Analysis of the Performance of Taiwan Eighth Grade Students in TIMSS 1999 from the Perspective of Testing Culture--- Life Science Section

• Main Authors: Yi-Ju Hou, 侯怡如
• Other Authors: Tam, Hak-Ping
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/84443078795611725133

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 科學教育研究所 === 91 === This study is an attempt to understand the performance of Taiwan eighth graders in the life science section of TIMSS 1999. It differs from other studies in that it seeks to analyze and interpret the performance from the perspective of the testing culture, which has a long historical root. Since TIMSS 1999 was a carefully planned as well as conducted study, result thereby obtained from secondary analysis should reflect the actual situation to a certain extent. Such information should be valuable to educators and policy makers alike. More specifically, three research questions were raised in the present study. Firstly, how did Taiwan students performed overall in the life science section of TIMSS 1999? Secondly, what does the testing culture actually mean? How would it relate to the performance of Taiwan students in TIMSS 1999? Thirdly, besides the testing culture, what other background variables were related to Taiwan students’ performance in TIMSS 1999? In order to achieve these purposes, a literature review was conducted in order to understand better the meaning of the testing culture. Afterward, a set of background variables in the TIMSS questionnaire that were congruent to the meaning of the testing culture were being identified accordingly. Descriptive statistics were then conducted on the Taiwan sample so as to understand their overall performance on the released items in the life science section. Besides, an item analysis was done on those items in which the Taiwan students did not performed well. Furthermore, their performance was analyzed with respect to those variables that were related to the testing cultures. Finally, analysis was also performed with respect to other meaningful background variables such as gender and family educational resources. Overall speaking, it was found that Taiwan students performed relatively well in TIMSS 1999. However, of the 24 released life science items, there were a total of 9 items in which the Taiwan sample performed lower than a 60% passing rate or below the international average. Though the questionnaires in TIMSS 1999 were not designed to tap into the testing culture, several background variables were, nevertheless, identified to be congruent to this aspect. They include variables that were related to whether the students enrolled in some form of outside school tutorials, their values toward education, personal study belief, as well as the frequency of tests administered by their science teachers. It was found that there were some relationship between these testing culture variables and the students’ performance in TIMSS 1999. On the other hand, it was found that there was no gender difference so far as the released items in the life science section were concerned. Besides, there was some relationship between the numbers of books in ones’ families with their performance in TIMSS 1999. In general, the better their families’ educational resources, the better their performances in the life science items. Likewise, it was found that the better their parents’ educational background, the better their performance. Overall speaking, Taiwan students emphasized on memorization and were willing to work hard for better grades. On the other hand, Taiwan science teachers emphasized too much on testing students. This practice may deprive the students from the opportunity of obtaining deeper understanding in life science topics.