Informing mathematics pedagogy: TIMSS 07, Australia and the world

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HTMLInforming mathematics pedagogy: TIMSS 07, Australia and the world

20 October 2009This new analysis of a selection of mathematics items from the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2007) illustrates areas of strength and, particularly weaknesses, for Australian students.


TIMSS is 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 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.

Publication typeReport
Publisher TypeOther
CoverageAustralia
Permanent URLhttp://apo.org.au/node/19436
Views2787

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