TIMSS & PIRLS

Australian Results TIMSS 2007

Australia's performance in TIMSS 2007

Key findings from TIMSS 2007 from Australia’s perspective include:

Year 4 mathematics - Australian students’ average scores in Year 4 mathematics have increased significantly by 17 points since 2003. In terms of relative position internationally, Australia was again outperformed by all of the Asian countries as well as England and the United States – a similar position to that obtained in 2003.
Year 8 mathematics - The result for Australia is similar to 2003 but achievement scores have decreased since the first administration of TIMSS in 1995. Increases in scores achieved by students from England, the United States and Lithuania, in combination with a decrease in Australia’s score, resulted in those countries significantly outperforming Australia in 2007. Overall, Australian students performed poorly in the areas of geometry and algebra.
Year 4 science – Australia’s performance has remained relatively unchanged since the first administration of TIMSS in 1995. Australia’s relative position compared to other countries is much the same in 2007 as it was in 2003.
Year 8 science - Australia’s average score has declined by 12 score points since TIMSS 2003. This combined with significant improvements by the Russian Federation and Slovenia has moved Australia a little downwards in relative terms.
Indigenous students - Once again the results of an international study highlight that little has changed in regard to educational outcomes for Indigenous students. At Year 4 the average score for Indigenous students in both mathematics and science was around 90 score points lower than that of their non-Indigenous counterparts. This gap has actually increased over time. Similar results were found at Year 8.
Gender – In Australia, boys generally outperformed girls at both Mathematics and Science at each year level. This is in contrast to the international trend for girls to outperform boys.
Professor Masters called for urgent reform of primary and junior secondary science curriculum and teaching in light of the findings.