Asian pupils best performers in maths and science

Washington, December 11 (ANI): Asian students turned out to be top performers at both the fourth and eighth grade levels in the latest math and science study.

Releasing the most recent reports of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the study's directors Michael O. Martin and Ina V.S. Mullis of Boston College revealed that Hong Kong SAR and Singapore were found to be the top performing countries in maths at the fourth grade level, followed by Chinese Taipei and Japan.

The report also said that Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, England, Latvia, and the Netherlands also performed very well.

As regards mathematics achievement at the eighth grade, the researchers wrote that Chinese Taipei, Korea, and Singapore were the top performing countries, followed by Hong Kong SAR and Japan. There was a substantial gap in average mathematics achievement between the countries.

Hungary, England, the Russian Federation, and the United States performed similarly.

In science achievement at the fourth grade, Singapore turned out to be the top performing country, followed by Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong SAR. Japan, the Russian Federation, Latvia, England, the United States, Hungary, Italy, and Kazakhstan also performed very well.

At the eighth grade in science, Singapore and Chinese Taipei again had the highest average achievement, followed by Japan and Korea.

England, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hong Kong SAR, and the Russian Federation also performed well.

TIMSS is one of the world's most influential global assessments of student achievement in math and science.

TIMSS 2007 is the largest study of student math and science achievement in the world, which assessed 425,000 students from over 60 countries. Each country sampled approximately 4,000 students in 150 schools.

"One of the great strengths of TIMSS is the ability to monitor progress in educational improvement over time. Such trend information is crucial in helping policy makers understand the impact of decisions about investment in education, curricular reform, and initiatives to improve instruction," said TIMSS Directors Michael O. Martin and Ina V.S. Mullis of Boston College.(ANI)