Table
of Contents
Chapter 4
© 2001 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA)
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As delineated by the curriculum of the countries around the world and in the Benchmarking entities, science contains a range of content areas (see Chapter 5 on curriculum). For example, almost all TIMSS 1999 countries and Benchmarking participants reported some elements of earth science, life science, physics, and chemistry in the eighth-grade science curriculum. Since these content areas can differ in complexity, enter the curriculum at different times, receive varying degrees of emphasis, or even be taught as separate courses, Chapter 3 presents results by the major content areas in science. For each Benchmarking entity, average achievement is shown for each content area and compared with the international average for that content area, and average achievement in the content areas is profiled in relation to overall science achievement. Results are also provided by gender. These different perspectives are provided to identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of students in the different science content areas as well as the possible effects of curricular variation on average achievement. The TIMSS 1999 science test for the eighth grade was designed to enable reporting by six content areas in accordance with the TIMSS science framework. These areas, with their main topics, are:
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TIMSS 1999 is a project of the International
Study Center
Boston College, Lynch School of Education