International Journal of Education and Psychological Research

(Print and Online Peer Reviewed Journal)


Print - ISSN: 2349 - 0853
e - ISSN: 2279 - 0179

VOLUME 3 - ISSUE 3

(September 2014)

Success Factors of Taiwan in TIMSS Mathematics Assessment


Authors: Wong Pak Hui

Pages: 1-7

Abstract:

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a project of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). 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 is conducted on a regular 4-year cycle and the first assessment had been carried out in 1995.Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) took part in TIMSS Mathematics Assessment since 1999. The mean score is always greater than international benchmark. Their ranking for 8th grader is always in top 5 with 3rd in 1999, 2nd in 2003, 1st in 2007 and 3rd in 2011. The achievement is awesome when compare to Malaysia. Like Taiwan, Malaysia also took part in TIMSS Mathematics Assessment since 1999 but only for 8th grader. The achievement is declining from year to year and the mean score was below the international benchmark, except for 1999. Therefore, a hypothetical study of factors that contributed to mathematics performance of Taiwanese in TIMSS Mathematics assessment had been carried out so that we can try to learn from Taiwan on how to achieve such excellent performance. In this study, the author would like to confirm the effect of the factors under learner variable, school variables and home variable on mathematics performance. Six hypotheses were created. The data used will be the secondary data obtained from TIMSS 2011. Structural Equation Modeling – Partial Least Squares method will be used to analyze the data. The smartPLS2.0 software is used for the study. As conclusion, it was found all the three variables, school variable, learner variable and home variable have direct effect on mathematics performance and home variable and school variable have indirect effect on mathematics performance.