Denmark

Use and Impact of TIMSS

The impact of TIMSS may be evaluated as it relates to the Ministry of Children, Education, and Gender Equality, the school system, parents, teachers, and the public, respectively, and is reflected in a written report (in Danish) containing international results and secondary analyses specific to the Danish school system. Three TIMSS reports have been published in Denmark (1995, 2007, and 2011).

TIMSS has had impact on the Ministry as a source of input in political processes and discussions; implementation of TIMSS recommendations has been limited, however. TIMSS has had greater impact on the teachers’ union and the public, as teacher journals and newspapers work directly with TIMSS researchers. National reports in education journals and newspapers that take TIMSS as a source of information have focused on (1) the impact of socioeconomic factors on student performance (all relevant student subgroup comparisons in the reports were undertaken in controlled comparisons), (2) the impact of the number of yearly lessons on student performance, (3) the impact of school and class size on student performance, and (4) the impact of specialist teachers in mathematics and science on student performance.