Results in math and science ‘a worrying trend’

New Zealand’s poor results on an international math and science test are attributed to factors including grouping children by ability and the previous government’s national standards in reading, writing and math.

New Zealand’s 9- and 13-year-olds’ scores fell in both subjects in the International Study of Trends in Math and Science, with 13-year-olds having their worst scores: 482 in math and 499 in science.

That was significantly lower than countries that New Zealand traditionally compares to, such as Australia and England, where average scores topped 500, and the leading country, Singapore, which scored more than 600 in both subjects.

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The executive director of the House of Science science education center, Chris Duggan, said that was a problem.

“We are seeing a trend, and I think it is a worrying trend, where for many years New Zealand is moving further away from other OECD countries in achievement in math and science for these age groups and I think something needs to change, because if we continue doing what we are doing we will continue to obtain the same results, “he said.

Duggan said schools prioritize reading and math, and that science has long been a poor cousin.

“Often times, science just isn’t done to the quality it needs, even though it’s a core curriculum area. It’s inherently expensive and hard to find resources, and the trust of teachers is often not there,” he said.

“The Office of Education Review reported a few years ago that only 27 percent of our elementary schools are delivering an effective science program, which is shocking, and it appears that things have not improved much.”

Duggan said the government should give schools limited funding for science so that it cannot be used in other subject areas.

He also recommended training more teachers to teach science to make it a regular part of their class day.

The National Coordinator of the Elementary School Science Teachers Association, Sandy Jackson, said New Zealand would have a problem if scores continued to fall.

She said science had been neglected by schools that focused on reading, writing and math.

“A few years ago science became a big focus and then numeracy and literacy took over again and science was abandoned and many elementary and middle school teachers just don’t have time to do justice to a good science course. “, said. said.

He said that many elementary school teachers did not trust science teaching and that it might be helpful to employ specialized science teachers in elementary and middle schools.

“Where I teach we have specialist science teachers and the level we can achieve [students] “It’s quite impressive just because we have people who are passionate about the subject and who are pushing their kids to do their best at it,” he said.

Massey University math teaching specialist Associate Professor Jodie Hunter said the results showed that New Zealand needed to spend more money to show primary school teachers how to teach math well.

He said the TIMSS tests were conducted in 2018 and 2019, providing clear evidence that the previous government’s national standards in reading, writing and math, which were removed in 2018, did not work because the standards were too narrow.

“Unfortunately what happened is somehow too specific because what happened was that people were taught the standards,” he said.

She said the other culprit was teaching children math in groups according to their ability, something New Zealand did far more than other countries.

“That has a snowball effect in terms of their achievements because as soon as we start labeling kids as low ability in math, then we start teaching them differently, I think those who are labeled high ability. “, said.

Directors Federation President Perry Rush said the results were disappointing but not surprising.

He said a big problem was that there was no longer a national school counseling service that ensured that teachers knew the best ways to teach math and science.

“It is not acceptable that there are individual schools that apply different ways of approaching teaching and learning in the absence of professional leadership coordinated at the national level around the right approaches that will make a difference. That is missing and it is important that we have it.” said. said.

Rush said that national standards had reduced the schools’ curriculum, which hurt TIMSS science scores but also math scores because they focused too much on number skills at the expense of other areas of math.

He said that an approach to teaching mathematics known as the Arithmetic Project was also a potential problem. It was introduced almost 20 years ago and needed to be revised because many schools did not believe it was suitable for its purpose.

Deputy Education Minister Jan Tinetti said New Zealand was experiencing a long-term decline in reading, math and science in most international studies.

“An evidence-based system-wide change is required; that’s what the Education Portfolio Work Program is addressing, which covers all students from early childhood through the workforce,” he said.

“We have spent the last three years listening to teaching experts and the community, and now we are recasting the curriculum to be clearer about learning that cannot be left to chance: language, literacy and numeracy.”

National Party education spokesman Paul Goldsmith said he would like to see any evidence that the standards contributed to the TIMSS results.

“I am sure many reasons will be given, but what we have to do as a country is address the decline in our achievement levels,” he said.

“It’s a long-standing problem, but it has continued to get worse, even in the couple of years since the changes were made.”

Goldsmith said an obvious place to start would be to address truancy because very few students, about 57 percent, attended school regularly.

He said the national standards were an attempt to better track children’s progress and improve accountability, and the TIMSS results showed that attention is still needed.

Associate Professor Maurice Cheng, a science education specialist at the University of Waikato, has worked closely with TIMSS in Hong Kong.

He said it was remarkable that New Zealand now did not have a significant gender difference in science achievement, although there was a difference in favor of boys in Year 9 in 2011.

Cheng said that the percentage of Year 5 students who liked science was similar to the international average, but the percentage in Year 8 was much lower.

He said that students who liked science scored higher than those who didn’t.