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The results from the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) were released on 29 November and, in general, the results are largely the same as in prior years: namely that a group of East Asian countries (Taiwan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan) were far ahead of the rest of the world, particularly in math, on both tests administered (4th and 8th grade).
One difference: for the first time this year, the TIMSS also tracked the progress of the same set of students by giving them a third test in their last year of school. The test, called TIMSS Advanced, was given in the nine countries that agreed to participate. These results found that the scores across the three tests from the students who were taking the most challenging math and science classes in their senior year progressively got worse over time. For instance, US students who scored 29 points above the midpoint on science as 4th graders scored 13 points above as 8th graders, and ended up 63 points below midpoint in their senior year. This trend was generally the same in the other countries except for an elite group of Russian students who take an extra class of math a day, and Slovenian students who bucked the trend in science but not math.
This article from sciencemag.org notes:
The advanced students also struggled to meet the international benchmark for the tests. In math, only 2% of the 32,000 students scored at an “advanced” level, and only 43% demonstrated even a “basic knowledge” of algebra, calculus, and geometry. The results were similar in physics: Only 5% of the 24,000 students were advanced, and a total of 46% showed a basic understanding of the subject. That means more than half the students tested weren’t really performing at an advanced level.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by opinionated_science on Wednesday November 30 2016, @12:02PM
I think we can all agree, whenever we went through school, the "khan academy" type map coverage is a huge improvement.
I spent my entire time at school from the age of 10 as become more and more bored as the curriculum slowed to the pace of the average student.
Fortunately, I had many other activities to keep my interest (computing being one!).
The TED talk by Ken Robinson highlights the points very well - huge saturation in our modern society, but practices from the 19th century.
Then again, where children are concerned I have met a few teachers in my education that had the axe to grind "we had an uncomfortable upbringing, I want to pass it on..."
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Francis on Thursday December 01 2016, @01:31AM
There's a balance that has to be made when it comes to that. One of the big problems is that we track students from a very young age to the point of denying students opportunities for harder work later on if they didn't test into the elite levels at age 7. It's a ridiculous practice without any scientific or statistical merit whatsoever. A lot can change over the next 10 years of schooling and placing students into a program they can't flunk out of while keeping other students out makes no sense at all.
Ideally, we'd be going with more of an a la carte approach to the situation with more honors and AP classes being available to any student that's capable of doing the work, rather than segregating out the "brightest" students based upon a standardized test score from their first years of schooling.
I think the perception that teachers are trying to pass on an uncomfortable experience is probably not accurate. It's more probably more accurate to describe it as a survivor-ship bias where teachers are more likely to be the ones for which the older methods were working. If you're fortunate, you get a teacher who either overcame it or one that's observant enough to see that it's not working, and cares enough to try and do something about it.