Rate My Professor David Berg

Professor David Berg is a professor in the University of Otago College of Education. He holds a BA(Hons) from Lancaster University, an MSc from the University of Liverpool, an EdD from the University of Otago, and a PGCert from Liverpool Hope University. An experienced primary school teacher and former deputy principal with 11 years of classroom experience, Berg taught for 12 months in rural Nepal and visited schools in India, Russia, and South Africa. He worked in teacher education at Liverpool Hope University on secondment and joined the University of Otago in 2007 as a research assistant and tutor while completing his doctorate, transitioning to full-time lecturer in 2011 and advancing to professor.

As Academic Leader for the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study—a Ministry of Education-funded assessment program—and Co-Director of the Educational Assessment Research Unit (EARU) in partnership with the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, Berg's research focuses on teacher self-efficacy, efficacy beliefs, initial teacher education, teaching and learning, international education, formative assessment, feedback, and contextual factors in educational outcomes. Key publications include chapters in the Oxford Handbook of Educational Psychology on teacher self-efficacy research over 40 years and formative assessment (2022); the co-authored book The Promise and Practice of University Teacher Education: Insights from Aotearoa New Zealand (2020); and journal articles such as 'Self-efficacy in teaching mathematics and the use of effective pedagogical practices in New Zealand primary schools' (Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 2025) and 'Teacher self-efficacy and reasons for choosing initial teacher education programmes in Norway and New Zealand' (Teaching & Teacher Education, 2023). In 2016, he received the Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand's Emerging Teacher Educator award. Berg teaches undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral courses in professional practice, education studies, research methods, learning theory, assessment, and educational psychology, supervises graduate research on efficacy and assessment, and delivered his Inaugural Professorial Lecture in 2025. He serves on the editorial board of Social Psychology of Education.