The Analysis of Structure Between Math-related Educational Context Variables and Mathematics Achievement of South Korea, Singapore, Japan, and Finland from PISA 2012

Author(s):

Haemee Rim(presenting / submitting)Hyun Sook Yi(presenting)Sungsook Kim

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

24. Mathematics Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

24 SES 10,

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-24

15:30-17:00

Room:

K6.04

Chair:

Birgit Pepin

Contribution

The OECD PISA is a representative competency-based evaluation that evaluates the literacy of 15-year-old students at the end of compulsory education, which is the ability to use the knowledge and skills needed to live as citizens of modern society. In particular, the PISA is more meaningful in that it enables to search not only the mathematics achievement but also the various educational context variables that affect achievement results.

The purpose of this study is to find various implications for mathematics education based on PISA results and to propose educational policy through analyzing PISA 2012 top 4 countries; South Korea, Singapore, Japan, and Finland. From the first cycle, Korea has been consistently among the highest performing countries in PISA. However there are still educational problems to be solved. In contrast to the high performance in cognitive domains, Korea often receives attention for its relatively low level of affective domains such as attitude toward mathematics. According to PISA 2012 results, Korea accounted for 60.4% of the students who feel happy in school (OECD average 79.8%), which is the lowest rate among the 65 participating countries. In order to address the issues, we would like to find various policy implications through international comparative studies with countries often cited for its excellence or equity in education. Singapore has the highest achievement in PISA, and Japan has educational characteristics similar to those of Korea, and recent achievements are steadily rising. Finland is an educational advanced country in Europe with an emphasis on education equity.

In this study, structural equation model analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between mathematics achievement and student and school level variables. The research questions are as follows; (1) At the student level, what is the structure of the educational context variables that affect the mathematics achievement of the four countries? (2) At the School level, what is the structure of the educational context variables explaining mathematics achievement of the four countries? (3) Based on these results, what should be the direction of mathematics education in Korea?

At the student level model, educational context variables highlighted in this study are as follows ; intrinsic motivation, mathematical self-efficacy, parental subjective norm, control strategies, elaboration strategies, student-level ESCS, after-school mathematics learning time. And at the school level model, educational context variables highlighted are as follows; mathematics teachers' support, disciplinary climate of math classroom, teachers’ instructional behaviors, experiences with pure math problems, experiences with applied math problems, number of students per mathematics teacher.

Method

To reflect the hierarchical data structure, a two-level structural equation modeling was employed. The intercept of the mathematics achievement was specified as a random effect, while all slope coefficients were specified as fixed effects. At the student-level model, interest in math and parent-related subjective norms were specified to have direct effects as well as indirect effects through self-efficacy, control strategies, and elaboration strategies. After-school learning time and student-level ESCS were also included as exogenous variables influencing math achievement. At the school level, math teachers’ support and disciplinary climate of math classroom were specified as fundamental factors explaining math achievement, having direct effects as well as indirect effects through teacher-directed and student-oriented instructional behaviors of math teachers. Experiences of pure and applied math problems, student-math-teacher ratio, and school-level ESCS were also included as exogenous variables explaining math achievement. All school-level context variables except student-math-teacher ratio were aggregated from the data obtained from the student questionnaire, based on general belief that students’ perceptions about teachers’ classroom behaviors were typically more accurate observations than those reported by or school principals or teachers self-reports. Identical structural equation models were specified for the four countries being considered in this study, in order to find similarities and contrasts among relationships of key variables specified in the model. The Mplus 7.0 was applied with the MLR estimation. Exogenous indicator variables were grand-mean centered. Intra-class correlations calculated from data of each country were very high in Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, implying that the two-level approach were appropriate. Descriptive fit indices such as TLI, CFI, and RMSEA showed appropriate level of model-data fit.

Expected Outcomes

One of the common findings observed from all four countries was the strong positive effects of mathematics self-efficacy and the student-level ESCS on math achievement. The school-level ESCS, experiences with pure math problems, disciplinary climate of math classroom also had positive effects on math achievement, at the school level. At the student level, an observation that contrasted South Korea most from other countries was the positive effect of control strategies, after-school math learning time. In contrast, effects of elaboration strategies were positive in Japan, while none of the math learning strategies had significant effects on math achievement in Singapore and Finland. The effect of after-school math learning time was negative in Singapore and Finland. The parent-related subjective norm in math only had a positive effect in South Korea. Intrinsic motivation only had a significant negative effect on math in Singapore, while it did not show statistical significance for the other three countries. At the school level, student-oriented instructional behaviors were negative in Singapore and Finland, while teachers’ instructional behaviors did not show any significant effects on math achievement. Experiences with pure math problems were significantly positive in Korea and Singapore, while experiences with both applied and pure math problems had positive effects on math achievement in Japan and Finland. Teacher's support in math lessons only had a positive effect on math achievement in Korea. Implications from these findings were discussed further in detail, highlighting similarities and contrasts of educational or cultural background of each country.

References

Aldridge, J. M., Afari, E., & Fraser, B. J. (2013). Influence of Teacher Support and Personal Relevance on Academic Self-Efficacy and Enjoyment of Mathematics Lessons: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 58(4), 614-633. An, Y., & Yang, S. (2015). The Effect of School Type on Student’s Quality of School Life and Future Capability: Mediating Effect of Teacher's Morale, Engagement, Support, and Student's Class Participation. The Journal of Educational Administration, 33(2), 183-212. Anderson, J. C. & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411-423. Jung, J. (2012). The Structural Relationship among Self-efficacy, Intrinsic Motivation, and Creative Personality of Elementary School Students. Journal of Learner-Centered Curriculum and Instruction, 12(3), 507-540. Kim, H. (2013). The Effects of Perceived Mathematic Teacher’s Teaching Behavior on Student’s Mathematical Interest and Academic Achievement : focused on Mediation effect of Mathematics Learning Affection. Unpublished master's degree dissertation, The Graduate School of Kyung Hee University. Kim, H., & Ham, E. (2014). What school characteristics affect Korean students' non-cognitive outcomes in mathematics? Journal of Educational Evaluation, 27(5), 1311-1335. Kim, J. (2014). The Structural Relationship Among Intrinsic Motivation, Learning Strategies, Academic Engagement, and Academic Achievement: Focusing on Gender Differences of High School Students. Asian Journal of Education, 15(1), 93-113. Lee, S. (2010). The Structural Relationships Among Perceived Parents and Teachers` Autonomy Support, Goal Orientation, Basic Psychological Needs, Academic Achievement. The Journal of Education Research, 31(1), 45-68. Lim, S. (2012). A Study to Investigate the Effects of Parent Expectation, Parental Involvement, Self-efficacy, and Academic Engagement on High School Student`s Math Achievement. Korean journal of youth studies, 19(2), 179-204. Moon, B. (2013). A Longitudinal Study on the Relationship between Intrinsic Motivation and Competence beliefs about Mathematics. The Journal of Educational Psychology, 27(3), 595-609. Muthén, L. K. & Muthén, B. O. (1998-2012). Mplus User’s Guide. California, CA: Muthén & Muthén. OECD (2014a). PISA 2012 Results: What students know and can do - Student performance in Mathematics, Reading and Science (Vol. I, Revised Edition). OECD Publishing. OECD (2014b). Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education. Lessons from PISA for Korea. OECD Publishing. Reeve, J. (2012). A self-determination theory perspective on student engagement. In Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 149-172). Springer US.

Author Information

Haemee Rim (presenting / submitting)

Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation

Seoul

Hyun Sook Yi (presenting)

Konkuk University

College of Education

Seoul

Sungsook Kim

Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, Republic of (South Korea)

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