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How do Canadian Students Measure Up in Mathematics and Science?
Parents, taxpayers, members of the business community and others have many questions concerning our children's schooling: "How are our children doing? Is the school system preparing them to participate in the global economy? How well are they performing compared to other children in Canada and in other countries?"
Human Resources Development Canada has supported two recent assessments aimed at answering those questions for mathematics and science performance:
- School Achievement Indicators Program (SAIP)
—This Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, program was developed to assess the performance of 13- and 16-year-old students across Canada in reading and writing, science and mathematics. Mathematics assessments were administered in both 1993 and 1997.
- Third International Mathematics and Science Population 3 Study (TIMSS)
—Conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement in 1995, TIMSS compares the teaching and learning of mathematics and science at the elementary and secondary school levels with that of up to twenty-five other countries. The achievement of Canadian students in their last year of secondary school was compared to the achievement of students from countries such as France, Germany and the United States. The Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia is managing the implementation and reporting for TIMSS in Canada.
Overview of the SAIP Results for 1997 in Mathematics
Students' mathematics performance in the School Achievement Indicators Program was measured based on five levels of achievement, from level 1 at the lowest end to level 5 at the highest. These five levels represent the continuum of mathematical knowledge and skills acquired by students over their entire elementary and secondary school experience. Educators and experts regard level 2 as the expected achievement for 13-year-olds and level 3, for 16-year-olds.
- Mathematics content
—The mathematics content component of the assessment focussed on achievement in areas including numbers and operations, algebra, geometry and statistics. Almost 60 percent of the 13-year-olds demonstrated achievement at level 2 or above in 1997, and roughly the same number of 16-year-olds achieved at level 3 or above.
- Problem solving
—The problem solving component assessed the students' abilities to solve problems including formulating them, producing and verifying solutions, and applying a variety of strategies to solve them. Approximately 52 percent of 13-year-olds achieved at level 2 or above, and 40 percent of 16-year-olds achieved at level 3 or above.
- Boys performed better
—Except for 13-year-olds in the mathematics content component, males performed significantly better than females in this assessment. This finding is similar to that of several other mathematics achievement surveys done in Canada and elsewhere.
- Stable achievement at higher levels in mathematics content over the years
—The achievement of Canadian students at higher levels in mathematics remained stable between 1993 and 1997. For both age groups, no significant difference in achievement can be observed at level 3 and above.
- Mixed results in problem-solving questions
—Four mathematical problems were common to both the 1993 and 1997 assessments. For 13-year-olds, achievement on those four problems was significantly lower in 1997 than 1993. For 16-year-olds, while higher proportions of students performed at higher levels in 1997 in comparison to 1993, higher proportions also performed at lower levels.
- Quebec students perform best
—The achievement of 13- and 16-year-old students in Quebec—particularly francophone students—was the highest among all provinces. The runner-up among provinces was Alberta. In general, performance of francophone students from all parts of Canada and English-speaking students from Alberta was significantly better than the national average. Lagging behind the national average were students in Ontario, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and Northwest Territories, and anglophone students in Manitoba and New Brunswick.
- Students in full-year courses perform best
—The vast majority of 13-year-olds take full-year courses; a smaller majority of 16-year-olds take semestered courses. In both age groups, students who take full-year courses performed significantly better than those who take semestered courses.
Third International Mathematics and Science Population 3 Study (1995)
For the TIMSS study, the managers selected a nationally representative sample of Canadian students, including public, separate and private school pupils—both French- and English-speakers. Four provinces—British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and New Brunswick—elected to "oversample," selecting samples large enough to permit comparisons to be made at the provincial level.
- Canada scores high in mathematics and science literacy
—The mathematics and science literacy component of TIMSS measures the mathematical and science understanding of students; it is not curriculum-based. Canadian students did as well as or better than students from 17 of the other 21 countries participating in the mathematics and science literacy testing.
| Notes: |
* Country did not meet guidelines for sample participation rates.
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** Country used unapproved sampling plan or failed to meet other sampling guidelines.
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| Source: |
Source: Robitaille, D., A. Taylor, G. Orpwood and J.S. Donn. TIMSS-Canada Report, Volume 4: Senior Secondary. 1998
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Text version
- Canada performs strongly in advanced mathematics
—Canadian students taking courses in advanced mathematics did as well as or better than students from 13 of 16 other countries that participated in this portion of the study. Students from France, Russia and Switzerland out-performed those from Canada.
- Good results in physics
—The scores earned by Canadian physics students were as good as or better than scores for 9 of the 16 countries taking part in this component of the study. Students from the following countries out-performed those from Canada: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Germany and Australia.
- Differences among the provinces
—There were differences among the oversampling provinces. Scores for students in New Brunswick were lower than the Canadian average for mathematics and science literacy, while scores for students in British Columbia were lower than the national average for advanced mathematics and higher on the physics test. (New Brunswick did not participate in physics.)
- Quebec's results above the national average
—Although Quebec did not participate on a provincial level, the significant number of Quebec students involved in this testing allowed for comparison with the national average and the four provinces participating in oversampling. Quebec's results were clearly above the national average and the averages for the four participating provinces, as they were in the SAIP testing.
- Gender differences in achievement
—Males generally had better scores than females in all countries and for all three achievement tests. These results contrast with those found in TIMSS assessments of Grades 4 and 8 students, but they corroborate findings from SAIP.
The results indicate that the achievement of Canadian students in mathematics and science compares favourably to that of other countries.
Future Initiatives
Over the coming years, reporting on TIMSS and SAIP will focus not only on how Canadian schools are doing, but also on the factors which help explain students' diverging performance levels. Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) will continue to be involved with the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, as plans are laid for a continuation of the second cycle of SAIP testing. A science assessment is planned for 1999. HRDC will also support the Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, in the 1999 repeat of TIMSS for Grade 8 students. In addition to the national sample, several provinces will participate to ensure provincially representative samples. As we ready our children for the challenges of the real world, explorations are underway to establish how to better capitalize on the research results of these two key initiatives.
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