In both the United States and Europe, concerns have been raised about whether preservice and in-service training succeeds in equipping teachers with the professional knowledge they need to deliver consistently high-quality instruction. This article investigates the significance of teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge for high-quality instruction and student progress in secondary-level mathematics. It reports findings from a 1-year study conducted in Germany with a representative sample of Grade 10 classes and their mathematics teachers. Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge was theoretically and empirically distinguishable from their content knowledge. Multilevel structural equation models revealed a substantial positive effect of pedagogical content knowledge on students' learning gains that was mediated by the provision of cognitive activation and individual learning support. American Educational Research Journal March 2010, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 133-180 DOI: 10.3102/0002831209345157 Ó 2010 AERA. http://aerj.aera.netat Max Planck Ins on July 27, 2011 http://aerj.aera.net Downloaded from KEYWORDS: teacher knowledge, teacher education, mathematics, instruction, cognitive activation, hierarchical modeling with latent variables S ince Lee Shulman's presidential address at the 1985 American Educational Research Association meeting-in which Shulman went beyond the generic perspective of educational psychology, emphasizing the importance of domain-specific processes of learning and instruction-educational research JÜ RGEN BAUMERT is a co-director at Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Educational Research, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany; e-mail: sekbaumert@mpib-berlin.mpg.de. His research interests include research in teaching and learning, cultural comparisons, large-scale assessment, and cognitive and motivational development in adolescence. MAREIKE KUNTER is a research scientist at Max Planck Institute for Human Development, e-mail: kunter@mpib-berlin.mpg.de. Her research interests include teacher research, motivational processes in the classroom, and assessment of instructional processes. WERNER BLUM is a professor of mathematics education at University of Kassel, e-mail: blum@mathematik.uni-kassel.de. His research interests include empirical research on instructional quality in mathematics, national and international comparison studies in mathematics, approaches to application, modeling, and proofs in mathematics instruction. MARTIN BRUNNER is an associate professor at University of Luxembourg, e-mail: martin.brunner@uni.lu. His research interests include research on cognitive abilities, achievement, and achievement motivation by means of modern measurement models. THAMAR VOSS is a predoctoral research fellow at Max Planck Institute for Human Development, e-mail: voss@mpib-berlin.mpg.de. Her research interests include research on instruction and learning, teacher research, and teacher beliefs. ALEXANDER JORDAN is an academic staff member at University of Biel...

This study investigates teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, professional beliefs, work-related motivation, and self-regulation as aspects of their professional competence. Specifically, it examines how these aspects impact instruction and, in turn, student outcomes. In a nationally representative sample of 194 German secondary school mathematics classes, multiple measures were used to assess teacher competence, instructional quality, and students’ achievement and motivation. The effect of teachers’ professional competence on student outcomes was estimated in a 1-year repeated-measures design. Two-level structural equation models revealed positive effects of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, enthusiasm for teaching, and self-regulatory skills on instructional quality, which in turn affected student outcomes. In contrast, teachers’ general academic ability did not affect their instruction. The multidimensional model of teachers’ professional competence introduced in this article seems suited to stimulate further research on the personal indicators of teacher quality.

No abstract