A Glimpse of Teacher-level Characteristics among Mathematics Teachers at Rural Secondary Schools of Sabah, Malaysia

Factors that might have contributed to students’ mathematics performance in TIMSS are multifaceted, recognizing that students’ mathematics achievement is the result of a complex interplay of school-level, teacher-level, and student-level factors. In particular, teacher-level factors have shown significant contribution in predicting students’ mathematics performance in TIMSS. The ultimate goal of this study is to develop a database of mathematics teachers’ characteristics especially who taught mathematics at the rural secondary schools of Sabah, Malaysia. These characteristics include mathematics teachers’ formal education, majoring in education and mathematics, years of teaching experience, professional development, preparation to teach the TIMSS mathematics topics, confidence in teaching mathematics, career satisfaction, collaborate to improve mathematics teaching, engage students in learning mathematics, relate lessons to students’ daily lives, resources used for teaching mathematics, instructional activities in mathematics class, computer activities during mathematics lessons, and mathematics classroom assessment. It is hoped that the data base will provide insightful information to the preparation of mathematics teachers especially for rural secondary schools in Sabah, Malaysia