TIMSS 2019 Context Questionnaires

An important purpose of TIMSS 2019 is to study the home, community, school, and student factors associated with student achievement in mathematics and science at the fourth and eighth grades. To accomplish this, data about the contexts for learning are collected through questionnaires completed by students and their parents, teachers, and school principals. In addition, TIMSS National Research Coordinators provide information on the national and community contexts for learning through the Curriculum Questionnaire and their country’s chapter in the TIMSS 2019 Encyclopedia.

Download Questionnaires

Each of the TIMSS 2019 Context Questionnaires can be downloaded below in PDF format.

GRADE 4

GRADE 8

Student Questionnaires

Each student participating in TIMSS 2019 completed a Student Questionnaire. The questionnaire asked about aspects of students’ home and school lives, including basic demographic information, their home environment, school climate for learning, and attitudes toward learning mathematics and science. In countries teaching science as separate subjects at eighth grade, students completed a version of the Student Questionnaire with questions specific to each subject (e.g., biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science).

For countries that participated in eTIMSS 2019 (the computer-based version of TIMSS 2019), students also answered several questions about their experience taking the eTIMSS assessment and their familiarity with digital devices.

Home Questionnaire (Early Learning Survey)

The parents or guardians of participating fourth grade students completed the Early Learning Survey, often referred to as the Home Questionnaire. The questionnaire asked about home resources that support learning and information about their highest level of education and employment situations, opinions about their child’s school, their child’s attendance in preprimary education programs, the emphasis on literacy and numeracy activities in the home before the child attended school, and the level of their child’s literacy and numeracy skills when beginning school.

Teacher Questionnaires

Teachers of the assessed classes responded to a Teacher Questionnaire. The questionnaire asked students’ teachers about their education, professional development, and experience in teaching. It also asked about students’ readiness for instruction, the frequency they do various instructional activities, difficulties in providing instruction, curriculum topics covered, assessment practices, and availability of computers for instruction. A single version of the Teacher Questionnaire was administered at the fourth grade to students’ teachers, given that generally the same teachers taught the students both mathematics and science. At the eighth grade, there were separate versions of the questionnaire for students’ mathematics teachers and science teachers.

School Questionnaires

The principal of each school that participated in TIMSS 2019 completed a School Questionnaire. Principals answered questions about the level of literacy and numeracy skills among students in the school when they first enter, the socioeconomic background of the students attending the school, the availability of instructional resources, the school’s emphasis on academic success, and discipline and school safety.

Curriculum Questionnaires

The TIMSS 2019 National Research Coordinator within each country was responsible for completing the Curriculum Questionnaires. Questions primarily centered on national curriculum policies and practices related to the countries’ education systems and the organization and content of the mathematics and science curricula in their country.

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