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The First International Mathematics Study (FIMS)

1963–1967   

This study was conducted to investigate the outcomes of various school systems in a field of schooling that was, at this time, undergoing various reforms in many countries. So-called “New Mathematics”, resulting from the international agreement on what essential new material should be included in the curriculum, had been introduced in some educational systems. FIMS research questions related to the organization of education, the curriculum, and methods of instruction. The study also examined how mathematics teaching and learning might be influenced by societal, scientific, and technological change. The data were collected in 1964.

Target Population

This was 13-year-old students, 13-year-old grade-level students, and pre-university students.

Participating Educational Systems

Australia, Belgium, England, Finland, France, Germany (FRG), Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden, United States.

Key Findings

  1. Students who had taken courses in “New Mathematics” achieved higher scores than other students on items in traditional mathematics.
  2. At the lower secondary school level in most countries, achievement in mathematics was positively correlated with students’ view that that mathematics learning is an open and inquiry-centered process. Conversely, the highest level of achievement among pre-university students specializing in mathematics was accompanied with a view that mathematics learning is a process of memorization and following rules.
  3. At all levels of schooling and both within and between countries, the students’ expressed interest in mathematics was positively correlated with achievement. There was no significant gender difference in interest in mathematics in the single-sex schools, but in co-educational schools boys expressed significantly more interest in mathematics than girls.
  4. Boys outperformed girls at all grade levels to a greater extent in single-sex than in co-educational schools. The lowest gender-related differences were identified in the United States and Sweden; the highest were in Belgium, England, Japan, and the Netherlands.
  5. Only in two countries, Japan and the United States, was there evidence of differences in mathematics achievement between urban and rural communities. In Japan, students in urban schools outperformed students in rural schools in the case of the younger group. In the United States, this was true for all tested levels of schooling.
  6. The correlation between parents’ education and student achievement in mathematics varied considerably between countries. For the grade containing the majority of 13-year-olds, Japan and England displayed the highest correlations between achievement and both parents’ education and father’s occupational status. At the pre-university level, a significant correlation was found only for the United States.
  7. On average, parents of students at the pre-university level had 1.7 more years of formal schooling. The difference varied from 0.5 years in the United States to 3.6 years in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Major Publications

 

Husén, T. (Ed.). (1967).

A Comparison of Twelve Countries: International Study of Achievement in Mathematics (Vols. 1–2).

Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell.

 

Postlethwaite, T.N. (Ed.). (1967).

School Organization and Student Achievement: A Study Based on Achievement in Mathematics in Twelve Countries.

Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell; New York: John Wiley.

 

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