The Effects of Bringing Interesting Materials into the Classroom on 4th Grade Students’ Mathematics Achievement: A Comparative Study Using TIMSS Data

Abstract

The aim of this study is examining the relationship between student achievement and bringing interesting materials to the classroom in 4th grade mathematics in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and Singapore. This study used TIMSS 2015 data to investigate the relationship between student achievement and bringing interesting materials to the classroom in 4th grade mathematics. The frequency of bringing interesting materials to the classroom is the independent variable and student achievement scores is the dependent variable of this study. The study selected four countries, each from different proficiency levels according to the TIMSS 2015 mathematics result, to see if bringing interesting materials to classrooms has different effects in different countries. SPSS in conjunction with the IDB analyzer tool, developed by International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), were used to analyze data. The result shows that a significant relationship between frequency of bringing interesting materials and student achievement in 4th grade. In addition, the study found that bringing interesting materials explains 3% of mathematics achievement in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey; however it does not explain any portion of student achievement in Singapore.