Key Findings

Mathematics achievement

New Zealand Year 9 students, on average, achieved significantly international mean in mathematics for the 46 countries participating in TIMSS-02/03. However, New Zealand’s performance relative to other countries that had participated The New Zealand student mean was similar to those reported for students in Chinese Taipei, Japan, Belgium (Flemish), and the Netherlands.

Science achievement

New Zealand Year 9 students, on average, achieved significantly above the New Zealand’s performance relative to countries that had participated in the in eight countries including Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Hong Kong (SAR), Students, classroom and school context.

New Zealand Year 9 students were less likely to express a high level of self-confidence New Zealand Year 9 students’ views on the value of mathematics and science were comparable to many other countries. However, Year 9 students in 2002 were more likely to report that they enjoyed learning science than their Year 9 counterparts did in 1994 and 1998. In mathematics on the other hand proportionately more students reported that they did not enjoy learning this subject compared to their counterparts in previous assessments.

• Proportionally more New Zealand Year 9 students attended schools where principals’ perceptions of school climate were very positive than was observed internationally.
• There has been a significant increase between 1994 and 2002 in the proportion of New Zealand Year 9 students attending schools where principals felt that resource shortages had no or minimal impact on the schools’ ability to provide instruction in either mathematics or science.