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Fußballroboter im Tor © Nikolas Golsch​/​TU Dortmund
TIMSS International Assessment

“Elementary School Students are Just as Good at Math as Before the Pandemic”

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Portrait of a man © Roland Baege​/​TU Dortmund
Christoph Selter is a professor at the Institute for Development and Research in Mathematics Education (IEEM).
In an international comparison, the mathematics performance of elementary school students in Germany ranks in the middle bracket. Although there have been no major calamities, many children nevertheless lack basic skills in the subject. These are the findings arrived at by the latest TIMSS, which were announced on 4 December. Professor Christoph Selter from the Institute for Development and Research in Mathematics Education (IEEM) at TU Dortmund University plays a key role in the assessment, which is presented every four years: He is responsible for the substudy on mathematics in Germany.

The assessment, whose full title is “Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study”, has been conducted since 1995; Germany has participated since 2007, which was also when Professor Christoph Selter came on board. This year, he was joined by Assistant Professor Daniel Walter, one of his IEEM colleagues. A total of 58 countries took part in TIMSS 2023, the latest cycle, including 22 EU and 29 OECD countries. Around 360,000 students in the 4th grade (9-10 years old) took part worldwide. In Germany, 4,442 4th grade students at 230 schools participated.

Professor Selter, in your opinion, what are the most important findings from the latest study with regard to mathematics? What surprised you? What should set the alarm bells ringing?

Professor Christoph Selter: The fact that students have maintained their level of performance is indeed surprising: Elementary school students in Germany are just as good at math as before the pandemic. Since all the children tested for the latest survey in spring 2023 were affected by lockdown restrictions during their first two years at school, we might have expected the results to be poorer. This was a positive surprise not only for me. On the negative side, however, there has been no recognizable upward trend since 2007. In an international comparison, most countries manage to improve over time, whereas student performance here in Germany stays the same.

What I continue to find truly alarming are the results of the extreme groups: With around a quarter of those tested, we have far too many children in Germany in the two lowest achievement levels. At best, these pupils have fundamental knowledge of mathematics, and they are capable of solving only the simplest tasks. In mathematics, this is highly problematic because those students who do not master the basic principles will also have problems when they proceed to secondary school. But the proportion of children in the top group is also worryingly low: Although it has risen from 6 to 8.3 percent, it is still very low by international standards. This means that the potential of elementary school students in Germany is not being sufficiently leveraged.

What are the consequences? What needs to be done, in your opinion?

On the one hand, we must help teachers to provide opportunities for high-achieving students that foster their abilities. In Singapore, just under 50 percent of the children tested are in the top group. As we have an entirely different school culture, that cannot be our goal, but there is nevertheless still a lot of potential among our own high achievers. At the same time, we need to up our game when it comes to diagnosing and supporting underachieving children. Ideally, difficulties should be identified in the first two years of school, and the children should then be given targeted assistance. Practicing certain tasks over and over again is inexpedient. Rather, it is important to recognize the origins of children’s problems with comprehension and start from there. And it is here that teachers rely on external support because they cannot master it alone. That is why it is our task as scientists to develop and provide material in collaboration with educators and to offer appropriate further training.

We at TU Dortmund University are currently participating in three projects: Together with colleagues from the university, including Professor Susanne Prediger and Professor Daniela Götze, I am involved, for example, in QuaMath, the 10-year program of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany, which aims to reach 10,000 schools, and in the Startchancen Program, with which the federal and state governments want to support up to 4,000 schools in challenging circumstances. We have also been developing materials for better math teaching within the PIKAS project for many years. I am hopeful that we are on the right track.

What is it like for you personally to be involved in such a large international study? What does it mean for your everyday work?

On the one hand, it means that it gets very stressful every four years because the international results always land on our desks at a very late stage, but we need them for our comparative analysis. And, of course, press inquiries pile up when the latest results are published. Within TIMSS, I am part of a large German consortium led by the University of Hamburg. The lively exchange with colleagues over many years is very valuable for my work. It is also exciting to be appointed to an overarching consortium and actually select the tasks together with the international partners that the school students have to solve.

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