TIMSS 2002/03: Mathematics and Science Achievement in NZ: Summing up New Zealand's participation at Year 9 Publications
Publication Details
This report presents a descriptive overview of the mathematics and science achievement results of Year 9 students. It does this using the third (2002/2003) cycle of TIMSS. This cycle builds a comprehensive picture of trends in mathematics and science achievement for Year 9 students after one year of secondary schooling. Data collected in this cycle are viewed in the context of baseline data collected in New Zealand in 1994 along with data collected four years later in 1998. The report integrates and reflects on data from all three cycles.
Author(s): Megan Chamberlain
Date Published: November 2007
Executive Summary
This report presents a descriptive overview of the mathematics and science achievement results for Year 9 students. It uses the third (or 2002-2003) cycle of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in which New Zealand participated during 2002. TIMSS, administered on a four-yearly cycle, was first administered in 1994-1995 and again in 1998-1999. The third cycle builds a comprehensive picture of trends in mathematics and science achievement for Year 9 students after one year of secondary schooling. Data collected in this cycle are viewed in the context of the baseline data collected in New Zealand in 1994 along with data collected four years later in 1998. As well as describing student achievement results for the third cycle, this report reflects on and integrates the findings for the two previous cycles.
Background
The first cycle, TIMSS-94/95, was on a scale much larger than the later cycles. It involved New Zealand’s Years 4 and 5 students, Years 8 and 9 students, and Years 12 and 13 students in their final year of schooling. The results from this cycle showed the performance of New Zealand’s Years 8 and 9 students in both mathematics and science relative to other countries to be about ‘average’. The performance in mathematics and science literacy of our senior school leavers placed New Zealand amongst the higher-performing countries. However, the results for the middle primary cohort brought to the forefront concerns about mathematics and science education. The study showed that Years 4 and 5 students were generally achieving well below the international mean in mathematics and to be very weak in some aspects of science.
Coinciding with the release of the Years 4 and 5 results came reports of difficulties that teachers, particularly in the primary sector, were experiencing with implementing the then new curricula. These two concerns led to the establishment, in mid-1997, of the Mathematics and Science Taskforce to provide advice on the type and level of support that classroom teachers needed in order for them to implement the curricula. A series of recommendations, which included a need for appropriate teacher resource materials, were made by the Taskforce in late 1997. Most of the recommendations were put into place, along with a number of other Ministry of Education initiatives which have focused on improving student outcomes in mathematics and science. These events provide a backdrop to New Zealand’s continuing participation in TIMSS; TIMSS has allowed New Zealand not only to monitor its performance relative to other countries, but to monitor changes within the New Zealand system.
What was assessed in TIMSS-02/03?
TIMSS assesses two learning areas: mathematics and science. The design of the study is such that a range of cognitive skills are tested in the context of these two learning areas using a variety of test question formats.
In mathematics the test questions require students to use their knowledge skills, application skills, and their problem-solving and reasoning skills in five domains of mathematics: number, algebra, measurement, geometry, and data.
In science the test questions assess students’ knowledge, their conceptual understanding, and reasoning and analytical skills to solve problems from five domains: life science, chemistry, physics, earth science, and environmental science.
How well did the final assessment match with the New Zealand intended curricula?
In determining whether or not the content of the test questions was appropriate for New Zealand’s Year 9 students at the end of their first year of secondary schooling, Level 5 (and preceding levels) in Mathematics in the New Zealand Curriculum and Science in the New Zealand Curriculum was used as the basis for this task. Level 5 was chosen and subsequently divided into two – content that was likely to be covered at Year 9 and content likely to be covered at Year 10. Results from the TCMA found that 90 percent of the mathematics and 80 percent of the science questions were judged to be in the intended curricula for Year 9 students.
A t what level of the curriculum were students working in 2002?
Based on the estimations of the mathematics and science teachers of the Year 9 students who participated in TIMSS in 2002, the majority of students were, or had been working, at Level 4 of each of the mathematics strands and Level 4 and/or Level 5 of each of the science strands.
Who was assessed?
In 2002, 3,801 New Zealand Year 9 students from 169 schools took part in the assessment. Just over 400 teachers of mathematics and science took part.
Year 9 student outcomes in mathematics
Achievement
- New Zealand students’ mean achievement in mathematics in 2002-2003 was significantly higher than the international country mean for the 46 countries.
- There was no significant change in Year 9 students’ mathematics performance over the eight years from 1994 to 2002. Internationally, New Zealand’s mean achievement relative to the country mean for the 18 countries taking part in all three cycles remained largely unchanged over the eight years.
- Internationally, Year 9 students’ mean achievement in the cognitive domain of reasoning in 2002-2003 was relatively better than in the areas of knowing and applying; this was largely explained by girls’ relatively high performance on questions that demanded these skills.
- There were no significant changes in either Year 9 girls’ or Year 9 boys’ mean mathematics achievement from 1994 to 2002 and no notable differences between their mean mathematics achievement.
- There were no significant changes in the mean mathematics achievement of Year 9 students in any of the four main ethnic groupings. However, a shift in the relative performance among the groupings was evident with Asian students, on average, outperforming all other students in 2002.
- Relative to their overall performance in 2002, the mathematics content area in which Year 9 students achieved best was Data. Number was an area of relative weakness, and more so for Year 9 girls than for Year 9 boys. No significant changes in any of the content areas were observed from the second cycle in 1998.
Students’ attitudes and beliefs about mathematics
- Year 9 students’ reports on the value of mathematics were similar to the international country means.
- Year 9 boys were more likely than Year 9 girls to endorse the value of mathematics; Asian students were more likely to hold very positive views than were students from other groupings.
- The proportion of Year 9 students reporting they did not enjoy learning mathematics increased significantly from 1994 to 2002; this was observed for both boys and girls, and for Päkehä/European and Mäori students.
- Year 9 students’ levels of self-confidence in learning mathematics were similar to international country means.
- Year 9 boys tended to have a higher level of self-confidence in learning mathematics than Year 9 girls. Asian students were more likely than students in the other three main groupings to have a high level of self-confidence.
Year 9 student outcomes in science
Achievement
- New Zealand Year 9 students’ mean performance in science in 2002-2003 was significantly higher than the international country mean for 46 countries.
- Overall, there was no significant change in Year 9 students’ mean science achievement over the eight years from 1994 to 2002. However, there were significant increases in the mean science achievement of Pasifika and Asian students over this period.
- New Zealand’s mean achievement relative to the country mean for the 18 countries taking part in all three cycles improved from 1998-1999 to 2002-2003 after decreasing between 1994-1995 and 1998-1999.
- Proportionately more Year 9 students achieved at or above the Low and Intermediate benchmarks in 2002 than in 1994. This was observed for boys and girls and across the four main ethnic groupings.
- Year 9 girls’ science achievement increased significantly from 1994 to 2002. Year 9 boys’ mean science achievement returned to the same level as it was in 1994, after decreasing from 1994 to 1998.
- The large gender difference, which had favoured Year 9 boys in 1994 had all but disappeared by 2002, largely explained by the increase in Year 9 girls’ mean achievement over the period. However, in 2002 Mäori boys, on average, achieved significantly higher science scores than Mäori girls, whereas no significant differences were observed between girls’ and boys’ mean achievement in the other groupings.
- No area of science was found to be a relative strength for Year 9 students in 2002; Chemistry was an area of relative weakness. Year 9 boys’ mean performance was significantly higher than girls’ in both Earth Science and Environmental Science.
- In terms of trends, Physics was an area where there had been a significant increase in achievement since 1998.
Students’ attitudes and beliefs about science
- New Zealand’s Year 9 students tended to be more reticent than their international peers with their views on the value of science.
- Year 9 boys were more likely than Year 9 girls to place a high value on science; Asian students were also more likely than students from other groupings to hold very positive views.
- Year 9 students’ reports on their level of enjoyment of science increased significantly from 1994 to 2002; this was observed for both girls and boys and for students in all four ethnic groupings.
- Year 9 students were less likely to report being confident in learning science than were many of their international peers.
- Year 9 boys were more likely than Year 9 girls to have a high level of self-confidence in science; Asian and Päkehä/European students were more confident with their abilities in learning science than were Mäori and Pasifika students.
Year 9 students’ background
- There were some small shifts in the ethnic composition of the Year 9 cohorts from 1994 to 2002.
- While the overall proportions of Year 9 students reporting they ‘always’ and those reporting they ‘rarely’ spoke English at home remained unchanged over the eight years, the difference in mean achievement between students who ‘always’ spoke English in the home and those who ‘rarely’ spoke English decreased over the eight years 1994 to 2002.
- The types of schools Year 9 students had attended in Years 7 and 8 were found not to be associated with their mathematics and science achievement after one year of secondary schooling.
- Most Year 9 students were involved in after-school activities in 2002. The most popular activity was playing sport. Television watching continued to be a popular out-of-school activity on school days, although the average time spent on this decreased from 1994 to 2002.
- Year 9 students, like many of their international peers, reported spending a moderate level of time doing mathematics and science homework during the school week.
- The majority of Year 9 students held positive attitudes towards school. Students who held positive attitudes were also likely to report that they had not experienced negative behaviours, such as bullying.
- The proportion of Year 9 students reporting they had something stolen decreased from 1994 to 2002.
Final Comment
Although the recommendations made by the Mathematics and Science Taskforce, along with other Ministry of Education initiatives, were implemented from 1998 onwards, it is reasonable to say that they had little impact on Year 9 student achievement in mathematics and science in 2002. However, the findings for Year 5 students in 2002, the subject of a separate report, were more encouraging. The results for this cohort make it more compelling to examine whether or not the apparent improvements in achievement are sustained through to Year 9. New Zealand is currently taking part in the fourth cycle, TIMSS-06/07, but only Year 5 students are involved. The fifth cycle of TIMSS, which is scheduled for 2010-2011, will, however, provide the opportunity to examine this.
This report examines the assessment data for Year 9 students alongside information about their backgrounds, and their beliefs and attitudes towards mathematics and science. As in the previous cycles, contextual information was also gathered from the students’ mathematics and science teachers and from principals of the schools they attended in 2002. However, these data are not covered here. Exploration of these data could also provide more insight about Year 9 student achievement from 1994 to 2002.
Footnote
Countries also had the opportunity to provide input into decisions during the development phase on the topics to be covered in the assessment and after the field testing on the final sets of items.
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