A "Compass" In The Education Reform

As a large international research, TIMSS has drawn increasingly attention from all over the world. America has attached great importance to the research of TIMSS. The federal government regards Math and Science as items which play critical role in national security and competitiveness, and aggressively calls on reform in Math and Science education. Therefore, numerous research institutions and scholars have engaged in the research of TIMSS, and greatly influenced the education reform in America.The paper is composed of six parts. The first part introduces TIMSS generally and presents the American students' performs in TIMSS. Meanwhile, the main research institutions and their focus are discussed.The second part deals with the reasons why TIMSS study appears as a blooming research field in terms of modernism tradition, the sense of crisis in education, weakness of Math and Science education as well as standards-based reform.The third part summarizes the main problem in Math and Science education presented by American researchers, including students' poor performance, less focused curriculum topics, inefficient instructions and incompetent teachers.The characteristics of TIMSS study are discussed in the fourth part. American researchers have paid more attention to their main rivals, such as Germany and Japan. Meanwhile, background information is collected and analyzed intensively in order to explain students' score. Also, flexible means are adopted to widely spread research results.The fifth part considers the influence on education reform produced by TIMSS research. It is also proved that TIMSS research has played an important role in promoting video study and in enhancing federal government's leadship in education. Meanwhile, the individualism tradition in education is gradually switched to standardization.Finally, potential lessons have been drawn from TIMSS research in America to promote studies of standardized tests in China.