The youngest students improved in Science, but those in the 8th year did worse in both subjects. Boys have better results.
The students of 4th year they have more difficulties in Mathematics, but have improved in Science, according to a study that places Portugal above the international average and boys with more ease in both subjects.
Last year, more than five thousand Portuguese students participated again in the largest international study that evaluates the performance of students in the 4th and 8th years of schooling in Mathematics and Science: TIMMS – Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.
The 4th year Portuguese students participated in TIMMS for the fifth time and the Mathematics results got worse again, unlike Sciencewhich improved slightly in relation to the results obtained in 2019.
In an international comparison and ordering the 58 participating countries and economies, Portugal appears in 26th place in Mathematics and 29th in Scienceaccording to the results released today, which once again place Singapore at the top.
Through a battery of tests, students from 146 Portuguese schools were evaluated on a scale of 1 to 1000 points, obtaining an average score of 517 points for Mathematics and 511 points for Science, both slightly above the international average.
A Mathematics, the Portuguese stayed 14 points above the international average of 503 points, but eight points below the national results obtained in 2019.
I and sciences, Portuguese school students were 17 points above the international average and achieved seven points more than in 2019.
About one in three students reached at least the level of “high performance” Mathematics and Sciences, which in the latter case means that they can, for example, present and apply knowledge from Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Earth Sciences, as well as engage in some scientific research practices.
The study also shows that the boys perform better than girls in both subjects and that the averages of students in schools they are superiors at public schools.
Another factor that influences the results is the importance that directors schools contribute to academic success: students from schools where there was greater concern about success obtained, on average, 16 more points in Mathematics and 13 points in Science.
According to the study, the socioeconomic status of students is responsible for some variation in results, both in Mathematics and Science.
“In Mathematics, the difference in average scores between a student with a high socioeconomic status and a student with a low socioeconomic status is 79 points, which is statistically significant. In Sciences, this difference is 68 points”, reads the report released today.
Another factor that also influences academic success is the frequency and duration of education. preschool, with students who attended for at least three years scoring, on average, 40 points higher in Mathematics and 25 points higher in Science, than students who attended preschool for just one year at most.
The study also allows us to see that three out of four 4th year students (76%) had a high sense of belonging to school, which is also associated with better results in both subjects.
On the other hand, only 46% of Portuguese students said they “really like” learning Mathematics, and here there is also a direct relationship between the taste for learning and academic performance: There are 38 points that separate students who “really like” learning of those who admit they “don’t like it”.
This correlation is also noticeable in Science, with more students enjoying learning Science than Mathematics, says the study, which is carried out every four years.
The study also analyzed literacy and environmental awareness and found that around three-quarters of Portuguese students “valued very highly” the preservation of the environment, an attitude that is also reflected in the best academic results in environmental literacy.
8th year
8th year students in Portuguese schools are worse in Mathematics and Science.
The same study shows that the majority of young people do not like learning Mathematics, which harms their academic results.
Despite being held since 1995, it is the third time that Portuguese 8th graders have participated.
The study now released is based on the results that more than five thousand young people from 164 schools obtained in digital tests they took last year.
The students had 475 points out of 1000 in Mathematics (3 points below the international average) and 506 points for Science (28 points above the international average).
In relation to the tests carried out in the previous edition of the study, in 2019, students Mathematics dropped by 25 points and Science by 13 points.
In a comparison between the 44 countries and three economies that carried out the TIMMS, Portugal appears in 26th place in Mathematics and 17th in Sciencein a table that is once again led by Singapore, with 605 points in Mathematics and 606 points in Science.
But the study is not limited to identifying what students know and where students fail, it also tries to understand the reasons and what can lead to success.
In this analysis, the researchers realized that there was a relationship between enjoying learning a subject and having good results and detected that there was a problem in Portugal, since the “vast majority of 8th year students (58%) reported don’t like learning mathematics”.
But it’s not always like that. Among younger people, it is much easier to find someone who enjoys learning: 46% of 4th year students said “like it a lot” of learning Mathematics, compared to just 13% of 8th year students.
“The difference in the average score obtained in Mathematics between students who reported liking it a lot and those who reported not liking it is 70 points. In terms of confidence, the difference in average scores between very confident students and less confident students is 127 points”, reads the report released today regarding 3rd cycle students.
Only 4% of students reached the level “advanced” in Mathematics, with one in five having a “high performance” and half of the Portuguese managed to reach at least the intermediate level (between 475 points and 549 points).
The report also shows that the boys have better results than girls to both subjects, but this is a difference that disappears as schooling progresses, since in the 4th year boys stood out much more.
In the case of Sciences, there is also a direct relationship between enjoying learning and academic results: only 38% of students said they really enjoyed learning Natural Sciences, while in Physical Chemistry the percentage was 29%.
Students who reported that they really liked Natural Sciences obtained, on average, 24 points more than their colleagues who reported that they did not like it.
A Physical Chemistry the score difference was 43 points. Also in terms of confidence, very confident students have much better results compared to those who are not confident.
The study also highlights the importance of the situation socioeconomic and adds that college students perform, on average, better than those in public schools, a gap that worsens as the grades progress.
8th year students from schools They had 62 points more in Science than those in public schools and 72 points more in Mathematics. In the 4th year the difference was around 40 points.
As students get older, they will also losing connection to schoolaccording to the report that shows that 76% of children in the 4th year had “a high sense of belonging” while among young people in the 8th year this feeling is only reported by 23% of students.
Here too, researchers found that “students with a high sense of belonging at school significantly outperformed their peers in both Mathematics and Science.”
On the side of school directions Concern about success is important: “In the 8th year, the majority of students (55%) attend schools where the importance attributed to academic success is moderate. These students achieved, on average, 28 points less in Mathematics and 24 points less in Science than their colleagues who attend schools where the importance attributed to success is high”, warns the study.
TIMMS takes place every four years, but 8th year students from Portuguese schools only participated in the first TIMMS in 1995, then in 2019 and now in 2023.
