Dismal scores

Malaya (The Philippines)
January 14, 2005

By Ellen Tordesillas (ellen@i-manila.com.ph)

Dean Jorge Bocobo shared with us the results of the third Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) conducted in 2003
and released last December.

The good news: Asian countries dominate in student math and science
achievement.

The bad news: The Philippines is not one of those Asian countries at the
top. We are, in fact, in the bottom five.

The official TIMSS release said Singapore students were among the top
performers in both mathematics and science at the fourth and eighth
grade levels. Students from the Republic of Korea, Chinese Taipei and
Hong Kong also performed very well across the two subject areas.

“Specifically, in mathe-matics, at both the eighth and fourth grades,
Singapore was the top performing country, having significantly higher
average achievement than the rest of the participating countries.

“At the eighth grade, the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong and Chinese
Taipei also had significantly higher achieve-ment than other
participating countries. At the fourth grade, Hong Kong, Japan and
Chinese Taipei outperformed the rest of the countries.

“In science, at the eighth grade, Singapore and Chinese Taipei were the
top performing countries, having significantly higher average
achievement than the rest of the participating countries. The Republic
of Korea and Hong Kong also performed very well.

“At the fourth grade, Singapore was the top-performing country with
higher average science achievement than all other participating
countries. Chinese Taipei, Japan, Hong Kong and England out-performed
the rest of the countries surveyed.”

In both mathematics and science, grade eight, the Philippines shares the
bottom with Botswana, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, and South Africa. At the
fourth grade, the Philippines is in the lowest three with Morocco and
Tunisia.

But there is one interesting finding in the study where the Philippines
figured positively. Under “gender differences in achievement”, the
results showed in mathematics that gender difference was negligible.
“However, girls had significantly higher achievement than boys in
Serbia, Republic of Macedonia, Armenia, Moldova, Philippines, Cyprus,
Jordan and Bahrain.”

In science, fourth grade level, the average gender difference in
achievement was negligible “although girls had significantly higher
average achievement in Armenia, Moldova, the Philippines and Islamic
Republic of Iran.”

What is TIMSS? It’s the most recent in a very ambitious series of
international assessments conducted in nearly 50 countries to measure
trends in mathematics and science learning.

TIMSS, aims to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics and
science by providing data about students’ achievements in relation to
different types of curricula, instructional practices, and school
improvements.

TIMSS is a project of the International Association for the Evaluation
of International Achievement (IEA), an independent international
cooperative of national research institutions and government agencies
that has been conducting studies of cross-national achievement since 1959.

Conducted first in 1995 and then in 1999, the regular four-year cycle of
TIMSS studies provides countries with an unprecedented opportunity to
obtain comparative infor-mation about their students’ achievement in
mathematics and science.

More than 360,000 students in 49 countries participated in TIMSS 2003.

TIMSS is major under-taking of the IEA, together with Progress in
International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) developed to assess
students’ reading achievement at fourth grade. The TIMSS and PIRLS
International Study Center at Boston College had overall direction of
the project.

The test touched on home and school environment and the findings were:

*Across subject area and grade level, higher levels of parents’
education were associated with higher student achievement in almost all
countries. Also students expecting to finish university had
substantially greater average mathematics and science achievement.

*Students from homes where the language of the test was always or almost
always spoken had higher average achievement than those who spoke it
less frequently.

*There was a clear relationship between the number of books at home and
achievement.

*Achievement was positively related to computer use.

*Students with higher achievement attended schools with positive
climates for learning, with fewer students from disadvantaged homes,
where teachers and students felt safe.