An Examination of TIMSS 2015 Science Affective Factors with Regard to Gender and Regions

Abstract

Various international and national tests are applied to assess curricula across the world. About 250.000 students’ knowledge and skills are tested via Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Many international and national comparisons are made with the test results. However, to be able to compare the test results of such a big crowd of people, the test results must not differ because of any other variable but achievement; in short, they must represent the same results of measurement. In the light of this information, the purpose of the study is to examine the measurement invariance of the model of the science affective factors of the eighth graders participated in TIMSS 2015 Turkey which is constructed via structural equation modeling, among Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics – Level 1 regions and genders in Turkey, through multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. The sample of this research consists of 5344 students and the analyses was made by using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 softwares. As a result of this study, the model met strict invariance for genders and scalar invariance for regions.