Understanding the processes that allow all students to successfully learn mathematics has been
an important objective for most education systems including those in Canada. Educational
systems however, have not achieved this goal as many students with low socioeconomic status,
females, and minority students fail to achieve an adequate knowledge of mathematics. Much of
the discussion regarding this lack of achievement concerns classroom resources and practices,
school policies within educational systems, and the specific domain of mathematics achievement
considered. This study conceptualizes a successful mathematics classroom in terms of its level of
mathematics achievement and how equitably achievement is distributed. The study employs
multilevel models and the Canadian data from the Third International Mathematics and Science
Study to address three main research issues: 1) the extent to which differences in mathematics
achievement is attributable to gender, family background, classrooms, and the province where a
student attends school; 2) whether the variation in achievement is specific to a mathematics
domain; and 3) whether the variation among six provinces (Newfoundland, New Brunswick,
Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec) in the levels of their mathematics achievement
is associated with various aspects of school policy and practices.
The analyses indicate a slight male advantage in mathematics achievement, and a large,
significant gap in achievement associated with the socioeconomic status (SES) of the students'
families. Students from low SES backgrounds are disadvantaged as they tend to have relatively
low achievement in mathematics within classrooms, especially in Proportionality, Measurement,
and Fractions. The most successful classrooms are those in which students from disadvantaged
backgrounds excel in mathematics. Disadvantaged students excel in mathematics classrooms in
which there are fewer groupings, the mathematics teachers are specialized, and in schools with
lower pupil-teacher ratio. Mathematics achievement is equitably distributed in provinces with
high mathematics achievement levels. Provincial achievement levels are stable across
mathematics domains; that is, provinces with high achievement levels in one domain also tend to
have high achievement levels in other domains.
On average, Quebec's mathematics achievement is higher than the other provinces in all
mathematics domains, and at all levels of SES. This high achievement level in Quebec is
partially attributed to higher teacher specialization, lower pupil-teacher ratio, and lower withinschool
remedial tracking. The study recommends a comprehensive longitudinal study employing
multilevel models with a focus on what other provinces can learn from Quebec's advantage in
mathematics. Such a study should conceptualize successful mathematics classrooms as those in
which an average student excels in mathematics and where mathematics achievement is
equitably distributed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11138 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Frempong, George |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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