3.3.1
A Snapshot of Performance in 2009
In the 2009 PISA assessment in scientific literacy, Ireland’s mean score of 508 equated to a rank of 20th of 65 participating countries, 14th of 34 OECD countries and 20th of those 57 countries participating in both years. Overall, of the participating countries the five-highest performing were Shanghai-China (575), Finland (554), Hong Kong-China (549), Singapore (542) and Japan (539), with Finland (554), Japan (539), Korea (538), New Zealand (532) and Canada (529) the top five among the OECD countries.
Ireland’s mean score of 508 lies above the OECD average of 501. Focusing on the mean value by country relative to the OECD mean, Ireland’s score puts it in the group of countries whose scores are above and statistically significantly different to the OECD average (Table 3.3). There are 15 other countries in this group. In addition to the top OECD performers cited above, these include Estonia, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, UK, Slovenia, Poland and Belgium. A further six OECD countries had mean score equivalent to the OECD average: Hungary, US, the Czech Republic, Norway, Denmark and France (OECD 2010a: 150).
Table 3.3 Science: Score of OECD Countries Relative to the OECD
Average in 2009
OECD Average Per
Cent
OECD Countries (34)
Above 44 Finland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Canada, Estonia, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, UK, Slovenia, Poland,
Ireland, Belgium
At the average 18 Hungary, US, Czech Rep., Norway, Denmark, France
Below 38 Iceland, Sweden, Austria, Portugal, Slovak Rep., Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Greece, Israel, Turkey, Chile, Mexico
Source OECD (2010a: 151)
Consideration of Ireland’s mean score relative to that of other participating countries shows that Ireland’s mean score does not differ significantly from the scores of 9 other countries: UK, Czech Republic, Hungary, US, Slovenia, Macao- China, Poland and Belgium (OECD 2010a: 151).
Both mathematics and science were minor domains in 2009, which means that the data is limited to a single overall scale-score for each domain and cannot be categorised into subscales with any reliability.
3.3.2
Proficiency Levels and Performance Spread in 2009
In Science, the percentage of Irish students at Level 1 or below is lower than the OECD average, 15.2 per cent to 18 per cent respectively. Other countries who also achieved mean scores significantly higher than the OECD average show an even lower percentage of students in the low-proficiency levels than Ireland, for example Canada at 9.6 per cent and Estonia at 8.3 per cent. The percentage of Irish students at high achieving levels (8.7 per cent at Level 5 or above) is not significantly different to the OECD average of 8.5 per cent. Nonetheless, the top performer, Shanghai-China has 24.3 per cent of students in the high-achieving category, while Finland, with the top OECD performance, had 18.7 per cent of students at this level.
Figure 3.3 Science: Percentage of Students in each Proficiency Level in 2009
Source OECD( 2010a: 225)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
1 and below 2 3 4 5 and above Ireland (508) OECD Average(501) Finland (554)
Narrow distributions in performance are evident both among the highest- and lowest-performing countries.50 Shanghai-China, and Korea combine high mean performances with narrow distributions (a gap of 207 and 209 score points respectively between the 10th and 90th percentile). Although Korea’s mean performance is almost identical to that of Japan and Singapore, Korea has a much narrower distribution (50 to 60 points less), scoring approximately 25 points higher at the 10th percentile and 20 points lower at the 90th percentile. Among the top performers, New Zealand returns the highest gap between the 10th and 90th percentile; its high score at the 90th percentile explains its high overall mean relative to Ireland’s. The disparity in the gap in performance across the top- performing countries in science, both in OECD and non-OECD countries, is striking. Some countries do very well at combining high scores with narrow gaps, while others achieve high mean scores by balancing lower scores at the 10th percentile with higher scores at the 90th. Although Ireland falls in the ‘above OECD average’ category, its performance at the 10th, 50th and 90th percentile is very similar to the OECD average performance.51
3.3.3
Gender Differences in Science Literacy
While females achieved a slightly higher mean score point in Science Literacy, the difference was not statistically significant (females 509.4 and males 506.6). Both scores are above the OECD average of 500.9 for females and 500.8 for males but while the females’ score for Ireland differs significantly from the OECD average, the score for males does not. Overall, gender differences are small. Among OECD countries, US (14 points) and Denmark (12 points) have the largest difference in favour of males, while Finland (15 points) and Slovenia (14 points) in favour of females. In Ireland there are slightly more males at the lower-proficiency levels (16 per cent versus 14.3 per cent), both percentages are below the OECD average. Ireland also has more males in the high achieving categories (9 per cent versus 8.3 per cent), with both almost identical to the OECD average (Perkins et al., 2010: 22).
3.3.4
Science Literacy: Changes between 2006 and 2009
Between 2006 and 2009, Ireland’s mean score for science did not change at 508.3 and 508 respectively, and remained significantly above the OECD average. Ireland’s rank remained static among OECD countries at 14th of 34. It dropped from 18th to 20th among those 57 countries participating in both cycles. The percentage of students in both high- and low- achieving categories did not change in Ireland since 2006, standing at 15.1 per cent and 8.7 per cent respectively in 2009. The gender gap remained small and insignificant.
50
Among the OECD countries, the narrowest distributions between the 5th and 95th percentiles were in the lowest-performing countries such as Mexico, Turkey and Chile (OECD 2010a: 150).
51