Do the maths or we’ll never be a STEM superpower

Calls for Australia to become a STEM superpower will never be answered unless our students can match the world’s best in maths.

However, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) results released overnight show a mixed report card in student achievement compared to benchmark countries — with four key trends apparent.

First, Australia continues to lag well behind the world’s best, with72 per cent of our 10-year-olds and 64 per cent of 14-year-olds proficient in maths — around the same level of Eastern European countries — compared to more than 90 per cent and 85 per cent respectively in the highest performing school systems (mostly concentrated in East Asia).

Second, there has been a long-term malaise in maths. Since the mid-2000s of international testing in maths, the average Australian student achievement in TIMSS has been essentially flat.

The same is also found in our NAPLAN assessments. And in international tests of 15-year-olds, results have declined at among the steepest rates in the world for decades.

Third, maths performance has been poorer than in other domains. Over recent years, Australian students have recorded generally promising results in early reading. The TIMSS-equivalent in reading, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), last year showed around 80 per cent of 10-year-olds are proficient readers. At the same time, 15 years of NAPLAN data has confirmed a modest long-term improvement in reading in primary school.

Similarly, in science, 83 per cent of Australian 10-year-olds in TIMSS are proficient in science — matching students in Hong Kong. And in the NAPLAN equivalent for science, performance has generally been stable over more than 15 years of domestic testing of Year 6 and Year 10 students.

But the fourth trend is that Australian students have the equal-largest maths gender gap in the world.The difference between the performance of 10-year-old boys and girls sits, with France, as the biggest globally. This gap has grown over the past decade despite girls and boys previously level–pegging in the 1990s and 2000s.

This adds up to an urgent need to raise maths achievement — particularly if Australia is to remain internationally competitive in the world of STEM. To do so will require a shift in education policy and practice.

First, Australia needs a determined focus on ambitious national improvement targets. Australia’s national aspiration must be to perform at the levels of East Asia, not Eastern Europe. Yet there are currently few clear national objectives for improving education outcomes.

The (nearly decade-old) National STEM School Strategy did not set an explicit achievement target. Current efforts from Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare, to embed modest national and state targets for student outcomes within funding agreements remain contested in the big Eastern states.

Second, Australia must abandon faddish approaches to STEM education and better build on maths foundations.

Much STEM education is heavy on 21st century skills — trendy capabilities like creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and the like — but lite on essential maths facts and a focus on mastering the basics.

Recent debates in Australia have foolishly questioned the role of learning basic foundations — like multiplication tables and being able to quickly compute simple equations — rather than doubling down on these skills.

This is borne out in our students’ results. For instance, though Australian children perform comparatively well in tasks like reading, displaying, and interpreting data, they perform less well on simple equations using fractions and whole numbers.

Third, we must abandon wrongheaded approaches to the STEM gender gap. Too many educationaliststhink the source of the gender gap comes from sociology rather than science. This has led to a misguided belief that lifting girls’ maths results only be achieved through overcoming gendered societal norms and stereotypes.

However, it’s not a lack of engagement, but a lack of achievement that’s to blame for girls’ underperformance.

Experts on the STEM gender gap have found that, in the main, boys and girls can successfully achieve in maths, but that girls who struggle with the subject can be relatively more susceptible to suffering from anxiety with maths.

And finally, we need to enhance the size, strength, and skill of Australia’s maths teachers.

It’s no secret that Australian classrooms have struggled to staff maths classes for decades, with persistent out-of-field teaching in the subject.

When teachers themselves lack confidence in maths, this impacts their confidence teaching it. In turn, students with non-specialist maths teachers generally achieve at a lower level than their counterparts.

This challenge is not limited to high school, as Australia’s primary school teachers are especially likely to lack preparation in maths during their training and to achieve at relatively low levels in maths themselves at school.

Australian policymakers and industry often talk a big game about Australia’s STEM future. But this will remain compromised whilst our students lag the world’s best in maths education.

Without commitment and dedicated focus on maths, Australia will remain a second-rate country in STEM.