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TIMSS Results of Dutch Grade 8 Students in International Perspective: Performance Assessment and Written Test
Abstract
Describes the design of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and results for Dutch students in grade 8. Presents these results in an international perspective and discusses differences between the results of these Dutch students on the written test (far above the international mean) and in the performance assessment (close to the international mean.) (SLD)
... Voor het verkrijgen van contextgegevens werden er schriftelijke vragenlijsten afgenomen bij leerlingen, leraren, schoolleiders en curriculumexperts. In aanvulling op de schriftelijke toets voor populatie 2 heeft een deel van de TIMSS-landen-waaronder Nederland-in 1995 ook deelgenomen aan de afname van de zogenoemde praktische vaardigheidstoets, waarin leerlingen practicumachtige taken moesten uitvoeren (Bos, Kuiper & Plomp, 2001). Omdat populatie 1 en 2 ook de doelgroepen zijn van TIMSS-2003, worden enkele Nederlandse resultaten van 1995 voor deze populaties hier kort beschreven. ...
... Voor het verkrijgen van contextgegevens werden er schriftelijke vragenlijsten afgenomen bij leerlingen, leraren, schoolleiders en curriculumexperts. In aanvulling op de schriftelijke toets voor populatie 2 heeft een deel van de TIMSS-landen-waaronder Nederland-in 1995 ook deelgenomen aan de afname van de zogenoemde praktische vaardigheidstoets, waarin leerlingen practicumachtige taken moesten uitvoeren (Bos, Kuiper & Plomp, 2001). Omdat populatie 1 en 2 ook de doelgroepen zijn van TIMSS-2003, worden enkele Nederlandse resultaten van 1995 voor deze populaties hier kort beschreven. ...
... valued most of these tasks because they matched well with the Dutch intended curriculum. Starting from experiments and investigations as contexts, students would show their mathematizing skills, which they acquired through the new curriculum (Bos, Kuiper, & Plomp, 2001;Kuiper et al., 1997). ...
In TIMSS-95, participating countries could administer the TIMSS Performance Assessment consisting of practical tasks, and considered to match well with the Dutch intended curriculum. But in 1995, Dutch students did not score as expected on this test, revealing a discrepancy between intended and attained curriculum. Therefore, in 2000, the test was replicated. Results show an increased teachers' acceptance of the test, but – still – no significant gain in Dutch students' achievements. Additionally, if reliability is well controlled, the study revealed that there are valid mathematics assessment alternatives, which can supplement paper-and-pencil tests, not only in The Netherlands.
... The use of teams of teachers, familiar with the Grade 9 curriculum, to develop short answer and extended response tasks is a strong attempt to ensure that the assessment items match the curriculum and to recognize the nature of activity in Grade 9 mathematics classrooms across the province. This practice also recognizes the contribution that can be made by the individual implementing the curriculum (Bos, Kuiper, & Plomp, 2001) and the impact that their involvement can have on improving their own instruction (Abu-Alhija, 2007). The assessment designers depend upon the curriculum to define what constitutes the important mathematics that students should learn; however, the curriculum itself gives no clear indication of the important ideas that should be focused on and hence assessed. ...
In 1997, the Ontario government, like many other jurisdictions, undertook systemic reform of their elementary school mathematics programme, developing a new mathematics curriculum, report card, and province‐wide assessment. The curricular reform embodied a new vision of mathematics learning and instruction that emphasized instruction using challenging problems, the student construction of multiple solution methods, and mathematical communication and defence of ideas. While the design of the original large‐scale assessment incorporated much of the latest research and theory on effective practices at that time, these traditional item development and scoring practices no longer adequately assess mathematics achievement in reform‐inspired classrooms. The difficulties of marrying traditional assessment practices with a reform‐inspired curriculum could be addressed by creating a construct definition from the recent research findings on students’ mathematical development in reform‐inspired classrooms. The importance, challenges and implications of redefining the construct on the basis of existing research on students’ mathematical development, as well as collapsing the traditional content‐by‐process matrix for item development, are explored.
This article examines the complex task of designing a large-scale assessment to align with a reform-oriented view of mathematics teaching and learning. Specifically, we address this issue through the case of the province of Ontario that has a reform-oriented curriculum and support for its implementation. The province also has a mandate to assess the mathematical understanding of students through a large-scale assessment. This article uses our evaluation of the Grade 9 assessment of mathematics to discuss the challenges in developing an assessment instrument to survey students’ mathematical understanding within the context of intended reform curriculum and pedagogy. We particularly examine the coherence of the assessment with reform-oriented curriculum and consider this coherence in light of the pervasive influence of externally-mandated assessment on both assessment and instructional practice [Barnes, M., Clarke, D., & Stephens, M. (2000). Assessment: The engine of systemic curricular reform? Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32(5), 623–650].
TIMSS, een internationaal vergelijkend onderzoek naar onderwijs in de exacte vakken, omvatte naast een schriftelijke toets een alternatieve toets waarin leerlingen uit leerjaar 2 van het voortgezet onderwijs in een practicumomgeving werden gebracht en werden getoetst op praktische vaardigheden als het doen van kleine wiskundige en natuurwetenschappelijke onderzoekjes. Volgens curriculumexperts sloot de toets goed aan bij de toepassingsgerichtheid van de basisvorming. In 1995 presteerden de Nederlandse leerlingen echter
minder vaardig op deze toets dan verwacht. Zij kwamen in de internationale vergelijking nauwelijks uit boven het niveau van het internationale gemiddelde. Dit was opmerkelijk, omdat zij op de schriftelijke TIMSS-toets wél ruimschoots boven het internationale gemiddelde uitkwamen. De praktische TIMSS-toets werd in het voorjaar van 2000 herhaald. In dit artikel wordt hiervan verslag
gedaan. Het blijkt dat de Nederlandse leerlingen in 2000 in wiskunde niet en in science wel vooruit zijn gegaan qua toepassingsgerichte vaardigheden. Daarnaast blijken juist wiskundeleraren een positievere houding aan te nemen tegenover alternatieve, praktische toetsvormen. Ook wordt ingegaan op specifieke methodologische problemen bij het repliceren van de afname van praktische toetsen.
Discusses results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in the Netherlands. The TIMSS was given at a time of curricular innovation in the Netherlands. By the time of the 1999 TIMSS data collection, students may be more used to hands-on tasks than they are at present. (SLD)
The TIMSS test design
- Adams