Abstract
In the article, we present the results of the Slovene national study of three different assessments of mathematics for students in Grade 8 and Grade 13: the independent TIMSS or TIMSS Advanced outcomes, the national external examination scores and internal teacher’s marks. Grade 8 students who participated in TIMSS also took the national assessment (NA) one year after TIMSS assessment; TIMSS Advanced math students took the Matura examination from mathematics two months after the TIMSS Advanced assessments. The data on school marks from mathematics were collected with the nationally added questions to the international TIMSS and TIMSS Advanced questionnaires for students, together with the series of questions about the effort put into solving the test. One year later, the outcomes from TIMSS assessment, national examinations (Grade 9 and Grade 13) and school grades for each student were linked and the differences between boys and girls, attitudes toward mathematics and plans for future education were analysed. It was found that gender differences at scores from national exams as well as in school marks differ from gender differences in TIMSS and TIMSS Advanced achievement (i.e. Grade 13 students’ Matura results are slightly in favour of girls while TIMSS Advanced show better achievement for boys). Comparison of three outcomes reveal some characteristics of both national examinations and teachers’ marking not evident otherwise. Matura gives to the most able students proportionally less opportunity to demonstrate the highest cognitive level of knowledge. Boys who demonstrated the same knowledge in TIMSS as girls get lower national marks as girls, in exams and by teachers. Girls put less effort than boys in solving the TIMSS test which could help to explain the changing gender gap from TIMSS to the national examinations. In Grade 8, the marks and TIMSS scores also show inconsistencies on student level. They are differently associated with attitudes toward mathematics which can provide some ideas for improvement of low motivation for learning mathematics in Slovenia.
Highlights
In the article, we present the results of the Slovene national study of three different assessments of mathematics for students in Grade 8 and Grade 13: the independent TIMSS or TIMSS Advanced outcomes, the national external examination scores and internal teacher’s marks
In view of the importance of assessment results for individual students, especially their influence on admission into demanding academic study courses or upper secondary schools, our research questions were following: Do the highest achieving students in all assessments form the same groups in Grade 13 and Grade 8? How are scores from assessments related to teacher’s marks? Are girls in Slovene schools in mathematics marked higher than boys because an assessment includes oral part? Does the background data suggest any explanation why their marks are higher? What are possible differences in scope and content of TIMSS Advanced and National tests that produce observed differences?
The mean score of students taking basic level of national exam was similar to the achievement of Swedish and Italian students as seen from the Table 1 (source: original TIMSS Advanced 2015 Exhibits M1.2 and M1.6 with added Slovene subpopulations with regard to the chosen level of national exam from mathematics (NE) data)
Summary
Gender differences in mathematics are well researched area. In general, many articles address the gender differences in achievement, characteristics of differences in externally measured achievement or teacher’s marks, across time, countries and different student samples. Linking Mathematics TIMSS Achievement to National Examination Scores and School Marks factors leading to higher achievement of boys or girls. International examination of excellence gap trends from TIMSS data up to 2012 found shrinking sex-based gaps in Grade 8 mathematics (Rutkowski, Rutkowski, & Plucker, 2012) These findings are in line with other research findings of increasing gender difference over years of schooling, from an elementary to a high school. Study with focus on relation of gender differences to attitudes of girls and women in different cultures showed small gender differences in mathematics achievement of students in Grade 8 or aged 15 years, from TIMSS and PISA 2003 in the meta study of 69 countries, but found more positive math attitudes and affect among boys (Else-Quest, Shibley Hyde, & Linn, 2010). Girls are receiving higher marks for their demonstrated knowledge because they have better verbal intelligence, higher agreeableness, stronger self-discipline, as well as certain aspects of the motivation by Spinath, Eckert, and Steinmayr (2014)
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