Performance of Nordic Countries in
TIMSS and PIRLS:
An Asian perspective
Frederick K.S. Leung
The University of Hong Kong
A presentation delivered at the conference
“Northern Lights on TIMSS and PIRLS 2011
19 May 2014
Countries in TIMSS and PIRLS 2011
Armenia
Ghana
Australia
Honduras
Austria
Hong Kong SAR
Azerbaijan
Hungary
Bahrain
Indonesia
Belgium (Flemish) Iran, Islamic Rep. of
Botswana
Ireland
Chile
Israel
Chinese Taipei
Italy
Croatia
Japan
Czech Republic Jordan
Denmark
Kazakhstan
England
Korea, Rep. of
Finland
Kuwait
Georgia
Lebanon
Germany
Lithuania
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malta
Morocco
The Netherlands
New Zealand
Northern Ireland
Norway
Oman
Palestinian Nat’l Auth.
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Singapore
Slovak Republic
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Syrian Arab Republic
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Yemen
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
4th Grade
Mathematics
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
4th Grade Mathematics (first 15 countries)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
8th Grade
Mathematics
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
8th Grade Mathematics (first 15 countries)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
4th Grade
Science
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
4th Grade Science (first 15 countries)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
8th Grade
Science
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
8th Grade Science (first 15 countries)
4th Grade Reading
Performance of East Asian and Nordic
countries in TIMSS & PIRLS 2011
Maths G4
Maths G8
Science G4
Science G8
Reading G4
S’pore (606)
Korea (605)
HKG (602)
Taiwan (591)
Japan (585
Finland (545)
Denmark (537)
Sweden (504)
Norway (495)
Korea (613)
S’pore (611)
Taiwan (609)
HKG (586)
Japan (570)
Finland (514)
Sweden (484)
Norway (475)
Korea (587)
S’pore (583)
Finland (570)
Japan (559)
Taiwan (552)
HKG (535)
Sweden (533)
Denmark (528)
Norway (494)
S’pore (590)
Taiwan (564)
Korea (560)
Japan (558)
Finland (552)
HKG (535)
Sweden (509)
Norway (494)
HKG (571)
Finland (568)
S’pore (567)
Denmark (554)
Taiwan (553)
Sweden (542)
Norway (507)
Mathematics achievements of East
Asian countries in past cycles of TIMSS
TIMSS 1995
TIMSS 1995
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
How do we explain such patterns
of scores?
Can the patterns of student achievements
be explained by background variables
such as the wealth of the countries or the
characteristics of the education systems?
20
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
GNI per capita (US$)
90000
80000
70000
60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
Public Expenditure on Education
(% of GDP)
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Primary Pupil-Teacher Ratio
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Sweden
Norway
Finland
USA
Chinese
Taipei
Hong Kong
Japan
Singapore
Iran
England
Korea
Background variables for East Asian
countries in TIMSS 2007 (Mathematics)
• Parent with University Degree or Above
• Mathematics Teacher with University
Degree or Above
• Class size for Mathematics Instruction
• Mathematics Instructional Time
• Emphasis on Mathematics Homework
• School Resources for Mathematics
Instruction
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
Parent with University Degree or Above
(Int’l Avg. = 24%)
45%
40%
Percentage of students
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Iran
Hong Kong Australia
Chinese
Taipei
Singapore
Countries
Japan
Korea
United
States
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
Mathematics Teacher with University
Degree or Above (G.4 Int’l Avg. = 70%)
100%
90%
Percentage of students
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Iran
Singapore
Hong Kong
Chinese Taipei
England
Countries
Australia
Japan
Netherlands
United States
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
Mathematics Teacher with University
Degree or Above (G.8 Int’l Avg. = 78%)
100%
90%
Percentage of students
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Iran
Hong Kong
Chinese
Taipei
England
Singapore
Countries
Australia
Japan
United States
Korea
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
Class size for Mathematics Instruction
(G.4 Int’l Avg. = 26 students)
40
35
No. of students
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Netherlands
United States
Australia
Iran
England
Countries
Chinese Taipei
Japan
Hong Kong
Singapore
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
Class size for Mathematics Instruction
(G.8 Int’l Avg. = 29 students)
40
35
No. of students
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
United
States
Australia
Iran
England
Japan
Countries
Chinese
Taipei
Hong Kong
Korea
Singapore
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
Mathematics Instructional Time
(G.4 Int’l Avg. = 144 hours)
200
180
160
No. of hours
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Iran
Chinese
Taipei
Japan
Hong Kong
United
States
Countries
Australia
Netherlands
England
Singapore
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
Mathematics Instructional Time
(G.8 Int’l Avg. = 120 hours)
160
140
120
No. of hours
100
80
60
40
20
0
Iran
Korea
Japan
England
Singapore
Countries
Australia
Hong Kong
United
States
Chinese
Taipei
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
Percentage of Implemented Instructional
Time for Mathematics (G.4 Int’l Avg. = 16%)
25%
Percentage of instructional time
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Chinese
Taipei
Hong Kong
Iran
Japan
Netherlands
Countries
United
States
Australia
England
Singapore
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
Percentage of Implemented Instructional
Time for Mathematics (G.8 Int’l Avg. = 12%)
14%
Percentage of instructional time
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
Japan
Iran
Korea
England
United
States
Countries
Australia
Singapore
Chinese
Taipei
Hong Kong
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
High Emphasis on Mathematics Homework
(G.4 Int’l Avg. = 13%)
35%
30%
Percentage of students
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Netherlands
England
Australia
United
States
Japan
Countries
Chinese
Taipei
Iran
Hong Kong
Singapore
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
High Emphasis on Mathematics Homework
(G.8 Int’l Avg. = 28%)
60%
Percentage of students
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Australia
Japan
Korea
England
United
States
Countries
Hong Kong
Chinese
Taipei
Singapore
Iran
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
School Resources for Mathematics
Instruction (G.4 Int’l Avg. = 43%)
90%
80%
Percentage of students
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Iran
Chinese
Taipei
Netherlands United States
England
Countries
Australia
Hong Kong
Japan
Singapore
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007
School Resources for Mathematics
Instruction (G.8 Int’l Avg. = 32%)
100%
90%
80%
Percentage of students
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Iran
Korea
England
Chinese
Taipei
United States
Countries
Japan
Australia
Hong Kong
Singapore
Background variables related to high
mathematics achievement of East
Asian countries in TIMSS 2007
• Class size
– Larger class size
• Grade 4 homework
– More emphasis on mathematics homework at
Grade 4
What can we conclude?
• Student achievement cannot be accounted for
totally, or even to a significant extent, by these
background factors
• Some factors (e.g., SES) may explain variations
in achievement within a country, but they may
not account for across country differences
• Background characteristics may be important
factors for explaining student achievement, but
they are not the only factors – and may not
even be the most important factors
How do we explain student achievements?
The IEA Curriculum framework:
40
Does the implemented curriculum
explain the attained curriculum?
TIMSS 1999 Video Study
Goal: To describe and compare eighth-grade
mathematics teaching across seven
countries (Australia, Czech Republic, Hong
Kong SAR, Japan*, Netherlands,
Switzerland, United States)
* The 1995 Japanese data were re-analyzed using the 1999
methodology in some of the analysis
41
Sampling and Data Collection
of the TIMSS 1999 Video Study
• National probability sample of 8th-grade
mathematics lessons: a Video Survey
• One lesson per teacher
• Sampled across the school year
• Standardized camera procedures
• Altogether 638 lessons were videotaped
from 50 (Japan) – 140 (Switzerland)
42
Analysing the TIMSS 1999 videos:
• Quantitative analysis
– Structure of the lessons
– Events in the lessons
– Mathematics problems worked on in the
lessons
• Qualitative analysis
– Expert judgement on the quality of the
lessons
43
Data coding and analysis
• An international team developed codes to
apply to the video data.
• Fluently bilingual coders in the international
video coding team applied 45 codes in seven
coding passes to each of the videotaped
lessons.
• Three marks (i.e., the in-point, out-point, and
category) were evaluated and included in the
measures of reliability.
• If, after numerous attempts, reliability
measures fell below the minimum acceptable
standard, the code was dropped from the study.
44
The Mathematics Quality Analysis Group
• A specialist group in mathematics and teaching
mathematics at the post-secondary level reviewed a
randomly selected subset of 120 lessons (20 lessons
from each country except Japan).
• The international video coding team created
expanded lesson tables for each lesson in this
subset.
• The tables included details about the classroom
interaction, the nature of the math problems worked
on, mathematical generalizations, and other relevant
information.
• The tables were “country-blind,” with all indicators
that might reveal the country removed.
45
Do instructional practices explain the
high student achievement?
Instructional practices in Hong Kong:
1. Whole-class interaction dominates
“Comparing across countries, eighth-grade
mathematics lessons in Hong Kong SAR
spent a greater percentage of lesson time
in public interaction (75 percent) than those
in the other countries, except the United
46
States.” (pp. 54-55, Chapter 3)
Lesson Organization: Percent of lesson
time in different interaction types
# Rounds to zero.
‡ Reporting standards not met. Too few cases to be reported.
47
2. Teacher talks most of the time
“Hong Kong SAR eighth-grade mathematics
teachers spoke significantly more words
relative to their students (16:1) than did
teachers in Australia (9:1), the Czech
Republic (9:1), and the United States (8:1).”
(p. 109, Chapter 5)
48
Average number of teacher and student
words per lesson (50 minutes)
49
Ratio of teacher to student
words in mathematics lessons
50
3. Students solve procedural
problems unrelated to real-life
following prescribed methods
“Hong Kong SAR lessons contained a larger
percentage of problem statements classified
as using procedures (84 percent) than all
the other countries except the Czech
Republic (77 percent).” (p. 98, Chapter 5)
51
Average percentage of problems of
each problem statement type
52
Average percentage of problems set up with
symbols only versus real life connection
53
Percent of problems with
student choice
54
Instructional practices as portrayed by
a quantitative analysis of the codes
1.Whole-class interaction dominates
2.Teacher talks most of the time
3.Students solve procedural problems
unrelated to real-life following prescribed
methods
Traditional teaching, not conducive
to learning?
55
Quality of content as judged by the
Mathematics Quality Analysis Group
(Using the same data set)
“Readers are urged to be cautious in their
interpretations of these results because the
sub-sample, due to its relatively small size,
might not be representative of the entire
sample or of eighth-grade mathematics
lessons in each country.” (p. 190, Appendix D)
56
1. Relatively advanced content
“the ratings for countries with the most
advanced (5) to the most elementary (1)
content in the sub-sample of lessons, were
the Czech Republic and Hong Kong SAR
(3.7), Switzerland (3.0), the Netherlands
(2.9), the United States (2.7), and Australia
(2.5)” (p. 191, Appendix D)
57
Percentage of lessons in sub-sample
at each content level
58
2. More deductive reasoning
• Deduction reasoning = “deriving
conclusions from stated assumptions
using a logical chain of inferences.”
• The reasoning did not need to include a
formal proof, only a logical chain of
inferences with some explanation.
59
Percentage of lessons in sub-sample
that contained deductive reasoning
60
3. More coherent
Coherence was defined by the group as
the (implicit and explicit) interrelation of
all mathematical components of the
lesson.
61
Percentage of lessons in sub-sample
rated at each level of coherence
62
4. More fully developed presentation
• Presentation = “the extent to which the lesson
included some development of the
mathematical concepts or procedures”.
• Development required that mathematical
reasons or justifications were given for the
mathematical results presented or used.
• Presentation ratings took into account the
quality of mathematical arguments.
• Higher ratings meant that sound mathematical
reasons were provided by the teacher (or
students) for concepts and procedures.
• Mathematical errors made by the teacher
reduced the ratings.
63
Percentage of lessons in sub-sample
rated at each level of presentation
64
5. Students more likely to be engaged
• Student engagement = “the likelihood that students
would be actively engaged in meaningful
mathematics during the lesson”.
• A rating of very unlikely (1) indicated a lesson in
which students were asked to work on few of the
problems and those problems did not appear to
stimulate reflection on math concepts or procedures.
• A rating of very likely (5) indicated a lesson in which
students were expected to work actively on, and
make progress solving, problems that appeared to
raise interesting mathematical questions for them
and then to discuss their solutions with the class. 65
Percent of lessons in sub-sample rated
at each level of student engagement
66
6. Overall quality
Overall quality judgment:
“the opportunities that the lesson provided for
students to construct important
mathematical understandings” (p. 199,
Appendix D)
“the relative standing of Hong Kong SAR was
consistently high ….” (p. 200, Appendix D)
67
Percentage of lessons in sub-sample
rated at each level of overall quality
68
Rating of overall content
69
Instructional practices as portrayed
by a qualitative analysis of the
same data set
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Relatively advanced content
More deductive reasoning
Content of the lesson more coherent
More fully developed presentation
Students more likely to be engaged
Overall quality consistently high
70
Two different pictures?
• 1st picture: instructional practices portrayed
through objectively coding and summarizing
classroom activities
• 2nd picture: quality of content judged by
expert group based on their expertise and
experience
• Methodological issues: Quantitative Vs
Qualitative Analyses of video data?
• How do we explain the high student
achievement and seemingly backward and
traditional teaching?
71
Attitudes towards mathematics, science
and reading
• Attitudes towards mathematics, science
and reading should be an important part of
the attained curriculum
• Are there any patterns in Nordic and East
Asian countries in their students’ attitudes?
• The charts below display some of the
results of the attitudes of students in TIMSS
and PIRLS 2011
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Attitudinal Results
Students Like Learning Mathematics
Percentage of 4th Grade Students Who Like Learning
Mathematics (with selected countries)
International Average (= 48%)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Percentages of 8th Grade Students Who Like
Learning Mathematics
(International Average = 26%)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Students Valuing Mathematics
Percentages of 8th Grade Students Who Value
Mathematics (International Average = 46%)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Students’ Confidence in Mathematics
Percentages of 4th Grade Students Who Feel Confident
in Mathematics (International Average = 34%)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Percentages of 8th Grade students Who Feel Confident
in Mathematics (International Average = 14%)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Students Like Learning Science
Percentage of 4th Grade Students Who Like
Learning Science (International Average = 53%)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Percentages of 8th Grade Students Who Like
Learning Science (International Average = 35%)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Students Valuing Science
Percentages of 8th Grade Students Who Value
Science (International Average = 41%)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Students’ Confidence in Science
Percentages of 4th Grade Students Who Feel
Confident in Science (International Average = 43%
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Percentages of 8th Grade students Who Feel
Confident in Science (International Average = 20%)
40
33
26
23
20
23
18
16
14
8
6
3
0
Japan
4
Korea
Chinese
Taipei
HONG
KONG
Singapore
Australia
Chile
England
Norway
United
States
Iran
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Students Like Reading
Percentage of 4th Grade Students Who Like
Reading (International Average = 28%)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Students Motivated to Read
Percentages of 4th Grade Students Who
Motivated to Read (International Average = 74%)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011
Students’ Confidence in Reading
Percentages of 4th Grade Students Who Feel
Confident in Reading (International Average =
36%)
Attitudes towards mathematics, science
and reading (TIMSS and PIRLS 2011)
• Common findings between Nordic countries and
East Asian countries:
– Grade 8 students don’t value mathematics and
science
– Grade 4 students don’t like reading
• Striking findings for East Asian countries only
– Students do not hold very positive attitudes towards
mathematics, science and reading
– Students lack confidence in learning (Grade 8
students lack confidence in mathematics and science,
and Grade 4 students lack confidence in
mathematics, science and reading)
A cultural perspective of the TIMSS
and PIRLS results
• Culture: "the collective programming of the
mind which distinguishes the members of
one group or category of people from
another." (Hofstede, 1991, p.5)
• Five dimensions of culture:
– Power-distance
– Collectivism vs. individualism
– Femininity vs. masculinity
– Uncertainty avoidance
– Long- vs. short-term orientation
Project GLOBE
• Divided the data from 62 countries into
regional clusters
• Clusters provide a convenient way to
analyze similarities and differences
between cultural groups and make
meaningful generalizations about culture
and leadership
• 10 distinct groups (Northouse, 2007,
p.308):
The Nordic and Confucian clusters
Nordic Europe
• Sweden
• Norway
• Denmark
• Finland
• Iceland
Confucian Asia
• Singapore
• Hong Kong
• Taiwan
• China
• South Korea
• Japan
Nordic Europe Cluster
“The cluster of Nordic Europe is related to
the historical concept of Scandinavia. …
the term Nordic became established to
refer exclusively to the five Scandinavian
countries, with their model of welfare state
and common history, culture, and religion,
and similar languages.” (Einola & Turgeon,
2000).
Confucian Asia Cluster
“The Confucian cluster is defined by the strong
historical influence of China and Confucian
ideology….. Some distinctive Confucian
teachings included the emphasis on learning
through a hierarchical, family modeled
institution, which taught principles such as
diligence, self-sacrifice, and delayed
gratification. The Confucian model of a family
included the firm but compassionate father,
the loyal child who can never fully repay a
deep debt to the parents, and the ancestors
who are to be respected and worshipped.”
Findings of Project GLOBE
Characteristics of the 10 clusters (Northouse,
2007, p.309-313) :
• Anglo - competitive and result-oriented
• Confucian Asia - result-driven, encourage
group working together over individual goals
• Eastern Europe - forceful, supportive of coworkers, treat women with equality
• Germanic Europe - value competition &
aggressiveness and are more result-oriented
• Latin America - loyal & devoted to their
families and similar groups
• Latin Europe - value individual autonomy
• Middle East - devoted & loyal to their own
people, women afforded less status
• Nordic Europe - high priority on long-term
success, women treated with greater
equality
• Southern Asia - strong family & deep
concern for their communities
• Sub-Sahara Africa - concerned & sensitive
to others, demonstrate strong family loyalty
Nordic Europe
“The Nordic Europe cluster, which includes
Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, exhibited
several distinctive characteristics. This
cluster scored high on future orientation,
gender egalitarianism, institutional
collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance,
and low on assertiveness, in-group
collectivism, and power distance. The
Nordic people place a high priority on
long-term success. Women are treated
with greater equality.”
“The Nordic people identify with the broader
society and far less with family groups. In
Nordic Europe, rules, orderliness, and
consistency are stressed. Assertiveness is
downplayed in favor of modesty and
tenderness, and power is shared equally
among people at all levels of society.
Cooperation and societal-level group
identify are highly valued by the Nordic
people.”
Confucian Asia
“This cluster, which includes Singapore,
Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, South Korea,
and Japan, exhibited high scores in
performance orientation, institutional
collectivism, and in-group collectivism.
These countries are results driven, and
they encourage the group working
together over individual goals. People in
these countries are devoted and loyal to
their families.”
Anglo
“The Anglo cluster consists of Canada, the
United States, Australia, Ireland, England,
South Africa (White sample), and New
Zealand. These countries or populations
were high in performance orientation and
low in in-group collectivism. This means it
is characteristic of these countries to be
competitive and results oriented, but less
attached to their families or similar groups
than other countries.”
How is culture related to TIMSS and
PIRLS achievements?
Some relevant Confucian cultural values
• Strong emphasis on the importance of
education
• High expectation for students to achieve
• Examination culture
• Stress on diligence, practice and memorization
• Pragmatic philosophy
• The virtue of modesty, and
• The Chinese language (skipped in this
presentation)
Emphasis on the importance of education
and expectation to achieve
• The Confucian culture: emphasizes
importance of education
• Students are expected to hold a serious
attitude towards study
• Higher expectations of students to achieve
both in educational level and in the level of
subject matter to be learned
• This may explain the more advanced content
learned in the East Asian classroom
Examination culture (and selection)
China is the first country in the world where a national
examination system was introduced - as early as the Sui
Dynasty (A.D. 587), a national examination was instituted
in the imperial court to select scholars to high offices in
the government. From then on, “the examinations at
different dynasties were invariably the means to select
appointees to the officialdom. ... The examination was
later developed into a stratified system where scholars
competed in local examinations and became qualified for
higher level examinations ... Local successful candidates
were awarded lifelong titles of scholars who became local
intellectuals with respectable social status. The
champions in the examination held at the central imperial
court were granted high positions in the government (as
high as the prime minister) and often granted marriage to
the royal family.” (Cheng, 1994)
Examination culture: two-way sword
• The examination culture and the consequent
competitive examination system may create
“undue pressure upon students, resulting in all
sorts of harmful effects such as loss of interest in
(study) and behavioral problems”
• Also, learning/studying is considered a serious
endeavour
• Students expected to put in hard work/
perseverance and are not supposed to enjoy the
study
• This may explain their negative attitude towards
study as found in international studies
Intrinsic Vs extrinsic motivation
• The examination culture legitimizes performance in
examinations as a source of motivation for study
– this contrasts with the views of some Western
educators who value intrinsic motivation to study
and consider extrinsic motivations such as those
derived from examination pressure as harmful to
learning
• The East Asian value of high expectation to achieve
– East Asian parents and teachers may
communicate this expectation explicitly or
implicitly to their children
– high expectations and competitive examinations
leave the majority of students classified as
failures
– repeated experiences of a sense of failure
reinforced the lack of confidence
Practice makes perfect?
• Stress in the East Asian culture on diligence and
practice
• Attributes success to effort rather than innate ability
• In East Asia, “repetitive learning” is “continuous
practice with increasing variation” (Marton, 1997),
and practice and repetition is a “route to
understanding” (Hess & Azuma, 1991)
• Equating memorization without full understanding
to rote learning is too simplistic
• Practice and memorization are legitimate (and
probably effective) means for understanding and
learning
Pragmatic philosophy in East Asia
• East Asians are known to be pragmatic people
• Students take a pragmatic approach in their
learning, and teachers take a pragmatic approach
in their teaching
• This may explain the “traditional teaching” in East
Asian classrooms:
“East Asian teachers are competent in mathematics in
general, but they deliberately taught in a procedural
manner for pedagogical reasons and for the sake of
efficiency. Teachers believe that it would be inefficient
or confusing for school children to be exposed to rich
concepts instead of clear and simple procedures.”
(Leung and Park, 2002)
The virtue of modesty
• Modesty is a highly valued virtue in East Asia;
children are taught from young that one should not
be boastful
• Chinese saying: “Contentedness leads to loss;
modesty (or humility) leads to gain”
• This may inhibit East Asian Culture students from
rating themselves too highly in attitude
questionnaires, and the scores may represent less
than what students really think about themselves
• But if students are constantly taught to rate
themselves low, they may internalize the idea and
result in really low confidence
• According to East Asian value, negative
correlation between students’ confidence and
achievement is expected: over-confidence
lowers incentive to learn
Nordic culture
• What are the corresponding characteristics in
the Nordic culture?
– “Women treated with greater equality”
– Egalitarianism
• Do these cultural values affect students’
achievement in TIMSS and PIRLS?
– Gender differences
– Spread of achievement scores
Inter-quartile range of TIMSS 2011
mathematics scores
Country
• Hong Kong
• Sweden
• Korea
• Finland
• Norway
• Denmark
• Chinese Taipei
• Singapore
• USA
• Australia
• New Zealand
• England
IQR
82
87
90
91
91
92
96
102
111
112
122
122
Country
• Norway
• Finland
• Sweden
• USA
• Hong Kong
• Singapore
• Japan
• Australia
• England
• New Zealand
• Korea
• Chinese Taipei
G8 IQR
89
89
92
105
107
113
115
115
119
120
121
140
Inter-quartile range of science scores
Country
• Japan
• Norway
• Finland
• Korea
• Hong Kong
• Denmark
• Chinese Taipei
• Sweden
• Australia
• USA
• England
• Singapore
• New Zealand
G4 IQR
82
85
86
87
92
95
96
100
105
105
110
113
116
Country
• Finland
• Hong Kong
• Norway
• Japan
• Korea
• Sweden
• Australia
• USA
• Chinese Taipei
• New Zealand
• England
• Singapore
G8 IQR
88
95
97
99
104
108
112
112
113
117
117
130
Inter-quartile range of PIRLS Grade 4
Reading scores
Country
• Hong Kong
• Sweden
• Norway
• Finland
• Demark
• Chinese Taipei
• USA
• Singapore
• Australia
• England
• New Zealand
IQR
78
83
83
83
85
87
97
104
106
109
118
Gender differences and the spread of
achievement scores in Nordic
countries
• Nordic countries are doing very well in
terms of minimizing gender differences in
their students’ mathematics, science and
reading achievement (with the possible
exception of Finland, especially in Grade 4
students’ reading)
• Nordic countries are also doing very well
in minimizing spread of achievement
scores among students (is this desirable?)
• Are these due to the Nordic culture?
Implications
• The discussion above hints that the underlying cultural
values may be an important factor in explaining
student achievement, but we should not take it as
establishing a simple causal relation between culture
and achievement
• Complicated cultural factors might have affected
student achievement, and so drastic changes in
educational policies should not be undertaken until
such factors are thoroughly examined
• Any changes in educational policy must ensure that
the strengths in a country are not lost in the process
• Simple transplant of policies and practices from other
countries would not work, because one cannot
transplant the practices without regard to the cultural
differences
Cultural difference
• Culture by definition evolves slowly and stably with the
passage of long periods of time, and there is simply no
quick transformation of culture
• In learning from international studies and from other
countries, we need to identify not only the superficial
differences in educational practices, but also the
intricate relationship between educational practices
and the underlying culture
• It is through studying these relationships that we
understand the interaction between educational
practices and culture
• And through identifying commonalities and differences
of both educational practices and the underlying
cultures, we may then determine how much can or
cannot be borrowed from another culture
Conclusion
• International studies of student achievements
such as TIMSS and PIRLS have profound
influence on education worldwide in the past
15 years or so
• Much attention has been paid on the ranking
of countries, often without due consideration
of the contextual factors that affect the
performance of students from different
countries
• In this presentation, it has been argued that
cultural values may be an important factor in
explaining differences in student achievement
• Without due consideration of the cultural and
other contextual differences , passing
judgement on the performance of students in
different countries based on results of these
international studies is very misleading, and
may even be damaging
• Education is a complex endeavour – we
cannot expect international studies to produce
answers for all our national problems in
education
• International studies such as TIMSS and
PIRLS provide rich dataset for individual
countries to seek answers for their own issues
• In so doing, we need wisdom, and not just
data!
Thank you very much for your attention!
My email address:
frederickleung@hku.hk
The Chinese language
• The Japanese and Korean languages are strongly
influenced by the Chinese language
Characteristics of written Chinese
• Logographic: Chinese words are represented by a large
number of different visual symbols known as characters
• Characters are made up of components (radicals), and
have an imaginary square as a basic writing unit.
e.g.,
梁貫成
• Chinese characters put emphasis on the spatial layout of
strokes, and the orthography of Chinese is based on the
spatial organization of the components of the characters
Classification of Chinese
Characters
“Six Writings” (liushu六書 ) Shuowenjiezi 說文
解字(Xu Shen [許慎], ~AD 58-147)
1.Xiangxing [象形](pictograms)
2.Zhishi [指事] (ideograms)
3.Xingsheng [形聲] (phono-semantic
compounds)
4.Huiyi [會意](ideogrammatic compounds)
5.Zhuanzhu [轉注] (derivative cognates)
6.Jiajie [假借] (phonetic loan)
Chinese writing and mathematics
learning
• Close relationship between childhood experience with
learning the Chinese orthography and the visual-spatial
properties of Chinese characters
• Chinese characters: possess visual properties such as
connectivity, closure, linearity and symmetry which are
faster and easier to be captured by vision
• Lai (2008) showed that Chinese children have
– Higher visual perceptual and geometric skills
– Higher visual-motor integration skills than motor-reduced
visual perceptual skills
• Lai used both the motor control theory and the
psychogeometric theory of Chinese-character writing to
account for the surprising results
Xingsheng and algebraic
thinking
• E.g., 馬 (ma, horse) and 媽 (ma, mother)
• The character or radical 馬 provides the
sound, the other character or radical 女
(woman) provides the meaning
• Other characters in this series:
• |傌 |嗎 |媽 |溤 |獁|榪 |瑪|碼 |禡 |罵 |駡|螞 |鎷 |
驀 |鰢 |鷌 |
• In all these cases, the radical 馬 provides the
sound, the other radical provides the
meaning
• So the radical 馬 acts as parameter, while the
other radical acts as a variable
Other features of the Chinese
language
• Classifiers
– Chinese language – use of classifiers
between every cardinal number and the
objects being quantified
– “unscramble the confusion that otherwise
surrounds conservation of numbers ……
explicitness and pragmatic retention of the
essential semantic elements in the
vocabulary it uses for mathematics” (Brimer
& Griffin, 1985, p.23)
• The regular number system
Spoken Chinese
1. Chinese is a monosyllabic language, where one
syllable constitutes one morpheme
2. In particular, the short pronunciation of the
numbers zero to ten makes it easy to process
– “The shortest average pronunciation duration of
a Chinese number is 265 ms, significantly
shorter than the corresponding average of 321
ms in pronouncing a number in English”
(Hoosain, 1984)
3. Tonic nature of Cantonese – nine tones (times
table Vs “Nine factor song”(九因歌))