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Digest of Education Statistics
2005 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 399. Average fourth-grade science scores in content areas and average time spent teaching science in school, by country: 2003
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                          |               Average score by content area             |              |Science instruc-
                          |_________________________________________________________|       Average| tional time as
                          |            |              |              |              |yearly science|   a percent of
                          |     Science|              |      Physical|              | instructional| total instruc-
Country                   |     overall|  Life science|       science| Earth science| time in hours|  tional time\1\
__________________________|____________|______________|______________|______________|______________|________________
1                         |           2|             3|             4|             5|             6|              7
__________________________|____________|______________|______________|______________|______________|________________
Armenia ..................|    437(4.3)|      435(4.4)|      429(4.3)|      450(3.6)|       ‡  (†) |         ‡  (†)
Australia ................|\2\ 521(4.2)| \2\  523(3.8)| \2\  518(3.9)| \2\  518(4.1)|\3\    45(2.6)|          5(0.3)
Austria ................  |   --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     ---  (†) |       --–  (†)
Belgium (Flemish) ......  |    518(1.8)|      524(1.7)|      507(2.3)|      522(1.7)|       ‡  (†) |         ‡  (†)
Canada ...................|   --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     –--  (†) |       --–  (†)
                          |            |              |              |              |              |
Chinese Taipei .......... |    551(1.7)|      540(1.6)|      554(2.0)|      559(2.6)|       84(1.0)|         11(0.2)
Cyprus ...................|    480(2.4)|      482(2.1)|      479(2.3)|      487(2.5)|\3\    46(1.4)|          5(0.2)
Czech Republic ...........|   --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     –--  (†) |       --–  (†)
England ..................|\2\ 540(3.6)| \2\  532(3.1)| \2\  546(3.2)| \2\  535(3.5)|       ‡  (†) |         ‡  (†)
Greece ...................|   --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     –--  (†) |       --–  (†)
                          |            |              |              |              |              |
Hong Kong, SAR\4\ ........|\2\ 542(3.1)| \2\  535(2.6)| \2\  548(2.7)| \2\  536(2.7)|\3\    77(5.4)|          8(0.5)
Hungary ..................|    530(3.0)|      536(2.5)|      526(2.7)|      526(3.7)|\3\    54(1.0)|          6(0.1)
Iceland ..................|   --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     –--  (†) |       --–  (†)
Iran, Islamic Republic of.|    414(4.1)|      424(4.6)|      419(4.5)|      428(3.0)|       ‡  (†) |         ‡  (†)
Ireland ..................|   --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |       --–  (†)
                          |            |              |              |              |              |
Israel ...................|   --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |       --–  (†)
Italy ................... |    516(3.8)|      521(3.5)|      512(3.5)|      519(3.7)|\5\    73(2.3)|   \5\    8(0.3)
Japan ....................|    543(1.5)|      530(1.3)|      557(1.7)|      535(1.9)|       81(1.2)|          8(0.2)
Korea, Republic of\6\ ....|   --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |       --–  (†)
Kuwait ...................|   --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |       --–  (†)
                          |            |              |              |              |              |
Latvia ...................|    532(2.5)|      531(2.3)|      532(2.6)|      534(2.9)|       ‡  (†) |         ‡  (†)
Lithuania ............... |    512(2.6)|\2,7\ 516(2.0)|\2,7\ 512(2.5)|\2,7\ 503(3.2)|       53(1.6)|          6(0.2)
Netherlands ..............|\2\ 525(2.0)| \2\  547(1.8)| \2\  505(1.9)| \2\  503(2.3)|\3\    33(1.8)|          3(0.2)
New Zealand ..............|    520(2.5)|      520(2.3)|      516(2.3)|      522(2.3)|\3\    65(3.5)|          7(0.4)
Norway ...................|    466(2.6)|      480(2.2)|      456(2.3)|      473(2.8)|\5\    38(1.8)|   \5\    4(0.2)
                          |            |              |              |              |              |
Philippines ..............|    332(9.4)|      330(9.0)|      343(9.6)|      324(9.2)|\5\   176(3.2)|   \5\   16(0.4)
Portugal .................|   --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |       --–  (†)
Russian Federation ...... |    526(5.2)|      526(4.7)|      527(5.2)|      527(6.0)|\3\    33(1.2)|          5(0.2)
Scotland .................|\2\ 502(2.9)| \2\  506(3.1)| \2\  503(2.6)| \2\  498(2.6)|       ‡  (†) |         ‡  (†)
Singapore ................|    565(5.5)|      506(3.1)|      503(2.6)|      498(2.6)|       64(0.6)|          7(0.1)
                          |            |              |              |              |              |
Slovenia .................|    490(2.5)|      489(2.9)|      497(2.3)|      490(2.7)|\5\    75(2.2)|   \5\    9(0.3)
Thailand .................|   --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |     --–  (†) |       --–  (†)
Tunisia ..................|    314(5.7)|      290(5.9)|      324(5.3)|      336(4.8)|       ‡  (†) |         ‡  (†)
United States ............|\2\ 536(2.5)| \2\  537(2.2)| \2\  531(2.3)| \2\  535(2.5)|\5\    83(3.0)|   \5\    8(0.3)
__________________________|____________|______________|______________|______________|______________|________________
--Not available
†Not applicable.
‡Does not meet reporting standards.
\1\Computed as the ratio of science instructional time to the total instructional time averaged across
students.
\2\Met guidelines for participation rates only after replacement schools were included.
\3\Data are available for at least 50 but less than 70 percent of the students.
\4\SAR=Special Administrative Region.
\5\Data are available for at least 70 but less than 85 percent of the students.
\6\Korea tested the same cohort of students as other countries, but later in 2003, at the beginning
of the next school year.
\7\National Desired Population does not cover all of International Desired Population.
NOTE: Data are for fourth grade or equivalent in most countries. Detail may not sum to totals because
of rounding. Standard errors appear in parentheses.
SOURCE: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), 2003, TIMSS 2003 International Science Report, by Ina V. S. Mullis et al. (This table was prepared October 2005.)


2005 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest