Learning Science

This publication reports the results of the second International Assessment of Educational Progress for science. Twenty countries assessed the mathematics and science achievement of 13-year-old students and 14 countries assessed 9-year-old students in these same subjects. In some cases, participants assessed virtually all age-eligible children in their countries and in other cases they confined samples to certain geographic regions, language groups, or grade levels. In some countries, significant proportions of age-eligible children were not represented because they did not attend school. The following countries participated: Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Korea, Mozambique, Portugal, Scotland, Slovenia, Soviet Union, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United States. Some of the reported highlights from the study are as follows: (1) in nearly all populations 13-year-old boys performed significantly better than girls; (2) science tests and quizzes are used most frequently in Taiwan, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Jordan; (3) the highest-achieving countries with the exception of Taiwan do not practice ability grouping within science classes at age 13; and (4) 13-year-olds in most countries do not spend a great deal of time doing science homework. (PR)