Results: Evidence for the globalization of science curricula from timss

Abstract

In TIMSS, participating education systems are asked in the curriculum questionnaire which TIMSS science topics are included in their intended science curricula. By coding the changes in countries’ responses, some measure of the changes in national science curricula between 1999 and 2015 (for Grade 8) and between 2003 and 2015 (for Grade 4) may be determined. Countries can also be categorized by how stable or changeable their curriculum is on the basis of the number of changes they have made to their curriculum, the average number of curriculum changes at Grades 4 and 8 for each TIMSS cycle and the topics common to the vast majority of participating countries’ intended science curricula. The analysis found there was considerable variation among countries in terms of the number and nature of changes they made to their science curriculum between 1999 (2003 for Grade 4) and 2015. Cluster analysis and discriminant analysis revealed which science topics were most discriminating in terms of predicting country clusters. For both grades, and for each TIMSS cycle, the analyses produced two groups of countries based on responses to the curriculum questionnaire. The cluster and discriminant analyses provide stronger evidence for convergence in science curricula over time at Grade 8 than at Grade 4. The implemented science curriculum of 15 countries was examined in more depth using the TIMSS teacher questionnaire responses; due to difficulties in obtaining robust comparable data for countries across the different TIMSS cycles and the significant caveats that would have applied to any conclusions drawn from these analyses, these data are not considered.