International Science Study Research Articles

DISCOVERY LEARNING DAN KEMAMPUAN BERPIKIR KRITIS MATEMATIS SISWA SEKOLAH DASAR

is research is motivated by the low learning outcomes of mathematics in Indonesia, as evidenced by the results of the Trend International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) which states that the level of critical thinking ability of students in Indonesia is very low. PISA data shows that Indonesia is ranked 50th out of 57 countries with an average score of 391. The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the discovery learning model had an effect on students' critical thinking skills on the volume block material for class V SDN Kebondalem Mojosari. The type of experimental research in this study was a posttest-only with Noneequivalent design. The population is all fifth grade students of SDN Kebondalem Mojosari. The technique in this study uses cluster random sampling. The sample used in this study used class VA and VB students at SDN Kebondalem Mojosari. This research method is a test. The instrument in this study used a critical thinking ability test sheet. Data analysis used was homogeneity test, normality test and T test. The results showed that there was an effect of the Discovery Learning model on students' critical thinking skills on the volume block material for class V SDN Kebondalem Mojosari. This is evidenced by the average critical thinking ability of the experimental class is better than the control class

Information Technology Capability (ITC) Framework to Improve Learning Experience and Academic Achievement of Mathematics in Malaysia

Poor mathematics performance was generally reported from international assessments such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) among Malaysian students. Malaysia is ranked 52nd and 48th in the assessments for 2012 and 2018 respectively, while Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and even Vietnam have consistently performed well and held the top spots among the 78 countries evaluated in the PISA. Although numerous new technologies have been introduced, developed and implemented for education, incorporation of IT capability (ITC) to teach and learn Mathematics where still lacking commonly. Additionally, learning Mathematics in the traditional teaching contents could not accomplish desired learning outcomes because of dry contents and dull teachers. Therefore, this study is to design an appropriate ITC framework for improving learning experience and academic achievement of learning Mathematics. This study has adopted the development model of Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE) and Mayer (2010)’s cognitive theory for multimedia instructional content design. This study developed a new Multimedia Probability and Statistics system (MMPASS) for a subject of Probability and Statistics. The developed topics were concepts of discrete random variables and probability distribution function which were puzzled by students from preliminary study. An experiment was conducted with both control and experimental groups. The developed MMPASS blended multiple influential multimedia elements in the learning contents. A quantitative method and proportional stratified sampling were used to collect data. The blended topics were used by the experimental group whilst the control group was solely learning using the existing learning contents. Questionnaires were distributed to both groups after the lessons. 66 students participated in this survey. The collected data was then analysed and an ITC model was formed. Results of this study show that Perceived System Quality, Perceived Information Content Quality and Perceived System Performance as independent variables significantly improved learning experience. The findings also reveal that the performances of the experimental group have a higher mean score (9.65/10.00) compared to the control group (8.03/10.00), indicating the use of MMPASS improved students’ learning performance in subjects that involve understanding of concepts. While there is a lack of established ITC framework and IT application for Mathematics education in Malaysia, this study has verified the use of ITC improving performance of learning Mathematics in Malaysia.

School and Student Factors and Their Influence on Affective Mathematics Engagement

This study examined the student-level (i.e., gender, home language, and immigration status) and school-level (i.e., school economic disadvantage status) variability of the students’ affective mathematics engagement. It was hypothesized that there is a school effect that contributes toward explaining differences in affective mathematics engagement besides the student-level differences. For the sake of the nested structure of the data in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), we used the Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) methodology. There were 10,221 students from 246 schools in the study. The results of this study explained 5.3% of variance in students’ affective mathematics engagement by school-mean economic disadvantage status, where students’ demographic factors explained 1.2%. The present study contributed to a better understanding of the opportunity to learn variables at the student- and school-level in students’ affective mathematics engagement.

Problems of analysis of the relationship between the learning context and TIMSS testing results

Introduction. For more than two decades, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has been organising a number of comparative studies of the quality of education in different countries. One of them is the study of mathematics and science education TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), which is conducted jointly with the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievements (IEA). The last, seventh, cycle of the study was conducted in 2019. TIMSS statistics is regularly posted in the public domain on the IEA website so that specialists can independently conduct research in any aspect of their interest. One of the areas of analysis in this case is traditionally the search for the causes of certain test results, which are determined by the peculiarities of the organisation of the educational process and the context of learning in different countries. At the same time, a study of professional literature showed that among the factors of the social and school context, the analysis of which is provided by the research tools, only an extremely limited range of them turned out to be statistically directly related to TIMSS scores. Specialists systematically encounter inexplicable absence or low correlation values of TIMSS test scores and context indicators. The authors think that the main reason for such difficulties is inattention to the peculiarities of the indicators used in the calculation of measures of statistical relationships. Aim. The present research aims to identify a statistical relationship between test results and indicators of the context of schoolchildren’s learning, as well as the influence of the TIMSS information collection and processing system on the productivity of analysing the research results.Methodology and research methodology. The methodological basis of the work is a systematic approach, which is based on the consideration of the results of the international TIMSS study as a whole: i.e. a complex of interrelated elements (organisations, tools, assessment indicators, scoring systems). The work was carried out on the basis of applied research procedures (observation, description, comparison, measurement, etc.), within which general scientific (comparative analysis, systematisation, generalisation) and statistical research methods (statistical and correlation analysis, etc.) were also used. The source of information was the International Database of Electronic Testing TIMSS-2019, hosted in the IEA repository. The TIMSS datasets were analysed using the IEA International Database (IDB) parser plug-in for SPSS (version 4.0).Results. For most indicators of the social and student context of learning, the authors found the absence or low value of statistical relationships with TIMSS scores. The number of books at home and parents’ education turned out to be statistically related to TIMSS scores concerning the indicators of social well-being and home learning conditions envisaged by the organisers. The indicators of learning conditions at school included the frequency of independent work in class; motivational factors included plans to continue education and self-evaluation of students’ math proficiency. Evidently, even these relationships turned out to be weak. It was revealed that the difficulties in detecting a correlation between TIMSS scores and learning conditions are caused by the very nature of the analysed variables: 1. the approximate nature of individual student assessments used in TIMSS; 2. low differentiation of students according to a number of indicators of the learning context; 3. insufficient reliability of information obtained from sociological surveys of schoolchildren.Practical significance. The authors believe that in order to improve the quality of analytical work on relevant topics, it is necessary to pay close attention to the essence behind the variables used in statistical calculations. In turn, the TIMSS organisers need to continue improving the measurement procedures and research tools by introducing additional success criteria that reflect the individual and comparable results of students in the current TIMSS cycle, as well as indicators of the reliability of contextual information obtained by sociological means.

Absenteeism, Self-Confidence and Academic Performance: Empirical Comparison of Turkey and Singapore

<p style="text-align: justify;">In today's World, data-driven methods are behind the determination of potential action plans in every area of life. These data-driven methods help individuals or policymakers to figure out the strengths and weaknesses on the subject that are worked on and to make a comparison to the best practices. Thus, actions can be taken immediately on the specific factors that have a huge impact on the topic investigated. In the educational area, countries are using the same approach to measure, monitor, and improve the quality of education by attending international studies. In this study, for both Turkish and Singaporean students, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model is performed to predict the students' mathematics achievement and to identify factors that have a high impact on achievement using Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 2019 with the data of 3,586 Turkish and 4,750 Singaporean students. The reason behind comparing the results of Turkey to Singapore is that Singapore is the best-performing country in terms of mathematics achievement in the TIMSS in 2019. The model results show that the top two crucial factors in both countries are the frequency of absenteeism from school, and students’ confidence in mathematics with the accuracy of 75%. In addition, relevant policy implications are given based on the importance level of significant factors.</p>

Instructional clarity and classroom management are linked to attitudes towards mathematics: A combination of student and teacher ratings.

Previous research examined the relationship between teaching characteristics and constructs of attitudes towards mathematics (ATM) from the student perspective in isolation. This study aims to survey the relationship between instructional clarity and classroom management and ATM constructs (i.e., mathematics self-concept, mathematics value, enjoyment and boredom) from the student and teacher perspectives. The data was gathered from 8698 eighth graders (49.9% girls) and 536 math instructors (70% female) who participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 survey in the United States. Students were nested within 537 classrooms in 273 schools. The multilevel modelling was used to explore the link between instructional clarity and classroom management and ATM constructs. Instructional clarity and classroom management represented different constructs at the student and class level when combining student and teacher perspectives. Students' reports of the two teaching characteristics revealed significant connections with ATM constructs, particularly with regard to instructional clarity. Whereas, teachers' reports of instructional clarity had no relationships with aspects of ATM. Furthermore, compared with students' ratings, classroom management rated by teachers showed a greater relation with ATM constructs except for boredom. Combining multilevel analyses with student and teacher evaluations of classroom teaching is a promising endeavour. Students' perceptions of instructional clarity play an influential role in ATM outcomes, while teacher-rated classroom management is of great relevance to ATM constructs (except boredom) than students' reports.

The Curriculum–TIMSS Alignment for Grade 8 Science from 2007 to 2019: A Case of South Africa and Singapore

The present study explores the validity of inferences that may be drawn from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) learner achievement data by measuring the South African curriculum–TIMSS alignment for the Grade 8 science assessments from 2007 to 2019. The Singapore curriculum–TIMSS alignment indices are a fair benchmark for comparison, as Singapore is the best-performing country in the TIMSS. The research questions that guide the present study included the calculation and comparison of the South African curriculum–TIMSS and Singapore curriculum–TIMSS alignment indices. The study analysed 585 South African curriculum items, 659 Singapore curriculum items and 1025 TIMSS assessment items from 2007 to 2019. The present study employed four raters and achieved an inter-rater reliability coefficient of 0.85. The South African curriculum–TIMSS analysis achieved an average content alignment index of 0.34, and an average cognitive alignment index of 0.54. As a benchmark, the Singapore curriculum–TIMSS analysis achieved an average content alignment index of 0.36 and an average cognitive alignment index of 0.74. The literature reviewed supports acceptable content and cognitive alignment indices of 0.67 and 0.65, respectively. The present study concludes that valid inferences from learner performance in the TIMSS may not be drawn for the case of South Africa, and even for Singapore valid inferences are based on cognitive alignment only. However, South Africa’s continued participation in the TIMSS is encouraged as the literature supports many benefits associated with the TIMSS non-achievement data.

Multilevel Analysis of Student and School Variables Responsible for the Differentials in Mathematics Achievement: Evidence from the TIMMS 2015-Botswana

Mathematics literacy is essential for all further learning and future careers of students, therefore, the poor performance of Botswana Junior Certificate learners in Mathematics is very concerning. This study adopted an exploratory research design which utilized the TIMSS 2015 data to analyse student and school variables responsible for the differentials in mathematics achievement. TIMSS represents Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. The socio-economic status of students’ parents, location of schools, and students’ gender in Botswana Junior Certificate students’ mathematics achievement were explored through the Multilevel (Hierarchical) Linear Model (HLM) to predict the mathematics achievement of the students. The data used for this study was derived from that of the tenth grade Botswana students; a total of 5964 (female = 3030, male = 2934) Botswana tenth graders from 159 schools who participated in TIMMS 2015.Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made on some interventions to help improve students’ self-efficacy and confidence in mathematics.

The Effectiveness of a Technology-Based Isometrical Transformation Flipped Classroom Learning Strategy in Improving Students’ Higher Order Thinking Skills

Isometric Transformation is one of the essential topics in the Malaysian Secondary School Mathematics Curriculum. In general, Malaysia’s achievements in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) were found to be less encouraging, especially in the field of Geometry. This fact clearly implies that the mastery of Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) of Malaysian students is still low, especially in the topic of Isometric Transformation. Therefore, this study was conducted to develop Flipped Classroom Learning Strategy (FCLS) activities and evaluate their effectiveness in increasing Malaysian secondary school students’ HOTS in Isometric Transformation. This study was conducted in two stages whereby the first stage involved the development of FCLS activities, while the second stage was run to evaluate the effectiveness of FCLS activities in enhancing students’ HOTS for the topic of Isometric Transformation. The development of activities involved three phases. The first phase was the needs analysis phase which involved a preliminary survey towards students’ learning difficulties at each level of HOTS in the topic of Isometric Transformation. The second phase was the design and development stage of FCLS activities, involving the learning activities inside and outside the classroom in line with the topic of Isometric Transformation. The last phase was the evaluation phase which involved the content validation and evaluation on the suitability of FCLS activities by 11 experts. Next, the second stage was a quasi-experimental design which involved 131 Form 2 students from two secondary schools in Johor. The study sample was divided into two groups which were the treatment group and the control group. The study was conducted over eight weeks. Mann-Whitney test results showed a significant difference (p =.000 <.05) in the overall level and also for all of the four levels of HOTS for both control and treatment groups. The results of this study showed that the teaching and learning process that used FCLS activities successfully created an effective learning situation in improving students’ HOTS in the topic of Isometric Transformation. In conclusion, these FCLS activities should be used as guidelines for educators to increase HOTS in mathematics education.

Exploring the association between teacher-related factors and Grade 9 mathematics achievement

Teacher well-being is an important issue that needs to be considered within a teaching environment. However, little research exists about the relationship between teacher well-being and learner performance. In this study we used data from the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) to look at the interplay between teacher-related factors (including stress), and the mathematics achievement of Grade 9 learners from South Africa in the 2015 TIMSS. The results show that levels of teacher stress, teacher qualification, class size, as well as the type of area in which the school is situated are all significantly associated with learner achievement. The findings of this study reveal that learners who are taught by teachers who feel more stressed, have large classes to contend with, are in schools located in poorer areas, and who are less qualified, are significantly more disadvantaged with regard to their mathematics education than their counterparts who are taught by teachers who do not share these problems. These findings suggest that it is important to consider the role of positive working environments for teachers in trying to find ways to improve the mathematics learning outcomes.

A comparison of three approaches to covariate effects on latent factors

In educational and psychological research, it is common to use latent factors to represent constructs and then to examine covariate effects on these latent factors. Using empirical data, this study applied three approaches to covariate effects on latent factors: the multiple-indicator multiple-cause (MIMIC) approach, multiple group confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA) approach, and the structural equation model trees (SEM Trees) approach. The MIMIC approach directly models covariate effects on latent factors. The MG-CFA approach allows testing of measurement invariance before latent factor means could be compared. The more recently developed SEM Trees approach partitions the sample into homogenous subsets based on the covariate space; model parameters are estimated separately for each subgroup. We applied the three approaches using an empirical dataset extracted from the eighth-grade U.S. data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2019 database. All approaches suggested differences among mathematics achievement categories for the latent factor of mathematics self-concept. In addition, language spoken at home did not seem to affect students’ mathematics self-concept. Despite these general findings, the three approaches provided different pieces of information regarding covariate effects. For all models, we appropriately considered the complex data structure and sampling weights following recent recommendations for analyzing large-scale assessment data.

Managerial practices and school efficiency: a data envelopment analysis across OECD and MENA countries using TIMSS 2019 data

School-level inefficiencies and mismanagement can have serious repercussions for human resource development and labor market outcomes. This paper investigates the extent and consequences of existing technical inefficiency of schools with respect to their resource- and people-management aspects at a cross-country level across Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions. It employs a non-radial Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) alongside a second stage Tobit regression model using datasets in the latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019. The analysis covers 5164 schools across 26 countries. In the first stage of DEA analysis, it is evident that technical inefficiencies exist similarly across schools of both OECD and MENA nations, irrespective of the method used for efficiency calculation. While availability of educational resources is a necessary condition for improving learning outcomes, it is surely not sufficient. In the second stage of the Tobit regression, the model confirms that improved utilization of the existing resources through better educational management systems can yield higher cognitive achievement at the school-level. The empirical findings also reveal that discipline maintained within the student body at school is one of the most important and significant factors associated with higher school level input- and output-efficiency across both MENA and OECD regions. Moreover, different aspects of people management, particularly target setting, student as well as teacher motivation, and parental involvement in school management are found to be positively associated with school-level technical efficiency across the two regions, albeit in varying degrees. Overall, educational management policies should shift focus from solely providing higher quantity of resources to improving the technical efficiency of schools through enhanced school-level management, by encouraging disciplinary action, as well as by supporting stakeholder incentives that foster motivation and participation.

Boys’ underachievement in mathematics and science: An analysis of national and international assessment data from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Boys in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia consistently and significantly underperform compared to girls across different grades and subjects, forming one of the largest gender gaps in student achievement in the world. Saudi Arabia offers a unique setting in which boys and girls attend separate schools on a universal basis starting from grade 1. This means that boys and girls are educated only by male and female teachers, respectively, in effect inhabiting parallel education systems. In this context, this study examines the factors that are associated with student achievement in mathematics and science in grades 4 and 8 and the extent to which these associations are different for boys and girls, in an effort to gain insights into boys’ underachievement in mathematics and science in Saudi Arabia. The paper employs data from two recent large-scale assessments of education: Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 and Saudi Arabia’s National Assessment of Learning Outcomes (NALO) 2018. A series of hierarchical two-level linear regression models showed that in grade 4, school climate was more strongly associated with boys' compared with girls' achievement in both mathematics and science, with boys attending schools of poorer school climate having a considerably lower performance compared with girls attending such schools. The findings also indicated that although greater literacy and numeracy readiness was linked with higher science achievement among boys and girls, grade 4 boys tended to benefit more from this readiness than girls. In addition, the results show that student absenteeism in grade 4 is particularly strongly associated with decreases in mathematics achievement among boys. In grade 8, significant interactions between gender and the extent to which students feel confident in science, the degree of schools’ emphasis on academic success, and teachers’ age are observed. The paper concludes by discussing some of the implications of these findings for educators and policy makers in Saudi Arabia.

국제 학업성취도 TIMSS를 활용한 우리나라 청소년 과학 성취도의 영향요인 탐색

Objectives The purpose of this study is to analyze for factors affecting adolescents' science achievement by multiple level. Methods To do this, the multiple membership multiple level model was applied to the 168 schools, 235 teachers, 4404 students by Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study(TIMSS 2019). Results The results of the results study are as follows. First, according to the final model, the amount of explanation of variables by level for adolescents' science achievement was high in the order of school, teacher, and student. Second, at the student level, it was found that the science achievement had been affected by gender, degree of family learning support. The teacher-level variable was not statistically significant. At the school level, it was found that the size of the city at the school location had an effect. Conclusions It is expected to improve the level of science achievement and provide basic data for improving educational environment and innovation.

The Relationship among socioeconomic status, attitude towards science, school climate and students' science achievement: A cross-country comparison of TIMSS: A cross-country comparison of TIMSS 2019

Students’ socioeconomic status, school climate, and students’ attitudes stand out as important factors that determine academic achievement. The current study investigated the relationship among socioeconomic status, attitude towards science, school climate, and academic achievement comparatively in terms of countries. Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 data from Turkey, United Kingdom, and Singapore were used for comparison. The study adopted a correlation design for each comparison. The participants were eighth grade students from these three countries. The data were analyzed with Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and hierarchical multiple regression. The Singapore sample had an auto-correlation problem, so it was not included in the regression analysis. Socioeconomic status explained 16.6% and attitude towards science explained 9.8% of the change in the academic achievement in the United Kingdom sample while these values were 21.9% and 14.4% for the Turkey sample, respectively. The sub-dimensions of the independent variable were also examined in the study. One the most important factors associated with students’ academic achievement in Turkey is their socioeconomic status. In this sense, the limitations of students in their access to home resources for learning are reflected negatively to their academic performance.

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

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.

The association between the gender gap in science achievement and students’ perceptions of their own attitudes and capabilities

Among the countries that participated in the trends in international mathematics and science study (TIMSS) 2019 for grade 8 science, Oman had the highest gender gap in favor of girls. The current study explores the gender gap in science achievement in Oman and relates it to students’ varying perceptions of their own attitudes and capabilities. The sample in the study comprised 467 grade 9 students, 266 female and 201 male. The participants were given a TIMSS-like science test, along with four self-perception surveys; these explored metacognitive awareness, self-regulation (SR), science learning self-efficacy (SLSE), and attitudes to science (AS). The results indicated that student self-perceptions of SR, SLSE, and AS, were significantly related to the gender gap in students with higher-level science achievement. The results were different when looking at the gender gap in scores for lower-level questions; here, there was no relation to any of the four self-perception variables explored in the study.

The effect of a training program based on TIMSS to developing the levels of habits of mind and mathematical reasoning skills among pre-service mathematics teachers

This study aimed to investigate the effect of a training program based on the trends in international mathematics and science study (TIMSS) on developing the habits of mind and mathematical reasoning skills among pre-service math teachers in Oman. The study sample consisted of 24 female pre-service math teachers divided into two equal groups: experimental and control. The study data was collected by sued the mathematical reasoning test and questionnaire that measured the level of habits of mind after appropriate validity and reliability. The study results showed statistically significant differences between the two study groups in favor of the experimental group in the mathematical reasoning test and the habits of mind scale. The study recommended that the need for pre-service math teachers to use programs based on international studies such as TIMSS, PISA, PIRLS, and TAILS; this was done to prove their effectiveness in developing the levels of habits of mind and mathematical reasoning skills by subjecting them to training programs, courses, and workshops with the aim of training teachers to implement the training programs effectively.

An Examination of Science Achievement and School Compositional Effects in Ireland Using TIMSS Data

&lt;p style="text-align:justify"&gt;Recent educational policy initiatives in Ireland have focused on improving outcomes in reading and mathematics among students, particularly those experiencing educational disadvantage. However, science achievement in Irish primary schools has received much less research attention, especially in the context of educational disadvantage. This article examines science achievement and its relationship to school compositional effects in primary schools at the national level, including school-average indicators of the school context, as well as examining factors associated with science achievement in three distinct categories of schools (those with high, moderate, or minor levels of educational disadvantage). The data are drawn from the Fourth grade Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 database for Ireland. Multilevel analyses were implemented in a stepwise manner. Findings suggest the relevance of school contexts with regard to science achievement. Before including school-level contextual variables, students from ‘minor disadvantaged’ schools achieved significantly higher science scores than students from schools with ‘moderate’ or ‘high’ levels of disadvantaged. However, this difference disappears after controlling for predictors at the school level. The findings highlight the importance of the home environment, including early numeracy activities and skills before children start school. Results are discussed with regard to educational policy and educational practice in Ireland.&lt;/p&gt;

Trend analyses of TIMSS 2015 and 2019: school factors related to declining performance in mathematics

Gaining knowledge of what contextual factors may contribute to changes in student achievement across cycles of international large-scale assessments (ILSA), is important for educational policy and practice. Addressing this necessitates advanced methodology that utilizes the trend design of the ILSAs. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data is suitable for such analyses as it measures students’ competence based on the participating countries curricula. In Norway, students’ performance in mathematics decreased from 2015 to 2019 as evidenced by TIMSS. During this time-period, there are indications that also school climate, student motivation and self-concept decreased. This study investigates whether school climate (including bullying, a safe environment, school emphasis on academic success, and students’ sense of school belonging and well-being), student motivation (including interest-enjoyment and utility value), and self-concept declined from 2015 to 2019, and whether this possible decline is related to the decline in mathematics performance in Norway. The present study utilized a trend approach with mediation structural equation modelling. The results showed that school climate, the utility value of the subject and students’ self-concept declined during this period, and that a safe environment and student self-concept mediated the changes in achievement from TIMSS 2015 to 2019. Hence, declines in a safe school climate and student self-concept were associated with declining achievements. While the study cannot prove a causal relation, it is discussed whether this could indicate that the decline in these predictors may explain the decline in mathematics achievement. The usefulness of the methodological approach for other countries, as well as the implications of the results for policy, practice, and research are discussed.