Tackling the TIMSS.(Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)

Tackling the TIMSS.(Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) Ever since the Third International Mathematics and Science Studybegan yielding results, educators have been looking for Looking forIn the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. ways to imptoveU.S. test scores. Could applied learning techniques be part of theanswer? U.S. students are sliding down a slippery slope 'slippery slope'Medical ethics An ethical continuum or 'slope,' the impact of which has been incompletely explored, and which itself raises moral questions that are even more on the ethical 'edge' than the original issue in math and scienceachievement--doing progressively worse than their international peers asthey move from fourth grade through high school. So said the Third International Mathematics and Science Study(TIMSS TIMSS Trends in International Mathematics and Science StudyTIMSS Third International Math and Science Study ), which tested more than half a million students in 41 countriesand bills itself as the most comprehensive student assessment everconducted. Many educators and government officials see the study as a wake-upcall for American education. They say the poor showing by U.S. highschool students points out the need for higher academic standards,greater enrollment in advanced math and science courses, less repetitionof material in the middle grades and better teacher preparation. Meanwhile, career and technical educators might be wondering iftheir specialty--hands-on teaching and learning in a real-worldcontext--can help lift students' scores on a test that'sdesigned to measure practical knowledge. Its advocates say appliedlearning isn't a cure-all, but it can help improve the motivationand performance of students who learn better when they see how thematerial connects to the real world. "Applied learning is one of the tools that should be in yourtool belt," says Joy McLarty, director of workforce developmentproducts for ACT Inc., a nonprofit education organization best known forits college entrance exams. "[But] it's not a silverbullet silver bullet - magic bullet ." Falling performance TIMSS, conducted in 1995, tested the math and science ability offourth-graders, eighth-graders and students finishing secondary school;the results have been released by grade level over the past two and ahalf years. U.S. fourth-graders did relatively well on the test, scoring abovethe international average in math and finishing behind only Korea inscience. But by eighth grade, TIMSS found U.S. students falling belowthe international average for math and doing only slightly better thanother countries' average performance in science. The 12th-grade results, released last winter, showed U.S. studentsin free fall. Average and top-level students failed to match theinternational averages for math and science. U.S. high school seniorsmanaged average scores above only two of the 21 countries tested (Cyprusand South Africa South Africa,Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. ). Many U.S. 12th graders got stumped by TIMSS questions like thisone: "Experts say that 25 percent of all serious bicycle accidentsinvolve head injuries and that, of all head injuries, 80 percent arefatal. What percent of all serious bicycle accidents involve fatal headinjuries?" A) 16 percent B) 20 percent C) 55 percent D) 105 percent The correct answer is B (20 percent, or 80 percent of the 25percent of accidents involving head injuries). Fifty-seven percent ofU.S. students got it right, compared with the international average of64 percent correct. Some students chose C, which is the differencebetween the two percentages, not their product. Another item gave students the dimensions of a box and asked themhow much ribbon would be needed to wrap around all sides and still have25 centimeters left to tie a bow. Forty-five percent of theinternational students got it right, while only 32 percent of U.S.students found the right answer. Some students forgot to include thesides of the box that aren't visible in the picture, or they failedto leave the extra ribbon to tie the bow. One science problem asked students to explain why high-heeled shoescan damage floors. The answer is that narrow heels exert the pressure ofthe body's weight over a smaller surface area. Only 42 percent ofU.S. students knew the answer, while 61 percent of internationalstudents did. Incorrect responses included "because they aresharper and poke into Verb 1. poke into - enter briefly; "We poked into the bar"penetrate, perforate - pass into or through, often by overcoming resistance; "The bullet penetrated her chest"2. the floor." Only 12 percent of U.S. 12th-graders could explain how, when a carwith a siren sounding passes by, the frequency of the sound you hearchanges. (The pitch gets higher as the car approaches and lower as thecar goes by.) The international average for getting that questioncorrect was 37 percent, and the percentage of German students getting itright was five times higher than the U.S. percentage. "The TIMSS results are unacceptable and confirm the need toraise standards across America," Education Secretary Richard Riley Richard Wilson Riley (born January 2, 1933), American politician, was the United States Secretary of Education under President Bill Clinton as well as the Governor of South Carolina, as a member of the Democratic Party. said after the U.S. 12th-grade scores came out. Other educationofficials described the results as "dismal" and"appalling" and said the poor performance should be taken asseriously as Sputnik Sputnik:see satellite, artificial; space exploration. SputnikAny of a series of Earth-orbiting spacecraft whose launching by the Soviet Union inaugurated the space age. , the Russian satellite launch in the 1950s thatprompted an increased emphasis on math and science education in theUnited States Education in the United States is provided mainly by government, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local. School attendance is mandatory and nearly universal at the elementary and high school levels (often known outside the United States as the . Many observers blamed the U.S. 12th-graders' poor performanceon a middle school math and science curriculum that is "a mile wideand an inch deep," covering many topics without devoting much timeto any of them. Curricula and textbooks "are highly repetitive andunchallenging in grade after grade of the middle school years,"said William Schmidt William Schmidt was born in Chicago in 1926 and is an American composer of classical music.He has produced a large body of solo and chamber works for neglected woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments, including several pieces for classical saxophone. , the U.S. TIMSS national research coordinator."How could they provide a sound foundation on which to build duringthe high school years?" "We need to have a strong set of standards that demand kids docomplex math--algebra, geometry and statistics--in middle school,"says Gail Burrill, president of the. National Council of Teachers ofMathematics The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) was founded in 1920. It has grown to be the world's largest organization concerned with mathematics education, having close to 100,000 members across the USA and Canada, and internationally. . The National Science Teachers Association echoed the call forhigher academic standards, adding that students should be encouraged totake demanding courses and future science teachers should take morescience classes. (Currently, more than half of the nation's physicsteachers completed neither a major nor minor in the topic.) Is context the answer? Many educators see higher academic standards as a way for theUnited States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. to climb out of the hole of low math and scienceachievement. But will applied learning play a role in that effort? Orwill hands-on teaching be crowded out by the push to have more studentsmeet high standards and take advanced math and science courses? Susan Sears, associate dean of Ohio State University's Collegeof Education, says education leaders realize that high standards andhands-on learning aren't mutually exclusive Adj. 1. mutually exclusive - unable to be both true at the same timecontradictoryincompatible - not compatible; "incompatible personalities"; "incompatible colors" . For example, NSTA NSTA National Science Teachers AssociationNSTA National School Transportation AssociationNSTA National Spasmodic Torticollis AssociationNSTA National Substitute Teachers Alliance (Fresno, California)notes that the National Science EducationStandards The National Science Education Standards (NSES) are a set of guidelines for the science education in primary and secondary schools in the United States, as established by the National Research Council in 1996. , issued in 1995, call for science to "be taught to allstudents using challenging curricula that involve students actively intheir own learning. The focus should be on depth of understanding of alimited number of topics (rather than a cursory cur��so��ry?adj.Performed with haste and scant attention to detail: a cursory glance at the headlines.[Late Latin curs study of a greaternumber of topics) and on hands-on investigation of realworldscience." Similarly, NCTM's standards assert that learning mathematicsis enhanced when content is placed in context and connected to othersubject areas, and when students "are given multiple opportunitiesto apply mathematics." Sears says these groups espouse contextual learning Contextual Learning is reality-based, outside-of-the-classroom experience, within a specific context which serves as a catalyst for students to utilize their disciplinary knowledge, and which presents a forum for further formation of their personal values, faith, and professional where studentsare actively engaged and learn by doing. But true contextual learninginvolves several parts, says Sears, who is directing a project aimed atpreparing teachers to use contextual teaching to enhance student successbeyond school. It must be problem-based, occur in multiple settings(school, home, work site, community), foster self-regulated learning The term self-regulated can be used to describe learning that is guided by metacognition, strategic action (planning, monitoring, and evaluating personal progress against a standard), and motivation to learn andemploy authentic assessment Authentic assessment is an umbrella concept that refers to the measurement of "intellectual accomplishments that are worthwhile, significant, and meaningful,"[1] as compared to multiple choice standardized tests. , according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. a draft framework prepared forthe project. It's not enough to simply send students on a communityservice activity so they can feel good about themselves, Sears says. Contextual learning's critics say that's the problem withmany exercises--too much context, not enough learning. The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation is a nonprofit education policy organization based in Washington, D.C., and Dayton, Ohio. Its stated mission is "to close America's vexing achievement gaps by raising standards, strengthening accountability, and expanding education options for , a private group devoted toeducation reform, points to the TIMSS results as evidence of poor mathand science standards in most states. "In too many state standards,a strained emphasis on `realworld problem solving' has replacedreasoning with the appearance of relevance, stripping mathematics of itsessential core while belaboring the trivial," says the Universityof Rochester's Ralph Raimi, co-author of a Fordham Foundationreport analyzing state standards. "I'm for applied learning," Raimi explains. What heobjects to are problems that strain for real-world relevance. The math component in many applied learning problems is too small,Raimi says, and the problems are too time consuming. It might be usefulto teach division by having students slice up Verb 1. slice up - cut into slices; "Slice the salami, please"slicecut - separate with or as if with an instrument; "Cut the rope" a pizza, Raimi says. Butthe exercise becomes silly if students spend a day writing letters tothe principal about their pizza party. "That's not math,"Raimi says. "That's student council material." Jack Wilkinson Jack Lloyd Wilkinson (born September 12, 1985 in Beverley, England) is an English footballer.Wilkinson managed to break into the reserve team at Hartlepool United and went out on loan to Scarborough, Whitby and Bishop Auckland in order to gain match practice. , a mathematics professor at the University ofNorthern Iowa The University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, was founded in 1876, as the Iowa State Normal School. It has colleges of Business Administration, Education, Humanities and Fine Arts, Natural Sciences, and Social and Behavioral Sciences, and a graduate school. , believes some math instructors spend too much time ontrivial operations not needed in the real world--such as rationalizingdenominators, a procedure that made pencil-and-paper math easier but cannow be done by any calculator. Yet Wilkinson cautions that applied problems can miss the"richness" of math if they focus only on a particular skill."The student comes out with a little trick to use," then moveson to the next problem and learns a new trick, Wilkinson explains."That whole series of tricks doesn't add up to much." Still, Wilkinson sees the value of teachers presenting fewer"naked numbers" and more math in context. "We need tolook at bigger ideas in math, and sometimes they need to be wrappedaround applications." Put it in perspective Echoing several TIMSS critics, Wilkinson says the internationaltest might not be a fair comparison. In some foreign countries, henotes, students at the end of secondary school are several years olderthan typical U.S. 12th graders, and they've had a chance to studymore calculus calculus,branch of mathematics that studies continuously changing quantities. The calculus is characterized by the use of infinite processes, involving passage to a limit—the notion of tending toward, or approaching, an ultimate value. because algebra and geometry were introduced earlier intheir curriculum. But, he adds, "I'm not looking for ascapegoat scapegoatIn the Old Testament, a goat that was symbolically burdened with the sins of the people and then killed on Yom Kippur to rid Jerusalem of its iniquities. Similar rituals were held elsewhere in the ancient world to transfer guilt or blame. , because we do need to do better." Gene Bottoms, senior vice president of the Southern RegionalEducation Board, believes too many vocational teachers are enamored en��am��or?tr.v. en��am��ored, en��am��or��ing, en��am��orsTo inspire with love; captivate: was enamored of the beautiful dancer; were enamored with the charming island. withcontextual learning. "How you teach matters only if you change whatyou teach" by raising standards, Bottoms says. Applied learning canhelp motivate students and accelerate their understanding of material,but only if academic standards aren't watered down. Bottoms says TIMSS proves that in-depth vocational programs taughtto high standards have an academic payoff. European countries withstrong apprenticeship programs, where 30 percent or more of the studentscomplete a vocational or technical strand, outperformed U.S. students onTIMSS. And many countries that scored higher than the United States haveno general track. Bottoms says U.S. high school students would do betteron international tests if they, like their peers in other countries, hadto complete a concentration in math and science, humanities orvocational-technical education on top of a solid academic base. Things That Matter Most in Improving Student Learning, a recentSREB SREB Southern Regional Education Board booklet by Bottoms, makes clear that he believes academic skillscan be integrated into work-related projects. "The bestcareer-technical teachers give students difficult, open-ended projectsthat involve research, planning and the application of academic andtechnical knowledge," Bottoms wrote. Another important factor, according to SREB, is that teachersengage students in learning. One way to do that is to have them use mathto solve real-world problems. At the 45 most improved sites inSREB's High Schools That Work program, Bottoms says teacherslecture less and students spend more time being "activelearners"--writing explanations of concepts, using knowledge andskills to solve real-world problems and telling others what they'velearned. McLarty believes the push for higher standards in the wake of TIMSSwill only squeeze out applied learning if educators think they have torequire additional courses. "To do good applied work takestime," she explains--time that could be spent on other projects.But if educators think "higher standards" mean students shouldunderstand material better and be able to work with it, she adds,applied learning should find a place in education. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] More information on TIMSS is available online through the NationalCenter for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), as part of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance information in the United States; conducts studies . Visit http://nces.ed.gov/timss. For more information on SREB and the High Schools That Workproject, visit www.sreb.org.