Family related factor’s effect on 4th graders educational outcome in mathematics - A geostatistical analysis of TIMSS 2015 data

Author(s):

Heidi Harju-Luukkainen(presenting / submitting)Jouni Vettenranta(presenting)Jia Wang Susanne Garvis Kristiina Kumpulainen

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

09. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement

Format:

Paper

Session Information

09 SES 08 A, Exploring Trends and Equity with PIRLS/TIMSS

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-24

09:00-10:30

Room:

W3.11

Chair:

Jana Strakova

Contribution

Learning should not be hindered by whether a child comes from a poor family, has an immigrant background, is raised by a single parent or has limited resources at home. This is something, that most of the successful educational systems have understood and the different systems have found ways in how to allocate resources and to level the playfield (OECD 2016.). However, many family related factors and other socioecnomical and cultural factors still have an significant impact on students educational outcome (Harju-Luukkainen et al. 2014, Yamamoto & Holloway 2010). It also seems that different type of background factors have a different effect on the outcome and in different area this might be different (Vettenranta and Harju-Luukkainen 2013; Harju-Luukkainen and Vettenranta 2014; Vettenranta 2015; Harju-Luukkainen et al. 2016). According to international assessments, especially important seems to be parental high expectations towards their child (Yamamoto & Holloway 2010). Other socio-economically related factors seems to have a positive impact, but lower. This study investigates the relationship between family related factors and student’s educational outcome in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015, collected from the fourth graders in Finland. Based on these premises, the following research question is formulated: is there any geographical variation in the effect size of Finnish students’ outcome in mathematics in TIMMS 2015 and the family related background variables?

Method

This study uses the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 data, collected from the fourth graders in Finland. The data comprised 158 schools and 5251 children. In this paper, a method called Kriging is applied to the data. This method offers a relatively new way of illustrating spatial distributions of educational variables and enables, for instance, related analyses of regional variation (Vettenranta and Harju-Luukkainen 2013; Harju-Luukkainen and Vettenranta 2014; Vettenranta 2015; Harju-Luukkainen et al. 2016). More specifically, Kriging is a geostatistical interpolation method based on the statistical relationship among the measured points’ spatial autocorrelation. The geographical distribution of the schools in the PISA sample is not even. This means, for example, that southern Finland and the larger cities have more sampled schools than more dispersed areas. When using the Kriging method, predictions are made by a fixed number of near observations instead of a predefined search radius. This makes the method suitable even for more dispersed areas. Kriging weights the surrounding measured values to derive predictions for non-measured locations according to the distance between measured points, the prediction location and the overall spatial arrangement among the measurements (McCoy and Johnston, 2001). The results are presented as a geographical map. In this case, the method produces a contour map illustrating areal differences of family related background factors affecting students educational outcome in mathematics.

Expected Outcomes

The results are presented as a map, comprising the above mentioned information. The results indicate, that parental involvement and socioeconomically related background factors are not static, but in fact the effect varies geographically. In some areas the family related background variables have a larger effect on students educational outcome in mathematics, than in other areas.

References

Harju-Luukkainen, H. and Vettenranta, J. (2013). The influence of local culture on students’ educational outcomes. In Interaction in Educational Domains, K. Tirri and E. Kuusisto (eds.), 77–90. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Harju-Luukkainen, H., Nissinen, K., Sulkunen, S. and Suni, M. (2014) Avaimet osaamiseen ja tulevaisuuteen: Selvitys maahanmuuttajataustaisten nuorten osaamisen tasosta ja siihen liittyvistä taustatekijöistä PISA 2012–tutkimuksessa. (Keys to competence and future. A report on PISA 2012 results and related underlying factors for students with an immigrant background.) Jyväskylä: Finnish Institute for Educational Research. Harju-Luukkainen, H. and Vettenranta, J. (2014). Social capital and local variation in student performance in Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnia in Finland. In Place and Education, E. Hyry, E. Estola and M. Hiltunen (eds.), 127–143. Oulu: University of Oulu. Harju-Luukkainen, H. K., Tarnanen, M., Nissinen, K., & Vettenranta, J. (2017, in press). Economical, social and cultural status (ESCS) and mathematics performance of immigrant students' in the Finnish metropolitan area in PISA 2012. Teoksessa S. Garvis, & E. Eriksen Ødegaard (eds.), The book on Nordic Dialogues on Children and Families. Routledge. Harju-Luukkainen, H. K., Vettenranta, J., Ouakrim-Soivio, N., & Bernelius, V. H. (2016). Differences between students’ PISA reading literacy scores and grading for mother tongue and literature at school: A geostatistical analysis of the Finnish PISA 2009 data. Education Inquiry, 7(4), 463-479. DOI: 10.3402/edui.v7.29413 McCoy, J. and Johnston, K. (2001). Using ArcGis™ Spatial Analyst. New York: ESRI. OECD (2016). PISA 2015 Results in Focus. Paris: OECD Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf (21.1.2017). Vettenranta, J. and Harju-Luukkainen, H. (2013). A New Way of Recognizing the Spatial Distribution of Educational Issues: Regional Variation of Science Literacy in the Finnish TIMSS 2011 Data. 5th IEA International research conference. TIMSS and TIMSS advanced. http://www.iea.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/IRC/IRC_2013/Papers/IRC-2013_Vettenranta_Harju-Luukkainen.pdf (Accessed 2017-01-21). Vettenranta, J. (2015). Koulutuksellinen tasa-arvo Suomessa [Educational equality in Finland]. In Millä eväillä tulevaisuuden peruskoulu nousuun? Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriön julkaisuja 2015:9, J. Välijärvi and P. Kupari (eds.). Helsinki: Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriö. Yamamoto, Y. & Holloway, S.D. (2010). Parental Expectations and Children’s Academic Perfomance in Sociocultural Context. Educational Psychology Reviw, 22 (3), 189-214. Doi:10.1007/s10648-010-9121-z

Author Information

Heidi Harju-Luukkainen (presenting / submitting)

University of Helsinki

Teacher Education

00014 Helsingin yliopisto

Jouni Vettenranta (presenting)

University of Jyväskylä

Lievestuore

Jia Wang

University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Susanne Garvis

Univeristy of Gothenburg, Sweden

Kristiina Kumpulainen

University of Helsinki, Finland

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