Results from the Teacher Knowledge Survey: Croatia
Table of contents
The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is the largest international survey of teachers and principals. In 2024, TALIS included the Teacher Knowledge Survey (TKS) as an optional module, which included an assessment of teachers’ general pedagogical knowledge (GPK). TKS 2024 is the first large-scale international study of GPK with nationally representative samples of teachers.
By directly assessing teachers’ GPK, TKS provides a more objective understanding of teachers’ professional competencies. Participating teachers were also asked about their background, training and current work. TKS therefore provides insights into the relationships between GPK and other aspects of teachers’ working lives and experiences.
This note presents findings based on the results of lower secondary teachers in eight countries, who participated in TKS in 2024. It only comments on differences that are statistically significant.
Note: Countries are sorted according to the mean GPK scores of their teachers.
Source: OECD (2024), TALIS TKS 2024 Database, Table E.1.1.
The average GPK score for teachers in Croatia is similar to the average across the four participating OECD countries (henceforth “the OECD average”).
There can be a substantial amount of variation in GPK between different teachers within a country. In Croatia, 39 points separate the top and bottom quarter (interquartile range). This gap is similar to the average interquartile range across the OECD.
In Croatia, 34% of teachers have an advanced level of GPK, scoring at Level 3. This is not statistically significantly different from the OECD average of 33 %. In comparison, 14% of teachers have a foundational level of GPK, scoring at Level 1. This is not statistically significantly different from the OECD average of 15%.
In Croatia, female teachers tend to have higher GPK scores compared to their male colleagues, with a difference of 15 points (a gap which is larger than the OECD average of 5 points).
In most countries, including Croatia, teachers’ GPK does not tend to vary with their age.
GPK is more commonly related to years of teaching experience, with significant differences between experienced teachers (with over ten years of teaching experience) and novice teachers (with five years of teaching experience or less) observed in half of the participating countries. In Croatia, experienced teachers tend to have GPK scores similar to novice teachers.
Age and experience can be decoupled in cases where teachers join the teaching profession later, perhaps following a career change. In TALIS, these are called “second-career teachers”, and are defined as those teachers reporting that teaching was not their first career choice and who have spent at least 10 years in a non-teaching job (OECD, 2025[1]). Across the four OECD countries participating in TKS, 8% of teachers are second-career teachers on average. The relatively low share of second-career teachers can make it hard to detect if there are statistically significant differences in their GPK compared to other teachers.
In Croatia, 4% of teachers are second-career teachers. Their average GPK score is 263 which is 9 percentage points lower than other teachers. This difference is not statistically significant, as is the case in most countries.
Although GPK is not subject-specific, there are some differences in teachers’ GPK according to the subjects they teach.
In Croatia, teachers tend to have higher GPK scores when they teach the following subjects: Reading, writing and literature and Modern foreign languages
In Croatia, teachers tend to have lower GPK scores when they teach the following subjects: Mathematics, Ancient Greek and/or Latin, Technology, Physical education, and Practical and vocational skills.
Note: Statistically significant coefficients are highlighted with filled circles (see Annex D). Filled circles above 0 indicate a positive association between teachers’ GPK and the share of class time spent on keeping order in a typical class, while those below 0 reflect a negative relationship.
1. These data refer to a class randomly selected from teachers’ current weekly timetable during the week preceding the survey.
2. Results based on three separate linear regression analyses, showing the change in the outcome variable associated with a one-standard deviation increase in the explanatory variable. The regressions control for teacher characteristics (gender, age and years of teaching experience) and class characteristics (class size and the shares of students in the class that the teachers report to have difficulties understanding the language of instruction, to be low academic achievers and to have special education needs).
Source: OECD (2024), TALIS TKS 2024 Database, Table E.1.3.
GPK may provide teachers with an understanding of teaching, learning and assessment that can shape their approach to classroom activities and the organisation of students’ learning.
In Croatia, this knowledge is related to a higher share of class time spent on teaching and learning. On average, teachers in Croatia spend 79% of class time on teaching and learning. With a one-standard deviation increase in GPK, the share of class time spent on teaching and learning increases by 4 percentage-points on average.
TKS suggests that GPK may help teachers with effective classroom management, which frees up time for teaching and learning. In Croatia, having more GPK is associated with spending less time on keeping order in the classroom. With a one standard-deviation increase in GPK, the share of class time spent on maintaining discipline decreases by 2 percentage-points on average.
Teachers with more GPK tend to spend less time completing administrative tasks during class. A one standard-deviation increase in GPK is related to a 2 percentage-point decrease in the time teachers spend on administrative tasks in Croatia. For context, teachers spend 9 per cent of their total class time on administrative tasks on average in Croatia. The time saved on these tasks allows knowledgeable teachers to maximise the time spent on teaching and learning.
Teaching is a complex activity that requires the use of professional judgement to select the most appropriate approach in a continuously evolving environment. GPK can help to guide teachers’ choices when adapting their teaching practices to the demands of specific classroom situations.
TKS results suggest that knowledgeable teachers strongly believe in the need to tailor their teaching to specific students’ needs. When teachers have more GPK, they are more likely to “always” consider students’ prior knowledge and needs when planning a lesson in most countries, including Croatia.
In Croatia, teachers with more GPK are also more likely to report “always” doing the following: Changing the way of explaining when a student has difficulties understanding a topic or task and asking questions at various difficulty levels to check students’ understanding of the subject matter.
Note: Statistically significant coefficients are highlighted with filled circles (see Annex D).
1. Binary variables: the reference category refers to teacher reporting that they “never or almost never”, “occasionally”, or “frequently” engage in the different practices.
2. Results based on six separate binary logistic regressions. The estimated odds ratios from each regression are displayed on a different line. An odds ratio indicates the degree to which an explanatory variable is associated with a categorical outcome variable. An odds ratio below 1 denotes a negative association; an odds ratio above 1 indicates a positive association; and an odds ratio of 1 means that there is no association. The regressions control for teacher characteristics (gender, age and years of teaching experience) and class characteristics (class size and the shares of students in the class that the teachers report to have difficulties understanding the language of instruction, to be low academic achievers and to have special education needs).
Source: OECD (2024), TALIS TKS 2024 Database, Tables E.1.6, E.1.8, E.1.9.
Teachers with more GPK tend to be particularly discerning in their use of teaching practices for cognitive activation, which are aimed at fostering deep conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills. A one-standard deviation increase in GPK is consistently associated with a decrease in the odds that teachers report “always” using a range of related practices.
In Croatia, knowledgeable teachers are less likely to “always”: Give tasks that require students to think critically and have students work in small groups to come up with a solution. This can reflect teachers’ judgement that certain types of tasks are best implemented at selected stages within a unit of work.
Knowledge of general pedagogy includes knowledge of different forms of assessment, their purposes and impact on student motivation and learning. TKS shows that teachers’ approaches to assessment vary with their level of GPK.
In Croatia, teachers with more GPK are more likely to report “always” doing the following: Administering an assessment at the end of a unit or block of lessons.
Note: Statistically significant coefficients are highlighted with filled circles (see Annex D).
1. Binary variables: the reference category refers to “not at all” or “”to some extent”.
2. Results based on separate binary logistic regressions. An odds ratio indicates the degree to which an explanatory variable is associated with a categorical outcome variable. An odds ratio below 1 denotes a negative association; an odds ratio above 1 indicates a positive association; and an odds ratio of 1 means that there is no association. The regressions control for teacher characteristics (gender, age and years of teaching experience) and school characteristics (school location, school governance type, school intake of students from socio-economically disadvantaged homes, school intake of students who have difficulties understanding the language(s) of instruction, and school intake of students with special education needs).
Source: OECD (2024), TALIS TKS 2024 Database, Table E.1.14.
General pedagogical knowledge is an important resource that teachers can draw upon when coping with the demands of their job. It can therefore potentially affect not only students’ outcomes and teaching practices but also teachers’ professional outcomes, such as their well-being.
In most cases, teachers who have more GPK are less likely to report experiencing stress from various sources. In Croatia, this negative relationship is found between GPK and the following work-related stressors: Too many lessons to teach, extra duties due to absent teachers, being intimidated or verbally abused by students, and keeping up with professional learning.
Despite the broad positive association between GPK and teachers’ professional outcomes, having more GPK is not strongly associated with teachers’ plans to stay in the profession. In most countries, including Croatia, there is no relationship between GPK and teachers’ reporting an intention to continue working as a teacher for more than five years.
Share of variance in GPK between schools and dissimilarity index for teachers in the top quarter of the national distribution of GPK
Note: Countries are ranked in descending order according to the share of variance in GPK scores between schools. More details on the computation of the dissimilarity index and its interpretation can be found in Annex D.
Source: OECD, TALIS TKS 2024 Database, Table E.1.18.
An important objective of education policy is to reduce social and educational inequalities and to ensure equal access to publicly funded resources. Equal access of students to the most knowledgeable teachers implies randomly allocating teachers to schools. This would ensure that all schools would have a similar distribution of teachers’ characteristics (including GPK).
The distribution of teachers with more GPK can be considered by looking at the decomposition of variance in GPK scores. Decomposition partitions the overall variance in GPK scores in two components: within-school and between-school. If a large portion of the variance lies between schools, it means that schools differ significantly in the average GPK of their teachers. If most of the variance lies instead within schools, it means that most schools replicate the variation of GPK observed at the national level.
In Croatia, 1% of the variance in GPK lies between schools, which suggests that GPK varies much more within schools than it does between schools. This is lower than the average across the four participating OECD countries (8%), although the share of between-school variance varies substantially among all participating countries, from 1% in Croatia to 23% in South Africa. It should be noted, however, that decomposition results can be strongly influenced by teachers with very high GPK. For example, one high-performing teacher will greatly affect their school’s within-school variance, while having a smaller effect on their country’s between-school variance.
The dissimilarity index can also provide an understanding of how knowledgeable teachers are distributed across schools. This measure considers how evenly the most knowledgeable teachers (here defined at those in the top quarter of the national distribution of GPK) are allocated. When the index is equal to 1, all high-GPK teachers (those in the top quarter of the national distribution of GPK) are concentrated in a single school. When the index equals 0, all high-GPK teachers are allocated equally across schools.
Among the countries participating in TKS 2024, the dissimilarity index ranges from 0.29 in Portugal to 0.65 in South Africa. In comparison, the dissimilarity index is 0.4 in Croatia. The dissimilarity index in Croatia implies that, 14% of teachers would need to change school in order to achieve an even allocation of high-GPK teachers.1 By focusing on the group of teachers with the highest GPK scores (and ignoring the variation within this group), the dissimilarity index suggests that there is a noticeable amount of clustering of knowledgeable teachers in Croatia.
TKS data allow for comparisons of GPK between different schools according to their location (e.g. rural area or city), their governance (public or private), and their student intake. Regarding student intake, analyses focused on comparisons between schools according to their share of students from socio-economically disadvantaged homes (e.g. over 30% or 10% and under), or who have special education needs (e.g. over 30% or 10% and under), or who have difficulties understanding the language of instruction (e.g. over 10% or none).
In half of the countries participating in TKS, including Croatia, there are no differences in GPK between schools according to any of the characteristics analysed.
Difference in average GPK scores between teachers with bachelor’s degrees and those with other levels of educational attainment
Note: Countries are sorted in descending order of the average difference in GPK scores between teachers with a master’s or doctoral level degree and teachers with a bachelor’s level degree. Statistically non-significant differences are shown in grey. Results are missing for countries where the number of teachers without a bachelor’s level degree is too low to make robust comparisons.
Source: OECD, TALIS TKS 2024 Database, Table E.3.1.
Teachers can acquire knowledge of general pedagogy at all stages of their career. They start developing relevant GPK during their initial teacher education. Continuous professional development is necessary – and often mandated – for teachers to keep their knowledge up to date. Every experience of teaching and interacting with students can help teachers to develop their understanding of applied knowledge. Meanwhile, interactions with colleagues and other professionals working in education can also present opportunities for learning.
Education requirements for teachers vary between countries as policymakers balance multiple policy priorities regarding teacher recruitment. For example, raising the criteria for entry into teaching with master’s level programmes can boost the status of teaching, by positioning the profession as one that requires highly specialised knowledge (OECD, 2019[2]). However, the implementation of such policies may increase risks of teacher shortages, as they act as a barrier to accessing the profession.
Data from TALIS 2024 show us that 4% of teachers in Croatia have a bachelor’s degree as their highest level of formal education (OECD, 2025[1]). Meanwhile, 0.6% of teachers have a lower level of qualification. In comparison, 95% of teachers have a master’s or doctoral degree.
In some countries, including Croatia, teachers with a master’s or a higher level degree have more GPK than bachelor’s graduates, with a difference of 17 points on average. However, these differences are not found in most countries.
Teachers can enter the profession via diverse pathways, which can help to make teaching more attractive and accessible to a wider range of candidates. In Croatia, 82% of teachers completed a regular teacher education or training programme (OECD, 2025[1]). In this type of programme, teachers complete post-secondary education leading to a teaching credential, typically at a university with a focus on subject-matter, pedagogy and practice either concurrently or consecutively.
Meanwhile, 6% of teachers follow a fast-track/shorter or specialised teacher education route (OECD, 2025[1]). These are generally shorter in duration than regular training programmes and usually designed for specific groups (e.g. second-career candidates, candidates with some teaching experience, or candidates with high levels of subject knowledge). Alternatively, some teachers may complete subject-specific education or training only, meaning that teachers learn content knowledge and have minimal or no training in pedagogy and practice. In Croatia, 7% of teachers have this type of initial teacher education.
In most countries, differences in GPK can be detected between teachers who had regular teacher education as opposed to another initial teacher education pathway.
In Croatia, teachers with fast-track qualifications are likely to have similar levels of GPK than graduates of regular teacher education programmes. Meanwhile, teachers with subject-specific education only have less GPK, with an associated difference of 17 points.
General pedagogical knowledge is relevant for teaching and learning regardless of the subject matter to be taught. However, teachers’ professional knowledge also consists of subject-specific content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) on how to teach particular topics or skills within that discipline (OECD, 2025[3]). Past research suggests that GPK and PCK are related, so teachers’ GPK may differ if teachers are prepared with different levels of PCK across different subjects - even if they receive similar courses in general pedagogy.
In Croatia, teachers tend to have higher GPK scores when their formal teacher education included the following subjects: Modern foreign languages.
Teachers tend to have lower GPK scores when their formal teacher education included the following subjects: Practical and vocational skills.
Teachers in TKS are asked about how often they work with their colleagues through a range of practices. The data show a mixture of positive and negative relationships with GPK across countries, which could reflect impact, but also the different purposes and profiles of teachers engaging in specific activities. For some, collaborative activities could provide support in challenging circumstances whilst others may generally be seeking to share good practice, broaden their expertise, or help their colleagues.
In Croatia, teachers tend to have higher GPK scores when they report engaging in the following collaborative activities more than once a year: Engaging in discussions about the learning development of specific students.
In Croatia, GPK tends to be lower for teachers who report doing the following more than once a year: Teaching jointly as a team in the same class and observing other teachers’ classes and providing feedback.
Change in teachers’ GPK score associated with their engagement in the following collaborative practices at least 2-4 times a year1,2
Note: Statistically significant coefficients are highlighted with filled circles and country labels (see Annex D). Filled circles above 0 indicate a positive association between teachers’ GPK score and their engagement in a collaborative practice, while those below 0 reflect a negative relationship.
1. Binary variables: the reference category refers to teachers who “never” engage in a practice, or do so “once a year or less”.
2. Results based on a single linear regression analysis, showing the change in teachers’ GPK score associated with a one-unit increase in the explanatory variable. The regression controls for teacher characteristics (gender, age and years of teaching experience) and school characteristics (i.e. school location, school governance type, school intake of students from socio-economically disadvantaged homes, school intake of students who have difficulties understanding the language(s) of instruction, and school intake of students with special education needs).
Source: OECD, TALIS TKS 2024 Database, Table E.3.7.
References
[1] OECD (2025), Results from TALIS 2024: The State of Teaching, TALIS, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/90df6235-en.
[3] OECD (2025), TALIS Teacher Knowledge Survey 2024 Conceptual and Assessment Framework, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/65903902-en.
[2] OECD (2019), A Flying Start: Improving Initial Teacher Preparation Systems, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/cf74e549-en.
For more information about TALIS 2024 visit www.oecd.org/en/about/programmes/talis.
Explore, compare and visualise more data and analysis using http://gpseducation.oecd.org.
Questions can be directed to the TALIS team at the Directorate for Education and Skills: edutaliscontact@oecd.org.
This note was written by Heewoon Bae, Rodolfo Ilizaliturri and Leonard Najman, Directorate for Education and Skills.
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Member countries of the OECD.
This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
The full book is available in English: OECD (2026), Results from the Teacher Knowledge Survey, TALIS, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5542e88a-en
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← 1. The dissimilarity index is directly related to the share of teachers from different groups (e.g. those with low and high GPK) that would need to change schools in order to achieve an equal distribution across schools, while maintaining school size constant. With only two groups (teachers who are or not in the top quarter of the national distribution of GPK), such movements would necessarily entail the swapping of teachers from the two groups, if school size needs to stay constant. In this setting, the dissimilarity index equals the sum of the shares of teachers from the two groups that would need to swap places to achieve an even allocation. As the relative size of the two groups in the population is known (by construction, 25% of teachers are in the top quarter of the distribution of GPK, and 75% are not), multiplying the dissimilarity index by 2×0.75×0.25=0.375 gives the percentage of teachers in the overall teacher population that needs to change school to restore an even allocation. See Annex D for more details on the dissimilarity index and its interpretation.