Mathematics and Science Achievements and Achievement Gaps in South Africa

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Mathematics and Science Achievements and Achievement Gaps in South Africa

Human Sciences Research Council Presentation to SAARMSTE 2021

Presentations
Published in 2021 by Human Sciences Research Council
Authors: Vijay Reddy
Keywords: Mathematics Achievement in South Africa / Mathematics and Science / Science / Science Achievement in South Africa

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.