Mathematics and Science Achievements and Achievement Gaps in South Africa
Human Sciences Research Council Presentation to SAARMSTE 2021
![](https://www.timss-sa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/prs12-150x150.png)
Presentations
Published in 2021 by Human Sciences Research Council
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
TIMSS is a cross-national and trend assessment of the mathematics and science knowledge of 4/5th Grade and 8/9th Grade learners.
- TIMSS assessments align broadly with countries mathematics and science curricula of countries. 1/3rd of TIMSS items assess knowledge and 2/3rd assess applying and reasoning skills.
- TIMSS dataset consists of achievement data and demographic and contextual information to explain achievement.
- South Africa and TIMSS:
- Grade 8 in 1995, 1999 & 2003 and Grade 9 in 2003, 2011, 2015 and 2019 cycles. Only 25-year achievement dataset
- Grade 5 in 2015 and 2019
TIMSS Methodology
- Statistics Canada selects a representative sample of schools (learners representative of the population), with province as the explicit stratification variable.
- TIMSS uses a matrix design to construct 14 achievement booklets. High coverage of assessment topics
- TIMSS uses Rasch analysis, item response theory and imputations to generate five plausible achievement estimates
- Details of methodology: TIMSS-SA, TIMSS & PIRLS Study Centre in Boston College and International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement.