Teacher-centered vs. student-centered instruction: mitigating the socioeconomic achievement gap through differential access and returns

This study employs the theory of differential access and returns to investigate how teacher-centered and student-centered instructional practices influence the socioeconomic mathematics achievement gap among U.S. eighth graders, using 2019 TIMSS data. Through moderation analysis with doubly robust estimation, and a counterfactual Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, key findings emerge: (1) Both teacher-centered and student-centered practices were equitably distributed across socioeconomic status groups; (2) The association between teacher-centered practices and mathematics achievement was moderated by the family SES, with a enhanced mathematics performance for low-SES students; (3) Only teacher-centered practices narrowed the SES achievement gap between the low- and middle-SES groups. These results underscore the value of teacher-centered methods for low-SES students, which advanced educational equity in the United States.