Is TIMSS Advanced an appropriate instrument for evaluating mathematical performance at the advanced level of Norwegian upper secondary school? An analysis of curriculum documents and assessment items

Forfattere

  • Ida Friestad Pedersen Universitetet i Oslo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/adno.1112

Emneord (Nøkkelord):

Upper secondary school mathematics, TIMSS Advanced, Curriculum, Alignment

Sammendrag

Given that the results of international large-scale achievement studies attract a lot of attention and may affect educational policies, the primary aim of the present study is to discuss the appropriateness of the mathematics tests developed for the two cycles of TIMSS Advanced for evaluating the mathematical performance of Norwegian upper secondary school students. This will here be done by employing a methodology for alignment studies developed by Porter (2002), which entails analyzing and describing the mathematical content of the Norwegian curriculum documents and the TIMSS Advanced assessment items, and calculating the agreement between these. The analyses show a moderate alignment between the different iterations of TIMSS Advanced and the curriculum followed by the participating students, implying that the emphasis in the Norwegian mathematics curriculum differs somewhat from that of the TIMSS Advanced tests. These analyses do not warrant the conclusion that the TIMSS Advanced tests were inappropriate instruments for assessing the mathematical performance of Norwegian students. They do, however, imply that the differences in emphasis between the different iterations of TIMSS Advanced and the curriculum followed by the participating students should be taken into account in order to make valid interpretations of the results of this large-scale survey. Finally, as alignment is evaluated by contrasting alignment indices calculated for different combinations of the intended and assessed curriculum, additional research is needed if one is to make more firm judgments. One additional contribution of the present study is demonstrating a powerful methodology for conducting this kind of research.

Forfatterbiografi

Ida Friestad Pedersen, Universitetet i Oslo

Institutt for lærerutdanning og skoleforskning

Nedlastinger

Publisert

2013-06-07

Hvordan referere

Pedersen, I. F. (2013). Is TIMSS Advanced an appropriate instrument for evaluating mathematical performance at the advanced level of Norwegian upper secondary school? An analysis of curriculum documents and assessment items. Acta Didactica Norge, 7(1), (Art. 5, 24 sider). https://doi.org/10.5617/adno.1112

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