Effects of Classroom Instructional Strategies and Self-Beliefs on Science Achievement of Elementary-School Students in Japan: Results from the TIMSS 2003 Assessment.

There is a continuing interest in identifying factors associated with student success in mathematics and science. Further, results from international assessments have indicated that students in Japan have scored above international averages on science achievement (Baldi, et al., 2007). Several instructional strategies appear to be significantly related to science achievement. Authentic learning strategies provide opportunities for students to make connections between real-world problems and information presented during classroom instruction (Lee & Songer, 2003). In addition, more frequent use of cooperative learning experiences was positively related to science achievement for adolescent students in Kong Kong and Japan (House, 2000a, 2006). Cooperative learning activities provide opportunities for elementary-school students to moniter their individual progress and solicit assistance for solving problems (Stright & Supplee, 2002). Results from an ethnographic analysis of science classrooms in Japan indicated that eight specific activity structures were observed in several lessons (Linn, Lewis, Tsuchida, & Songer, 2000). Those activity structures included connections between lesson content and student interests and experiences, having teachers design experiments and organize equipment, having students conduct experiments in the classroom, students shared results, teachers then organized information from those student experiments to identify patterns, class reflection about the original hypotheses and experimental results, and a class discussion about investigations that might be subsequently developed. In addition to classroom instruction, student beliefs about science and mathematics are significantly related to achievement outcomes. Results from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 assessment indicated that students in Korea who expressed positive beliefs about their ability in mathematics also tended to earn higher achievement test scores (House, 2008). Similarly, student beliefs about science were significantly associated with science test scores for a national sample of students from Ireland (House, 2000b). Further, the use of specific classroom strategies, such as cooperative learning and authentic learning activities, were positively related to motivation for learning science for students in Japan (House, 2003). There is a need, however, to examine the effects of instructional activities and student beliefs about science on achievement outcomes of students in Japan using data from the TIMSS 2003 assessment. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between student beliefs about science, classroom instructional strategies, and science achievement of elementary-school students in Japan. This study was designed to build upon recent findings regarding the effects of instructional strategies on science achievement for students in Japan (House, 2005, 2006). Based on findings from previous research, it was hypothesized that more frequent use of active learning strategies and cooperative learning activities would be positively associated with science achievement test scores. Further, this study was intended to extend previous findings by examining a large national sample of students who participated in a comprehensive assessment of international educational contexts and achievement. Methods Students included in these analyses were from the TIMSS 2003 fourth-grade sample (9-year-olds) from Japan. There were 4,006 students who completed all of the items regarding classroom instructional strategies and science beliefs that were examined in this study. Students in the TIMSS 2003 assessment were given a questionnaire that measured classroom instructional strategies, outside-school activities, student beliefs about science, and science achievement. Considering classroom instruction, students reported the use of the following: "In school, how often do you do these things? …