COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE MATHEMATICS PROBLEMS GIVEN AT INTERNATIONAL TESTS AND AT THE ROMANIAN NATIONAL TESTS - Volume 2 - Number 2 - 2009

Oct 15, 2026

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Romanian students’ results in mathematics on the international PISA and TIMSS assessments remain below the international average. The article explains possible causes and compares mathematics problems used in these international tests with problems from Romanian national tests. It reviews curriculum and cognitive-level coverage, then analyzes representative TIMSS and PISA tasks, highlighting real-life contexts and the role of reasoning and application skills in student performance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Analyzing the problems given at TIMSS test

Analyzing the problems given at PISA test

Volume 2, Number 2, 2009 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE MATHEMATICS PROBLEMS GIVEN AT INTERNATIONAL TESTS AND AT THE ROMANIAN NATIONAL TESTS Iuliana Marchis Abstract. The results of the Romanian pupils on international tests PISA and TIMSS in Mathematics are below the average. These poor results have many explications. In this article we compare the Mathematics problems given on these international tests with those given on national tests in Romania. Zusammenfassung. Die Ergebnisse der rumänischen Schüler auf den internationalen PISA-und TIMSS-Tests in der Mathematik sind weiterhin unter dem Durchschnitt. Diese schlechten Ergebnisse haben viele Erklärungen. In diesem Artikel werden wir presentieren und vergleichen Mathematische-Aufgabe aus dieser internationalen Tests mit Aufgaben von nationalen Tests in Rumänien. Key words: international test, Mathematics Education, Mathematics problem 1. Introduction The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) . The curriculum for TIMSS contains content domains and Knowing facts and procedures. The content domains covered by TIMSS 2003 are Number, Measurement, Geometry, Data and Algebra. The knowing factsand procedures are using concepts, solving routine problems, reasoning. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) . The main objective of PISA is to provide data on the competencies of 15-year-olds (students at an age that is near the end of compulsory schooling inmost countries) . PISA focuses on literacy -the ability to use and apply knowledge and skills to realworld situations encountered in adult life. The curriculum contains contents and competency clusters. The contents of the Mathematics test contain change and relationship, quantity, space and shape, uncertainty. As regarding competency clusters, those evaluated by PISA are reproduction, connections, and reflection. In this test the Mathematical Literacy of pupils is tested. Mathematical literacy is “the capacity to identify and understand the role that mathematics plays in the world, to make well-founded judgments and to use and engage with mathematics in ways that meet the needs of that individual’s life as a constructive, concerned and reflective citizen”(OECD, 2003) . It is related to wider, functional use of mathematics, engagement requires the ability to recognize and formulate mathematical problems in various situations. Romanian pupils obtained poor results on these tests. For example In Table 1 we can compare the average of the Romanian pupils on TIMSS and PISA tests with the international average. Analyzing the Mathematics results at TIMSS and PISA test, Romania has the score lower than the international average, with one exception: TIMSS 2003. On this testing Romania obtained 475 points, as the average is 466, so the difference is not big. The highest difference between Romania’s score and international average was obtained at PISA 2006 test Table 1. The results of Romanian students at international tests in Mathematics | TIMSS tests | | | PISA tests | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Year | TIMSS average | Romania’s score | Year | OECD average | Romania’s score | | 1995 | 519 | 474 | 2000 | 500 | 426 | | 1999 | 521 | 472 | 2003 | 500 | - | | 2003 | 466 | 475 | 2006 | 500 | 415 | | 2007 | 500 | 461 | | | | These poor results have more reasons. Analyzing the Romanian school curriculum, it stops at the analysis level of the cognitive domain taxonomy of Bloom. (Marchis, Ciascai, Ciomos, 2009) . Reasoning, which is present at TIMSS test, is not covered. The real-life problems are missing. The aim of this paper is to compare the problems given at PISA and TIMSS test with those given at Romanian national tests. 2. Analyzing the problems given at TIMSS tes

FAQs

What international assessments does the article compare?

It compares Romania’s mathematics results from TIMSS and PISA, focusing on how their problem sets differ from Romanian national tests.

Why does the author say Romanian results are below average?

The article suggests shortcomings in curriculum coverage, emphasizing that reasoning and real-life problem types are insufficiently addressed.

What does the article aim to accomplish?

The paper aims to compare the mathematics problems in PISA and TIMSS with those used in Romanian national tests, analyzing how tasks are structured and what skills they require.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Putri