Is Traditional Teaching Really All That Bad? A Within-Student Between-Subject Approach

34 Pages Posted: 29 Apr 2009

See all articles by Guido Schwerdt

Guido Schwerdt

University of Konstanz - Faculty of Economics and Statistics

Amelie C. Wuppermann

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) - Faculty of Economics

Date Written: April 2009

Abstract

Recent studies conclude that teachers are important for student learning but it remains uncertain what actually determines effective teaching. This study directly peers into the black box of educational production by investigating the relationship between lecture style teaching and student achievement. Based on matched student-teacher data for the US, the estimation strategy exploits between-subject variation to control for unobserved student traits. Results indicate that traditional lecture style teaching is associated with significantly higher student achievement. No support for detrimental effects of lecture style teaching can be found even when evaluating possible selection biases due to unobservable teacher characteristics.

Keywords: teaching practices, educational production, TIMSS, between-subject variation

JEL Classification: I21, C23

Suggested Citation

Schwerdt, Guido and Wuppermann, Amelie C., Is Traditional Teaching Really All That Bad? A Within-Student Between-Subject Approach (April 2009). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 2634, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1396620 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1396620

Guido Schwerdt (Contact Author)

University of Konstanz - Faculty of Economics and Statistics ( email )

Universitaetsstr. 10
78457 Konstanz
Germany

Amelie C. Wuppermann

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) - Faculty of Economics ( email )

Ludwigstrasse 28
Munich, D-80539
Germany

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