Gender and other student level factors influencing the science achievement of 13- and 14-year-old Australian students

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dc.contributor.authorNandjila, Mwetulundila P.en_US
dc.date.accessioned2014-02-07T14:07:49Z
dc.date.available2014-02-07T14:07:49Z
dc.date.issued2000en_US
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical referencesen_US
dc.description.abstracten_US
dc.description.abstractThis study used secondary data to investigate the influence of various student-level factors on the science achievement of 13-and 14-year old Australian students who took part in the lEA Second Science Study (SISS) in 1983-84 and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1994-95. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (lEA) conducts science studies to assess science achievement across many countries, starting with the First Science Study (FISS) in 1970-71 involving 19 countries. SISS and TIMSS involved 23 and 45 countries respectively. The data examined in this study were the student level information that was collected at the Population 2 level, which was made up of lower and middle school students in Australiaen_US
dc.description.abstractQUEST, PLSPATH and AMOS computer programs were employed to analyse the data in this study. The QUEST computer program was used to equate the various test fonns used at the TIMSS Population 2 into a single test and to perform an item analysis that sought evidence as to whether the TIMSS science test items were gener biased or not, by identifying items that might have functioned differently for boys and girls. The PLSPATH computer program was used in exploratory fashion to test the hypothesized models developed for SISS and TIMSS, in order to identifyen_US
dc.description.abstractstudent-level factors that might have influenced the science achievement of students in SISS and TIMSS. The AMOS technique uses the maximum likelihood estimation method to test the TIMMS data for data-model correspondence and for goodness of fiten_US
dc.description.abstractThe results of the item analysis showed that the TIMSS science items were not necessarily gender biased, even though there is reason to believe that there were gender preferences in students' responses to the science items. The results demonstrated that items originating from life science benefited girls at the expense of boys, and boys were favoured by items with a physics, chemistry or environmental science flavour more than the girlsen_US
dc.description.abstractResults obtained from the PLS analyses indicated that boys in both the SISS and the TIMSS projects performed better than girls on the science tests. However, there were changes during the 10-year period between the two data collections. The results from AMOS are consistent with the TIMSS PLS analyses. The gender gap in science achievement has narrowed, either as a result of the Australian Government intervention policies on the education of girls, or as it is being argued in some quarters, a decline in science interest by studentsen_US
dc.description.abstractThe impact of the cultural capital of the home on science achievement was evident. The level of verbal ability and home background were the two main determinants of achievement in science in the SISS and the TIMSS projects. Students from higher socio-economic status homes, with modern possessions and books outperformed those from lower SES homes, making the question 'Which boys and which girls are not achieving at school?' more importanten_US
dc.description.abstractThere was a shift in students' attitudes towards science between SISS and TIMSS. Generally, the boys appeared to have more positive attitudes towards science than the girls, and these attitudes subsequently influenced their approaches to science learningen_US
dc.description.degreeAustraliaen_US
dc.description.degreeFlinders University of South Australiaen_US
dc.description.degreeMaster of Artsen_US
dc.format.extent261 pen_US
dc.identifier.isisF004-199299999999999en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11070/252
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.masterFileNumber2374en_US
dc.subjectGenderen_US
dc.subjectScience - school subjecten_US
dc.subjectStudent achievementen_US
dc.titleGender and other student level factors influencing the science achievement of 13- and 14-year-old Australian studentsen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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