Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2015
United Arab Emirates, Armenia, Australia...and 52 more, 2015
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WLD_2015_TIMSS_v01_M
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2015
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | ARE |
| Armenia | ARM |
| Australia | AUS |
| Belgium | BEL |
| Bulgaria | BGR |
| Bahrain | BHR |
| Botswana | BWA |
| Canada | CAN |
| Chile | CHL |
| Cyprus | CYP |
| Czech Republic | CZE |
| Germany | DEU |
| Denmark | DNK |
| Egypt, Arab Rep. | EGY |
| Spain | ESP |
| Finland | FIN |
| France | FRA |
| United Kingdom | GBR |
| Georgia | GEO |
| Croatia | HRV |
| Hungary | HUN |
| Indonesia | IDN |
| Ireland | IRL |
| Iran, Islamic Rep. | IRN |
| Israel | ISR |
| Italy | ITA |
| Jordan | JOR |
| Japan | JPN |
| Kazakhstan | KAZ |
| Korea, Rep. | KOR |
| Kuwait | KWT |
| Lebanon | LBN |
| Lithuania | LTU |
| Morocco | MAR |
| Malta | MLT |
| Malaysia | MYS |
| Netherlands | NLD |
| Norway | NOR |
| New Zealand | NZL |
| Oman | OMN |
| Poland | POL |
| Portugal | PRT |
| Qatar | QAT |
| Russian Federation | RUS |
| Saudi Arabia | SAU |
| Singapore | SGP |
| Serbia | SRB |
| Slovak Republic | SVK |
| Slovenia | SVN |
| Sweden | SWE |
| Thailand | THA |
| Turkiye | TUR |
| Taiwan, China | TWN |
| United States | USA |
| South Africa | ZAF |
Statistical Info. & Monitoring Prog. [hh/simpoc]
IEA's TIMSS measures trends in mathematics and science achievement at the fourth and eighth grades in participating countries around the world, while also monitoring curricular implementation and identifying promising instructional practices. TIMSS 2015 is the sixth in IEA's series of international assessments of student achievement dedicated to improving teaching and learning in mathematics and science. Conducted on a regular 4-year cycle, TIMSS has assessed mathematics and science in 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015. TIMSS collects a rich array of background information to provide comparative perspectives on trends in achievement in the context of different educational systems, school organizational approaches, and instructional practices.
TIMSS 2015 introduced a new, less difficult mathematics assessment at the fourth grade called TIMSS Numeracy intended to assess fundamental mathematical knowledge, procedures, and problem-solving strategies that are prerequisite for success in the TIMSS mathematics assessment at the fourth grade. TIMSS Numeracy is designed to assess mathematics at the end of the primary school cycle for countries where most children are still developing fundamental mathematics skills. Seven countries and one benchmark participant participated in the TIMSS Numeracy 2015 assessment, six of which also participated in TIMSS 2015 at the fourth grade.
TIMSS is an international assessment of mathematics and science at the fourth and eighth grades that has been conducted every four years since 1995. TIMSS 2015 is the sixth assessment in the TIMSS series monitoring 20 years of trends in educational achievement, together with comprehensive data on students’ contexts for learning mathematics and science.
In 2015, 57 countries and 7 benchmarking entities (regional jurisdictions of countries such as states or provinces) participated in TIMSS. In total, more than 580,000 students participated in TIMSS 2015.
The TIMSS 2015 mathematics and science assessments are based on comprehensive frameworks developed collaboratively with the participating countries. For each curriculum area at each grade, the frameworks are organized around two dimensions: a content dimension specifying the content to be assessed and a cognitive dimension specifying the thinking processes to be assessed. The TIMSS assessments contain nearly 800 assessment items, about 200 per grade for each curriculum area. The majority of TIMSS items assess students’ applying and reasoning skills.
New for TIMSS 2015, a home questionnaire was completed by fourth grade students’ parents or caregivers, in addition to the questionnaires routinely given at both fourth and eighth grades to students, teachers, school principals, and curriculum specialists. The questionnaire data primarily are reported in the form of indices created using IRT scaling methods, and results are presented for three regions of the scales (most to least desirable). When possible, scales were developed in parallel to provide comparisons between mathematics and science as well as the fourth and eighth grades.
TIMSS has the goal of helping countries make informed decisions about how to improve teaching and learning in mathematics and science. With its strong curricular focus and emphasis on policy relevant information about the home, school, and classroom contexts for learning, TIMSS is a valuable tool that countries can use to evaluate achievement goals and standards and monitor students’ achievement trends in an international context.
Sample survey data [ssd]
- Student
- Teacher
- School
- Curriculum
- Partent or gardian
Scope
TIMSS 2015 gathered information about curricula, instructional practices, policies, and student background and attitudes.
Coverage
National coverage
Country level
The TIMSS target populations are fourth and eighth graders in each participating country.
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| TIMSS International Study Center | Boston College |
Sampling
TIMSS is designed to provide valid and reliable measurement of trends in student achievement in countries around the world, while keeping to a minimum the burden on schools, teachers, and students. The TIMSS program employs rigorous school and classroom sampling techniques so that achievement in the student population as a whole may be estimated accurately by assessing just a sample of students from a sample of schools. TIMSS assesses mathematics and science achievement at two grade levels and so TIMSS has two target populations-all students enrolled at the fourth grade and all students enrolled at the eighth grade. Countries may assess either or both student populations.
TIMSS employs a two-stage random sample design, with a sample of schools drawn as a first stage and one or more intact classes of students selected from each of the sampled schools as a second stage. Intact classes of students are sampled rather than individuals from across the grade level or of a certain age because TIMSS pays particular attention to students' curricular and instructional experiences, and these typically are organized on a classroom basis. Sampling intact classes also has the operational advantage of less disruption to the school's day-to-day business than individual student sampling.
Note: Details of the TIMSS 2015 sample design and implementation are available online at <a href='https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/publications/timss/2015-methods.html'> Methods and Procedures in TIMSS 2015</a>.
Survey instrument
International Version of the TIMSS 2015 Context Questionnaires
International version of the TIMSS 2015 context questionnaires compress of the following 10 sections:
• Section 1: Fourth Grade Student Questionnaire
• Section 2: Fourth Grade Home Questionnaire (Early Learning Survey)
• Section 3: Fourth Grade Teacher Questionnaire
• Section 4: Fourth Grade School Questionnaire
• Section 5: Fourth Grade Curriculum Questionnaire
• Section 6: Eighth Grade Student Questionnaire - General/Integrated Science Version & Eighth Grade Student Questionnaire - Separate Science Subjects Version
• Section 7: Eighth Grade Mathematics Teacher Questionnaire
• Section 8: Eighth Grade Science Teacher Questionnaire
• Section 9: Eighth Grade School Questionnaire
• Section 10: Eighth Grade Curriculum Questionnaire
National Adaptations of International Context Questionnaires
Context questionnaire national adaptations include questions that countries were required to adapt, questions that were not administered, and questions that countries modified to suit their national context. National adaptations are presented in eight sections corresponding to the TIMSS 2015 context questionnaires.
• Section 1: Fourth Grade Student Questionnaire
• Section 2: Fourth Grade Home Questionnaire (Early Learning Survey)
• Section 3: Fourth Grade Teacher Questionnaire
• Section 4: Fourth Grade School Questionnaire
• Section 5: Eighth Grade Student Questionnaire
• Section 6: Eighth Grade Mathematics Teacher Questionnaire
• Section 7: Eighth Grade Science Teacher Questionnaire
• Section 8: Eighth Grade School Questionnaire
Detailed description of the questionnaires is provided online at <a href='https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2015/questionnaires/index.html'>TIMSS 2015 </a> website.
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 2015 |
Data appraisal
To obtain estimates of students’ proficiency in mathematics and science that are both accurate and cost-effective, TIMSS 2015 made extensive use of probability sampling techniques to sample students from national fourth and eighth grade student populations, and applied matrix-sampling assessment designs to target individual students with a subset of the complete pool of assessment items. This approach made efficient use of resources, in particular keeping student response burden to a minimum, but at a cost of some variance or uncertainty in the reported statistics, such as the means and percentages computed to estimate population parameters.
To quantify this uncertainty, each statistic in the TIMSS 2015 international reports is accompanied by an estimate of its standard error. For statistics reporting student achievement, which are based on plausible values, standard errors have two components. The first reflects the uncertainty due to generalizing from student samples to the entire fourth or eighth grade student populations, referred to as sampling variance, and the second reflects uncertainty due to inferring students’ performance on the entire assessment from their performance on the subset of items that they took, known as imputation variance. For parameter estimates of variables that are not plausible values, standard errors are based entirely on sampling variance.
Note: Details of the TIMSS 2015 standard errors estimates are available online at <a href='https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/publications/timss/2015-methods.html'> Methods and Procedures in TIMSS 2015</a>.
Data Access
| Name | URL |
|---|---|
| International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) | https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2015/international-database/ |
SOURCE: TIMSS 2015 Assessment Frameworks. Copyright © 2013 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Publisher: TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center, Lynch School of Education, Boston College.
Disclaimer and copyrights
Please note that the <a href='https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2015/international-database/'>website</a> and its contents, together with all online and/or printed publications and restricted use items (‘works’) by TIMSS, PIRLS, and IEA, were created with the utmost care. However, the correctness of the information cannot be guaranteed at all times and IEA cannot and will not be held responsible or liable for any damages that may arise from the use of these resources, nor will IEA be liable for the wrongful use and/or interpretation of its works.
Please be advised that IEA cannot authorize the use of texts or items that include third- party copyrighted materials (e.g., reading passages, photographs, images). Users of any third-party copyrighted materials must first seek and be granted copyright permission from the owner of the content as indicated in the copyright citation line.
Contacts
| Name | URL | |
|---|---|---|
| TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center | timssandpirls@bc.edu | https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2015/international-database/ |
Metadata production
DDI_WLD_2015_TIMSS_v02_M_WB
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Development Economics Data Group | The World Bank | Documentation of the DDI |
Metadata version
DDI Document - Version 02 - (04/21/21)
This version is identical to DDI_WLD_2015_TIMSS_v01_M_WB but country field has been updated to capture all the countries covered by survey.
Version 01 (September 2018). Information provided in this documentation is excerpted from TIMSS 2015 INTERNATIONAL DATABASE <a href='https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2015/international-database/'>website</a>.