Explaining differences for Serbia and Slovenia in mathematics achievement in fourth grade

Autor: Kadijević Đorđe, Žakelj Amalija, Gutvajn Nikoleta
Jazyk: English<br />Serbian
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Zdroj: Nastava i Vaspitanje, Vol 64, Iss 1, Pp 21-38 (2015)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 0547-3330
2560-3051
DOI: 10.5937/NASVAS1501021K
Popis: This paper presents the findings that are parts of a larger international project studying the achievements in mathematics and science for students in primary and lower secondary education. Specifically, we focused on the study of differences in mathematics achievement for Serbian and Slovenian fourth-graders. The study used a sample of 7,861 fourth-grade students from Serbia (N = 3,736) and Slovenia (N = 4,125). The results showed that Serbian students had higher overall achievement and scored higher in both the number content and the knowing cognitive domains, whereas Slovenian students scored higher on the geometry content and the data content domains, also having a higher balance among achievements for both content and cognitive domains. It was also found that Slovenian students had higher self-confidence in learning mathematics. Because there were no other significant differences between Serbia and Slovenia with respect to two other contextual variables and the correlations among these three contextual variables, the explanations of the achievement differences were based upon the consideration of various aspects of curriculum, teaching practice, and teachers' professional development in Serbia and Slovenia. The paper raises the question of educational implications of these findings and the possible directions of improving the quality of mathematics teaching.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals