Scholastic tests regard cognitive abilities to be domain-specific competences. However, high correlations between competences indicate either high task similarity or a dependence on common factors. ...The present rating study examined the validity of 12 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Third or Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) tasks. Two tasks per competence (reading, mathematics, science, problem solving) from PISA and TIMSS were assessed by 34 teachers and 33 psychology students on 11 scales: difficulty, curriculum reference, knowledge versus thinking, reading competence, verbal ability, math competence, science competence, problem solving, reasoning, general knowledge, and intelligence. Intraclass correlation between two randomly chosen raters was r
ic
=.59. None of the tasks represented the intended target competence concisely. In five PISA tasks, competences other than those intended were seen as being more relevant. TIMSS tasks were seen as more curriculum-related and requiring more school knowledge than PISA tasks. For solving PISA tasks, thinking/reasoning ability and general intelligence were rated as being more important (d = 0.36). Only small differences were found between students' and teachers' ratings.
This article provides the background and context to the important issue of assessment and equity in relation to Indigenous students in Australia. Questions about the validity and fairness of ...assessment are raised and ways forward are suggested by attending to assessment questions in relation to equity and culture-fair assessment. Patterns of under-achievement by Indigenous students are reflected in national benchmark data and international testing programmes like the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Program for International Student Assessment. The argument developed views equity, in relation to assessment, as more of a sociocultural issue than a technical matter. It highlights how teachers need to distinguish the "funds of knowledge" that Indigenous students draw on and how teachers need to adopt culturally responsive pedagogy to open up the curriculum and assessment practice to allow for different ways of knowing and being.
About 20 years have passed since a “Decline in students’ positive attitude toward science” was first pointed out in the late 1980s. Various efforts, including the Support for Super Science High ...Schools (SSHs), Science Partnership Program (SPP), science events and symposia have been made over these two decades. However, as the results of international comparative surveys such as IEA’s TIMSS and OECD’s PISA show, there are still many students who are not interested in science. Much research has been carried out concerning the current conditions and causes of the “Decline in students’ attitude toward science” phenomenon. Papers present a variety of data and discourses, but few give a broader overview. Returning to the starting point of the phenomenon, this paper clarifies the features of the “decline in students’ positive attitude toward science” phenomenon, and whether it is a problem to be addressed and solved or not. In addition, its main causes are also reviewed. In conclusion, it is emphasized that this problem should be solved in terms of higher education and adults’ scientific literacy, and that more attention should be paid to non-formal learning by researchers in order to solve this problem.
The aim of this study is to determine how the TIMSS mathematics success of the 8th grade students differentiates according to the school type, gender, mathematics report mark, parents' education ...level, cognitive domains and cognitive domains by gender. Relational survey method was used in the study. Six-hundred fifty two 8th grade students studying in the same city in Turkey participated in this study. In this study, a 45 question test that was made up by choosing TIMSS 2011 mathematics questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. Quantitative data analysis methods were used in the data analysis, frequency, percentage, average, standard deviation, independent sample test, one-way analysis of variance and post-hoc tests were applied to data by using SPSS packaged software. At the end of the study, it was determined that the school type, mathematics school mark, parents' education level and cognitive domains influenced the students' TIMSS mathematics success but their gender was a neutral element. Moreover, it was seen that schools which are really successful in national exams are more successful in TIMSS exam; students whose mathematics school marks are 5 and whose parents graduated from university are more successful in TIMSS exams than others.
The purpose of this study was to explore what may be contributing to differences in performance in mathematics on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2007. This was done by ...using a mixture item response theory modeling approach to first detect latent classes in the data and then to examine differences in performance on items taken by examinees in the different latent classes. An exploratory mixture 3-Parameter Logistic model analysis detected two latent groups in the data. The model considered in this study used internet access as a covariate to illustrate the effect of the covariate on latent class membership.
In international large-scale assessments of educational outcomes, student achievement is often represented by unidimensional constructs. This approach allows for drawing general conclusions about ...country rankings with respect to the given achievement measure, but it typically does not provide specific diagnostic information which is necessary for systematic comparisons and improvements of educational systems. Useful information could be obtained by exploring the differences in national profiles of student achievement between low-achieving and high-achieving countries. In this study, we aimed to identify the relative weaknesses and strengths of eighth graders' physics achievement in Bosnia and Herzegovina in comparison to the achievement of their peers from Slovenia. For this purpose, we ran a secondary analysis of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007 data. The student sample consisted of 4,220 students from Bosnia and Herzegovina and 4,043 students from Slovenia. After analysing the cognitive demands of TIMSS 2007 physics items, the correspondent differential item functioning (DIF)/differential group functioning contrasts were estimated. Approximately 40% of items exhibited large DIF contrasts, indicating significant differences between cultures of physics education in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia. The relative strength of students from Bosnia and Herzegovina showed to be mainly associated with the topic area 'Electricity and magnetism'. Classes of items which required the knowledge of experimental method, counterintuitive thinking, proportional reasoning and/or the use of complex knowledge structures proved to be differentially easier for students from Slovenia. In the light of the presented results, the common practice of ranking countries with respect to universally established cognitive categories seems to be potentially misleading.
Background
Fair comparisons of educational systems in large-scale assessments can be made only if the differences in curricula have little impact on the outcomes. This study investigated the ...sensitivity of science achievement rankings to varying degrees of curriculum implementation in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
Methods
Country-specific teacher-reported curriculum implementation profiles across the TIMSS science domains were charted including their within-country variability across the classrooms for 33 participating countries of TIMSS 2015. A sensitivity test compared the original ranking to TIMSS curriculum implementation scenarios (a least-possible, a most-possible, and more realistic country-specific median implementation).
Results
In contrast to expectations, no support was found for a positive relationship between opportunity to learn and science achievement at the between-country level or the within-country level, with only minor exceptions. The sensitivity analysis under different curriculum implementation scenarios also suggests little impact on the rank order of the countries.
Conclusions
Plausible explanations for this null finding are addressed; attention and research efforts should focus on improving the quality of curriculum implementation indicators in large-scale assessments.
Negative Effekte der leistungsbezogenen Klassenkomposition auf die Schulformempfehlung und -wahl sind vielfach nachgewiesen und theoretisch erklärbar. Dies gilt dagegen nicht für den ...interessanterweise gegenläufigen Effekt der sozialen Komposition. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht diesen Effekt auf die Schulformwahl. Angenommen wird, dass eine günstigere soziale Komposition und ein damit einhergehendes höheres Bildungsaspirationsniveau unter den Eltern eine positivere Einschätzung der Erfolgschancen des eigenen Kindes am Gymnasium bewirken sollte. Dies sollte die Wahrscheinlichkeit einer Wahl des Gymnasiums steigern. Die Untersuchung erfolgte auf Basis der TIMSS-IGLU-2011-Daten mittels pfadanalytischer Zwei-Ebenen-Modelle. Die Ergebnisse belegen einen positiven Effekt des mittleren sozioökonomischen Status' auf die Schulformwahl. Dieser wird teilweise über die individuelle Einschätzung der Erfolgschancen am Gymnasium vermittelt, wenngleich dieser indirekte Effekt eher klein ausfällt. (DIPF/Orig.).
The negative effect of achievement-related class composition on the recommendation and choice of school track has been thoroughly examined and theoretically founded. This is not the case for the interestingly positive effect of socioeconomic class composition. This study investigates this effect on the choice of school track. We hypothesized that a favorable socioeconomic class composition, associated with collectively high educational aspirations among the parents within the class leads to higher expectations of a child's chances of success in an academic track (Gymnasium). We hypothesized that this favorable socioeconomic class composition would increase the probability of students resp. parents choosing the academic track. The analyses were based on the German TIMSS-PIRLS 2011 data and consisted of path-analytic two-level models. The results confirm a positive effect of the mean socioeconomic status on the choice of school track. This effect is partly mediated by the expectations of success. However, the effect is rather small. (DIPF/Orig.).
To promote the academic success of middle school students, the authors examined the effects of computer uses on mathematics self-efficacy and mathematics performance of students, paying focused ...attention to immigrant students. They analysed the effects of computer use for schoolwork and gaming of middle school students applying a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) USA. The results showed that when students frequently used computer for schoolwork, they revealed high mathematics self-efficacy, which in turn led to high mathematics performance. On the other hand, the students that used computer for gaming frequently indicated low mathematics self-efficacy and mathematics performance. The authors' study results highlight the importance of guiding students to use computers properly, which is directly and indirectly associated with students' self-efficacy and performance in mathematics.
PDF
