Analysis of maths literacy performances of students with Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM): The case of PISA 2012 Turkey

Abstract

The objective of this study is to determine whether there is a difference among the mathematics literacy performances of students according to the student and school levels in the Turkey sample by using the data of the PISA 2012 test which is one of the large scale examinations. It is also an objective of the study to determine which variables have a significant effect on mathematics literacy in this two-level structure, i.e. student level and school level. The sample of the study consists of 4848 Turkish students from 170 schools participated the PISA 2012 test. Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) was used in the analysis of the data. The variables within the study were dealt with at 2 levels, namely the school level and the student level. According to the findings obtained by the study, the effect of student level variables like gender, school type, motivation, self-efficacy, attitude, behaviour control, causes of failure, work discipline, mother education, father education, computer possession, age and tablet possession on the mathematics literacy at school was found to be statistically significant. On the other hand, it was determined that the school level variables like school revenues, number of mathematics teachers, number of students, teacher-student ratio and the morale of teachers have a significant effect on predicting the mathematics literacy. After the study, it was determined that nearly 63,17% of the difference between the mathematics literacy points of the students was caused by the difference between the schools.