Programme for International Student Assessment

Mathematical Literacy in PISA 2006

How to read the graphs...

Each country’s results are represented in horizontal bars with various colours.  On the left end of the bar is the 5th percentile – this is the score below which 5 per cent of the students have scored.  The next two lines indicate the 10th percentile and the 25th percentile.  The next line at the left of the white band is the lower limit of the confidence interval for the mean – i.e. there is 95 per cent confidence that the mean will lie in this white band.  The line in the centre of the white band is the mean.  The lines to the right of the white band indicate the 75th, 90th and 95th percentiles.

Results for states and territories are presented vertically, however the interpretation is the same.

Reading Math Graphs
Reading Graphs

 

From an international perspective...

  • Australia was outperformed by eight countries: Chinese Taipei, Finland, Hong Kong-China, Korea, Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada and Macao-China. 
  • Australia performed on par with five countries: Liechtenstein, Japan, New Zealand, Belgium and Estonia.
  • Australia scored significantly higher than the OECD average.

Figure 6-3
Student performance in mathematical literacy by country

  • Approximately 80 per cent of OECD countries and sixty per cent of partner countries had statistically significant gender differences, all but one in favour of males.  
  • In PISA 2006, Australian males performed significantly higher than Australian females. This was in contrast to PISA 2003, where no significant gender differences were found.

    • From a national perspective...

  • The highest performing state in mathematical literacy was the Australian Capital Territory, which was not statistically different from that of Chinese Taipei, the highest scoring country.  
  • All states achieved higher mean scores compared to the OECD average, except Tasmania whose mean score was similar to the OECD average, and the Northern Territory whose mean score was lower than the OECD average.

Figure 6-6
Student performance in mathematical literacy by state

  • Four states had significant gender differences, in the favour of males, with Victoria representing the largest of these differences, then following Western Australia, Tasmania and Queensland.

 

 

Mathematical Literacy in PISA 2003

How to Interpret graphs?

pisa2003

Australia was outperformed by four countries in mathematical literacy (Hong Kong-China, Finland, Korea and The Netherlands). In PISA 2000 only two countries performed better than Australia (Japan and Hong Kong, China).

Compare PISA 2000 mathematics results

 

Mathematics proficiency levels

While it is useful for countries to be able to examine mean performance, PISA is also able to provide a profile of students' mathematical performance using proficiency levels. The figure below shows overall mathematics proficiency levels for all countries in PISA 2003.

PISA - Key Findings: Mathematics Proficiency Levels

As mathematics was the major domain in PISA 2003, proficiency levels were also created for the four mathematics subscales.

View the proficiency levels for the four mathematics subscales for Australia

 

Gender differences in mathematics

As shown in the figure below, Australian boys and girls performed at equivalent levels in mathematical literacy but this was not the case in all PISA countries.

PISA - Key Findings: Gender Differences in maths
View the proficiency levels by gender for Australia

Although the means for overall mathematical literacy in Australia show no gender differences, the levels of proficiency attained by males and demales in Australia show that almost twice as many males as females achieve the highest PISA proficiency level. Males also performed significantly better than females on two of the four subscales: space and shape and uncertainty.

Download the national Australian report from the reports page.