Factors Influencing Students’ Achievements in the Content and  Cognitive Domains in TIMSS 4th Grade Science and  Mathematics in the United Arab Emirates

Balfaqeeh, Asma; Mansour, Nasser; Forawi, Sufian

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Factors Influencing Students’ Achievements in the Content and Cognitive Domains in TIMSS 4th Grade Science and Mathematics in the United Arab Emirates

Date

2022-09-13

Authors

Balfaqeeh, Asma

Mansour, Nasser

Forawi, Sufian

Publisher

MDPI

Abstract

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a comparative interna tional assessment study conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). TIMSS aims to study how educational opportunities are provided for students and what factors are associated with these opportunities. The purpose of this study was to examine the student factors in the United Arab Emirates that have an association with grade 4 students’ TIMSS 2015 results in the content and cognitive domains in the subjects of mathematics and science. The study adopted the quantitative research approach through the data analysis of TIMSS 2015 for grade 4 students in these subjects. The study sample consisted of 21,177 students enrolled in 372 UAEprivate schools and 186 public schools. The percentage of grade 4 girls who participated in the study was 48%, while the percentage of boys was 52%. A multiple linear regression analysis Citation: Balfaqeeh, A.; Mansour, N.; Forawi, S. Factors Influencing Students’ Achievements in the Content and Cognitive Domains in TIMSS 4th Grade Science and Mathematics in the United Arab Emirates. Educ. Sci. 2022, 12, 618. https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci12090618 Academic Editor: James Albright Received: 23 June 2022 Accepted: 8 September 2022 Published: 13 September 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). was conducted to examine the most influential student factors that impact on science and maths achievement. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was implemented to examine the relationships between student factors and the content and cognitive domains of mathematics and science in the TIMSS 2015 results. The findings showed that the student factors with a positive association with stu dent achievement were having breakfast on school days, engaging teaching in mathematics lessons, liking learning science, and confidence in mathematics and science. There was a non-significant correlation between gender and mathematics and science achievement. A surprising finding was that “liking learning mathematics” had a negative association with student performance in that subject. There was a positive association between student engagement and mathematics achievement, while the association between the engagement in science lessons and student performance was found to be insignificant.

Keywords

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS); content domains; cognitive domain; achievement; UAE

Citation

Balfaqeeh, A., Mansour, N. and Forawi, S. (no date) “Factors Influencing Students’ Achievements in the Content and Cognitive Domains in TIMSS 4th Grade Science and Mathematics in the United Arab Emirates,” Education Sciences, 12(9), p. 618.