فصلنامه تعلیم و تربیت
سال بیست و نهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 114، تابستان 1392)

Factors distinguishing high from low performing schools on PIRLS are extracted from the information gathered in PIRLS through the use of school and teacher questionnaires. High performing schools (59) were those that scored 1.5 standard deviations above the mean, while low performing schools (19) were those exactly the opposite. Use of logistic regression revealed two factors as prominent: teacher experience and classroom population. Teacher experience refers to his/her professional competencies while classroom population refers to both the quality and quantity of students comprising a group. It can be concluded that strategies for the recruitment and maintenance of competent teachers, as well as approaches to group compositions in the classroom, especially in the elementary schools that play a fundamental role in reading achievement, need to be employed.

To identify factors impacting educational processes positively, from among schools participating in PIRLS 2006 and TIMSS 2007 five schools were selected based on the mean scores obtained. Four schools were deemed successful while one was categorized as un-successful. Classroom and documentation observations, as well as interviews, revealed that in successful schools teachers help students to be actively engaged in the learning processes using discussion method of teaching and emphasizing questioning and answering, although questions were at low cognitive levels, and not challenging at times. The teacher role in successful schools was multidimensional and varied from that of a guide to those of an administrator or conveyor. In unsuccessful schools, on the other hand, teachers had only one role, and that was the role of a transferor while students were mostly inactive. Results indicate that teacher's attitude and expectations, as well as their academic and professional experiences, impact the quality of educational processes.

Identification of factors impacting academic achievement is common among TIMSS based studies. From among such factors Scio-Economic Status (SES), valuing Science, school psychological climate, and extracurricular activities, as elements of causal model were examined utilizing TIMSS 2007 data on 8th graders. Data analyses revealed that all four factors have a two level structure. Valuing Science, at both student and school levels, has the most effect on science achievement. The SES and Climate factors impact science valuing, according to this model. School psychological climate is second in terms of impact on achievement. Results show the significance of attitude, motivation, self-concept, and tendency towards further schooling in improving academic achievement.

To identify the pattern by which the Iranian 8th grader's performance in math and science has changed over three administrations of TIMSS, averages in both areas and for the two groups of male and female students, as well as their scores on five other measures (attitudes, self-concepts, and school climate) were factor analyzed. Results show a decline in boy's performance in math while the girl's performance has remained steady. In Science both groups show a gain but the gain by girls exceeds that of the boys. Attitude and self-concept in math scores for both groups have remained almost unchanged but the girls show an increase in the same scores on science. School climate for girls has also changed for the better with the boys schools trailing. The attitudinal scores are indicative of no gender effect. However, the school factors may account for the observed differences.

To account for the observed differences in math and science scores among male and female Iranian 4th graders participating in TIMSS 2007, Rosh scores on math achievement as criterion variable, and scores on attitude towards math, self-confidence in math, learning process in math, school attachment, school climate, and socio-economic status, as predicting variables were used. Furthermore, teacher related factors such as teaching experience, level of education, attitudes towards self and students were used to construct a multilevel model for predicting academic achievement. Results show that the SES not only affects attitude towards math, but greatly impacts self-confidence in math, and the choice of learning strategies and tools. Both groups are affected equally and directly by SES in their learning process and use of tools, self-confidence in math and attitude towards math, just as attitude has the same direct affect. Among teacher related factors it is teaching experience that accounts for some of the variance in achievement among boys.

Based on TIMSS 2007 data, an instrument has been developed to measure problem-solving skills and then used to assess such skills among Iranian 8th graders participating in the said study. The Iranian participants included a sample of 5096 students consisting of 2814 boys and 2282 girls. Utilizing Item Response Theory and the raw scores obtained on TIMSS, a scale with the reliability of 0.8 was developed. The comparison of male and female student's scores resulted in no difference between the two groups. However, the performance of both groups on science questions was better than their scores on problem-solving and these better than the ones on mathematics portion of the test.

Due to the importance of the role that math curriculum plays in academic and occupational achievements, factors that impact math achievement are of interest to educational psychologists. Among such factors, teacher's professional competencies rank high. To assess the relationship between these two, a sample of 3429 students and 224 teachers from Iran, and 4851 students and 235 teachers from Germany who had participated in TIMSS 2007 was selected. An instrument was constructed for measuring teacher's professional competencies and its internal consistency was assessed to be 0.7. Data analyses revealed that in both countries, students of teachers with longer teaching experience have higher math achievement, with the Iranian sample showing a stronger relationship, just as it did in the case of Iranian boys. However, there was no difference between the German male and female students in the relationship between teachers teaching experience and students math achievement.