hankyoreh

By Park Soo-jin, staff reporter

South Korean elementary and middle school students were tops in an international evaluation of academic achievement in mathematics and science. In the same evaluation Korean students ranked near the bottom in confidence and level of interest in their school subjects.

The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) on Dec. 11 released the results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011, which was conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) with 300,000 fourth grade students from 50 countries and 300,000 eighth grade students from 42 countries. The TIMSS is an international assessment of student achievement in mathematics and science based on the average scores of the two subjects. It is conducted once every four years.

South Korean fourth grade students earned an average score of 605 in mathematics, ranking second behind Singapore. In science, they were first with 587 points. The percentage of students who fell short of the base line achievement level stood at zero in mathematics and 1% in science. The performance in the two subjects by the lowest 5% ranked highest among the 50 countries surveyed. The achievement of even the lowest ranking South Korean students is still understood to be generally high.

Eighth grade students earned an average score in mathematics of 613, the highest out of 42 countries. They were third highest in science with a score of 560. The percentage of students who fell short of the baselines in mathematics and science stood at 1% and 3%, respectively.

On the other hand, South Korean students‘ confidence level and their level of interest in learning was found to be near rock bottom. In a survey that assessed students’ interest in mathematics, South Korean fourth grade students ranked the lowest out of 50 countries with only 23% responding, “Very much” in response to the statement, “I enjoy studying mathematics”. On the other hand, 48% of Singaporean students said they were interested in mathematics. In terms of interest in science, South Korean students ranked 47th with 38% expressing an interest.

The survey also showed that South Korean students lack confidence in learning. In the evaluation of confidence in mathematics, with seven questions including “I am generally good at mathematics,” only 11% of South Korean fourth grade students were found to have confidence in their abilities, which places them 49th out of 50 countries.

The low interest and confidence levels of South Korean students in mathematics and science is thought to be caused by excessive competition. Seong Tae-je, president of KICE said, “It is thought that the relatively small number of South Korean students who answered that they were confident or interested in their subjects is because our education system ranks students against each other and there are extremely high expectations for academic performance due to competition”. He went on to stress the need for the relative evaluation system to be changed to an absolute evaluation system.

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