Exhibit 11.1 presents the Students Like Learning Mathematics scale administered to fourth and eighth grade students. In TIMSS 2019, the scale had nine items covering students’ attitudes toward mathematics and studying mathematics (see Mathematics—About the Scale). In each TIMSS cycle since 1995, there has been a positive relationship between students liking mathematics and higher mathematics achievement. Since the inception of an item response theory (IRT) scale in 2011 to measure attitudes more broadly and reliably, the Students Like Learning Mathematics scale has had a very strong relationship with achievement in mathematics, and TIMSS 2019 was no exception. At both fourth and eighth grades, students who reported they “very much” like learning mathematics had substantially higher average achievement than students who reported they “do not like” learning mathematics.

Exhibit 11.2 presents the results for fourth grade according to the percentage of students who reported they like to learn mathematics “very much” (from highest to lowest). In general, fourth grade students were positive about learning mathematics—45 percent, on average, responded they like it “very much,” and another 35 percent reported that they “somewhat” like it. However, even at the fourth grade, 20 percent, on average, responded negatively that they “do not like” learning mathematics. Exhibit 11.3 shows that at the eighth grade, the percentage of students responding negatively increased substantially. At the eighth grade, only 20 percent responded that they like learning mathematics “very much.” Thirty-nine percent responded “somewhat,” and 41 percent (double compared with fourth grade) responded that they “do not like” learning mathematics. The difference in average achievement between eighth grade students who like learning mathematics “very much” and those who “do not like” learning mathematics was 62 scale score points.

Exhibit 11.4 presents the Students Like Learning Science scale (parallel to the mathematics scale) which was administered to fourth and eighth grade students (see Science—About the Scale). At both grades, the Students Like Learning Science scale was related to higher average achievement in science.

Exhibit 11.5 shows the science scale results at fourth grade. Compared with mathematics, a greater percentage of fourth grade students were positive about learning science, with 52 percent responding that they like it “very much,” and another 36 percent that they “somewhat” like it. A smaller percentage were negative about learning science—12 percent reported they “do not like” it.

Exhibit 11.6 contains the eighth grade results for the Students Like Learning Science scale. The first panel is for the 26 countries that taught science as an integrated subject, then there are separate panels for the countries with courses for biology, chemistry, physics, and Earth science. The eighth grade students generally were positive about their integrated science courses, with 35 percent of students responding that they like to learn science “very much,” another 44 percent liking it “somewhat,” and only 20 percent of students in the “do not like” category. Similar to the relationship with mathematics achievement, the difference in average science achievement between eighth grade students who like learning science “very much” and those who “do not like” learning science was 64 scale score points.

In countries where science is taught as separate subjects, students were positive about learning biology, with only 22 percent of students in the “do not like” learning biology category. Students were less positive about their separate courses in chemistry, physics, and Earth science, with 28 percent, 31 percent, and 26 percent of students in the “do not like” category of the three respective subjects, but not as negative as they were about eighth grade mathematics. The difference in average achievement between eighth grade students in the “very much like” and “do not like” categories was smaller for students taking separate subject courses and varied across the four subjects—30 points for biology, 45 points for chemistry, 46 points for physics, and 22 points for Earth science.