Investigation Of Turkish Students Mathematics...

Investigation of Turkish Students’ Mathematics Performance based on PISA 2012 Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between selected student- and school-level variables and mathematics performance of Turkish students using PISA 2012 dataset. Two research questions were investigated: (1) How much do schools vary in their mean mathematics achievement in Turkey? (2) Which student- and school-level variables are associated with students’ mathematics performance in Turkey based on PISA 2012 results? Theoretical Framework PISA is a 3-year cycle of international assessment, which has been organized by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 2000. The primary aim of the PISA assessments is to determine the extent to which young people, who are 15-years old, have acquired the wider knowledge and skills that they will need in their real-life challenges with considering a literacy perspective in reading, mathematics, and science. According to PISA 2012 overall results, Turkey ranked 44th, 42nd, and 43rd positions across the 65 countries in mathematics, reading and science, respectively (OECD, 2014b). In this present study, some student- and school variables were chosen to determine if there is any effect on students’ mathematics performance in Turkey. Gender is the first variable coming to mind when someone starts an educational research because there are not any certain statements; therefore, the influences of gender on the