THE IMPACT OF VARIATION IN FAMILY BACKGROUND ON THE RESULTS OF SAUDI STUDENTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL STUDY TESTS OF THE LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE TRENDS IN SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TIMSS (2007)

The present study aims to identify the socio-economic and cultural background that distinguished between the performance of Saudi students in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study tests TIMSS-2007 and to explore the most related of these factors to the level of students’ achievement in Mathematics and Science. It was based on the results of Saudi students who participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study tests TIMSS-2007 and who numbered 4,343 male and female students belonging to Second Intermediate level (grade eight), with an average age of 14 years for both genders, from 165 schools across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They were selected according to the established procedures of the International Association for the Evaluation of Performance and Educational achievement (IED). Results of the analysis revealed that there is a positively significant relationship between the achievement in Science and Mathematics for the variables: availability of a study table and the availability of the Internet, and that there exists an inversely significant relationship between the variables: hours devoted to work for a pay and the percentage of students who come from poor families and between students’ achievement in Mathematics and Science. The economic background variables interpreted 13% of the variation in students’ results in Mathematics and Science.
Moreover, it also appeared that there is a relationship between achievement in Mathematics and Science and all the cultural variables: Father's education, number of books at home, availability of a calculator, availability of a dictionary and the highest degree expected to be obtained by students (ambition), with the exception of the variable: Mother’s education, and the proportion of variation in students’ achievement in Mathematics and Science interpreted by the cultural variables reached 13% for each of the two subjects. The research findings also revealed the existence of a statistically significant relationship between achievement in Mathematics and Science with four social variables which are: student’s birthplace, gender, mother’s birthplace and the population of the area where the school is located. Also, that the variation in learning outcomes in Mathematics as interpreted by the social variables has reached 8%, against 14% for the achievement in Science. Findings of the study also indicated that the strongest and most influential of the economic, social and cultural variables on the achievement in Mathematics interpreted 22% of the variation in the results of students achievement in Mathematics, and 23% of the variation in their achievement in Science.