences corresponding to their subfields of college majors. Teaching practices explain about half of the effect of teachers' major fields. Most of the effects of teaching practices are accounted for by teachers' preparation for teaching science topics. The results are robust to potential endogenous matching between students and teachers.

Suggested Citation

  • Inoue, Atsushi & Tanaka, Ryuichi, 2022. "Do Teachers' College Majors Affect Students' Academic Achievement in the Sciences? A Cross-Subfields Analysis with Student-Teacher Fixed Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 15101, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15101
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    Cited by:

    1. Suguru Otani & Tohya Sugano, 2024. "A Note on Identification of Match Fixed Effects as Interpretable Unobserved Match Affinity," Papers 2406.18913, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    college major; natural science; teacher; education; middle school; TIMSS;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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