Science - Trends in Year 5 science achievement 1994 to 2006

Erratum for the TIMSS 2006/07 Science report -
Trends in Year 5 science achievement 1994 to 2006: New Zealand results from three cycles of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)

Published December 2008, revised August 2009

Note that in the international datasets for all countries the results for the Knowing and Applying cognitive scores were inadvertently mislabelled so all data labelled Knowing actually pertain to Applying and all data labelled Applying actually pertain to Knowing data. This error has been rectified in the on-line version of this report – any written copies should have this erratum attached.

Pg. 3, Key finding 5 should read: Year 5 students demonstrated a relative strength in earth science questions compared to life and physical science. Students also performed relatively better on questions that involved demonstrating knowledge compared to applying knowledge or reasoning.

Pg. 9, para. 5 should read: In the cognitive domains, New Zealand Year 5 students achieved relatively better at tasks that required them to demonstrate their knowledge and relatively worse at questions that required them to apply their knowledge. Year 5 mean science scores on the cognitive domains were not investigated in 2002 so it is not possible to present trend comparisons.

Pg. 9, Table 4 should look as follows:

 

    Table 4: Year 5 mean science scores on the content and cognitive domains in 2006  

Note: Standard errors are presented in parentheses.
Content domain	Mean domain score			Cognitive domain	Mean domain score
Life science	506	(2.5)		Knowing	511	(2.5)
Physical science	498	(2.5)		Applying	500	(2.4)
Earth science	515	(2.6)		Reasoning	505	(2.9)

Pg. 9, para. 7 should read: Looking at Tables 4 and 5 together, it is important to note that the content domain where New Zealand Year 5 students show the greatest strength, earth science, had the least number of questions. In contrast, the cognitive area of greatest strength, knowing, had the greatest number of questions. The distribution of science questions across the content domains was very similar in 2006 to 2002.

Pg. 20, para. 2 should read: In the cognitive domains, New Zealand Year 5 students demonstrated a relative strength in questions that required them to demonstrate their knowledge and a relative weakness in questions that required them to apply their knowledge. This pattern was the same as Scotland and the United States. In contrast, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR, and Japan all showed a relative strength in the reasoning domain. Interestingly, Singaporean students were relatively stronger at questions in the knowing domain and relatively weaker at the questions in the reasoning domain.

Pg. 26, Table 13 should look as follows: 

 

Table 13: Year 5 mean science scores on the content and cognitive domains by gender

Note:  Δ mean domain score significantly higher than other gender.    Standard errors are presented in parentheses.    Source: Exhibit 3.3 from Martin, Mullis & Foy, 2008.
Content domain	Mean domain    score					Cognitive domain	Mean domain    score
	girls		boys				girls		boys
Life science	512	(3.0) Δ	501	(3.8)		Knowing	513	(3.1)	508	(3.1)
Physical    science	500	(3.2)	497	(3.2)		Applying	498	(2.7)	501	(3.2)
Earth science	512	(2.9)	518	(3.0) Δ		Reasoning	514	(3.1) Δ	497	(4.0)

Pg. 43, para. 3 should read: Year 5 students continue to demonstrate relative strengths in aspects of science. They tend to perform relatively better on earth science questions compared to life and physical science. Students also perform relatively better on questions that involve demonstrating knowledge compared to applying or reasoning.

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