INTENÇÕES MATEMÁTICAS E LITERATURA MATEMÁTICA

Pedro Pacheco | M2014040 | Statistics Course | 2014/2015

Mathematics Intentions and

Mathematical Literacy

THE INFLUENCE OF GENDER AND PARENTS EDUCATION USING PISA 2012

STUDENTS RESULTS

MATHEMATICS INTENTIONS AND MATHEMATICAL LITERACY

Table of Contents

1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1

2. Methodology ......................................................................................................................... 2

3. Results: exploring mathematics intentions ........................................................................... 5

3.1. Exploratory analysis ...................................................................................................... 5

3.2. Distribution fitting tests ................................................................................................ 5

3.3. Tests for equality of variances ...................................................................................... 6

3.4. Independent samples t-test .......................................................................................... 6

4. Results: exploring mathematical literacy .............................................................................. 7

4.1. Exploratory analysis ...................................................................................................... 7

4.2. Distribution fitting tests ................................................................................................ 7

4.3. Tests for equality of variances ...................................................................................... 8

4.4. Analysis of variance ....................................................................................................... 9

4.5. Multiple comparison tests ............................................................................................ 9

5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 10

References ................................................................................................................................... 11

Annex A: Figures .......................................................................................................................... 12

Annex B: Tables ........................................................................................................................... 14

MATHEMATICS INTENTIONS AND MATHEMATICAL LITERACY

1.1. Introduction

PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an international student

assessment program of reading, mathematics and science literacy promoted by the OECD since

2000.

With a specific framework of evaluation produced by OECD and with an extensive set of

objective and rigorous rules and procedures for implementing the program, the OECD provides,

through the work of an international consortium developed in close coordination with

participating countries, a uniform and comparable study of 15-year-old students’ performance.

Portugal has participated in all PISA cycles and more recently, in 2012, was one of the 65

economies which tested their students in order to obtain information based on the performance

standards established by the OECD that could revert to the improvement of their education

systems. Furthermore the richness of information collected through background questionnaires

makes PISA one of the most important instruments of educational policy, whose effect on the

definition of educational policies and representations on the quality of public education systems

in different countries has been the subject of numerous studies.

This report aims at exploring the impact of students’ gender and background 1 not only in

their performance in mathematics2, but also in their future intentions regarding the use of

mathematics. Regarding these objectives two parametric tests will be used: t-test for the

difference of means regarding two independent samples – boys and girls; analysis of variance

(ANOVA) for comparing four groups of parents’ educational background taking into account the

student score.

1 Even though in most PISA reports the index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) is referred as

the key index for evaluating students’ socio-economic background, in this report we will focus on parents’

education for methodological purposes, namely the use of groups.

2 PISA takes place on a three-year cycle, with the main domain evaluated changing in each period.

Although mathematics was assessed by PISA in 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2009, the domain was the area of

focus only in 2003 and, more recently, in 2012.

MATHEMATICS INTENTIONS AND MATHEMATICAL LITERACY

2.2. Methodology

The data used for this report was collected from PISA´s fifth edition database, which survey

was applied in 2012. After