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Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

Science and Mathematics Education

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Full-Text Articles in Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

Supporting The Quality Of Digital Learning: Project Brief, Abha Bhagat Nov 2023

Supporting The Quality Of Digital Learning: Project Brief, Abha Bhagat

ACER India

Khan Academy introduced the Science Essentials Course to build a strong foundation in fundamental concepts among learners using deep conceptual videos. The course consists of learning videos and exercises - the videos help strengthen conceptual understanding for students, while the element of focused practice allows learners to retrieve concepts learnt, make mistakes, receive feedback, and in the process, master skills. The Australian Council for Educational Research (India) reviewed a sample of videos and exercises in physics, chemistry, and biology of the Science Essentials Course for students in grades 11 and 12.

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Mathematical Mindsets: Fostering Student Engagement And Positive Mindsets Through The Use Of Challenging Tasks, Alison Hall Sep 2023

Mathematical Mindsets: Fostering Student Engagement And Positive Mindsets Through The Use Of Challenging Tasks, Alison Hall

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

This paper explores the planned use of challenging mathematical tasks. These tasks provide the opportunity for students to improve mathematical thinking by working on problems that they do not yet know how to answer. This research involved a heterogeneous class of year 3 students from a Catholic parish primary school in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. A rubric was also developed to use in conjunction with these tasks, to support discussions with students, broaden their strategies in finding solutions and thereby improve their conceptual understanding. These pedagogical approaches were found to support the improvement of both students’ conceptual understanding in …

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Transdisciplinary Stem Enactment: An Exploratory Case Study In The Queensland Context, Kristie Schulz Sep 2023

Transdisciplinary Stem Enactment: An Exploratory Case Study In The Queensland Context, Kristie Schulz

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

Enacting STEM education in Australian schools is an ambitious task, in a climate of unclear definitions and little implementation advice. Should STEM education simply refer to an umbrella-term of subjects that Australian students need to improve in, or could a cross-disciplinary pedagogy that engages students in authentic problem-solving be realised? This poster outlines a project in which Parklands Christian College designed and enacted a transdisciplinary student-centred ideology of STEM education in 2017. The program has continually evolved using a transdisciplinary pedagogical framework.

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Supporting Science Teaching Practice With Learning Progressions, Erin Furtak Aug 2021

Supporting Science Teaching Practice With Learning Progressions, Erin Furtak

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

Learning progressions are often used as foundations for curriculum and assessment. At the same time, as representations of the development of student ideas and practices, they can also serve as maps to support teachers during instruction. This paper describes a program of research in which my colleagues and I have investigated how learning progressions can support high school science teachers in cycles of co-designing formative assessments.

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Accountable Assessment, Richard Lehrer Aug 2021

Accountable Assessment, Richard Lehrer

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

There is widespread agreement about the importance of accounting for the extent to which educational systems advance student learning. Yet, the forms and formats of accountable assessments often ill serve students and teachers; the summative judgements of student performance that are typically employed to indicate proficiencies on benchmarks of student learning commonly fail to capture student performance in ways that are specific and actionable for teachers. Timing is another key barrier to the utility of summative assessment. In the US, summative evaluations occur at the end of the school year and may serve future students, but do not help teachers …

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Karmel Oration: Excellent Progress For All: A Function Of Year-Level Curriculum Or Evidenced-Based Learning Progressions?, Dianne Siemon Aug 2021

Karmel Oration: Excellent Progress For All: A Function Of Year-Level Curriculum Or Evidenced-Based Learning Progressions?, Dianne Siemon

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

Excellent progress for all students is an ambitious but necessary goal if we are to improve the life choices of all students. At the moment, we are not serving all our students well despite the best efforts of teachers. We need to look further afield to the curriculum and assessment regimes that drive current practice. Grouping students by ability and offering a watered-down curriculum for some is not the answer. Evidenced-based learning progressions that point to what is important in ensuring all students build a deep, well-connected understanding of mathematics over time is what is needed to support reform at …

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Timss 2019 Australia. Volume Ii: School And Classroom Contexts For Learning, Sue Thomson, Nicole Wernert, Sarah Buckley, Sima Rodrigues, Elizabeth O'Grady, Marina Schmid May 2021

Timss 2019 Australia. Volume Ii: School And Classroom Contexts For Learning, Sue Thomson, Nicole Wernert, Sarah Buckley, Sima Rodrigues, Elizabeth O'Grady, Marina Schmid

TIMSS 2019

This is the second of two reports that look at the results of TIMSS 2019 and Australia’s performance. Volume I focuses specifically on the achievement results, detailing Australia’s results within the international context, and presents results for the Australian jurisdictions, and for the different demographic groups within Australia, including male and female students. This report, Volume II, presents the results from the contextual questionnaires, and examines the contexts in which learning and achievement occur, including home, school, and classroom contexts, as well as student attitudes. Each chapter focuses on different indicators that cover the school community, the school learning environment, …

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Timss 2019 Australian Year 4 And Year 8 Data [Sas & Spss], Sue Thomson, Nicole Wernert, Sima Rodrigues, Elizabeth O'Grady Mar 2021

Timss 2019 Australian Year 4 And Year 8 Data [Sas & Spss], Sue Thomson, Nicole Wernert, Sima Rodrigues, Elizabeth O'Grady

TIMSS 2019

This is a data source for the report TIMSS 2019 Australia. Volume I: Student performance. This dataset is available for download as a zipped file https://research.acer.edu.au/context/timss_2019/article/1002/type/native/viewcontent.

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Timss 2019 Australia. Volume I: Student Performance, Sue Thomson, Nicole Wernert, Sima Rodrigues, Elizabeth O'Grady Dec 2020

Timss 2019 Australia. Volume I: Student Performance, Sue Thomson, Nicole Wernert, Sima Rodrigues, Elizabeth O'Grady

TIMSS 2019

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study of student achievement directed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). TIMSS was first conducted in 1995 and the assessment conducted in 2019 formed the seventh cycle, providing 24 years of trends in mathematics and science achievement at Year 4 and Year 8. In Australia, TIMSS is managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and is jointly funded by the Australian Government and the state and territory governments. The goal of TIMSS is to provide comparative information about educational achievement …

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Timss 2019 Australia Highlights, Sue Thomson, Nicole Wernert, Sima Rodrigues, Elizabeth O'Grady Dec 2020

Timss 2019 Australia Highlights, Sue Thomson, Nicole Wernert, Sima Rodrigues, Elizabeth O'Grady

TIMSS 2019

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international sample study that assesses the mathematics and science achievement of Year 4 and Year 8 students every four years. Australia has participated in all cycles of TIMSS since it commenced in 1995 and over this 24-year period has collected rich data about trends in mathematics and science achievement. This document provides the highlights from Volume I of the main report TIMSS 2019 Australia. Volume I: Student performance. Volume I and these Highlights focus on the achievement results, detailing Australia’s results within the international context, as well as the …

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Mathematics Anxiety, Sarah Buckley Oct 2020

Mathematics Anxiety, Sarah Buckley

Student learning processes

This Mathematics Monograph is focussed on helping teachers and school leaders gain a better understanding of: How mathematics anxiety negatively impacts learning and teaching; the symptoms, causes and companions of mathematics anxiety; the difference between reducing mathematics anxiety directly and indirectly; and strategies that can identify and address mathematics anxiety in students and teachers. The Monograph is intended to present information for reflecting and planning how mathematics anxiety can be reduced and regulated in classrooms and in the school community.

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Critical Connections Between Numeracy And Mathematics, Dave Tout Oct 2020

Critical Connections Between Numeracy And Mathematics, Dave Tout

Student learning processes

Increasingly research is showing that life and work in the 21st century is requiring higher levels of mathematics and numeracy of its citizens. Numeracy and mathematics are intrinsically connected and BOTH are needed in our ever changing, globalised and technological world. This paper looks at the implications of this for the skills we want our students to develop and leave school with, and how we can better address these in our teaching and learning.

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Piaac Numeracy Task Complexity Schema: Factors That Impact On Item Difficulty, Dave Tout, Iddo Gal, Mieke Van Groenestijn, Myrna Manly, Mary Jane Schmitt Aug 2020

Piaac Numeracy Task Complexity Schema: Factors That Impact On Item Difficulty, Dave Tout, Iddo Gal, Mieke Van Groenestijn, Myrna Manly, Mary Jane Schmitt

Transition and Post-School Education and Training

This paper describes some lessons learned from international adult numeracy assessments that can help in understanding the challenges that people, including both adults and school students, have when solving numeracy tasks and their levels of performance on functional mathematical problems. The paper presents a theoretical schema of five factors that predict, separately and in interaction, the complexity or level of difficulty of mathematically-related assessment tasks, including tasks that incorporate texts and require literacy or reading skills, which are very common in adults' lives. The model was originally developed as part of the development of the Adult Literacy and LifeSkills survey …

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Science In The Early Years. Paper 2: Science Inquiry Skills, Gayl O'Connor, Christine Rosicka Jun 2020

Science In The Early Years. Paper 2: Science Inquiry Skills, Gayl O'Connor, Christine Rosicka

Early Childhood Education

This is the second paper in the Science in the early years series that reviews current research into science learning and monitoring in the early years. The aim of this series is to provide early years educators with an insight into current research; highlight how research findings relate to children’s science learning; look at the current understandings about early years science monitoring; and provide examples of how early years educators can incorporate this research into their practices. This series defines ‘early years’ as the two years prior to school and the first three years of primary school, which in Australia …

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Science In The Early Years: Monitoring Science Understandings. Checklists For Eylf Outcomes, Australian Council For Educational Research Jun 2020

Science In The Early Years: Monitoring Science Understandings. Checklists For Eylf Outcomes, Australian Council For Educational Research

Early Childhood Education

This resource consists of templates of checklists for early years educators, tailored to Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) learning outcomes. They are to help record evidence of children’s science learning and to monitor this across time. The checklists have been populated with the EYLF outcomes identified for the four educator resources accompanying Paper 1: Early years science and integration: Plant treasure hunt; Floating and sinking; and Paper 2: Science inquiry skills: Light and shadows, Exploring mixtures.

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Trends In International Mathematics And Science Study: Measuring And Making International Comparisons Of Student Achievement In Mathematics And Science, Australian Council For Educational Research May 2020

Trends In International Mathematics And Science Study: Measuring And Making International Comparisons Of Student Achievement In Mathematics And Science, Australian Council For Educational Research

Assessment GEMS

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an ongoing, cyclical international study of student achievement in mathematics and science. It is directed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). TIMSS measures the mathematics and science performance of students and collects a wide array of contextual information about students, schools, curricula and educational policies and systems. In analysing and reporting on these performance and contextual data, IEA aims to assist participants to make informed decisions to improve mathematics and science teaching and learning. The target populations for TIMSS are students in the fourth grade and …

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The Early Grade Mathematics Assessment: Assessing Children’S Acquisition Of Basic Numeracy Skills In Developing Countries, Australian Council For Educational Research May 2020

The Early Grade Mathematics Assessment: Assessing Children’S Acquisition Of Basic Numeracy Skills In Developing Countries, Australian Council For Educational Research

Assessment GEMS

The Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA) is a one-on-one oral assessment designed to measure a student’s foundation skills in numeracy and mathematics in the early grades. The instrument was first developed by the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International through funding provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The EGMA has been designed to use as a country-level diagnostic tool to determine how students in a country are performing overall compared to its stated curriculum; and for program evaluation to examine the effectiveness of specific curricula, interventions, or teacher training programs

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Scottish National Assessments: National Report For Academic Year 2017 To 2018, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer) Dec 2018

Scottish National Assessments: National Report For Academic Year 2017 To 2018, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Assessment and Reporting

This report has been developed to provide a summary of outcomes at a national level on the newly established system of national standardised assessments, which has since been termed ‘Scottish National Standardised Assessments’ (SNSA) in the 2017 to 2018 academic year, the first year of the programme. A central aim of SNSA is also to provide information on the outcomes of Scottish children and young people in literacy and numeracy over time. The assessments have been available for use in publicly funded schools in Scotland since August 2017. They are administered to children and young people in Primary 1, Primary …

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Pisa Australia In Focus Number 3: Motivation, Catherine Underwood Sep 2018

Pisa Australia In Focus Number 3: Motivation, Catherine Underwood

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has collected information about student motivation in each cycle, but the types of motivation focused on has varied over the cycles in line with the major domain (or the main focus) of the assessment for that cycle – reading, mathematical or scientific literacy. The focus of PISA 2015 is on science learning. It collected data about students’ achievement motivation in relation to science learning using their responses to the following five items measured on a four-point Likert scale (strongly agree; agree; disagree; and strongly disagree): I want top grades in most or all …

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Challenges In Stem Learning In Australian Schools, Michael J. Timms, Kathryn Moyle, Paul R. Weldon, Pru Mitchell May 2018

Challenges In Stem Learning In Australian Schools, Michael J. Timms, Kathryn Moyle, Paul R. Weldon, Pru Mitchell

Policy Insights

Australian STEM education seems caught in a whirlpool of problems that are contributing to one another. Student engagement and performance in STEM are declining, but we do not have the supply of qualified teachers we need to improve learning. The STEM curriculum is unbalanced and fragmented, leading to less interest among students. It is not possible to break out of the downward cycle from within the current system and it requires policy changes that address the issues raised in this report. This means developing well-considered, systemic and joined-up policies that address the following challenges: Improving student outcomes, building the STEM …

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Challenges In Stem Learning In Australian Schools: Literature And Policy Review, Michael J. Timms, Kathryn Moyle, Paul R. Weldon, Pru Mitchell May 2018

Challenges In Stem Learning In Australian Schools: Literature And Policy Review, Michael J. Timms, Kathryn Moyle, Paul R. Weldon, Pru Mitchell

Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation

This literature and policy review outlines the complex context related to STEM learning in Australian schools and focuses on student outcomes, the teacher workforce and the curriculum. This paper also sheds light on possible policy directions by examining lessons from other countries. STEM education is a broad enterprise that starts in early childhood education, continues through the years of schooling and extends into tertiary education supported by contributions from extracurricular and enrichment activities, science centres and museums. However, the focus in this document is on primary and secondary schooling. Australian STEM education seems caught in a whirlpool of problems that …

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Development Of Reporting Scales For Reading And Mathematics: A Report Describing The Process For Building The Uis Reporting Scales, Ross Turner, Ray Adams, Ursula Schwantner, Dan Cloney, Claire Scoular, Prue Anderson, Alexander Daraganov, Jen Jackson, Sandra Knowles, Gayl O'Connor, Pam Munro-Smith, Stavroula Zoumboulis, Pauline Rogers Apr 2018

Development Of Reporting Scales For Reading And Mathematics: A Report Describing The Process For Building The Uis Reporting Scales, Ross Turner, Ray Adams, Ursula Schwantner, Dan Cloney, Claire Scoular, Prue Anderson, Alexander Daraganov, Jen Jackson, Sandra Knowles, Gayl O'Connor, Pam Munro-Smith, Stavroula Zoumboulis, Pauline Rogers

Monitoring Learning

As a technical partner of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, ACER-GEM has created reporting scales for reading and maths, with the intention of enabling countries to examine and report the outcomes of their assessment activities using a common framework. This report gives the theoretical and contextual background to the scales, and describes the steps in the drafting process.

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Infographic: Books In The Home And Student Achievement, Rebecca Vukovic Jul 2017

Infographic: Books In The Home And Student Achievement, Rebecca Vukovic

Teacher infographics

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study of student achievement. Here, we look at TIMSS data on books in the home and the percentage of Australian students at or above the proficient standard for maths and science.

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Infographic: Classroom Discipline, Jo Earp Mar 2017

Infographic: Classroom Discipline, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

In the 2015 PISA cycle, students were asked to respond to five statements about the disciplinary climate in their science classes. Here are the results from 10 participating countries.

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Timss 2015: Reporting Australia’S Results, Sue Thomson, Nicole Wernert, Elizabeth O'Grady, Sima Rodrigues Mar 2017

Timss 2015: Reporting Australia’S Results, Sue Thomson, Nicole Wernert, Elizabeth O'Grady, Sima Rodrigues

TIMSS 2015

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study of student achievement directed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). TIMSS 2015 represents the sixth such study since TIMSS was first conducted in 1995. Forty-nine education systems were tested at Year 4 level and 39 tested at Year 8 level. In Australia, TIMSS is managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and is jointly funded by the Australian Government and the state and territory governments. The goal of TIMSS is to provide comparative information about educational achievement across countries …

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Evaluation Of The In2science Peer Mentoring Program: Final Report, Julie Kos, Jacynta Krakouer, Sheldon Rothman Mar 2017

Evaluation Of The In2science Peer Mentoring Program: Final Report, Julie Kos, Jacynta Krakouer, Sheldon Rothman

Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation

Large-scale studies of 15-year-old school students show associations between students’ attitudes toward science learning and their levels of achievement (Ainley, Kos, & Nicholas, 2008). One model for improving students’ attitudes towards science and mathematics learning has been the provision of peer mentoring. The In2science program uses a peer mentoring approach to engage secondary school students in science and mathematics study. Working with the classroom teacher, university students serve as mentors and help students with their learning and build relationships in a small group or a whole class. Mentors talk to students about studying science (or another STEM area) at university …

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Pisa 2015 Australia Student And Achievement Data [Sas] [Data Set], Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood Mar 2017

Pisa 2015 Australia Student And Achievement Data [Sas] [Data Set], Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This dataset (SAS zipped) is a data source for the report PISA 2015: Reporting Australia’s results.

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Pisa 2015 Australia School Questionnaire Data [Spss] [Data Set], Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood Mar 2017

Pisa 2015 Australia School Questionnaire Data [Spss] [Data Set], Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This dataset (SPSS zipped) is a data source for the report PISA 2015: Reporting Australia’s results.

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Pisa 2015 Australia Student And Achievement Data [Spss] [Data Set], Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood Mar 2017

Pisa 2015 Australia Student And Achievement Data [Spss] [Data Set], Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This dataset (SPSS zipped) is a data source for the report PISA 2015: Reporting Australia’s results.

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Pisa 2015 Australia School Questionnaire Data [Sas] [Data Set], Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood Mar 2017

Pisa 2015 Australia School Questionnaire Data [Sas] [Data Set], Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This dataset (SAS zipped) is a data source for the report PISA 2015: Reporting Australia’s results.

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