TIMSS Assessment Framework Outline (Group 3)

OVERVIEW
What does TIMSS stand for?
Trends In Mathematics and Science Study
● The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a study or an
investigation into classrooms all across the world and in the United States.
● The U.S. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), housed in the Institute of
Education Sciences, provides statistics on education. The Department of Education is in
charge of putting TIMSS into practice in the US.
● TIMSS has given participating nations and other educational systems the chance to
assess students' advancement in math and scientific achievement starting in 1995
and every 4 years after that.
● Studies of students, instructors, schools, curricula, instruction, and policy issues are also
conducted in order to comprehend the educational setting in which learning occurs.
● The last one took place in 2019 (next will be in 2023)

HISTORY

● The First International Mathematics Study (FIMS) was carried out by the IEA in 1964,
and the Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS) was carried out in 1980–1982.
● The First and Second International Science Studies (FISS and SISS), respectively, were
conducted in 1970–1971 and 1983–1984.
● Since mathematics and science are closely related in many ways and since
governments and other educational systems are often interested in students' ability in
both subjects, TIMSS started to be administered as an integrated evaluation of both
mathematics and science.TIMSS is the latest in a lengthy line of research projects
carried out by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement (IEA).

PURPOSE
● TIMSS is intended to assess how well students are learning mathematics and science in
comparison to the standards for classroom instruction.
● With a curriculum-centered approach, TIMSS can address two broad questions:
1. How do mathematics and science educational environments and student
outcomes vary across nations and other educational systems, and how are the
variations in student outcomes related to the variations in educational
environments?
2. Are there patterns of linkages between settings, inputs, and outputs within
nations and other educational systems that could result in enhancements to the
theories and methods of mathematics and science education?
CONTENT
To gather information about students, instructors, schools, and national policies and practices
that can affect student performance, TIMSS employs a variety of instruments.
 TIMSS Assessment Framework Outline (Group 3)

● Writing Assessments.. Students are tested on a variety of topics in mathematics and

science through assessments.
1. Numbers, geometric shapes and measurements, and data visualization are the
mathematics curriculum areas for grade 4. Earth science, life science, and
physical science make up the grade 4 science curriculum.
2. Mathematics curriculum areas for grade 8 include numbers, algebra, geometry,
and data and chance. The science subjects covered in grade 8 are biology,
physics, chemistry, and Earth science.
// para mavisualize better, you can use table comparing the two
components :) - MJ

// additional information about writing assessment

● In addition to being familiar with the mathematics and science

content areas encountered in TIMSS, students are required to
draw on a range of cognitive skills to successfully complete the
assessment. TIMSS focuses on three cognitive domains in each
subject: knowing, which covers the facts, procedures, and
concepts students need to know; applying, which focuses on the
ability of students to apply their knowledge and conceptual
understanding to solve problems; and reasoning, which goes
beyond solving routine problems to include unfamiliar situations
and context that may require multi-step problem-solving.
● After each TIMSS assessment cycle, approximately half of the
items are publicly released, and replacement items that closely
match the content of the original items are developed by
international assessment and content experts. These new items
are field tested and refined to the point where a variety of multiple
choice and extended constructed-response items (i.e., items
requiring written explanations from students) are chosen to be
included in the TIMSS item pool.
● Each student is asked to complete one booklet, made up of a
subset of items taken from this item pool. No student answers all
of the items in the item pool. The scoring of these booklets is
accomplished through the use of a sophisticated and strict set of
criteria that are implemented equally across all nations to ensure
accuracy and comparability.//

● Student Background Questionnaire. Each student who takes the TIMSS assessment
is asked to complete a questionnaire on issues including daily activities, family attributes,
educational resources in the home, engagement in and beliefs about learning,
instructional processes in the classroom, study habits, and homework.
● Teacher Questionnaire. The teacher questionnaire is given to the mathematics and
science teachers of the students assessed in the study. These questionnaires ask about
topics such as attitudes and beliefs about teaching and learning, teaching assignments,
class size and organization, topics covered in class, the use of various teaching tools,
instructional practices, professional preparation, and continuing development.
 TIMSS Assessment Framework Outline (Group 3)

The teacher questionnaire is designed to provide information about the teachers of the
students in the TIMSS student samples. The teachers who complete TIMSS
questionnaires do not constitute a sample from any definable population of teachers.
Rather, they represent the teachers of a national sample of students.

● School Questionnaire. The principal or head administrator is also asked to complete a

questionnaire for the school focused on community attributes, personnel, teaching
assignments, policy and budget responsibilities, curriculum, enrollment, student behavior
issues, instructional organization, and mathematics and science courses offered.

Information collected from students, their teachers and schools is summarized in

composite indices focused, in particular, on the relationship between mathematics and
science achievement and the home, classroom, and school environment.

● Curriculum Questionnaire. The NRC, or representative, of each participating country

or other education system is asked to complete a questionnaire focused on the policies
and practices supported at the national level that may contribute to student performance.
In addition, because the mathematics and science topics covered in the assessment
may not be included in all countries and other education systems' curriculum, the NRCs
are asked to indicate whether each topic covered in TIMSS is included in their countries
and other education systems' intended curriculum through the fourth or eighth grade
● Encyclopedia. Beginning with TIMSS 2007, each participating country or other
education system is asked to provide a written overview of the context in which
mathematics and science instruction takes place, summarizing the structure of the
education system, the mathematics and science curricula and instruction in primary and
secondary grades, teacher education requirements, and the types of examinations and
assessments employed to monitor success. The resulting chapters are compiled in a
publication entitled the TIMSS Encyclopedia.
● Videotape Study. The 1995 TIMSS Videotape Study was designed as the first study to
collect videotaped records of classroom instruction from national probability samples in
Japan, Germany, and the United States in order to gather more in-depth information
about the context in which learning takes place as well as to enhance understanding of
the statistical indicators available from the main TIMSS study. An hour of regular
classroom instruction was videotaped in a subsample of eighth-grade mathematics
classrooms (except in Japan, where videotaping was usually done in a different class,
selected by the principal) included in the assessment phase of TIMSS in each of the
three countries.

The 1999 TIMSS Videotape Study was expanded in scope to examine national samples
of eighth-grade mathematics and science instructional practices in seven nations:
Australia, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the
United States. Four countries—Australia, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and the
United States—participated in both the mathematics and science components of the
study. Hong Kong and Switzerland participated in only the mathematics component, and
Japan in only the science component.

● Ethnographic Case Studies. Conducted only in 1995, the case studies were designed
to focus on four key topics that challenge U.S. policymakers and to investigate how
these topics were dealt with in the United States, Japan, and Germany: implementation
of national standards; the working environment and training of teachers; methods for
dealing with differences in ability; and the role of school in adolescents' lives. Each topic
was studied through interviews with a broad spectrum of students, parents, teachers,
and educational specialists. The ethnographic approach permitted researchers to
 TIMSS Assessment Framework Outline (Group 3)

explore the topics in a naturalistic manner and to pursue them in greater or lesser detail,
depending on the course of the discussion. As such, these studies both validated and
integrated the information gained from official sources with that obtained from teachers,
students, and parents in order to ascertain the degree to which official policy reflected
actual practice. The objective was to describe policies and practices in the nations under
study that were similar to, different from, or nonexistent in the United States.
● TIMSS Benchmarking Study. In 1999, 13 states and 14 districts or consortia of districts
throughout the United States participated as their own "nations" in this project, following
the same guidelines as the participating countries and other education systems. The
samples drawn for each of these states and districts were representative of the student
population in each of these states and districts. The findings from this project allowed
these jurisdictions to assess their comparative international standing and judge their
mathematics and science programs in an international context.

In 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015, several states again participated in TIMSS to benchmark
their student performance internationally. In 2003, Indiana participated in TIMSS
independently as well as part of the U.S. national sample; in 2007, Massachusetts and
Minnesota did; and in 2011, Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida,
Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and North Carolina did. In 2015, Florida participated
as an international benchmark.

● NAEP/TIMSS linking studies.NCES conducted a study in 2012 to link results from the
2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to results from the 2011
TIMSS assessment. The goal of the NAEP-TIMSS Linking Study was to predict 2011
TIMSS mathematics and science scores at grade 8 for all U.S. states based on their
NAEP performance for states, without incurring the costs associated with every state
participating in TIMSS. The 2011 NAEP-TIMSS Linking Study represents the fourth
study to link NAEP and TIMSS. The first study used results from the 1995 administration
of TIMSS and the results from the 1996 NAEP. The second study used results from
TIMSS 1999 and NAEP 2000. The third study examined linking 2007 NAEP and TIMSS
data through the method of statistical moderation, by applying the correspondence
between the national score distributions of NAEP and TIMSS to the state and district
NAEP score distributions. The 2011 NAEP-TIMSS Linking Study was undertaken to
improve on the previous attempts to link these two assessments. The 2011
NAEP-TIMSS Linking Study differed from the previous linking studies in several ways.
First, unlike previous efforts, the 2011 NAEP-TIMSS Linking Study administered NAEP
and TIMSS booklets at the same time under the same testing conditions. This provided
examinee-level correlations between NAEP and TIMSS scores to improve the accuracy
of the predicted TIMSS state scores. The second way that it differed is that a greater
number of validation states, nine, participated in TIMSS, which meant a greater number
of actual state TIMSS results were available to validate the predicted TIMSS average
scores.

To validate the 2011 NAEP-TIMSS Linking Study, nine independent state samples were
used from Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts,
Minnesota, and North Carolina.

● TIMSS Advanced studies. In 1995, TIMSS Advanced was first conducted to determine
what students, who were finishing secondary school with special preparation in
mathematics and science, know and can do. The achievement of these students was
and continues to be of great interest to policy makers, as it may help determine a
country's potential in global competitiveness. TIMSS Advanced has been repeated twice
 TIMSS Assessment Framework Outline (Group 3)

since 1995, in 2008 and 2015. The goal of TIMSS Advanced is to compare the
performance of the most advanced final-year secondary students across participating
countries in advanced mathematics and physics. The advanced mathematics content
includes calculus; numbers, equations, and functions; validation and structure;
probability and statistics; and geometry. The physics assessment includes questions
about mechanics; electricity and magnetism; particle, quantum and other types of
modern physics; heat; and wave phenomena.

Sixteen countries participated in the 1995 TIMSS Advanced assessment; In the United
States, the advanced mathematics assessment in 1995 was administered to a sample of
12th-grade students who had taken or were taking pre-calculus, calculus, AP calculus, or
calculus and analytic geometry. The physics assessment in 1995 was administered to a
sample of 12th-grade U.S. students who had taken or were taking at least one year-long
course in physics, including physics I, physics II, advanced physics, and Advanced
Placement physics. Nine education systems—all IEA member countries—participated in
TIMSS Advanced 2015. In the United States, the advanced mathematics sample in 2015
was restricted to 12th-grade students who had taken or were taking a class teaching
calculus to be more internationally comparable. The physics sample in 2015 was
restricted to 12th-grade U.S. students who had taken or were taking a second-year
physics class, an AP Physics course, or the equivalent. For additional information on
TIMSS Advanced 1995 and 2015, please see U.S. TIMSS 2015 and TIMSS Advanced
1995 & 2015 Technical Report and User's Guide (Averett et al. 2017).

TARGET POPULATION/ PARTICIPANTS

The target population for TIMSS Advanced is students undertaking advanced

mathematics and physics courses in their final year of secondary school or at the start of their
STEM coursework in universities.

TIMSS has two target populations: the fourth grade, or the grade that represents four
years of schooling, counting from the first year of ISCED Level 1; and the eighth grade, or the
grade that represents eight years of schooling, counting from the first year of ISCED Level 1.

Additionally, countries also have the option of administering the TIMSS fourth-grade
assessment to students in the fifth or sixth grades, or the TIMSS eighth-grade assessment at
the ninth grade.
 TIMSS Assessment Framework Outline (Group 3)

RESULT OF TIMSS IN THE PHILIPPINES

(palagay ng sample pics ng batang Pilipino na grade 4 na naeexam kunwari go go go)

Inaugurated in 1995, the TIMSS is held every 4 years to measure student achievements
in mathematics and science.

The 2019 edition was conducted at the fourth and eighth grades in 64 countries, but the
Philippines only participated in the assessment for fourth-grade students.

Filipinos fared worst among 58 countries in an assessment for mathematics and science
for Grade 4 students, according to a study by a Netherlands-based research institution released
Tuesday.

The Philippines scored 297 in math and 249 in science, according to the Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 by the International Association for
the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).

The TIMSS makes use of a 4-level scale to interpret students’ scores: Advanced
International Benchmark (625), High International Benchmark (550), Intermediate International
Benchmark (475), and Low International Benchmark (400).

In math, only 1 percent of Filipino students reached the high benchmark, meaning,
“Students apply conceptual understanding to solve problems.”

Meanwhile six percent (6%) of Filipino students were in the intermediate benchmark,
which means they can “apply basic mathematical knowledge in simple situations.” and nineteen
(19%) percent of Filipino students were on the low benchmarks, meaning they “have some
basic mathematical knowledge.”

In science, thirteen percent (13%) of Filipino students were in the low benchmark,
indicating, “Students show limited understanding of scientific concepts and limited knowledge of
foundational science facts” while only one (1%) percent of Filipino students are in the high
benchmark while 5 percent are in the intermediate.
 TIMSS Assessment Framework Outline (Group 3)

USE & IMPORTANCE OF TIMSS

The TIMSS design accommodates countries along the performance distribution, from
high to medium to low. It includes a component specially designed to measure achievement of
populations that are still developing numeracy skills at the fourth grade while enabling reporting
on the TIMSS mathematics scale.

Generally, TIMSS, TIMSS Advanced, and PISA have been influential in setting the
agenda for educational discussions in Norway, as well as for action taken to improve student
achievement in mathematics and science.

It is important for politicians, policymakers, curriculum developers, educational

researchers, school owners, school leaders, teachers, journalists and parents to have adequate
information about the educational system for discussion, planning and improvement of the
situation in school. TIMSS studies, which are conducted every 4 years in grades 4 and 8, give a
lot of information about mathematics and science for all in compulsory school. TIMSS Advanced
in the last year of upper secondary school gives a lot of information about mathematics and
physics for students who may become our future experts as scientists, engineers, economists,
ICT developers, or in any other professions where mathematics and science play important
roles.