The overall aim of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of mathematical subject language regarding three semiotic resources, written language, images and mathematical symbols. The theses also investigates high- and low-performingstudents encounter with mathematical subject language. Based on previous research on language and from a theoretical foundation based on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and social semiotics, four meaning dimensions – packing, precision, personification and presentation – were identified as central in academic language in general and in mathematical subject language. A didactically based reception theoretical perspective has been used for an analysis of high and low achieving students' encounter with the mathematical subject language. The thesis comprises three studies each examining the mathematical subject language in TIMSS 2011 from various angles. The analyzes were conducted on four content areas algebra, statistics, geometry and arithmetic in the Swedish version of the international study Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2011 (TIMSS). In a summary, the results showed that the mathematical subject language was used in different ways in the four content areas in TIMSS where colloquial and subject-specific forms of languages had different roles and were expressed in varying degrees by the written language, images and mathematical symbols. Thus each content area was expressed by its own register which means that is not sufficient to talk about mathematical subject language as one single language. The result shows that two forms of language, subject specific and everyday language were used parallel in the TIMSS material. The subject specific forms were most salient in algebra and geometry and the more everyday forms of language were more common in statistics and arithmetic. The results from the correlation analyses indicated that fewer students managed the encounter with tasks in algebra and geometry when they were expressed by subject specific language. In contrast, the results indicated that students were able handle the encounter with the more colloquial expressions of the content areas statistics and arithmetic.

<p>The object of study is the international knowledge assessments and attention is given to the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). As a way to explain the content in the international knowledge assessments an historical exposition about the IEA and OECD is written. International knowledge assessment is studied in relation to the national and international perspective, but also in relation to educational governing. By doing this concepts of globalisation and internationalisation are discussed as communication patterns. It is then possible to understand organisations like the IEA and OECD as institutionalised communication channels. If this is done it is possible to discuss globalisation and internationalisation as something else than an inevitable endpoint. </p><p>Through institutionalised communication channels international knowledge assessments appear in national contexts and some observations can be made. The first one is that international knowledge assessments reformulate relationships. In this the educational actors on national levels are observed. These actors are involved in a struggle for power over definition in what should be seen as educational problems and solutions. In this the actors and the educational system they represent tries to strive and communicate modernity, strong international competitiveness and development. Secondly the actors when reformulating the international ideologies into national contexts transform extern priorities to internal priorities. Thirdly an international ideology might be understood as isomorphic ideology. When the isomorphic ideology impacts national contexts it has to be mediated. The mediation is driven by the fact that it is constituted by the national context, but also by the different roles the actors take or are given. The notion about isomorphic ideology is investigated more properly in Appendix I, in relation to UNESCO, and it is declared that international cooperations are part of nations urge to make their educational institutions more effective. In relation to the conclusion from Appendix I international knowledge assessments are interpreted as a technological/instrumental method for making the production process more effective.</p><p>When the international knowledge assessments come down in national contexts some empirical reactions can be discussed. This is analysed from examples taken from the Swedish context, but these results are also in relation to the contexts in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands. In the study examples are given on how international knowledge assessments are given meaning by political, administrative and media actors. It is primarily three results that can be uplifted. International knowledge assessments are used as an arena for communication in which arguments can be fetched and discussions can be made. International knowledge assessments are also used as present point descriptions, and point of departure for descriptions of educational vision of the future. And finally they are used for legitimising or repudiating politics of education.</p>

The thesis focuses on mistakes and problems in manipulations with the algebraic expressions occurring to pupils at the second level of Elementary school. The thesis is divided into a theoretical and experimental part. The theoretical part contains description of manipulations with algebraic expressions, selected results of international comparative surveys, and an analysis of related foreign research. Analysis of three series of textbooks, according to which pupils involved in the experimental project are taught, is essential for understanding of possible origins of their mistakes. The classification of mistakes in manipulations with algebraic expressions is included. At the core of the work is the experimental part aiming to identify problems and mistakes of pupils when manipulating and working with algebraic expressions. The participants of the research consisted of six third-grade pupils of an eight-year Grammar school (13-14 years old) and eight ninth-grade pupils of an Elementary school (14-15 years old). Test used for my experiment came from the GA ČR project Critical parts of mathematics in primary school. The investigation was carried out individually with each pupil by the method of monitoring clinical interviews over the solution of the test tasks. The obtained data was qualitatively...

Title: Pupils' problems when solving problems requiring substitution Abstract: The work focuses on 8th and 9th graders' difficulties and mistakes when solving problems using substitution. The theoretical part defines the used concepts and discusses selected results from international comparative studies and studies focusing on substitution. The main goal of the work is to identify pupils' difficulties and mistakes they make when solving problems using substitution and to discover their origin or cause. To achieve this goal the empirical part begins with an analysis of three sets of textbooks used by pupils involved in this research study. This is followed by a description of conducting and subsequent analysis of fifteen clinical interviews on problems with substitution with 14 to 15 year old pupils (9th graders from elementary schools and 3rd graders from lower secondary grammar schools). In the final part the most common mistakes are summarised and relations to their possible origin in the set of textbooks used looked for. The conclusion is that pupils do not have problems with substitution as such when substituting natural numbers into first power variables. However, this does not hold for substitution of variable in the second power. Pupils have problems when substituting for a variable with a negative...

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The educational landscape in South Africa is unique and has also seen many changes since the dawn of democracy more than 20 years ago. The apartheid education system was marred by severe inequalities between schools and, for this reason, the democratic government post 1994 established a number of policies and interventions in an attempt to improve access, equity and quality between schools. The country has made significant advances in improving access to education. This is reflected in the Millennium Development Goals progress indicators showing that, as of 2013, almost all learners between the ages of 7 and 15 were enrolled in schools. While great strides have also been made with regard to equity, evidence shows that many schools in South Africa are still largely inequitable. Education quality, however, is an area that is still of grave concern and the matter requires much attention from educational stakeholders. International studies, such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), use learner performance to measure the quality of the system. Such studies consistently report that South Africa is performing poorly and that large inequalities still exist between schools in the country. Improved quality is associated with effective schools and, in South Africa, only 20% of schools have been found to be functional or effective. Much of research focussed on school effectiveness, both nationally and internationally, however has been explained by factors in the school, including the appropriateness of curriculum content, infrastructure, resources in the school and teacher content knowledge. These factors have been found to be strongly correlated with effective schools.

Thesis advisor: Henry Braun / There is a broad interest in narrowing achievement gaps among all groups of students and improving education by scientifically sound methods. On October 25, 2006, the United States Department of Education published new regulations allowing single-sex education in public schools whenever schools think it will improve student achievement. Thus far, studies comparing single-sex with coeducational schools have been carried out at the national level mostly in England, Australia and Jamaica, while US' studies were limited to Catholic schools. Few studies reported descriptive statistics or effect sizes and most studies differ in the criteria and statistical controls they use to compare single-sex and coeducation. This dissertation presents models for science achievement and attitudes towards science for 8th -grade students attending either single-sex or coeducation schools in Hong Kong and New Zealand, using the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) datasets from 1995, 1999, and 2003. To properly account for the nested structure of data, an HLM model was estimated for each sex, for each of the two jurisdictions at three time points, corresponding to the three TIMSS administrations. The within - country results were compared to see if differences between single-sex and coed schools were consistent over time. In addition, this dissertation proposed an approach to examine the sensitivity of the estimated effects of school-type on student outcomes to the presence of unmeasured variables which may introduce hidden selection bias, using a modification of the method proposed by Rosenbaum and Rubin (1983). Based on its conditional distribution with an instrumental variable, chosen based on the review of single-sex literature, the Monte Carlo simulated values of the unobserved variable were used as level-1 predictors in a one-way ANCOVA with random effects. The sensitivity analysis was limited to science achievement of Hong-Kong's girls in TIMSS 2003. Findings show that single-sex education contributed to girls' science performance and attitudes in NZL 1999 and HKG 1999 and 2003, and low sensitivity for school-type contrast. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

Thesis advisor: Ina V.S. Mullis / This dissertation describes the foundation for maintaining TIMSS’ 20 year trend measurements with the introduction of a new computer- and tablet-based mode of assessment delivery—eTIMSS. Because of the potential for mode effects on the psychometric behavior of the trend items that TIMSS relies on to maintain comparable scores between subsequent assessment cycles, development efforts for TIMSS 2019 began over three years in advance. This dissertation documents the development of eTIMSS over this period and features the methodology and results of the eTIMSS Pilot / Item Equivalence Study. The study was conducted in 25 countries and employed a within-subjects, counterbalanced design to determine the effect of the mode of administration on the trend items. Further analysis examined score-level mode effects in relation to students’ socioeconomic status, gender, and self-efficacy for using digital devices. Strategies are discussed for mitigating threats of construct irrelevant variance on students’ eTIMSS performance. The analysis by student subgroups, similar item discriminations, high cross-mode correlations, and equivalent rankings of country means provide support for the equivalence of the mathematics and science constructs between paperTIMSS and eTIMSS. However, the results revealed an overall mode effect on the TIMSS trend items, where items were more difficult for students in digital formats compared to paper. The effect was larger in mathematics than science. An approach is needed to account for the mode effects in maintaining trend measurements from previous cycles to TIMSS 2019. Each eTIMSS 2019 trend country will administer the paper trend booklets to an additional nationally representative bridge sample of students, and a common population equating approach will ensure the link between paperTIMSS and eTIMSS scores. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur matematikångest samvarierar med olika faktorer inom matematik. Den tidigare forskning som presenterats visar hur begreppen självuppfattning och upplevd självförmåga relaterar till matematikångest. Utifrån den forskning som studerats ser vi att äldre individer samt flickor i högre grad upplever matematikångest jämfört med yngre respektive pojkar. Forskningen är dock inte enhällig gällande dessa slutsatser. Denna studies teori bygger på begreppen självuppfattning, upplevd självförmåga samt matematikångest och hur man med hjälp av de två första begreppen kan undersöka matematikångest. Med hjälp av data från TIMSS 2015 som behandlas i statistikprogrammet SPSS har vi kunnat undersöka matematikångest hos svenska elever i årskurs 4 och 8. Resultaten visar att matematikångest korrelerar negativt med elevernas prestationer inom alla de grupper som undersökts, även om denna korrelation skiljer sig i styrka. Matematikångest visar sig vara vanligare hos elever i årskurs 8 än i årskurs 4, och samma relation syns mellan könen där flickor visar större andel som upplever matematikångest gentemot pojkar.

BakgrundVi har förstått att elever i dagens skola inte ges möjlighet till att uppnå de mål som Skolverket satt upp genom kursplan (2000) och Centralt innehåll (2010) i matematik. Tidigare granskning av läromedel visar att det inte skett någon förändring av läroboken på 20 år och att den fortfarande har en styrande roll i klassrummet (Brändström, 2002). Detta leder till att eleverna får en ytlig kunskap inom matematik (Granberg, 1999). Det är av stort intresse att behandla frågor som berör metodiskt upplägg samt arbetssätt av läroböcker, detta kan ha betydelse för undervisningen i matematik (Anderberg, 1987).SyfteVi undersöka hur matematikboken Matte direkt. Borgens (2003-2005) innehåll ger eleverna möjlighet att uppnå det centrala innehåll som är uppsatt för grundskolan, årskurs fyra till sex (Skolverket, 2010).MetodVi har använt oss av kvantitativ innehållsanalys.ResultatVi kom i undersökningen fram till att Matte direkt. Borgen inte ger möjlighet till att uppnå alla delar i det centrala innehållet i matematik för årskurs fyra till sex. / Program: Lärarutbildningen

<p>Undersökningens syftet har varit att studera hur politiker uttalar i den politiska debatt om elever som går ur grundskolan utan att nå målen i matematik. Om det är så att allt fler eleverna går ur grundskolan utan att nå målen i matematik: Vad beror det i så fall på? Vad har politikerna i så fall för åtgärder emot detta? Hur står sig svenska elevers kunskaper i jämförelse med elever i andra länder?</p><p>Studien är utformad som en kvalitativt inriktad textanalys med hermeneutiska inslag. Det empiriska materialet utgörs av riksdagens protokoll från sex debatter som innehåller 147 sidor debatter och interpellationer mellan åren 2000 till 2008.</p><p>Diagrammen i detta arbete visar elever som inte uppnått målen dvs. erhållit betyget IG i matematik mellan åren 2003 till 2007. Då resultaten från diagram 3 visar att den största andelen elever som går ur grundskolan utan att nå målen dvs. erhåller betyget IG i matematik är elever med utländsk bakgrund tolkar jag att det är av stor vikt att politiker diskuterar om dessa elever. Endas en av 15 politiker som analyserades i detta arbete gjorde försök till att skapa en debatt om elever med utländsk bakgrund som inte uppnått målen men fick inte något gensvar bland de andra politikerna i debatten. Det var vänsterpartisten Dinamarca försökte få i gång en debatt om elever med utländsk bakgrund men fick inte någon respons från någon av de andra politikerna. Dinamarca tar upp några bakomliggande orsaker till varför elever går ur grundskolan utan att nå målen i matematik. I sitt anförande hänvisar hon till Skolverket som presenterat ”resultaten från 2006 års nationella ämnesprov”. Dinamarca markerar att det framkom i Skolverkets rapport att elever till högutbildade föräldrar klarar kunskapsproven i betydligt högre grad än de elever vars föräldrar har lågutbildning och detta visar sig redan i årskurs 5 menar hon. Faktorer som ”slår igenom ” på elevernas resultat påpekade Dinamarca var: föräldrarnas utbildningsnivå vilket visas redan i årskurs 5 och elever med utländsk bakgrund erhåller betyget IG i matematik i större utsträckning än elever med svensk bakgrund, vilket även mitt diagram 3 visar. Det som ”slår igenom mest” på elevernas resultat är mammans utbildningsnivå, betonar hon. Jag ställer mig frågande till varför inte politikerna i debatten debatterade om den största andelen elever som inte når målen dvs. erhållit betyget IG i matematik.</p><p>Resultatet i detta arbete visar att läsförståelsen utgör en viktig del för elever om de ska kunna tillgodogöra sig matematik. Analysen visade ytterligare att då politiker uttalar sig om hur svenska elevers kunskaper står sig i jämförelse med elever i andra länder att det varken startas nya debatter eller att det kommer fram något nytt i debatterna.</p>