Studies based on response processes of individuals can provide information that supports the assessment and increases the validity of the items in the scale or tests. The purpose of this study is to present the extent to which the student response processes are effective in identifying and developing the characteristics of the items in an…

Australia has declared its ambition to be within the "top five" in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) by 2025. So serious is it about this ambition, that the Australian Government has incorporated it into the "Australian Education Act, 2013". Given this focus on PISA results and rankings, we go beyond…

Finnish students' success on all three content domains of each of the four cycles of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has created much international interest. It has also prompted Finnish academics to offer systemic explanations typically linked to the structural qualities of Finnish schooling and teacher education.…

The aim of this study is to examine preservice science teachers' skills of formulating hypotheses and identifying variables. The research has a phenomenological research design. The data was gathered qualitatively. In this study, preservice science teachers were first given two scenarios (Scenario-1 & Scenario-2) containing two different…

Over the past two decades, educational research in Germany has undergone unprecedented changes. Following large-scale assessments such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and a political interest in evidence-based policy-making, quality assessment and…

Autoethnography is adopted as the procedure and orientation for this PhD study which aims to explore the cultural identity of the Chinese families and its influences on their children's mathematics learning. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, readers are invited to travel with the researcher a journey in which she explores her diasporic…

This paper reports some initial findings from research designed to understand more deeply the motivational and emotional landscape of disaffection with school mathematics. A context is described in which there has been significant concern expressed about a number of aspects of mathematics education, but where affect is seen as salient to these…

Javits Gifted and Talented Education Program has provided a wealth of knowledge on culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) gifted learners and how to support teachers in their work with CLD students. This study examined five impactful Javits projects through qualitative inquiry centered on how innovative practice takes root or not. Using…

The lack of exposure to practical work in primary schools leads to incompetency in manipulative skills and students may carry this problem with them to secondary school. To address this issues, an in-depth qualitative study was conducted during transition from primary to secondary school. The research involved 10 primary school students (grade 6)…

Beyond common associated factors, such as teacher characteristics and socioeconomic background of students, little is known about how student achievement relates to differences in the pedagogical approaches used in Latin American classrooms. This paper highlights the main findings from a qualitative study on cross-country differences in teaching…

Science education reform in Qatar has had limited success. In the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS), Qatari 4th and 8th grade students have shown progress in science achievement, but they remain significantly below the international average. Also, in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), Qatari…

In this paper, we try to unravel some of the unintended and intended academic effects associated with post-Soviet educational reforms by focusing on three cases: Estonia, Latvia and Russia. We have chosen this comparison because a unique "natural experiment" in the three countries allows us to compare the changing academic performance on…

The aim of the study was to exemplify pupils' mastering of mathematical literacy. The study is a comparative multiple case study. In pupils' talk of mathematical activities aspects of mathematical literacy are discerned. A distinction is made between pupils: (1) pupils in mathematical difficulties, (2) pupils with another mother tongue than…

This dissertation examines a vital catalyst in the globalization of education: international assessments--that involve testing and rankings--of student achievement in academic subjects. Nearly all high-income countries participate in international assessments such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Progress in…

Why has large-scale standardised testing attracted such a bad press? Why has pedagogic benefit to be derived from test results been downplayed? The paper investigates this question by first surveying the pros and cons of testing in the literature, and goes on to examine educators' responses to standardised, large-scale tests in a sample of low…