TY - JOUR
T1 - Evidence-based decision making or a tunnel vision effect? TIMSS, problem definition and policy change in Israeli mathematics education
AU - Feniger, Yariv
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2020/5/26
Y1 - 2020/5/26
N2 - This study examines the influence of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999 results on mathematics education policy in Israel. Analyzing various documents, the study shows how these results transformed policymakers’ discourse regarding mathematics education. In order to achieve improvement in Israel’s ranking, the middle school mathematics curriculum was aligned with the TIMSS test. Following this change, the scores of Israeli students rose considerably in TIMSS 2011. Parallel results from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Israeli internal standardized tests, however, do not show comparable improvement in mathematics achievement. High school matriculation data for the same period of time show a decline in the percentage of students who took the most advanced mathematics courses. Furthermore, none of these data sources show any noticeable reduction in social inequality in mathematics achievement. On the basis of theoretical insights from political science, it is argued that international tests influence the way educational problems are framed and defined. Thus, instead of enriching educational decision-making processes, these tests can create a tunnel vision effect that restricts policymakers’ attention to ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ defined by the tests themselves.
AB - This study examines the influence of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999 results on mathematics education policy in Israel. Analyzing various documents, the study shows how these results transformed policymakers’ discourse regarding mathematics education. In order to achieve improvement in Israel’s ranking, the middle school mathematics curriculum was aligned with the TIMSS test. Following this change, the scores of Israeli students rose considerably in TIMSS 2011. Parallel results from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Israeli internal standardized tests, however, do not show comparable improvement in mathematics achievement. High school matriculation data for the same period of time show a decline in the percentage of students who took the most advanced mathematics courses. Furthermore, none of these data sources show any noticeable reduction in social inequality in mathematics achievement. On the basis of theoretical insights from political science, it is argued that international tests influence the way educational problems are framed and defined. Thus, instead of enriching educational decision-making processes, these tests can create a tunnel vision effect that restricts policymakers’ attention to ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ defined by the tests themselves.
KW - Assessment
KW - comparative and international education
KW - educational policy
KW - globalisation and internationalisation
KW - mathematics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85043454399&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17508487.2018.1448877
DO - 10.1080/17508487.2018.1448877
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85043454399
SN - 1750-8487
VL - 61
SP - 363
EP - 379
JO - Critical Studies in Education
JF - Critical Studies in Education
IS - 3
ER -