Published April 2026, the OECD Teacher Knowledge Survey (TKS) is the first internationally comparable assessment of what teachers know about pedagogy. Across 8 participating school systems and more than 20,000 lower secondary teachers, the main finding is that general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) is unevenly distributed within countries, and teachers with stronger knowledge tend to apply instructional strategies more selectively rather than more frequently.
In April 2026, the OECD published the results of its Teacher Knowledge Survey, a new assessment instrument measuring what teachers actually know about pedagogy. This is separate from TALIS 2024’s main questionnaire, which asked teachers to report on their practices and working conditions. The TKS used a knowledge assessment, making it the first large-scale internationally comparable study of general pedagogical knowledge from representative national teacher samples.[1]
This post explains what TKS measures, what it found, and what the findings mean in practice. A note at the outset: Canada did not participate in TKS 2024. Alberta joined the broader TALIS 2024 survey (results published October 2025) but was not among the eight systems in the TKS module. Where this post mentions country data, it refers only to the eight TKS participants.
What does the OECD Teacher Knowledge Survey actually measure?
TKS covers three areas of general pedagogical knowledge (GPK): instructional processes, learning processes, and assessment. Instructional knowledge includes how to plan and deliver lessons, explain concepts, and adapt instruction to different learners. Knowledge of learning processes covers how students acquire, retain, and apply skills. Assessment knowledge covers how to collect evidence of student progress, provide feedback, and use that evidence to inform what comes next.
The survey does not test subject-matter expertise, meaning it does not assess whether a history teacher knows history. It assesses the knowledge of teaching itself, which is distinct from knowing a discipline deeply. Education researchers call this general pedagogical knowledge precisely because it applies across subjects.
TKS vs. TALIS 2024: The main TALIS 2024 results were published in October 2025. TKS results came out in April 2026 as a separate publication. TKS was an optional sub-module, not the full TALIS survey. These are different datasets covering different things.
Eight school systems participated: Portugal, Poland, Croatia, the United States, Chile, South Africa, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. Over 20,000 lower secondary teachers completed the TKS assessment alongside a background questionnaire on their professional experiences and working conditions.[1]
How unevenly is pedagogical knowledge distributed across classrooms?
The headline finding is that pedagogical knowledge varies considerably within each participating system, often more than it varies between countries.
Across the four OECD countries in TKS, teachers in the top quarter scored on average 39 points higher than teachers in the bottom quarter on the knowledge assessment. The gap between the top 10% and bottom 10% of teachers reached 96 points. That is a wide spread for a measure of professional knowledge in the same field.[1]
The dissimilarity index measures how evenly high-knowledge teachers are distributed across schools within a system, rather than clustered in particular schools. A score of 0.65 (South Africa) means a substantial share of high-GPK teachers are concentrated in a minority of schools. Portugal’s 0.29 suggests more balanced distribution across its system.
This matters for equity. When pedagogical expertise clusters unevenly, students in some schools have consistent access to highly knowledgeable teachers while students in others do not. The TKS data puts a number on a gap that education systems have long debated in qualitative terms.
What do teachers with higher pedagogical knowledge do differently in the classroom?
The relationship between knowledge scores and teaching practices produced a finding that is worth reading carefully. Teachers with higher GPK scores were not more likely to report “always” using cognitively demanding teaching strategies. In fact, a one-standard deviation increase in GPK was consistently associated with lower odds of teachers saying they “always” apply a range of related practices.[1]
In Croatia, for example, teachers with stronger pedagogical knowledge were less likely to say they “always” assign tasks requiring critical thinking or “always” use small group problem-solving.[1]
The researchers interpret this as evidence of deliberate, contextual teaching rather than reflexive practice. A teacher who “always” uses small group work regardless of the lesson topic may be following a habit. A teacher who uses it selectively, when it fits the learning objective, is making an informed professional judgment about when that strategy serves the students in front of them.
This distinction is important. The signal from TKS is not that expert teachers do more of everything. It is that they apply specific practices when those practices fit the moment, not as a standing routine.
Three practices associated with high-GPK teaching appear consistently in the research: providing next-step feedback based on current student work, forming instructional groups around observed evidence of understanding, and reviewing student work samples to plan what comes next. Each of these is a deliberate act, not a habit. Each requires knowing where individual students are right now.
Next-step feedback, evidence-based grouping, and work-sample review all require organized, current student data. LinoClass keeps that information accessible so the teaching judgment can be acted on without searching for records. The decisions stay with you.
See how it worksWhat should Canadian teachers know about the TKS findings?
Canada did not participate in TKS 2024. Alberta joined the broader TALIS 2024 survey, but it was not among the eight systems in the TKS module. No Canadian jurisdiction has TKS-specific data.
What Canadian teachers and school leaders can take from TKS is conceptual rather than numerical. Pedagogical knowledge is measurable and unevenly distributed, even within the same school system. Teachers with stronger GPK are more likely to report always considering students' prior knowledge and learning needs when planning lessons. And the specific teaching moves associated with high GPK, including next-step feedback and evidence-based grouping, require organized current data to carry out consistently.
For school leaders thinking about professional learning, TKS points toward an actionable question: where does pedagogical knowledge live in our system, and how do we support its development across all schools, not just the ones that already have it concentrated?
For further reading on Canadian TALIS data, see our earlier post on what TALIS 2024 found in Alberta about the AI skills gap, based on the October 2025 main results.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about the OECD Teacher Knowledge Survey, participating systems, and what the results mean in practice.
What is TKS and how is it different from TALIS?
TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey) is an OECD questionnaire asking teachers and school leaders about working conditions, teaching practices, and professional development. TKS is a different instrument added as an optional module to TALIS 2024. Where TALIS asks what teachers report doing, TKS actually assesses what teachers know about pedagogy using scenario-based knowledge questions.
The main TALIS 2024 results were published in October 2025. TKS results came out in April 2026 as a separate publication. These are different datasets: TALIS covers dozens of systems, while TKS covered only the eight that opted into the knowledge assessment module.
Which countries participated in TKS 2024?
Eight school systems participated: Portugal, Poland, Croatia, the United States, Chile, South Africa, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. Over 20,000 lower secondary teachers completed the assessment. The four OECD member countries among the participants were Portugal, Poland, Croatia, and the United States.
Portugal ranked highest in average general pedagogical knowledge scores, with an average score of 274 points, above the participating-country mean. The full ranking from highest to lowest was Portugal, Poland, Croatia, United States, Chile, South Africa, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia.
Did Canada or Alberta participate in TKS 2024?
No. While Alberta participated in the broader TALIS 2024 survey (results published October 2025 in a separate country note), Canada was not among the eight systems in TKS 2024. The TKS findings are relevant to education systems broadly, but no Canadian TKS scores, rankings, or country-specific correlations exist in the dataset.
Anyone citing Canadian-specific numbers from TKS is making an error. The Canadian data available is from the October 2025 TALIS main results (Alberta only), not TKS.
What is general pedagogical knowledge and why does it matter?
General pedagogical knowledge (GPK) is the professional knowledge teachers apply when planning lessons, explaining concepts, managing learning progressions, and assessing students. It is distinct from subject-matter knowledge (knowing your discipline deeply) and curriculum knowledge (knowing what to teach when). GPK is knowledge of how to teach.
TKS is the first large-scale internationally comparable measure of GPK from representative national teacher samples. Prior research on pedagogical knowledge existed, but was often small-scale or used convenience samples. TKS gives policymakers and researchers a new tool for understanding this aspect of teacher expertise.
How does LinoClass relate to the TKS findings?
LinoClass handles the administrative and record-keeping side of teaching: tracking student progress, organizing class data, and reducing the coordination overhead between making a teaching decision and acting on it.
The high-GPK teaching moves that TKS research points to, including next-step feedback, evidence-based grouping, and work-sample review, all require organized, current student data. A teacher who knows how to give next-step feedback still needs to know, at this moment, where each student is. LinoClass keeps that information accessible. It does not teach pedagogy; it handles the organizational layer so the teaching judgment can be applied without extra friction.
Sources
- OECD. Results from the Teacher Knowledge Survey: What Teachers Know About General Pedagogy. April 2026. oecd.org (PDF)
- OECD. TALIS: Teaching and Learning International Survey. Programme page. oecd.org
Last reviewed: May 19, 2026