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Informing mathematics pedagogy A new analysis of a selection of mathematics items from the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2007) has illustrated areas of strength and, particularly weaknesses, for Australian students. TIMSS is the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a cycle of internationally comparative assessments, conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) every four years. The last cycle took place in 2007 with results released in late 2008. The main Australian national report, TIMSS 2007: Taking a closer look at mathematics and science in Australia, released in December last year, provided a ‘big picture’ view of Australian Year 4 and 8 students’ achievement in mathematics and science. It found that Australian Year 4 students displayed some improvement in mathematics achievement since 2003 but achievement levels of Australian students remained static in Year 8 mathematics. This new report, Informing mathematics pedagogy: TIMSS 07 Australia and the world, aims to provide teachers with more detailed information on what Australian students are actually able to do in mathematics in terms of the TIMSS assessment. The report discusses a selection of items from the publicly available questions of the TIMSS 2007 assessment. It breaks down responses to individual questions to provide a more ‘micro’ perspective of student achievement that may help identify and address areas of weakness. To place students’ responses in a wider context, the item breakdown presented in this report for Australian students was compared with the responses from two other countries for international comparison. The first was Chinese-Taipei, which consistently performed in the top three of the 36 countries at Year 4, and the 49 countries at Year 8. Comparison with these students’ responses provided an ‘upper benchmark’ for Australian students. The second country chosen was the United States as the two countries are often compared to one another because of curriculum and general cultural similarities. Students’ responses to five mathematics items at each year level are explored and what these responses might indicate about students’ levels of understanding for a particular item and its content area considered. By exploring results at the item level, teachers can ascertain whether the mistakes typically made by students in the sample are also mistakes made by their own students. This information may help teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses and identify ways to address problems. Where a multiple-choice question was answered incorrectly it has been possible to determine which incorrect answer (or distracter) was chosen and why this may have been. For example one Year 4 question asked students to calculate the area of a fence being painted. Forty two per cent of Australian students selected an incorrect answer to this question that suggested they had added rather than multiplied the width and length of the fence. Another example indicated Australian Year 4 students had not mastered the ability to multiply 2 digit numbers together, whereas half of US students and a majority of Chinese-Taipei students had. While it is difficult to identify trends based on a small sample of items there were also some central themes that emerged through the item analysis conducted. The Year 4 mathematics items reviewed students’ skills in number, geometry and data. Australian students performed well on the item assessing their understanding of shapes but their achievement was poorer for other areas, especially in terms related to multiplication, fractions and area. For Year 8 mathematics, the five items investigated students’ understanding of algebra, number, geometry and data. Items assessing algebra revealed a particular area of weakness for Australian students as did a data question that contained components of probability and fractions. For some of the items discussed the percentage of answers omitted was quite large. Avoidance of these items is an issue of concern whether it was due to poor competence beliefs of lack of effort. Lastly, larger gender differences for the rate of correct responses tended to favour boys. This trend meets with the general TIMSS 2007 finding that boys outperformed girls in mathematics. Informing mathematics pedagogy: TIMSS 07 Australia and the world by Sue Thomson and Sarah Buckley is available from the ACER Research Repository. A CD is included with the report that contains all of the TIMSS 2007 released items so that teachers may see the types of questions students completed when they participated in the project. Further information and all reports on all TIMSS assessments is available from the TIMSS website at www.acer.edu.au/timss « Back to eNews
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A new analysis of a selection of mathematics items from the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2007) has illustrated areas of strength and, particularly weaknesses, for Australian students.

TIMSS is the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a cycle of internationally comparative assessments, conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) every four years. The last cycle took place in 2007 with results released in late 2008.

The main Australian national report, TIMSS 2007: Taking a closer look at mathematics and science in Australia, released in December last year, provided a ‘big picture’ view of Australian Year 4 and 8 students’ achievement in mathematics and science. It found that Australian Year 4 students displayed some improvement in mathematics achievement since 2003 but achievement levels of Australian students remained static in Year 8 mathematics.

This new report, Informing mathematics pedagogy: TIMSS 07 Australia and the world, aims to provide teachers with more detailed information on what Australian students are actually able to do in mathematics in terms of the TIMSS assessment. The report discusses a selection of items from the publicly available questions of the TIMSS 2007 assessment. It breaks down responses to individual questions to provide a more ‘micro’ perspective of student achievement that may help identify and address areas of weakness.

To place students’ responses in a wider context, the item breakdown presented in this report for Australian students was compared with the responses from two other countries for international comparison. The first was Chinese-Taipei, which consistently performed in the top three of the 36 countries at Year 4, and the 49 countries at Year 8. Comparison with these students’ responses provided an ‘upper benchmark’ for Australian students. The second country chosen was the United States as the two countries are often compared to one another because of curriculum and general cultural similarities.

Students’ responses to five mathematics items at each year level are explored and what these responses might indicate about students’ levels of understanding for a particular item and its content area considered. By exploring results at the item level, teachers can ascertain whether the mistakes typically made by students in the sample are also mistakes made by their own students. This information may help teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses and identify ways to address problems.

Where a multiple-choice question was answered incorrectly it has been possible to determine which incorrect answer (or distracter) was chosen and why this may have been.

For example one Year 4 question asked students to calculate the area of a fence being painted. Forty two per cent of Australian students selected an incorrect answer to this question that suggested they had added rather than multiplied the width and length of the fence.

Another example indicated Australian Year 4 students had not mastered the ability to multiply 2 digit numbers together, whereas half of US students and a majority of Chinese-Taipei students had.

While it is difficult to identify trends based on a small sample of items there were also some central themes that emerged through the item analysis conducted. The Year 4 mathematics items reviewed students’ skills in number, geometry and data. Australian students performed well on the item assessing their understanding of shapes but their achievement was poorer for other areas, especially in terms related to multiplication, fractions and area.

For Year 8 mathematics, the five items investigated students’ understanding of algebra, number, geometry and data. Items assessing algebra revealed a particular area of weakness for Australian students as did a data question that contained components of probability and fractions.

For some of the items discussed the percentage of answers omitted was quite large. Avoidance of these items is an issue of concern whether it was due to poor competence beliefs of lack of effort. Lastly, larger gender differences for the rate of correct responses tended to favour boys. This trend meets with the general TIMSS 2007 finding that boys outperformed girls in mathematics.

Informing mathematics pedagogy: TIMSS 07 Australia and the world by Sue Thomson and Sarah Buckley is available from the ACER Research Repository. A CD is included with the report that contains all of the TIMSS 2007 released items so that teachers may see the types of questions students completed when they participated in the project.

Further information and all reports on all TIMSS assessments is available from the TIMSS website at www.acer.edu.au/timss