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Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an assessment of maths and science that has been monitoring trends in pupil achievement in Years 5 and 9 (Grades 4 and 8) since 1995.
This project runs from April 2024 to March 2026 and is funded by the Department for Education.
- Team
Co-Project investigators
- Dr Jennie Golding
- Professor Mary Richardson
National research coordinator
- Grace Grima - Pearson UK Director of Research
Advisory group
- Professor Jeremy Hodgen
- Professor Michael Reiss
- Professor John Jerrim
- Background
TIMSS takes place every 4 years in over 60 countries and provides internationally comparative data on pupils’ attainment in mathematics and science, and how their performance is related to their attitudes, gender and background. In addition, TIMSS includes questionnaires for teachers and headteachers, which provide a valuable perspective on maths and science teaching and the school environment.
TIMSS consists of four components:
- An onscreen mathematics and science assessment for pupils
- A background questionnaire for pupils
- A questionnaire for teachers
- A school questionnaire for headteachers
TIMSS is delivered by a National Study Centre in participating countries. Pearson and UCL IOE have been appointed as the TIMSS 2023 National Study Centre for England by the Department for Education; they also worked together for TIMSS 2019 and have done so for several iterations of the other large scale international study of performance in mathematics, PISA , that focuses on mathematical literacy rather than more directly curriculum-related mathematics.
Pearson works with schools to deliver the assessment, managing the administration, processing and scoring of the TIMSS 2023 performance tests and questionnaires. The UCL IOE team are responsible for the analysis of data, and reporting and dissemination of the TIMSS 2023 findings in England. National reporting will take place in two stages, in December 2024 and March 2025.
Further information
- Methodology
The methods adopted for analysis and interpretation will be similar to those used for TIMSS 2019 - although both performance and questionnaire responses will need to be interpreted in the light of the coronavirus pandemic and the other evidence of its impact on teachers and students, as well as on learning.