Malta ranked 16 out of 49 countries in mathematics achievements by From 3 students while it ranked 30 from the same number of countries where science achievements are involved.

Results from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007 involving 36 countries at Grade 4 and 49 countries at Grade 8 have been released by the International Association for the Assessment of Educational Achievement (IEA). The study which is carried out every four years provides data about mathematics and science achievement over time.

Malta participated for the first time in this international study at 8th Grade assessment in mathematics and science. Locally, all secondary schools, 59 in all, participated in the TIMSS 2007 study and a total of 4,670 Form 3 students were involved.

Internationally, the top performing countries were Asian countries such as Chinese Taipei, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea. The Russian Federation and Slovenia were among the countries that made most improvement since TIMSS 2003.

In mathematics, Malta ranked 16th out of 49 countries. In this domain, Malta performed better than many European countries including Scotland, Italy, Cyprus and Norway.

In the area of science Malta ranked 30th out of 49 countries. While neighbouring countries such as Cyprus, and Tunisia performed less well than Malta in this domain, most European countries performed better.

In the mathematics content domains (number, algebra, geometry and data and chance) Malta performed relatively better in the number area than in mathematics overall. From among the science content domains (biology, chemistry, physics and earth science), Maltese students performed relatively better in physics than in science overall.

In the cognitive domains (knowing, applying and reasoning), Maltese students performed relatively better in knowing than in mathematics overall while in science they performed relatively better in reasoning than in science overall.

Among the Maltese cohort participating in TIMSS 2007 no statistically significant gender difference in the average achievement was observed for both mathematics and science. This does not reflect the international trend for girls to outperform boys in both domains.

In comparing achievement across countries it is important to consider differences in the curricular experiences of the students sampled in the different countries. The above analysis is based on the reported data of average scores as prepared by the International Study Centre at Boston College and the IEA Data Processing and Research Centre and published in the International Reports. The International Reports are available on the following website: http://timss.bc.edu/TIMSS2007/intl_reports.html

The Directorate for Quality and Standards of the Ministry of Education remarked that the results of this international study are timely, given that currently the curriculum review is underway. It further remarked that currently all stakeholders are working on a national strategy for science education and the results on this international study confirm the need to review science education locally. When received, the detailed results for the local cohort will be used for two main reasons: for professional and curriculum development.

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