The relationship between the contextual factors and mathematical performance of Iranian students in the TIMSS 2015

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the contextual factors and the mathematical performance of Iranian students in the TIMSS 2015. In this study, considering the nested data structure and using the two level modelling, the effect of 37 variables related to the academic performance of fourth grade students in math class in four areas of family / home, students' beliefs, teacher / classroom and school, in the form of the two levels of "student" and "school" were investigated using the original version of HLM software. The results showed that the educational development in the Iranian educational system, like the other educational systems in the other countries is dependent on the contextual factors related to students, family / home, classroom / teacher and school. Also, based on the final model of 37 variables related to the math academic performance of students, only ten variables including the teacher's perceived atmosphere, school discipline and safety, management experience, deprivation status, teaching limitation, mathematics self-concept, valuing the mathematics, attendance at school, the father's education level, and the parents' help in carrying out the meaningful assignments. In addition, the most changes in variance has been related to the variables of the socioeconomic status, parental education level, attendance at school and self- concept in mathematics; some of these factors have been related to the level 1 student and some others have been related to the level 2 school.

Keywords

• contextual factors
• academic performance
• fourth grade mathematics
• timss 2015
• students' beliefs