Student characteristics and achievement in science: Results of the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment

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Gender differences in science achievement
The performance of students in minority-language school systems
The science performance of immigrant and non-immigrant youth
Student engagement in science
Higher levels of parental education are associated with higher performance in science
Socioeconomic status
Conclusion

The latest results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 were published in early December 2007.¹ This time, the focus of the assessment was on science literacy. The two previous sets of PISA results focussed on achievement in math (2000)² and in reading (2003).³

Overall, the 2006 PISA results show that Canadian 15 year-olds students performed very well in science. Among 57 countries, only 15 year-olds in Finland and in Hong Kong-China performed better than Canadian youth on the combined science scale. The fact that 15 year-old students in all ten provinces performed well in science, scoring above the OECD average, contributed to Canada's strong overall standing in international comparisons.

While average performance is useful in assessing the overall performance of students, it can mask significant variation within a country or province. Further insight into the performance of countries or provinces can be gained by examining the distribution of scores, or the gap that exists between students with the highest and the lowest levels of performance, within each jurisdiction.

The amount of within-country variation in performance in science varied widely across OECD countries. Both Canada and the majority of the provinces were among the few jurisdictions where science achievement was above average while, at the same time, the disparity in student performance was below average. Both of these outcomes – achievement and equity – are desirable outcomes.

Nevertheless, differences in student achievement persist and are linked to a number of student characteristics. This article focusses on the most recent PISA results regarding science achievement of Canadian 15 year-olds and their background characteristics.

Gender differences in science achievement

Policy makers have an interest in reducing gender disparities in educational performance. Educational performance, coupled with motivation and attitudes towards learning, influence both educational and occupational pathways of boys and girls.

PISA 2006 shows that gender differences on the combined science scale were relatively small compared to the large gender gap in reading. In Canada, no gender difference was observed on the combined science scale with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador, where girls performed slightly better than boys.

Although there were no gender differences in Canada on the sub-domain of using scientific evidence, there were substantial gender differences on the other two science sub-domains. In Canada, in most countries and in eight of the ten provinces, boys outperformed girls in the sub-domain of 'explaining phenomena scientifically.' In contrast, in Canada, in most countries and in all of the provinces, girls outperformed boys in the sub-domain 'identifying scientific issues.'

The PISA report observes that the differences on these two sub-domains suggest that boys and girls have very different levels of performance in different areas of science. It appears that boys perform better at mastering scientific knowledge whereas girls demonstrate better performance at seeing the larger picture that enables them to identify scientific questions that arise from a given situation.

The performance of students in minority-language school systems

The science performance of students in French-language and English-language school systems can be compared for the five Canadian provinces in which these populations were sampled separately. The performance of the minority-language groups (students in French-language school systems in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba, and students in the English-language school system in Quebec) are compared to the majority-language group. Results from PISA 2006 found that for the combined science scale, students enrolled in the French-language school systems in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba performed significantly lower than students in the English-language school systems. In Quebec, there was a small but statistically significant difference, with results favouring students enrolled in the French-language school system.

The science performance of immigrant and non-immigrant youth

Overall, the science performance of immigrant youth in Canada was much stronger than that of immigrant students across all OECD countries. Immigrant youth in Canada also performed above the overall OECD average in science. In addition, the difference in science achievement between immigrant and non-immigrant students was less pronounced in Canada compared to the average across all OECD countries.

PISA identifies two groups of immigrant youth: first-generation immigrant youth are those born outside of Canada; second-generation immigrant youth are those born in Canada to immigrant parents. Students born in Canada to parents who were also born in Canada are defined as non-immigrant students. The Canadian PISA report provides detailed results for immigrant youth in the five provinces where they represented 10% or more of the 15-year old youth population (Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia).

Overall, non-immigrant youth outperformed their first-generation peers in science. Performance differences were significant in Ontario and Manitoba and were most pronounced in Quebec.

Second-generation immigrant youth had completed all their education in Canada, having been born in this country. However, this is not necessarily the case for first-generation immigrant youth, depending on their age of arrival to Canada. One might expect that the differences in scores between second-generation immigrant and non-immigrant students would be small, particularly in an area like science, where youth are more likely to develop their knowledge and skills in school rather than in their family or community. However, PISA found that non-immigrant students outperformed second-generation immigrant youth who were born and educated in Canada. In three provinces (Manitoba, Quebec and British Columbia) the performance differences between non-immigrant youth and their second-generation immigrant peers were significant.

First- and second-generation immigrant youth performed at similar levels in Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia. However, for Canada overall and for Ontario, second-generation immigrant students outperformed first-generation immigrant students. In Alberta, there was no difference in the performance of immigrant and non-immigrant students.

Student engagement in science

Engagement in a subject is important for learning, as well as for course selection, educational pathways and career choices. Student engagement in science was measured in PISA by three sets of indicators measuring students' belief that they can success in science, students' value of science and students' interest in science.

Compared to the average for 15 year-olds in the OECD countries, Canadian 15-year-olds reported higher levels of confidence in performing science-related tasks and a more positive perception of their ability to learn science. In fact, compared to the other indicators of science engagement, it was this indicator relating to a student's belief that he or she can succeed in science that was most strongly associated with science achievement. Those with higher levels of belief that they can succeed in science had much higher average scores - equivalent to more than one proficiency level higher - relative to those who scored lowest on this indicator.

The value that students place on science concerns their general appreciation of science as being important and valuable to society at large and the extent to which they personally value science as being relevant and useful for their own purposes. Compared to 15-year-olds across all OECD countries, Canadian youth believed more strongly that science is important and valuable to society at large as well as to them personally.

There was a positive relationship between students' value of science and their science performance, with youth in the top quarters on the measures of general value of science and of personal value of science scoring about one proficiency level higher than their counterparts who scored in the bottom quarters of each index. This relationship also held true across the provinces.

Students' general interest in science is closely related to their achievement in science, their decisions regarding course selections, their career choices and lifelong learning. Compared to students across all OECD countries, Canadian students reported higher levels of general interest in science, higher levels of enjoyment of science, higher levels of belief that science will be useful to their future employment or education, and higher levels of belief that they will study and work in the field of science as an adult. Youth scoring highest on the measures of interest in science scored close to one proficiency level higher their counterparts who scored lowest.

Higher levels of parental education are associated with higher performance in science

Parents play an important role in their children's learning. Aside from being actively involved in their children's education, parents also provide a home environment that can have an impact on learning. Parents serve as models for learning, determine the educational resources available in the home and hold particular attitudes and values towards education.

Science achievement was significantly higher among youth with at least one parent who had completed a postsecondary education compared to youth whose parents had high school education or less. In Canada, this difference amounted to 32 score-points, which is roughly equivalent to one year of education. While differences existed across all of the provinces, the magnitude of this difference varied. The difference in science achievement across students with parents having higher and lower levels of education was smallest in British Columbia and Manitoba and largest in Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Socioeconomic status

How equitably the benefits of schooling are distributed across students from different socioeconomic backgrounds can be understood by examining the relationship between socioeconomic background and student performance. Socioeconomic status (SES) is a term used to summarize a variety of factors, including parental education and occupation, which influence student performance. In PISA 2006, SES was measured by an index that included information describing family structure, parental education and occupation, parental labour market participation and whether a student's family has specific educational and cultural possessions at home.

As was the case in previous PISA assessments, the average student in Canada had a relative socioeconomic advantage compared to the average for 15-year-olds in all OECD countries. However, students in the four Atlantic provinces had SES scores below the Canadian average while the remaining provinces had scores that did not differ significantly from the Canadian average.

The relationship between SES and science achievement can be measured by grouping students into four SES quartiles and comparing their average science scores. PISA found a positive relationship between SES and science performance. In Canada, those in the top SES quartile scored one proficiency level higher than those in the lowest SES quartile. At the provincial level, the SES performance gap between the bottom and top quartiles varied, with the gap being smallest in Prince Edward Island and British Columbia and largest in Newfoundland and Labrador.

However, the effect of SES on science achievement was much lower in Canada than that observed across all OECD countries, where the difference between those in the top and bottom quartiles was almost two proficiency levels. In fact, all ten provinces showed SES performance gaps that were below the OECD average and average science performance that was above the OECD average. This suggests that Canadian provinces have indeed achieved some measure of success in offsetting the potentially negative effects of lower socioeconomic status and achieving relative equity in the distribution of learning performance. Nevertheless, it appears that there is still room for improvement. Across jurisdictions, British Columbia represents an example of a jurisdiction that has minimized the relationship between student SES and performance while still maintaining high levels of student performance.

Conclusion

The PISA 2006 assessment of science achievement provides a number of useful insights into the science achievement of Canadian 15 year-olds. It suggests, for example, that the relative strengths of girls and boys may lie in different aspects of science, a finding that reporting of overall scores masks. Results such as these go further than identifying whether boys or girls are "better" or "worse" in any given subject and begin to provide insights into exactly how boys and girls differ in their learning.

The results of the PISA assessments are also useful in showing that there is less inequality in both socioeconomic status and in science achievement across socioeconomic groups in Canada compared to the average for the OECD countries. This suggests that reducing socioeconomic inequality itself can lead to stronger educational performance.

But, the analysis summarized here also raises a number of questions that can only be answered with further research. A strong association was found between student engagement in science -- students' belief that they can success in science, students' value of science and students' interest in science – and overall science achievement. This begs the question of what comes first – does confidence breed success or does success breed confidence? More detailed analysis is needed to disentangle these two effects.

References and notes

1. Bussière, Patrick, Tamara Knighton and Dianne Pennock (2007). Measuring Up: Canadian Results of the OECD Pisa Study. The Performance of Canada's Youth in Science, Reading and Mathematics. 2006 First Results for Canadians aged 15. Ottawa: Human Resources and Social Development Canada, Council of Ministers of Education, Canada and Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada Catalogue number 81-590-XIE – number 3.

2. Bussière, Patrick, Fernando Cartwright and Tamara Knighton. 2004. Measuring Up: Canadian Results of the OECD Pisa Study. The Performance of Canada's Youth in Mathematics, Reading, Science and Problem-solving. 2003 First Results for Canadians aged 15. Ottawa: Human Resources and Social Development Canada, Council of Ministers of Education, Canada and Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada Catalogue number 81-590-XIE – number 2.

3. Bussière Patrick, Fernando Cartwright, Robert Crocker, Xin Ma, Jillian Oderkirk and Yanghong Zhang. 2001. Measuring Up: The Performance of Canada's Youth in Reading, Mathematics and Science. OECD PISA Study: First Results for Canadians Aged 15. Ottawa: Human Resources and Social Development Canada, Council of Ministers of Education, Canada and Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada Catalogue number 81-590-XIE – number 1.