Perspectives on educational effectiveness in science and mathematics: The role of non-cognitive measures in TIMSS. Introduction to a special issue

Abstract

This special issue focuses on perspectives on educational effectiveness in science and mathematics and addresses the role of non-cognitive measures in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Moving beyond a mere ranking of countries based on their average achievement by making use of the large amount of collected non-cognitive measures, brings many challenges. This special issue aims to address some of these challenges by including contributions with a more conceptual or methodological focus that encompass several non-cognitive scales, international comparative studies or multiple data points over time. The conceptual contributions are clustered around aspects of engagement and motivation, the experience of school bullying and its effects, and quality and equality. The methodological contributions study topics such as measurement invariance, sampling and teacher-centric inferences, and trend scaling. We hope that the papers in this special issue may stimulate and guide future work in the area of TIMSS.