For the above research question one, the results of the secondary data analysis from TIMSS were shown in Table 1. From the Table 1, there existed the sex
differences in mathematics and science achievement from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003. As the developmental trend of Mathematics achievement shown in Table 1, there indicated that the scores of fourth-grade male students were higher than those of fourth-grade female students in TIMSS 1999, with no significant sex differences of fourth-grade male and female students in TIMSS 2003, and then to the scores of eight-grade female students were higher than those of eight-grade male students in TIMSS 2003. And as the developmental trend of Science achievement shown in Table 1, there indicated that the scores of fourth-grade male students were higher than those
of fourth-grade female students in TIMSS 1999, the scores of fourth-grade male students were higher than those of fourth-grade female students in TIMSS 2003, and then no significant sex differences of eight-grade students in TIMSS 2003. Among them, a speciously remarkable phenomenon was worth being noted. At the
fourth-grade stage, male students’ mathematics and science achievement seem to be outperformed than the female students did in TIMSS 1999, speciously in science achievement. But in TIMSS 2003, the situation began reverse; there were no
significant sex differences in mathematics achievement. And even, there became the female students’ mathematics and science achievement seemed to be outperformed than the male students did, or became no significant sex differences in TIMSS 2003.
So, from the long-term vision on this development trend from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003, the female students’ mathematics and science achievement seemed to
progressed in these few years since the TIMSS began in 1995. Meanwhile, the male students’ mathematics and science achievement seemed too procrastinated or
stagnated. Because of Taiwan’s joined in the TIMSS evaluation was not long enough,
Sex difference
whether the above-mentioned phenomenon will be observed in the future, there seemed to be continuously studied.
Table 1. Sex differences in mathematics and science achievement from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003.
Year Grade Achevement Female Male t p
Mathematics
583.05(97.70) 588.58(109.11) -2.027 .043Algebra 584.69(110.08) 589.74(118.18) -1.679 .093
Data 563.70(102.50) 556.21(111.22) 2.661 .008
Number 576.64(96.85) 580.25(108.63) -1.332 .183
Geometry 555.91(100.40) 565.85(105.95) -3.655 .000
Measurement 563.45(89.74) 568.15(99.91) -1.882 .060
Science
564.40(81.41) 582.26(92.95) -7.765 .000Chemistry 557.08(95.02) 569.11(108.29) -4.710 .000
Earth science 519.22(82.97) 554.88(86.24) -16.02 .000
Life science 546.17(90.89) 549.50(103.84) -1.284 .199
Physics 545.31(93.43) 563.03(102.92) -6.845 .000
TIMSS
1999 Fourth
Environment S. 553.80(97.76) 574.12(104.59) -7.624 .000
Mathematics
564.96(58.59) 564.57(65.34) 0.214 .831Algebra 557.28(63.04) 557.98(68.36) -0.366 .714
Data 570.39(58.98) 562.26(63.52) 4.519 .000
Number 570.69(66.12) 568.14(71.17) 1.263 .207
Geometry 553.11(66.06) 550.67(71.83) 1.203 .229
Measurement 555.19(53.07) 560.08(57.45) -3.011 .003
Science
549.53(65.41) 554.56(72.33) -2.487 .013Earth science 554.73(81.27) 566.45(90.18) -4.646 .000
Life science 539.55(55.95) 543.36(62.20) -2.190 .029
TIMSS
2003 Fourth
Physics 552.71(76.38) 557.31(83.29) -1.960 .050
Mathematics
589.72(92.73) 582.75(102.79) 2.604 .009Algebra 594.13(102.62) 581.32(113.15) 4.340 .000
Data 571.86(78.13) 568.04(87.36) 1.687 .092
Number 591.52(96.29) 585.03(106.87) 2.336 .020
Geometry 599.42(104.89) 582.46(115.97) 5.616 .000
Measurement 572.86(89.81) 575.54(98.91) -1.037 .300
Science
571.23(73.83) 573.55(81.71) -1.090 .276Chemistry 542.43(67.86) 553.99(77.17) -5.823 .000
Earth science 563.80(69.24) 564.57(78.16) -0.377 .706
Life science 568.49(68.94) 571.48(77.80) -1.489 .137
Physics 589.91(87.70) 582.50(96.85) 2.934 .003
TIMSS
2003 Eighth
Environment S. 561.21(60.32) 559.17(67.34) 1.170 .242 Note: Only the significant value (i.e., p＜.05) was shown in gray bold heads.
Table 2 had shown for the regression analysis of the impact factors that influenced the mathematics and science achievement from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS
Sex difference
2003. Only the main predictor with R2
≧
.10 and beta value was shown in Table 2.Since the coding for the response option of "agree very much”, “agree”, “disagree”,
“disagree very much” as 1, 2, 3, or 4 points, some scoring and interpreting of item questions should be reversed and be careful.
For the factor that influencing Mathematics achievement, Table 2 indicated that
“I will never really understand it” (for fourth-grade in TIMSS 1999), “Think\Usually do well in Math” (for fourth-grade in TIMSS 2003), “Agree\Usually do well in Math”
(for eight-grade in TIMSS 2003) were the major factors that accounted for about 10.3% ~ 26.06% variance of the Mathematics achievement. And if we looked at Table 2 in detail, we could see that the “I will never really understand it” was the major
factor that explained the fourth-grade male students’ Mathematics achievement in TIMSS 1999, the “Think\Usually do well in Math”, and the “Agree\Usually do well in Math” were the main factors that explained the fourth-grade and eighth-grade male students’ Mathematics achievement in TIMSS 2003. Meanwhile, the “Usually do well in Math”, the “Think\Usually do well in Math”, and the “Agree\Usually do well in Math” were always the major factors that explained the fourth-grade and eighth-grade female students’ Mathematics achievement from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003. On the whole, from the long-term vision on this development trend from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003, the major factor that influenced the female students’ Mathematics achievement was “Usually do well in Math”, and the main factors that explained the male students’ Mathematics achievement were “Usually do well in Math” and “I will never really understand it”.
For the factor that influencing Science achievement, Table 2 indicated that
“More difficult than for classmate” (for fourth-grade in TIMSS 1999), “How often\I listen teacher talk” (for fourth-grade in TIMSS 2003), “How often\Listen teacher
Sex difference
lecture” (for eight-grade in TIMSS 2003) were the major factors that accounted for about 7.1% ~ 13.9% of variance of the Science achievement. And if we looked at Table 2 in detail, we could see that the “More difficult than for classmate” was the
major factor that explained the fourth-grade male students’ Science achievement in TIMSS 1999, the “How often\I listen teacher talk”, and the “How often\Listen teacher lecture” were the main factors that explained the fourth-grade and eighth-grade male students’ Science achievement in TIMSS 2003. Meanwhile, the “Outside school studying science”, was the major factor that explained the fourth-grade female students’ Science achievement in TIMSS 1999, the “How often\I listen teacher talk”, and the “How often\Listen teacher lecture” were always the major factors that
explained the fourth-grade and eighth-grade female students’ Science achievement from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003. On the whole, from the long-term vision on this development trend from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003, the major factors that
influenced the female students’ Science achievement were “Outside school studying science” and “How often\I listen teacher talk”, and the main factors that explained the male students’ Science achievement were “More difficult than for classmate” and
“How often\I listen teacher talk”.
Table 2. The regression analysis of the impact factors that influenced the mathematics and science achievement from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003.
Main predictor (beta values and the R-square) Year Grade Criterion
Female Male Total Subjects
Mathematics Usually do well in Math.
β＝-.442, R2＝.195
I will never really understand it.
β＝.500, R2＝.250
I will never really understand it.
β＝.466, R2＝.217 TIMSS
1999
Fourth
Science Outside school studying science.
β＝.327, R2＝.107
More difficult than for classmate.
β＝.372, R2＝.139
More difficult than for classmate.
β＝.345, R2＝.119 Mathematics Think\Usually do
well in Math.
Science How often\I listen teacher talk.
How often\I listen teacher talk.
How often\I listen teacher talk.
Sex difference β＝-.254, R2＝.065 β＝-.281, R2＝.079 β＝-.266, R2＝.071 Mathematics Agree\Usually do
well in Math.
Science How often\Listen teacher lecture. Note: Only the main predictor those R2≧.10 with its beta value was shown.
Table 3 had shown for the regression analysis of the impact factors that
influenced the mathematics and science learning interest from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003. Only the main predictor with R2
≧
.10 and beta value was shown in Table 3.Since the coding for the response option of "agree very much”, “agree”, “disagree”,
“disagree very much” as 1, 2, 3, or 4 points, some scoring and interpreting of item questions should be reversed and be careful.
For the factor that influencing Mathematics learning interest, Table 3 indicated that “Think\Math is boring” and “Usually do well in Math” (for fourth-grade in TIMSS 1999), “Would like to do more math” and “I learn things quickly in math” (for fourth-grade in TIMSS 2003), “I learn things quickly in math” and “Would like more math”(for eight-grade in TIMSS 2003) were the major factors that accounted for about 10.8% ~ 44.8% variance of the Mathematics learning interest. And if we looked at Table 3 in detail, we could see that the impact factors that influenced the male students’ Mathematics learning interest were same to the factors that influenced the total subjects. Meanwhile, the “Think\Math is boring” and “Usually do well in Math”
were the major factors that influenced the fourth-grade female students’ Mathematics learning interest in TIMSS 1999, “Would like to do more math” was the major factor that influenced the fourth-grade female students’ Mathematics learning interest in TIMSS 2003, and “Usually do well in Math” and “Would like more math” were the major factors that influenced the eighth-grade female students’ Mathematics learning interest in TIMSS 2003. On the whole, from the long-term vision on this development
Sex difference
trend from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003, the major factors that influenced the female students’ Mathematics learning interest were “Think\Math is boring”, “Usually do well in Math”, and “Would like more math”, and the main factors that explained the male students’ Mathematics learning interest were “Think\Math is boring”, “Usually do well in Math”, “Would like more math”, and “I learn things quickly in math”.
For the factor that influencing Science learning interest, Table 3 indicated that
“Like science” (for fourth-grade in TIMSS 1999), “Would like to do more science”
(for fourth-grade in TIMSS 2003), “Would like to take more science” and “I learn things quickly in science”(for eight-grade in TIMSS 2003) were the major factors that accounted for about 11.6% ~ 55.2% variance of the Science learning interest. And if we looked at Table 3 in detail, we could see that the impact factors that influenced the male and female students’ Science learning interest were same to the factors that influenced the total subjects. On the whole, from the long-term vision on this development trend from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003, the major factors that influenced the male and female students’ Science learning interest were “Like science”, “Would like to do/take more science”, and “I learn things quickly in science”.
Table 3. The regression analysis of the impact factors that influenced the mathematics and science learning interest from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003.
Main predictor (beta values and the R-square) Year Grade Criterion
Female Male Total Subjects
Interest in mathematics
Think\Math is boring.
β＝-.481, R2＝.419 Usually do well in
Math.
β＝.371, R2＝.110
Think\Math is boring.
β＝-.481, R2＝.447 Usually do well in
Math.
β＝.377, R2＝.107
Think\Math is boring.
β＝-.481, R2＝.437 Usually do well in
Math.
Fourth Interest in Mathematics
Sex difference I learn things quickly
in math.
β＝.360, R2＝.114
I learn things quickly in math.
Usually do well in Math.
β＝.476, R2＝.406 Would like more
math.
β＝.415, R2＝.146
I learn things quickly in math.
β＝.479, R2＝.480 Would like more
math.
β＝.412, R2＝.124
I learn things quickly in math.
β＝.475, R2＝.448 Would like more
math.
Would like to take more science.
β＝.455, R2＝.420 I learn things quickly
in science.
β＝.402, R2＝.124
Would like to take more science.
β＝.512, R2＝.549 I learn things quickly
in science.
β＝.400, R2＝.108
Would like to take more science.
β＝.485, R2＝.495 I learn things quickly
in science.
β＝.405, R2＝.116 Note: Only the main predictors those R2≧.10 with their beta values were shown.
As mentioned above, from the development trend of from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003, there seemed to be that the female student's Mathematics and Science achievement outperformed the male students year by year. And the male student's Mathematics and Science achievement seemed to be on the stagnation development.
Among them, the main factors that influenced the female student's Mathematics and Science achievement were those factors that related to such items as: “Usually do well in Math”, “Outside school studying science”, and “How often\Listen teacher lecture”.
Meanwhile, the major factors that influenced the male student's Mathematics and Science achievement were those factors that related to such items as: “I will never really understand it”, “Think\Usually do well in Math”, “More difficult than for classmate”, and “How often\Listen teacher lecture”. Besides, the main factors that influenced the female student's Mathematics and Science learn interest were those items most related to “Think\Math is boring”, “Usually do well in Math”, “Would like to do more math”, “Like science”, “Would like to do more science”, and “I learn things quickly in science”. Meanwhile, the major factors that influenced the male student's Mathematics and Science learn interest were those items most related to
Sex difference
“Think\Math is boring”, “Usually do well in Math”, “Would like to do more math”, “I learn things quickly in math”, “Like science”, “Would like to do more science”, and “I learn things quickly in science”. Among them, those factors that influenced the male and female students’ Mathematics and Science learning interest were almost the same.
Therefore, as concluded as follows, the previously positive learning experience of the male and female students (namely, since the fourth-grade in TIMSS 1999) seemed to became the major factors for afterward learning motives (i.e., expressed by such as
“Like math or science”, “Would like to do/take more math or science”, etc.), and to be higher achievement in Mathematics and Science. Hence, how to promote the students having a positive learning experience in Mathematics and Science with a good
curriculum design, an adequate teaching method, and an evaluation system to maintain Mathematics and Science learning interest and achievement. It deserved to be carefully considered in the future policy making.
Sex difference
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Authors:
Min-Ning Yu
Professor, Department of Education in National Chengchi University
Address: NO 64,Sec2,ZhiNan Rd.,Wenshan District, Taipei City 11605,Taiwan (R.O.C)
E-mail: mnyu@nccu.edu.tw TEL: 886-2-29393091#67105
Shih-Yu Lin
Doctoral Student, Department of Education in National Chengchi University Address: NO 64,Sec2,ZhiNan Rd., Wenshan District, Taipei City 11605, Taiwan (R.O.C)
E-mail: 95152516@nccu.edu.tw TEL: 886-2-29393091#67105