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Context or Culture: Can Timss and Pisa Teach Us About What Determines Educational Achievement in Science?

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Internationalisation and Globalisation in Mathematics and Science Education

Abstract

Most mainstream researchers in science education are weak in their inclusion of the wider educational, personal and social contexts in which their studies have been conducted. The TIMSS and PISA projects, on the other hand, have both had the status and resources to include a great deal of data about these wider contexts, nationally and cross-nationally. The success and failure of these projects in relation to elucidating strong relations between contextual constructs and science achievement is considered. The methodological choices of these cross national studies and the theoretical perspective they have adopted for these interactions are critically appraised. An alternative approach is then explored

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. QUT, Brisbane

    Peter J Fensham

Authors
  1. Peter J Fensham
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia

    Bill Atweh

  2. Columbia University, New York, USA

    Angela Calabrese Barton

  3. State University of São Paulo, Rio Claro, Brazil

    Marcelo C. Borba

  4. La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

    Noel Gough

  5. Freie University Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Christine Keitel

  6. Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Phillipines

    Catherine Vistro-Yu

  7. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

    Renuka Vithal

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Fensham, P.J. (2008). Context or Culture: Can Timss and Pisa Teach Us About What Determines Educational Achievement in Science?. In: Atweh, B., et al. Internationalisation and Globalisation in Mathematics and Science Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5908-7_9

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