scholarly journals Is TIMSS Advanced an appropriate instrument for evaluating mathematical performance at the advanced level of Norwegian upper secondary school? An analysis of curriculum documents and assessment items

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida Friestad Pedersen

Given that the results of international large-scale achievement studies attract a lot of attention and may affect educational policies, the primary aim of the present study is to discuss the appropriateness of the mathematics tests developed for the two cycles of TIMSS Advanced for evaluating the mathematical performance of Norwegian upper secondary school students. This will here be done by employing a methodology for alignment studies developed by Porter (2002), which entails analyzing and describing the mathematical content of the Norwegian curriculum documents and the TIMSS Advanced assessment items, and calculating the agreement between these. The analyses show a moderate alignment between the different iterations of TIMSS Advanced and the curriculum followed by the participating students, implying that the emphasis in the Norwegian mathematics curriculum differs somewhat from that of the TIMSS Advanced tests. These analyses do not warrant the conclusion that the TIMSS Advanced tests were inappropriate instruments for assessing the mathematical performance of Norwegian students. They do, however, imply that the differences in emphasis between the different iterations of TIMSS Advanced and the curriculum followed by the participating students should be taken into account in order to make valid interpretations of the results of this large-scale survey. Finally, as alignment is evaluated by contrasting alignment indices calculated for different combinations of the intended and assessed curriculum, additional research is needed if one is to make more firm judgments. One additional contribution of the present study is demonstrating a powerful methodology for conducting this kind of research.

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-178
Author(s):  
Berry Billingsley ◽  
Mehdi Nassaji

We report on a large-scale survey of 1,772 upper-secondary school students in 16 Church of England schools to discover their perceptions of how science and religion relate. We found that students who attend Church schools are pedagogically, socially and cognitively confined to the view that science and religion conflict. The findings are discussed alongside interview studies with students which sought to discover the extent to which they have the epistemic insight they need to access a range of views about the relationships between science and religion.


2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Trude Nilsen ◽  
Carl Angell ◽  
Liv Sissel Grønmo

As students advance in their learning of physics over the course of their education, the requirement of mathematical applications in physics-related tasks increases, especially so in upper secondary school and in higher education. Yet there is little empirical work (particularly large-scale or longitudinal) on the application of mathematics in physics education compared with the research related to the conceptual knowledge of physics. In order to clarify the nature of mathematics in physics education, we developed a theoretical framework for mathematical competencies pertinent to various physics tasks based on theoretical frameworks from mathematics and physics education. We used this synthesis of frameworks as a basis to create a model for physics competence. The framework also served as a tool for analyzing and categorizing trend items from the international large-scale survey, TIMSS Advanced 1995 and 2008. TIMSS Advanced assessed students in upper secondary school with special preparation in advanced physics and mathematics. We then investigated the changes in achievements on these categorized items across time for nations who participated in both surveys. The results from our analysis indicate that students whose overall physics achievement declined struggled the most with items requiring mathematics, especially items requiring them to handle symbols, such as manipulating equations. This finding suggests the importance of collaboration between mathematics and physics education as well as the importance of traditional algebra for physics education.


Author(s):  
Tun Zaw Oo ◽  
Andrea Magyar ◽  
Anita Habók

AbstractThis study investigates the effectiveness of the reflection-based reciprocal teaching (RBRT) approach for Myanmar upper secondary school students’ reading comprehension in English. In the RBRT approach, the main frame is based on the reflective teaching model for reading comprehension (Oo and Habók in Int Electron J Elementary Educ 13(1):127–138, 2020), in which the reciprocal teaching method (involving questioning, clarifying, summarizing, and predicting) was applied. This study used cluster randomized trials. Two groups participated in the research: the experimental group, who were taught with the RBRT approach, and the control group, who were taught with traditional methods. Results showed that the RBRT approach has a strong effect on students’ English reading comprehension achievement. The experimental group increased its achievement on the posttest significantly, and the students’ results showed high effect size. It was also found that teachers’ reflection on the instructional context had a considerable impact on raising students’ reading comprehension achievement. The RBRT approach can be successfully applied in the classroom environment to develop students’ reading comprehension in English in Myanmar.


2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konrad Piotrowski

Abstract In the processual approach to identity, the role of the interaction between subjective and contextual factors in the process of its development is emphasized. Based on the model of Luyckx et al. (2008) relationships between identity and educational context, as well as the tendency to experience shame and guilt were analyzed.. 821 people aged from 14-25 and belonging to six educational groups: (1) lower secondary school, (2) basic vocational school, (3) technical upper secondary school, (4) general upper secondary school, (5) post-secondary school (medical rescue, massage therapy, cosmetology, occupational therapy) and (6) university, took part in the research. Two questionnaires were used: The Dimensions of Identity Development Scale (DIDS), to allow the measurement of the five dimensions of identity postulated by Luyckx et al (2008) and The Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 (PFQ-2, Harder, Zalma, 1990) to measure of the shame and guilt proneness. The results show that general upper secondary school students in terms of the dimensions of identity are closer to lower secondary school students rather than to their peers from technical and vocational schools. Among general upper secondary school students not only was a higher intensity of an identity crisis observed, but also a strong tendency to experience shame and guilt. Among lower secondary school students and general upper secondary school students, people with diffusion and moratorium as identity statuses prevailed, while in the remaining groups the achievement and foreclosure identity were observed more frequently. A general relationship was also observed, namely, a greater tendency to experience shame was associated with a higher intensity of an identity crisis.


2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stine Frydendal Nielsen ◽  
Lone Friis Thing

In this paper we present results concerning how students in a Danish upper secondary school negotiate between sports culture and the prevailing norms of youth culture in a local school context. The study shows that it can be rather difficult for young people to combine sports culture with the local youth culture, because living a healthy and physically active life doesn’t fit very well with the prevailing norms of youth culture, which involve a dominant social arena characterized by parties and alcohol. By applying the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias, this article shows that being included in a sports figuration can result in exclusion from the youth figuration. Young athletic students are therefore in a constant process of negotiation, where they struggle to fit into both sport and non-sport related contexts, because it is important to belong within both. The study is based on 16 focus group interviews [N=120] conducted over four years in one Danish upper secondary school.


Author(s):  
Enni Paul ◽  
Camilla Gåfvels

This study explores vocational judgement, which is discernible in the assessment actions of a supervising childminder directed towards upper secondary school students – while interacting with the children – during work-based learning in Sweden. The research aims to identify the characteristics of vocational knowing in terms of judgement, as exhibited in everyday interactions with children, by applying multimodal interaction ana-lysis to two video sequences from different Swedish preschools. The study findings show how vocational judgement – in the form of embodied discernment – is a central aspect of a childminder’s vocational knowing. Vocational judgement becomes discernible, for instance, in how supervising childminders are consistently one or several steps ahead of both children and upper secondary school students


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