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Malaysian Students’ Performance in Mathematics Literacy in PISA from Gender and Socioeconomic Status Perspectives

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An Erratum to this article was published on 02 June 2016

Abstract

This study aims to investigate Malaysian students’ performance in mathematics literacy from gender and socioeconomic perspectives based on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009+ and 2012 datasets. The results revealed that girls significantly scored about eight points higher than boys in mathematics literacy in PISA 2012. Additionally, girls significantly outperformed boys in all three mathematical content categories and processes. However, proportion of boys at school level had no significant interaction effect with gender and ESCS at student level on mathematics performance in PISA 2009+ and PISA 2012. Boys and girls performed equally after controlling socioeconomic status at student and school level. The significant influence of economic, social and cultural index on students’ mathematics literacy performance indicated the presence of socioeconomic inequity in mathematics literacy performance. Schools with high average of socioeconomic status outperformed schools with low socioeconomic status in mathematics literacy in both PISA 2009+ and PISA 2012. The socioeconomically disadvantaged students from school with low ESCS mean outperformed the socioeconomically disadvantaged students from school with high ESCS mean in PISA 2009+ and PISA 2012. The multilevel analyses showed that between-school variance explained was about 54 and 61 % in PISA 2009+ and PISA 2012, respectively. Implications and suggestions for future studies are presented.

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Notes

  1. Lower Secondary Assessment (PMR) was replaced by Form Three Assessment (PT3) since 2014

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research and Development Division, SEAMEO Regional Centre for Education in Science and Mathematics, 11700 Gelugor, Penang, Malaysia

    Lei Mee Thien

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  1. Lei Mee Thien
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Thien, L.M. Malaysian Students’ Performance in Mathematics Literacy in PISA from Gender and Socioeconomic Status Perspectives. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 25, 657–666 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-016-0295-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-016-0295-0

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