Between two science curricula: the influence of international surveys on the Israeli science curriculum

International surveys have served as agents of change for the introduction of reforms in curricula worldwide. The Israeli Ministry of Education set a goal of raising Israel's ranking in international surveys so that Israel will be among the 10 leading countries in the Program for International Student Assessment and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The Ministry of Education therefore acted to reduce the gap between the intended and the attained science curriculum by intervening on two curricular levels: the intended and the implemented. Over the years, documents that contributed to the adoption of contents and skills from the international surveys were added to the science curriculum, until the publication of the new science curriculum. The intervention was successful and in TIMSS 2011, Israel ranked 13 out of the 42 participating countries. The present research examines the influence of international surveys on science education in Israel, over the course of time (1996–2011). Analysis of documents accompanying the curriculum shows a clear message that international surveys are standards that should be used for teaching, and every additional document closes the gap between the science curriculum and the international surveys.     

Cautions on OECD'S Recent Educational Survey (PISA)

A new survey of the educational attainments of 15-year-olds was undertaken by OECD in Spring 2000 (the 'PISA survey'). Surprisingly, British pupils appeared to perform in mathematics much better than in an IEA survey carried out only one year previously. This paper examines four main differences in the objectives and methods adopted in the two surveys. (a) Questions in the previous IEA survey were directed to the mastery of the school syllabus by the relevant age-groups, whereas PISA was ostensibly directed to so-called 'everyday life' problems--which provides less guidance for policy on schooling. (b) The IEA survey was based on samples of whole classes including, for example, older pupils who had entered school late, or had repeated a class: PISA excluded the latter pupils as it was based strictly on a 12-months' period of birth; issues of variability of pupils' attainments within a class--important for a class's teachability--cannot therefore be examined in this OECD survey. (c) England's response rate for schools was particularly low (60%, compared with 95% in leading European countries), raising serious doubts as to the inclusion of low-attaining schools. (d) The response rate of pupils (within participating schools in the PISA survey) was lower in England than in any other country, and lower than in the previous IEA survey, suggesting a greater upward bias in reported average scores. The paper concludes that it is difficult to draw valid conclusions for Britain from this survey and planned repeats should be postponed until the underlying methodological problems have been resolved.     

City of London School and Communities that Care: Researching Pupil Experience to Inform Policy and Practice in the Independent Sector

This article is an account of the decision by an independent school to participate in its local Healthy Schools Scheme. One of the factors that influenced this decision was the value the school gained from a pupil survey. The same survey was used to track the impact of the school's Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum and pastoral work on pupils' experience of the school, and academic achievement. In particular, the authors explore the role of survey analysis and consultancy advice in interpreting survey results and developing school practice. The survey contributed to pupil participation in school development. The use of an external consultant as critical friend was perceived as an aid to school reflection and self-review.     

The contribution of PISA to the convergence of education policies in Europe

The international comparative studies on students’ outcomes have initiated analyses that have had a growing influence on national and sub‐national education policies in industrialised and developing countries. It is particularly the case of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which started in 2000 and has organised surveys every 3 years, so that the 2015 survey was the 6^th. Its influence has been particularly important for several reasons: 1) it assesses the basic competences in reading literacy, maths and science of 15 year‐olds students, i.e. around the end of compulsory education in many countries; 2) the assessment is based on a reliable methodology and the tests are completed by qualitative surveys and studies; 3) and the results lead to recommendations and are amplified by the media in most countries. However, it is not easy to evaluate the real impact of PISA because of the existence of other international studies such as IEA's TIMSS and, particularly in Europe, the influence of the recommendations and benchmarks of the EU that has been growing steadily in the last 25 years. Our analysis of the impact of PISA and EU policy focuses on the evolution of the education policy in France, but also studies its evolution in a few other European countries. Finally, we underline the limits of the influence of PISA and international standards in education towards a convergence of education systems because of the importance of their specific historic and cultural contexts.     

Participation in science and technology: young people’s achievement‐related choices in late‐modern societies

Young people’s participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is a matter of international concern. Studies and careers that require physical sciences and advanced mathematics are most affected by the problem and women in particular are under‐represented in many STEM fields. This article views international research about young people’s relationships to, and participation in, STEM subjects and careers through the lens of an expectancy‐value model of achievement‐related choices. In addition it draws on sociological theories of late‐modernity and identity, which situate decision‐making in a cultural context. The article examines how these frameworks are useful in explaining the decisions of young people – and young women in particular – about participating in STEM and proposes possible strategies for removing barriers to participation.     

What Can Mathematics Educators in England Learn from TIMSS?

In most of the countries taking part in TIMSS, students scored at similar levels for mathematics and science. England was one of the few countries where the results did not conform to this pattern. The key question for mathematics educators in England is: why did students in England perform relatively well in science but relatively badly in mathematics? The results for 9-year-olds were particularly intriguing since the majority of students at this age in England were taught mathematics and science by their class teacher. In order to seek answers to the question posed above, this article compares the responses to the TIMSS context questionnaires made by 9-year-olds and their teachers in the 13 European countries taking part in the TIMSS survey of that age group (Population 1). Issues examined include: curriculum content; lesson time; homework; class size; use of calculators in mathematics; practical activities in science; classroom organisation and students’ attitudes.     

City of London School and Communities that Care: Researching Pupil Experience to Inform Policy and Practice in the Independent Sector

This article is an account of the decision by an independent school to participate in its local Healthy Schools Scheme. One of the factors that influenced this decision was the value the school gained from a pupil survey. The same survey was used to track the impact of the school's Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum and pastoral work on pupils' experience of the school, and academic achievement. In particular, the authors explore the role of survey analysis and consultancy advice in interpreting survey results and developing school practice. The survey contributed to pupil participation in school development. The use of an external consultant as critical friend was perceived as an aid to school reflection and self-review.     

The last place to look: the place of pupil councils within citizen participation in Scottish schools

This article critically examines pupil councils as a means of developing pupils’ citizenship participation. It draws on findings across two research projects. The first study is a mixed method study commissioned by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) that reviews the range of participatory activities in Scottish schools and their contribution to Scotland’s major curriculum revision, the Curriculum for Excellence (CFE). The second is a longer ethnographic study examining young people’s experience of participation projects in more detail. The findings lend strength to the argument that pupil councils as a stand-alone approach are not an effective means of citizenship participation. When pupil councils are complemented by other participation activity across spheres of school interaction, young people’s understanding of and interest in participation can be greatly enhanced. The article examines the cross curricular linkages schools are making, the barriers that impede such linkages and the benefits derived from successful coordinated approaches in light of criteria for ‘graduated participation’ developed through decades of work internationally on children’s participation.     

Curriculum sensitive assessment: Content does make a difference

This chapter explores the use of rankings and total test scores in large-scale international comparative studies and some of the issues related to them. It examines their value as a basis for policy decisions and educational research. Country ranks on total test scores have been seen to be relatively robust to changes in test content, even changes directed at greater curriculum relevance. Unfortunately, other analyses suggest this robustness is likely a consequence of high levels of aggregation and broad, shallow domain sampling. Student achievement in mathematics and science is inherently multi dimensional. Highly aggregated scores of broadly sampled domains are inherently misleading and mask fundamental, educationally relevant diversities at more specific levels of the curriculum.     

The IEA Studies of Reading and Writing Literacy: a 1996 perspective

The paper reviews IEA literacy studies. It analyses them in the light of theories of literacy, cross‐cultural perspectives, and their practical and theoretical value. It points out that, despite some well‐grounded theoretical perspectives, in reality, the IEA instruments test only certain aspects of ‘formal’ literacy. The paper explores the cultural colonisation of IEA instruments by ‘Western’ literacy forms, expressed partly through the training and administrative structures of the IEA and partly through the existing international dominance of such forms. It looks at the implicit assumptions made about literacy through the use of particular statistical item response models and suggests that there are important lessons to be learnt from the IEA experience. It concludes with some suggestions for future work.     

Lessons from the iea studies

The launching in the early 1960s of cross-national surveys of student achievements was in many respects a pioneering venture. It required setting up an international coordinating “machinery”, raising funds, and assembling a body of researchers who could develop an adequate methodology and make the necessary scientific and administrative decisions. In 1961 the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) was established for coordinating purposes and as a forum for scientific exchange. It was incorporated in 1967. This chapter presents the lessons learned with regard to the general research paradigm, administration, funding, and methods employed. Finally, the competence building in some countries that IEA undertook is described. The author, who chaired IEA during its first two decades of existence, has concentrated on the experience gained up to 1980.     

Mathematics and science inequalities in the United Kingdom: when elitism,sexism and culture collide

An examination of gender, social class and ethnicity performance and participation patterns in different UK countries shows that inequities occur in relation to gender, class and ethnicity but that the patterns of inequity look quite different in the three domains. Achievement is equal for different genders but many more males take mathematics forward to advanced levels; social class differences persist in both achievement and participation; and ethnicity shows a varied pattern with some groups performing and participating at particularly high levels and some particularly low. This paper identifies some critical issues that we face in making mathematics and science equitable and begins to analyse some of the barriers that stand in the way of students who are female, and from some ethnic and social groups.     

FIMS and SIMS: the first two IEA International Mathematics Surveys

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) is an organisation which experiences tension between the interests of researchers and those of policy‐makers. Three international mathematics studies have been undertaken. The first and second studies, FIMS and SIMS, conducted at age 13 and pre‐university, were each innovative in their day, and some of the results have had a significant impact. Not all difficulties of curriculum match and comparable sampling were solved, resulting in concerns about the validity of international league tables and educational inferences. Nevertheless, the collection and analysis of data in relation to students, teachers, curriculum, classroom contexts and attainment was itself invaluable and justified the enterprise.     

Implementing change in mathematics education

This paper outlines the results of a survey into the effects, during the 2 years following publication, of an official report--Improving Mathematics Education 5-14--on teaching and learning mathematics in Scottish schools. The purpose of the survey was to examine how the process of implementation worked its way down to the classroom and pupil level, to document the effect (at least in the short term) the report had on classroom organization, classroom methodology, and pupil learning and attitude, and to provide a snapshot of curriculum development at work in a particular educational, geographical, and time context. The survey revealed that the process of this curriculum change was a mixture of central direction and local individuality, and that the main thrust of the changes was accepted by teachers with little overt dis-sent. The survey also provided further evidence that curriculum change in Scotland tends to proceed without much consideration of general questions of purpose and motivation.     

Achievement comparisons between the first and second IEA studies of mathematics

Two major surveys of the teaching and learning of mathematics have been conducted by IEA, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement: the first in the 1960s, and the second in the early 1980s. A comparison of the results obtained on achievement items common to the two surveys indicates that students' performance has improved in some areas and deteriorated in others. Performance levels have declined, for example, in the area of computational skills of arithmetic, and improved overall in algebra.     

Understanding the low mathematics achievement of Chilean students: A cross-national analysis using TIMSS data

The low performance of Chile in the TIMSS 1998/99 international study of mathematics and science achievement was a great disappointment for that country. To investigate the likely causes for low performance in mathematics, this study (1) compared Chile to three countries and one large school system that had similar economic conditions but superior mathematics performance, and (2) examined how important characteristics of the Chilean educational system could account for poor student achievement in mathematics. The study finds that, compared to South Korea, Malaysia, the Slovak Republic, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools: (a) Chilean 8th graders had parents with fewer years of schooling and with fewer educational resources at home; (b) the Chilean mathematics curriculum covered less content and fewer cognitive skills; and (c) the meager official curriculum translated into a weaker curricular implementation. Hierarchical linear models found that, in Chile, school assets were unequally distributed across social classes, with schools in socially advantaged areas more likely to have their own mathematics curriculum and better prepared teachers who emphasized more advanced mathematics content. Schools with their own mathematics curriculum and whose teachers covered more advanced content had significantly higher student achievement in mathematics.     

A review of teacher development reforms in Indonesian secondary science: The effectiveness of practical work in biology

Science teaching in Indonesia has undergone major reforms since independence. This paper examines the role of practical activities in secondary science from an international perspective and contrasts this with a developing country perspective. In examining major curriculum and teacher training reforms in Indonesia, continuing influences on science education from industrialised countries are acknowledged; however, nlike many other developing countries, Indonesia has essentially implemented curriculum and teacher training reforms using a pool of overseas trained senior teachers and locally trained personnel. A number of research studies on biology practical work in Indonesia suggest that practical activities in biology are more effective in enhancing student cognitive achievement, science process skills and problem solving abilities than traditional didactic classroom approaches.     

STEM Integration in Middle School Life Science: Student Learning and Attitudes

In many countries around the world, there has been an increasing emphasis on improving science education. Recent reform efforts in the USA call for teachers to integrate scientific and engineering practices into science teaching; for example, science teachers are asked to provide learning experiences for students that apply crosscutting concepts (e.g., patterns, scale) and increase understanding of disciplinary core ideas (e.g., physical science, earth science). Engineering practices and engineering design are essential elements of this new vision of science teaching and learning. This paper presents a research study that evaluates the effects of an engineering design-based science curriculum on student learning and attitudes. Three middle school life science teachers and 275 seventh grade students participated in the study. Content assessments and attitude surveys were administered before and after the implementation of the curriculum unit. Statewide mathematics test proficiency scores were included in the data analysis as well. Results provide evidence of the positive effects of implementing the engineering design-based science unit on student attitudes and learning.     

Basic Competence in Mathematics: Swedish and English 16 year olds

The transition to mass participation in post-16 education, which had occurred considerably earlier in other European countries, has finally taken place in England. However, high drop-out and failure rates persist, particularly on vocational qualification routes. Our hypothesis is that an important factor is the lack of basic competence of lower-achieving English students in the key skills - English language and mathematics - required for success in further study. Our research addresses the validity of the argument by investigating whether any significant difference can be detected between the skills of English students entering post-compulsory education and those of students in countries where drop-out and failure rates are low. The country investigated in this study was Sweden where participation of 16 year olds in post-compulsory upper-secondary education is currently over 90%; and where some 90% of those enrolling normally obtain an academic or vocational qualification. Some General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) mathematics questions were incorporated into the national test taken by Swedish 16 year olds at the end of compulsory schooling; and significant differences were found in the scores of the lower 40% of the cohort in the two countries. The results are consistent with the hypothesis; and also go beyond previous Swedish-English comparisons, which reflect the general emphasis in international studies on younger age groups (typically 9 and 13 year olds).