Comparison of policies of primary school teachers’ recruitment and education based on the students' learning

The focus of this article was comparing the previous types of recruitment of teachers in primary education. Three problems were studied, including comparing the students' math achievement based on the difference in various types of recruitment, type of majors, and the integrated variable of teacher education and majors of teachers. Statistical controlling was applied by two variables in each analysis. The data of TIMSS 2015 were used in the research, however, the information of teachers were validated by personal contacts with them. Then, data were analyzed using multiple regressions with categorical predictors. The results showed that grade 4 students’ mathematics achievement was independent from the ways in which their teachers were recruited. Also, there was no difference in the mathematics achievement of students whose teachers had different majors; however, comparison based on the teachers' education level showed that the diploma teachers' performance was significantly lower than other teachers with higher education levels. The integration of the teachers' preparation method and their major indicated that the students whose teachers were educated just for primary education did not outperform the students whose teachers were not educated for primary education, in the tests. Instead, the students of the teachers prepared for majors other than the primary school education outperformed the other groups of students. Findings have raised a number of questions about the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs in Iran, with emphasis on their qualitative improvement.