Mathematics Domain P-10

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Teaching Secondary Mathematics - International Studies of Students' Mathematics Achievement

Analysis of international studies of student achievement demonstrates that schools CAN make a difference to student achievement – it is not just home background that determines a student’s likelihood of success.

 

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)

TIMSS is designed to help countries all over the world improve student learning in mathematics and science. It collects educational achievement data at the fourth and eighth grades to provide information about trends in performance over time, together with extensive background information to address concerns about the quantity, quality, and content of instruction.

TIMSS provides important information:

  • for policy development
  • to foster public accountability
  • to allow areas of progress or decline in achievement to be identified and monitored
  • to address concerns for equity.

Approximately 50 countries from all over the world participate in TIMSS. Countries in the TIMSS study include Australia, USA, France, England, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan and Brazil.  A project of the IEA headquartered in Amsterdam, it is directed by the TIMSS International Study Centre at Boston College in collaboration with a worldwide network of organisations and representatives from the participating countries.

The TIMSS 2003 data and results were released in December 2004. Conducted on a four-year cycle, the first round of TIMSS was in 1995 and the second in 1999. The next round of TIMSS is taking place in 2006/7.

For more information see:

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Percentage of students reaching TIMSS 2003 benchmarks in mathematics

How do we know Australia’s mathematics achievement can improve?

The data in figure 1 (below) is from the TIMSS 2003 report. TIMSS sets a number of benchmarks and measures performance against them. For example, when averaged over all countries in TIMSS, 9% of students in Year 4 were at or above the ‘advanced’ benchmark. Australia had only 5% over this benchmark.

On the extreme left of the scale, however, Australia had only 12% not meeting the low benchmark, compared to 18% internationally. Note the generally above average performance in Year 8.

This shows that Australia generally performs above the international average. Note that there are many countries included in the international average that are not nearly as economically well off as Australia.

Australia does well in international comparison, but the performance of the high achieving developed countries demonstrates that we could do markedly better. For example, around 70% of Singapore students achieve at the high and advanced benchmark level, compared to around 30% of Australian students.

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Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

Are students well prepared for future challenges? Can they analyse, reason and communicate effectively? Do they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life? The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) answers these questions and more, through its surveys of 15-year-olds in the principal industrialised countries. Every three years, it assesses how far students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills essential for full participation in society.

PISA is an internationally standardised assessment that was jointly developed by participating countries.

The survey was implemented in schools in:

  • 43 countries in the first assessment in 2000
  • 41 countries in the second assessment in 2003
  • 57 countries in the third assessment in 2006.

62 countries have signed up to participate in the 4th assessment in 2009.

Tests are typically administered to between 4,500 and 10,000 students in each country.

For more information see:

Analysis of Australian data from international studies (TIMSS Yr8 and PISA 15 year olds) looked for ‘school effects’ – that is, whether schools performed as expected when scores were statistically adjusted for socio-economic factors:

  • In PISA, 20% of schools performed significantly above or below their predicted score.
  • In TIMSS, 45% of schools performed significantly above or below their predicted score.

This data (which controls for socio-economic status) shows that it is NOT just socio-economic or other student variables that make a difference to achievement. Variations from the predicted scores were found to be due to the teaching and learning that happens at school.