1 / 15

What can we learn from TIMSS 2003?

What can we learn from TIMSS 2003?. Dr Edith R Dempster School of Education & Development University of KwaZulu-Natal. Defining the problem. TIMSS is an international study of Maths and Science literacy among 14-year-olds.

uma-weber
Download Presentation

What can we learn from TIMSS 2003?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. What can we learn from TIMSS 2003? Dr Edith R Dempster School of Education & Development University of KwaZulu-Natal

  2. Defining the problem • TIMSS is an international study of Maths and Science literacy among 14-year-olds. • South Africa has been the worst-performing country in three successive TIMSS. • Why?

  3. Validity • Content validity • Face validity • Construct validity • Readability

  4. The sample • 8,952 learners participated in TIMSS 2003. • 11.6% wrote the test in Afrikaans. • 88.4% wrote in English. • 84% of these were African children attending “African” schools. • Remaining 16% were children attending “non-African” schools.

  5. Scaled score for Science

  6. Investigating readability • Long words, unfamiliar words & sentence complexity predict readability. • Not good predictors of performance in South African children! • 20 MCQ items were interesting: 40% of children from African schools chose one incorrect answer. • Why?

  7. Readability measures

  8. Strategy 1:Select an answer that contains words that are familiar (9 items). The sun is an example of which of the following? • Comet • Planet • Galaxy • Star

  9. Another example Which group of energy sources are ALL renewable? • Coal, oil and natural gas • Solar, oil and geothermal • Wind, solar and tidal • Natural gas, solar and tidal.

  10. Strategy 2: match terms in the question and the answers (2 items) The burning of fossil fuels has increased the carbondioxide content of the atmosphere. What is a possible effect that the increased amount of carbondioxide is likely to have on the planet? • A warmer climate • A cooler climate • Lower relativehumidity • More ozone in the atmosphere.

  11. Strategy 3: mixed strategy A balloon filled with helium gas is set free and starts to move upward. Which of the following best explains why the helium balloon moves upward? • The density of helium is less than the density of air. • The air resistance lifts the balloon up. • There is no gravityacting on helium balloons. • The wind blows the balloon upward.

  12. Other strategies • Misconceptions (5 items). • Selecting the answer that contains all the options (1 item). • Misunderstanding the question (2 items). • Unknown explanation.

  13. Unknown explanation Eatingleafy vegetables is important for human health. This is becauseleafy vegetables are a good source of which of the following? • Protein • Carbohydrates • Minerals • Fat

  14. What does this tell us? • Children have alternative strategies for answering MCQ. • Sentence complexity and unfamiliar words affect the strategy. • Content validity, construct validity and readability must be taken into account when designing MCQ. • ESL learners are more affected than EFL.

  15. Thank you!

More Related