International Journal of Education and Research Vol. 2 No.

8 August 2014

Effects of Malaysian Secondary Schools Mathematics Teachers’ Familiarity with TIMSS on

Abdolreza Lessani 1, Aida Suraya Md Yunus 1, Rohani Ahmad Tarmiz 1 & Rosnaini Mahmud 1

1
Faculty of Educational Studies, Univesiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400, Serdang, Selangor,
Malaysia. Re.lessani@yahoo.com

Abstract

Many nations nowadays take international comparisons of students’ achievements to assess their

success in education. In the mathematics context, Trends in International Mathematics and Science

Study (TIMSS) is a well-recognized intentional comparative study that is being carried out to offer

insight into students’ achievement and to evaluate a country’s own mathematics education system

and practice. The review of TIMSS report, particularly for the eighth-grade level in 2003, 2007 and

2011 shows that although Malaysia has gotten ranking around more than international average in

the mathematics achievement, however, its ranking has usually been lower than leading South-East

Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. The present study proposes that the lack

familiarity with the TIMSS content domains including Number, Algebra Geometry, and Data &

chance (Statistics & Probability) among Malaysian secondary school mathematics teachers can be

an important reason for such a lack of mathematics achievement in Malaysia. We conducted several

interviews with the teachers to address this issue and concluded that when the familiarity of a

teacher with TIMSS increases, he/she may introduces mathematics concepts to students, from the

TIMSS content domains, which do not exist in the Malaysian mathematics textbooks content.

Key words: Content domain, TIMSS, Malaysian students, Malaysian secondary schools,

Mathematics achievements, IEA.

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1. Introduction

In the 1960s, the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement (IEA),

which is an independent international organization of national research institutions and government

agencies that has been conducting studies of cross-national achievement in a wide range of subjects

since 1959, conducted the First International Mathematics Study (FIMS) which tested mathematics

achievement of 13 year-old students in the final year of secondary schools in 12 countries (Ross &

Genevois, 2006). In the 1980s, IEA undertook SIMS which tested mathematics achievement of 13

years old students in the final year of secondary schools among 20 countries. In 1995, IEA

undertook the Third International Mathematics and science study known as TIMSS, tested over a

half-million students in 50 countries. The target population of TIMSS were 9-year olds (grade 3-4),

13-year olds (grade 7-8), and the students in the final year of secondary school. Since 1995 this

study has conducted on a regular 4-year period and it has been named TIMSS. In 1999, TIMSS has

been conducted among 38 countries in the 8th grade I which Singapore ranked first while Malaysia,

as we country of interest in this study, ranked sixteen (Ross & Genevois, 2006).

TIMSS consists of an assessment of mathematics and science, as well as student, teacher, and

school questionnaires. In 1995, the evaluation involved level 4, 8, and the high school final year. To

be enabled to evaluate the students’ knowledge, assessment features show a series of complexity

and difficulty. The pupil questionnaires are planned to gather information on the backgrounds,

beliefs and approaches of students, connected to learning and schooling, information concerning

their classroom experiences, amongst lots of other subjects. The teacher and school questionnaires

enquires regarding mathematics and science content coverage, class scheduling, teachers'

educational backgrounds and preparation, school policies, amongst numerous other subjects.
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TIMSS was established by a widespread partnership amongst participating countries. Measurement,

Curriculum, and education specialists from throughout the world worked jointly to generate the

evaluation structures, questionnaires, and item pools. TIMSS is structured on the schools curricula

around the world, and is planned to consider in which ways pupils are offered educational chances,

and the issues which affect how pupils using these chances. Having its foundation in the schools

curricula throughout the world, TIMSS aims to examine three levels: the implemented curriculum;

the intended curriculum; and the achieved curriculum. The intended curriculum is described as the

science and mathematics which societies aim for pupils to learn and in what ways education

systems are prepared to obtain this order; the implemented curriculum could be explained as what is

really trained in classrooms, who educates it, and in what ways it is educated; the achieved

curriculum is what pupils have learned. The different questionnaires search for information on the

implemented and intended curriculum; the evaluation searches for ascertaining what pupils

recognize. TIMSS provide valuable information about students’ science and mathematics

achievement in an international area.

Mathematics education has always been considered as an important component of general

education and specifically science education. In order to evaluate students’ performance and to

develop policies to improve their achievements in science and mathematics at different levels of

education, it is relevant to compare their knowledge and competencies in a specific area with

students of the other countries. One such evaluation is conducted by Trends in International

Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). TIMSS as an international comparative study has

attracted an influential audience in many countries. This comparative study is being carried out to

offer insight into students’ achievement that will support reflection on a country’s own system and

practice. TIMSS in effect establishes reliable and valid scores for achievement that can be
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compared across countries or across groups of students within countries, and relates achievement to

various background and context variables. Consistently, TIMSS has given educational stakeholders

a lot of information that may be helpful in their planning for better education (Eklöf et al., 2014).

In arguing TIMSS’s reports, Patterson et al. (2003) stated that the function of mathematics has

altered because a worldwide necessity for mathematics efficiency has grown considerably in the

modern countries. In addition, Furner et al. (2005, p. 16) reported that it becomes “more and more

important that all citizens be confident in their ability to do mathematics” to become productive

members of society. In addition, the NCTM (2000, p. 50) reported, “in this changing world, those

who understand and can do mathematics will have significantly enhanced opportunities and options

for shaping their futures. Mathematical competence opens doors to productive futures. A lack of

mathematical competence keeps those doors closed.”

The review of TIMSS report, particularly for the eighth-grade level, reveals that south-eastern Asian

countries, including Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore have obtained almost

the best ranking in mathematic content domain and cognitive domain which is mentioned in TIMSS

1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011. Although Malaysia has gotten ranking around more than international

average as shown in Table 1, its ranking has usually been lower than neighboring countries such as

Singapore.

According to research and writings in mathematics education, there are many factors for a teacher

to be successful in teaching including teachers’ beliefs, knowledge of mathematics, having

knowledge about teaching methods, how to write lesson plans, and being familiar with different

institutes such as IEA that conducts the periodic TIMSS. We have consistently identified a key

issue that can possibly explain the unsatisfying and continually decreasing mathematical

achievement of Malaysian students. In this study we investigated the extent to which the familiarity
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of Malaysian mathematics teachers with TIMSS has affected the Malaysian students’ achievement

in mathematics.

Table 1. TIMSS ranking in 8th Grade based for some Southeast Asia countries (Mullis et al. (2012)).
Country Score of participants Ranking of participants
1999 2003 2007 2011 1999 2003 2007 2011
Japan 579 570 570 570 5 5 5 5
South Korea 587 589 597 613 2 2 2 1
Chines Taipei 585 585 598 609 3 4 1 3
Singapore 604 605 593 611 1 1 3 2
Hong Kong 582 586 572 586 4 3 4 4
Malaysia 519 508 474 440 16 10 20 26
International average 487 466 500 467 - - - -

2. Malaysia’s achievement in TIMSS

TIMSS mathematics assessment for mathematics items in eighth grade includes four content

domains of Numbers, Algebra, Geometry, and Data and Chance (Statistics and Probability). Indeed,

comparing the students’ achievement in different contents will better explain mathematics

achievement for each country. For achieving this aim, it is necessary to compare and analyze the

content of the mathematics textbooks (Form 2) in Malaysia with content domains of TIMSS.

Consistently, Table 2 compares the Malaysian students’ achievements in different content domains

(in TIMSS). As expected, Table 2 reveals that also the average scale score of eighth grade

Malaysian students’ achievement was around the international average in TIMSS, however,

Malaysian students’ performance in TIMSS has not been higher than the leading south East Asian

countries that hold the highest ranking in TIMSS such as Singapore. More importantly, Figure 1 and

Table 2 signify that the ranking of Malaysian students’ achievements in TIMSS in all content

domains has decreased in 2007, and 2011 as compared to 2003.

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Figure 1. Trends in Mathematics Average Achievement in TIMSS 1995 to 2011 (Mullis et al.
(2012), pp. 60-64).

Table 2. Malaysian Students’ Achievements in Content Domains in TIMSS 2003, 2007, and 2011
TIMSS TIMSS 2003 TIMSS 2007 TIMSS 2011
content AVS* Ranking INA HIT VAS Ranking INA HIT AVS Ranking INA HIT
domains
Number 524 9th 467 618 491 17th 500 597 451 23rd N/A 618
th th
Algebra 495 17 467 597 454 27 500 617 430 29th N/A 617
Geometry 495 14th 467 598 477 19th 500 592 432 26th N/A 612
Data & 505 17th 467 579 469 19th 500 580 429 24th N/A 616
Chance
* Note: There is no average achievement in 2011 based on its report (TIMSS 2011, p. 144). Average scale Score, AVS, International
average; INA, HIT; Highest score. N/A; not available.

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3. Research method

To achieve objectives of this study, the current research used a qualitative research method for

collecting and analyzing the data. The qualitative method used in this study is a kind of case study

using interview and observation as the techniques for data collection. In this study we interviewed

seven mathematics teachers (Teachers A to G). The participants were selected through a snowball

sampling method from two secondary schools located in Serdang and Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Snowball sampling is a procedure for developing a research sample where existing study

participants take on future participants from amongst their acquaintances. Therefore, like a rolling

snowball, the sample size grows throughout the process of the research. As the sample is

constructed, enough data is assembled to be helpful for research (Doherty, 1994; Heckathorn, 1997;

Seale et al. 2004; Castillo, 2009). Our decision for selecting respondent from Selangor state was

made under the assumption that the Selangor teachers’ understanding of the TIMSS did not differ

from teachers in other states of Malaysia since they were trained in higher education institutions that

uphold the same standards.

4. Discussion and conclusion

In our interviews with the teachers, and observations of their classes, we found that the teacher A

was familiar with TIMSS but was not familiar with the content domains of TIMSS. We also found

that only teacher G was partially familiar with the content domains of TIMSS, although Malaysia

has been attending TIMSS since 1999. The other teachers were not familiar with the content

domains of TIMSS. They did not also have proper knowledge about the content of textbook of other

countries such as Singapore and South Korea, which are higher ranking holders in the content
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domains of TIMSS. We interestingly observed a considerable difference in the teaching practice of

the teacher G who was relatively familiar with content domains of TIMSS. We indeed observed that

she, occasionally, provided her students with examples that did not exist in their mathematics

textbooks 8th grade (Figure 3) but these example had quite similarly been presented in TIMSS’

items (refer to Figure 2 & 3). An example that she wrote on the whiteboard was linear equation with

X 7
two variables  and X + Y =63, with answers X = 7 and Y = 2. And with the result X + Y = 9
Y 2

which was an interesting problem for discussion. Teacher G asked the students to solve the posed

problem as below:

X 7
 and X+ Y = 63
Y 2

X 7
If  and we know that (7, 2) =1, so we can say X=7 and Y=2 which was the students answer
Y 2

in the mathematics class room, then X + Y = 9. But in this case there is another function X + Y =

63, so we cannot say X=7 and Y = 2 because X +7 doses not equal to 63, so we have to solve the

problem as two equations with two unknowns because we want to find the solution of the equation

as following:

X 7
  2 X  7Y  2 X  7Y  0
Y 2

X  Y  63  Y  63  X 2   2 X  763  X   0  2 X  441  7 X  0

441
9 X  441  X   49  Y  63  49  Y  14
9

Then the true answer is:

X=49 and Y=14 X + Y= 63

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Figure 2. Teacher G reaching Form 2 in the 8th crade class.

Figure 3. Algebra item with two unknowns, TIMSS 2011, p. 61.

We consistently conclude that teachers’ familiarity with the content domains of TIMSS can have a

significant impact on the mathematics achievement of students. It is therefore concluded that the

lack of familiarity of Malaysian secondary school mathematics teacher might be a key reason for

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the unsatisfying performance of Malaysian 8th grade mathematics students, in various content

domains of TIMSS, as compared to leading South-Asian countries such as Japan and Singapore.

Therefore, one operative approach for the Malaysian government and relative agencies, such as

Ministry of Education and Curriculum Development Centre is to launch programs and campaigns in

an effort to increase the familiarity of Malaysian secondary school mathematics teacher with

various content domains of TIMSS for instance during their teachers training services.

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