Using TIMSS and TIMSS Advanced Results to Inform Instruction

• In Event: Diagnostic Studies Using TIMSS and TIMSS Advanced Assessment Data

Proposal

In this presentation, practitioners in mathematics and science education discuss how findings from the IEA report described in Presentation 2 can be used to identify specific needs in curriculum and instruction across grades. Specifically, they answer three questions: (1) Why is it important to understand students’ misconceptions and errors such as those described in the report? (2) What do mathematics and science educators need to know about the findings? (3) How might teachers use these findings to help their students better understand and apply the concepts and skills?

We describe how sample items from TIMSS and TIMSS Advanced can be used to explore the extent and nature of certain types of student misconceptions and errors across grade levels and get a sense of how wide-spread these are. The lack of understanding demonstrated by upper secondary students who have taken advanced coursework in mathematics and physics may be surprising to mathematics and physics teachers. Misconceptions and errors that persist among upper secondary students can be traced to a lack of foundational understanding at earlier grades. Thus, teachers in the lower grades must understand the higher-level concepts and skills covered in middle and secondary school to ensure that their students are prepared, and teachers in the upper grades need to address any lingering misconceptions and errors before teaching more advanced concepts. In physics, for example, we found that misconceptions related to gravity at grade 12 (e.g., objects thrown upward have no acceleration at their maximum height and acceleration is always in the direction of motion) are connected to related misconceptions demonstrated at earlier grades, including that gravity acts only on falling objects (grades 8 and 4) and that the force due to gravity is directed upward for an object at rest sitting on a surface or for objects that are moving upward (grade 4). In mathematics, most TIMSS Advanced students were not able to interpret and support the solution to a system of linear equations in a real-life context in terms of their understanding of slope and intercept, and the majority of grade 8 students could not solve systems of linear equations in either real-life or non-contextualized problems. At grade 4, most students were not able to apply pre-algebraic thinking to solve simple real-life problems involving unknowns. Not being able to identify the graph of an equation or relate slope with steepness of a line was also common at grade 8, and many grade 4 students were not able to generate a verbal description given a specific relationship shown in table form.

The presentation also describes an online resource using TIMSS and TIMSS Advanced results that is being developed for teachers. This resource includes not only a discussion of diagnostic results at the item level but also provides some examples of activities classroom teachers can use to facilitate discussions that highlight misconceptions students may have or the types of errors they may make to plan for and provide additional support to their students when they are teaching these concepts and skills.

Authors

• Alka Arora, American Institutes for Research

• Will (Tad) Johnston, American Institutes for Research