Use and Impact of TIMSS
Australia has participated in every cycle of TIMSS since 1995, at Grades 4 and 8, including the video study. This long and continual participation has ensured the position of TIMSS as an important source of information for educators and policymakers across Australia.
The Australian Government’s National Assessment Program includes TIMSS as one of several international assessments used as key performance measures for collecting data on the progress of Australian students toward the National Goals for Schooling. Including international assessments in the National Assessment Program is important, not just for benchmarking against other countries, but also for gathering contextual information. The information from international assessments such as TIMSS has highlighted certain areas of concern for Australia, which are being addressed by government policy. In particular, the Office of the Chief Scientist has included data from TIMSS in reports looking at the status of STEM in Australia,39 which influenced the Australian Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA), announced in December 2015.40 In addition, TIMSS (particularly the video study) was used to help guide the development of the new Australian Curriculum.41
At the state and territory level, TIMSS is used similarly to evaluate student progress across the system. As a result, TIMSS has played an important role in informing curriculum development and benchmarking, determining support teachers may need in mathematics and science, justifying funding support for mathematics and science programs, and prompting further in-depth research into issues raised by the TIMSS data. In some cases, TIMSS results have prompted major system-wide review, such as the Queensland Education Performance Review 2009.42 In addition, the TIMSS video study has been useful particularly for preservice teacher education and training and for in-service teacher professional development. For example, Lesson Study as a mode of professional learning was developed in New South Wales as a result of the TIMSS video study, and has been used in primary and secondary schools since 2002.43