A total of 118 schools in the Philippines participated in the Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) Advanced 2008 to gauge
the performance of fourth year students in the country in advanced
mathematics.
This is the first time the Philippines is participating in this assessment
which provides a state-of-the-art evaluation of student achievement in
advanced mathematics and physics.
Dr. Ester B. Ogena, Director of the DOST-Science Education Institute, said
the Philippines is taking part in TIMSS Advanced 2008 to gather baseline
information and benchmark the performance level of the Filipino students
in mathematics.
“The results of TIMSS Advanced 2008 would enable us to identify the
specific factors that contribute in the performance of students in
mathematics and serve as baseline data for the formation of policies and
implementing interrelated programs to address the identified needs,” she
said.
Majority of the schools that participated in TIMSS Advanced 2008 are
science and technology-oriented schools numbering to 75 while the
remaining 43 is comprised by regional high schools, university rural high
schools and laboratory schools, public science high schools, private high
schools and campuses of the Philippine Science High School.
Senior students who participated in the survey, all taking up advanced
mathematics, number to 4,000.
TIMSS-Advanced assesses school-leaving students with advanced mathematics
and physics. It provides an international comparative data about the
achievement of students enrolled in advanced courses designed to lead into
science-oriented programs in the university.
The Philippines last participated in the TIMSS-Repeat 2003 where a rider
study indicated that second year high school students from three science
and technology-oriented high schools showed better performance in
mathematics compared to other Philippine sample students from private and
public high schools and was even significantly higher than the
international mean, and specifically those of Australia, England, United
States, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Russia.
The overall performance of Philippine schools in science and mathematics
in TIMSS 2003 improved significantly compared to that of the 1999 study.
This could be attributed to the fact that, unlike in the 1999 study where
the 13 year old students who took the test were only in Grade 7 or First
Year High School, majority of the sample students who took the test in
2003 were already at Second Year High School (since the entry age of
Filipino students to Grade 1 was lowered from 7 years old to 6 years old
in 1995)
