Investigation the Association of Some Variables with Mathematics Achievement Gap Between Rural and Urban Jordanian Students

Emad G Ababneh ,Asitha Kodippili

doi:10.7176/jep/11-21-17

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the association of some variables with mathematics achievement gap between rural and urban Jordanian students using TIMSS 2015 database. Due to nested structure of the TIMSS data, hierarchical linear model, was used in this study. To this end the data for 6541 students in 232 schools was analyzed. According to study findings 21.4% of total variation in mathematics achievement was due to the differences between schools. Moreover, the study results revealed that school emphasis on academic success, and school discipline problems as school-level variables were discovered to have statistically significant effect on mathematics achievement gap between urban - rural students in Jordan. Furthermore, concerning student-level variables, student like learning mathematics was the only associated significantly with the urban-rural gap in mathematics achievement. The study recommended the necessity of enhancing the capabilities of rural schools to focus on school success, enhancement discipline, increasing students' enjoyment of learning mathematics to enhance their love of this subject, as well as conducting other studies to explore the causal relationships between variables. Keywords: TIMSS, HLM, Math Achievement, Gap in Achievement, Jordanian Students. DOI : 10.7176/JEP/11-21-17 Publication date :July 31st 2020

Highlights

Many educational systems, especially in developing countries are struggling to eliminate educational disparities between different groups of students
Some variables have emerged to be at the core of educational policies, as the differences among rural schools and urban schools revealed in term of school emphasis on academic www.iiste.org success
This finding is consistent with the findings of (Yalcin, et al 2017a), and it is somewhat consistent with what was suggested by a study conducted by (Nelsen, et al 2014) In addition to that, the finding of the study showed that rural schools seem to have more discipline problems than urban schools, where frequent student absenteeism, delayed access to school, destroy school property, and classroom disruptions are manifestations of these problems

Summary

Introduction

Especially in developing countries are struggling to eliminate educational disparities between different groups of students. It is worth noting that, the strategy included objectives to improve the achievement of Jordanian students in international students’ assessment studies; Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The omission of this vital issue has helped to deepen the distortions in the educational system. The distribution of learning achievements in Jordan varies; for example, urban schools outperforming rural schools, schools in some governorates doing better than others, and girls, overall, perform better than boys; in addition to that, there is a concern about the effectiveness of various educational interventions in improving the quality of learning outcomes in Jordan (MoE, 2018)

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Results

Conclusion