New Zealand’s Year 5 students scored an average of 490 in maths, which is up from 487 in the 2019 round of testing, and 517 in science test, up from 503.
Year 9s scored an average of 485 in maths, up from 482; and 502 in science, up from 499.
Maurice Cheng is an associate professor in curriculum and pedagogy at University of Auckland.
His research has involved analysis and international comparative studies of students’ science achievements in TIMSS and PISA.
“There is a general feeling that science and mathematics education in NZ is failing our students and that there’s a general worrying downward trend, [however] that narrative is not entirely accurate” he tells EducationHQ.
“The results in this round debunk a part of the myth.
“For example, our Year 5 boys and girls did very well in science compared with the past ten plus years.”
Results also show, however, an achievement gap has emerged between boys and girls.
While boys’ scores improved in all four tests, girls’ scores dropped in three.
“There’s no gender gap in science among Year 5 students,” Cheng says.
“But there are gender gaps in science among Year 9 students and in maths among both Year 5 and Year 9 students.”
Cheng admits the gender gap in Year 9 science is large when compared with other participating countries, and says the result is striking given there was no gap in 2015 or 2019.
In fact, 2014 TIMSS results show girls used to score significantly better than boys in biology.
“Also, there was no statistical gender difference when this 2023 Year 9 cohort was in Year 5 in 2019,” he says.
New Zealand is not alone in having a gender gap in Year 9 science.
The gap is also remarkable in Australia, England, Ireland and the US.
Interestingly though, when broken down into the different content domains tested for science, knowing, applying and reasoning, there is no statistically significant difference in reasoning skills.
“Although there was a gender gap in the overall scores, we should not expect boys to be better than girls in high-order thinking in science,” Cheng says.
One of the key takeaways from the latest TIMSS results, for Cheng, is the stubborn achievement gap which exists between socio-economic groups.
New Zealand has one of the most significant differences in achievement between economically disadvantaged students and those who are economically affluent – only six countries have a bigger disparity.
“Studies like this persistently show disparities between students from more affluent families and those with fewer resources at home,” he says.
“This has been the case in NZ for many years, so we need to address this at the national level.”
But overall, Cheng says New Zealanders can rest assured the country does not have a worrying downward trend in students’ achievement.
“In fact, Year 5 and Year 9 maths [results] have remained quite stable over the past 20 years,” he says.
“Particularly at the end of the year, we need to acknowledge the input and support from teachers and families,” Cheng adds.
