Investgation of students' science competency levels and socioeconomic status in TIMSS with regard to some variables

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) conducts the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) to 4th and 8th-grade students every four years. The aim of TIMSS is to assess students' knowledge and skills in mathematics and science on an international level. In addition to achievement tests, TIMSS also includes surveys with detailed data for school administrators, teachers, students, and parents. The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors associated with the science competency levels of 8th-grade students in Turkey and their families' socioeconomic status in the TIMSS cycles of 2011, 2015, and 2019. This study employs a relational research method as it investigates the relationship between factors such as educational expectations, frequency of science homework assigned by science teachers, sense of belonging to school, like learning science, value science, self-confidence in science and both students' science competency levels and their families' socioeconomic status. Data collected from science achievement tests and student surveys administered to 8th-grade students in the Turkish sample of TIMSS 2011, 2015, and 2019 are used as the research instruments. The sample includes 6,928 students from TIMSS 2011; 6,079 students from TIMSS 2015; and 4,077 students from TIMSS 2019 all at the 8th-grade level in Turkey. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression analyses were conducted to obtain data in the study. The findings indicate that factors such as educational expectations and self-confidence in science have a positive and stronger correlation students' science competency levels and socioeconomic statuses compared to other factors. The results reveal that the frequency of science homework assigned by science teachers has a negative relationship only with students' science competency levels, while the sense of belonging to school, to like learning science, and value science have a negative relationship with both science competency levels and socioeconomic status.