Min-Hsiung Huang and Shih-Keng Yen
Abstract: Secondary school students in Taiwan have recently experienced a decline in mathematics performance. A significant decrease was first observed in 2015. By 2018, a record low was reached. The decline is attributable to a significant decrease in the proportion of high-performing students. However, according to a large-scale international assessment, a younger Taiwanese cohort, eighth-graders in 2019, performed very well in mathematics. Not only that they bounced back from the decline, but they also performed as well as eighth-graders in Singapore and South Korea which were the top-performing countries globally in 2019. The purpose of this research is to analyze the decline, the upward trend after the decline, and several possible policy-related explanations for the U-turn trend in mathematics performance.
Keywords: mathematics performance, international assessment, trend analysis, international comparison, educational reform
中文摘要: 近年臺灣的國中與高中學生經歷了一波數學表現下滑的趨勢。首先觀察到的跌落點是在2015年，之後在2018年創下新低，是臺灣國中與高中學生歷年來數學表現最低落的一年。此下滑的趨勢歸因於表現優異學生的比例降低，而不是表現低落學生的比例增加。然而，根據新一波的國際數學評量結果，2019年的臺灣八年級學生在數學表現上恢復到2011年曾有的最好表現，並且在跨國數學評比中，與新加坡、南韓並居各國之首。本研究的目的在解析近年臺灣國、高中生數學表現這種U字型止跌回升的戲劇性轉折，對數學表現的跨年趨勢做多面向的細部剖析，呈現數學表現趨勢變化與學生背景特質的相關，並考量趨勢變化與教育政策變革的關係。
計畫中文關鍵詞： 數學表現、國際評量、趨勢分析、跨國比較、教育改革
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