May 2005, Vol. 36, Issue 3
Research Commentary: International Comparative Studies in Mathematics Education: Opportunities for Collaboration and Challenges for Researchers
Joan Ferrini-Mundy, William H. Schmidt
The recent releases
of two major international comparative studies that addressed
mathematics—the Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study 2003 (TIMSS 2003) and the Program
for International Student Assessment 2003 (PISA 2003)—provide opportunities and challenges for
mathematics education researchers interested in using the findings,
instruments, and conceptual and theoretical perspectives of these studies as
catalysts for secondary analysis and additional research. In particular, a
number of important questions in mathematics education in the United States
can be pursued, using various
resources from these studies as a base, by mathematics education researchers
and mathematicians collaborating with statisticians and assessment experts.
We highlight some of the main findings of TIMSS 2003 and PISA 2003, and
suggest how some of the instruments that were used in these studies, as well
as the conceptual frameworks and priorities that guided them, might be
beneficial in pursuing pressing questions in such areas as the role of
curriculum in mathematics performance, the ways in which social contextual
variables interact with mathematics learning, and the challenges in measuring
the ability to use mathematics in real-world situations.
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