Sue Thomson writes in The Conversation (29.11.16) about the latest TIMSS report which shows that students in Australia make very little – if any – progress in maths from Year 4 to Year 8.
‘Australian performances in mathematics and science have stagnated over the past 20 years, according to latest findings from the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) report released today.
‘TIMSS has measured student achievement in maths and science at Year 4 and Year 8 in Australia and many other countries since 1995. These latest findings reveal little change in Australian students’ achievement since 1995.
‘Only in Year 4 mathematics is the score significantly higher than in 1995, and this is because of a small jump in scores in 2007. Since then there has been no change.
‘During this same period – 1995-2015 – high-performing countries such as Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei and Japan made steady improvements, while other countries including Canada, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and the US have improved and now outperform Australia.
‘The report shows that Australian Year 4 students were significantly outperformed by students in 21 countries in mathematics and 17 countries in science. At Year 8, Australian students were outperformed by those in 12 countries in mathematics and 14 in science.’