Mathematics Achievement of Immigrant Students

237 Pages·2016·2.393 MB·English

by  Dirk Hastedt (auth.)

Dirk Hastedt
Mathematics
Achievement
of Immigrant
Students
Mathematics Achievement of Immigrant Students

Dirk Hastedt
Mathematics Achievement of
Immigrant Students
Dirk Hastedt
IEA
Amsterdam , The Netherlands
ISBN 978-3-319-29310-3 ISBN 978-3-319-29311-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-29311-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016931290
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
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Pref ace
This book is a modifi ed version of a dissertation prepared at the University of
Vienna for a PhD in education. When I started working on this undertaking, I aimed
to examine changes of populations in international large-scale assessments where
the populations of countries are usually assumed to be constant in most research.
This topic was brought to my attention by Hans Wagemaker, to whom I am indebted
not only for this inspiration but also for his encouragement while I was working on
the dissertation.
In view of current events in Europe and the Middle East, the topic of immigrants,
and immigrants in education systems, has provoked keen interest and gained rele-
vance – especially in these regions. I hope that this publication helps to better under-
stand the situation of immigrant students and that it inspires researchers as well as
policy makers to improve the situation of immigrants and education systems that
face severe challenges due to high immigration rates. The examples of Singapore
and Canada show that improving the situation for immigrants in schools is not only
a matter of education policies. It also seems to be infl uenced by the opinions toward
immigrants and by policies fostering positive attitudes toward immigrants in
general.
S ome of the results presented, such as the differences between immigrant boys
and girls, will hopefully encourage some study participants, e.g., Eastern European
countries where the differences are particularly pronounced, to analyze this aspect
more in depth. The importance of school safety – especially for immigrant students
– will hopefully also be acknowledged. I expect that the results regarding the peer
effect might change the current perspective that the presence of immigrant students
in class always has a negative impact on their peers’ achievement. Supporting
immigrant students is also an indirect means to help their native peers because high-
achieving immigrant students seem to have a positive effect on their peers’
achievement.
I would like to conclude these remarks by thanking all the people who helped me
conduct this research, and I would like to mention a few of them who played a very
important role.
v
vi Preface
I would like to thank Stefan Hopmann for serving as my doctoral father and for
his manifold support during the preparation of this dissertation. My thanks also go
to Henning Schluß and Tamara Katschnig and many others at the University of
Vienna for their continuous help.
I am deeply grateful for the feedback and support I got from Seamus Hegarty and
David Rutkowski that helped improve this publication tremendously. The task of
layout and editing was done wonderfully by Viola Hingst – thanks!
F inally, my deepest thanks goes to my wife Maren and my kids Helen, Hannah,
and Emily who tolerated me being stressed when writing this dissertation and who
always encouraged me to continue working on it. Moreover, my mother’s trust in
me was of tremendous value throughout my whole life but especially during the
busy times of writing this piece of research.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands Dirk Hastedt
Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 1
Globalization ............................................................................................. 2
What Matters to Immigrant Students ........................................................ 7
Outline ....................................................................................................... 7
2 Review ...................................................................................................... 11
Effects of Age and Schooling.................................................................... 12
Differences Between Girls and Boys ........................................................ 14
Language Diffi culties ................................................................................ 15
Socioeconomic Background and Parental Education ............................... 16
Attitudes and Aspiration ........................................................................... 17
Differences Between Country Regions ..................................................... 18
School Attendance .................................................................................... 20
The Effect of School Resources ................................................................ 21
The School Climate ................................................................................... 22
School Safety ............................................................................................ 24
Class Size .................................................................................................. 25
Homework ................................................................................................. 25
Peer Effects ............................................................................................... 27
3 Data and Methods ................................................................................... 31
TIMSS ....................................................................................................... 31
The TIMSS Assessment ............................................................................ 32
TIMSS Questionnaires .............................................................................. 34
The TIMSS Sample ................................................................................... 35
The TIMSS Scores .................................................................................... 37
Analyzing TIMSS Data ............................................................................. 40
Methods of Analysis ................................................................................. 40
Signifi cance and Relevance of Differences ............................................... 40
Focus on Mathematics .............................................................................. 43
vii
viii Contents
4A Immigrant Students in TIMSS .............................................................. 47
Trends in Percentages of First-Generation
Immigrant Students in Grade Eight .......................................................... 47
Trends in Percentages of First-Generation
Immigrant Students in Grade Four ........................................................... 53
Trends in Percentages of Second-Generation
Immigrant Grade Eight Students .............................................................. 53
Trends in Mathematics Achievement for Immigrant Students ................. 60
Trends in Science Achievement for Immigrant Students ......................... 67
Summary ................................................................................................... 73
4B Immigrant Students’ Background in TIMSS 2007 .............................. 75
Students’ Age ............................................................................................ 75
Age at Immigration ................................................................................... 78
Differences Between Girls and Boys ........................................................ 81
Language Spoken by Immigrant Students ................................................ 87
Parents’ Education .................................................................................... 94
Home Possessions .................................................................................... 102
Students’ Attitudes .................................................................................... 108
Students’ Attitudes to School .................................................................... 108
Students’ Attitude Towards Mathematics ................................................. 111
Students’ Attitudes: Self-Effi cacy ............................................................. 116
Summary ................................................................................................... 121
4C School Factors ......................................................................................... 123
Distribution of Immigrants Within Countries ........................................... 123
School Attendance .................................................................................... 133
School Resources ...................................................................................... 138
School Climate ......................................................................................... 150
School Safety ............................................................................................ 154
Summary ................................................................................................... 159
4D Class Level and Teacher Level Factors ................................................. 161
Class Size .................................................................................................. 161
Homework ................................................................................................ 167
Concentration of Immigrant Students ...................................................... 174
Summary ................................................................................................... 185
5A Immigrant Students in Singapore ......................................................... 187
The History of the Educational System in Singapore............................... 187
Immigration in Singapore ......................................................................... 188
Singapore’s Education System in International Comparison ................... 189
Immigrant Students in Singapore ............................................................. 189
Access to Schools in Singapore ................................................................ 192
Support Programs in Singapore ................................................................ 192
Summary ................................................................................................... 193
Contents ix
5B Immigrant Students in Canada ............................................................. 195
The Educational System of Canada .......................................................... 195
Immigration in Canada ............................................................................. 196
Immigrant Students in Canada ................................................................. 201
Factors Found in the Quantitative Research ............................................. 202
Promoting an Inclusive and Supportive School Environment .............. 203
Summary ................................................................................................... 206
6 Discussion and Conclusion ..................................................................... 209
Summary of the Results ............................................................................ 210
Discussion ................................................................................................. 216
Limitations ................................................................................................ 218
Further Research ....................................................................................... 219
References ........................................................................................................ 221