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Globalization is a powerful process that exerts an increasing influence on many aspects of society. The impact of globalization on education, and more particularly its impact on the curriculum, is an interesting topic for research, but depends on acquiring comparable data on school curricula from sufficient numbers of countries. The IEA’s Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) has collected data on the mathematics and science curricula of participating countries since the 1990s that enables investigation of the national content of science and mathematics curricula over time. Because existing research has tended to focus on mathematics curricula, this study focuses on the evolution of science curricula. TIMSS asks specific questions about the intended curricula, and while the intended curriculum is not necessarily what was implemented or achieved, it has a strong influence on the implemented and achieved curricula of an education system. Many other factors, including local cultural influences, may also contribute; the influence of the international large-scale assessments themselves may lead to countries adopting education reforms and policies that have been successfully implemented by high-performing jurisdictions. Understanding whether and why there have been identifiable global changes resulting in a putative international core curriculum may reveal which strategies and topics countries have recognized as supporting future skills and knowledge.

Given the extensive nature of globalization and its wide-ranging impact, the review of the literature on the effect of globalization on science education and science curricula was restricted to three particular aspects. Firstly, identifying the factors that potentially contribute to the globalization of science education; secondly, exploring research evidence for the globalization of science curricula over time; and thirdly, analyzing the approaches and methods that have been used in previous research studies to empirically investigate the globalization of curricula. A wide range of factors were identified as promoting the globalization of science education and curricula, including the growing use of information technologies and the increasing influence of intergovernmental organizations in education. However, regional and local cultural factors may counteract globalization to some extent. The literature review identified some evidence for globalization of science curricula over time; the impacts of international large-scale assessments, such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), may have driven changes and reforms in the science curricula of many participating countries. The literature revealed that a number of both qualitative and quantitative methods had been used to investigate globalization of curricula over time, and the advantages and drawbacks of each of the approaches were considered.

Twenty years of collected TIMSS data reveals interesting insights into the globalization of science curricula. To answer the research questions, three different methods were used to analyze the TIMSS dataset. First, changes in countries’ intended science curricula were captured and coded over the course of three TIMSS cycles (1999, 2007 and 2015 for Grade 8, and 2003, 2007 and 2015 for Grade 4). Changes were identified using countries’ responses to the TIMSS curriculum questionnaires. This approach tracks changes in national science curricula over time. Second, cluster and discriminant analyses of the curriculum questionnaire data were used to determine potential convergence of curricula; countries may be clustered into groups on the basis of the topics included or not included in their intended science curricula. Third, the TIMSS encyclopedias and TIMSS teacher questionnaires provide detailed information on additional features of the implemented science curricula, such as the mean time spent teaching science in each country, or the percentage of students taught the TIMSS science topics. Such information was carefully analyzed for a subsample of countries. However, inconsistencies in the way this information was collected and presented across different TIMSS cycles made comparisons across countries between cycles challenging. As each of the three methods has its advantages and limitations, investigating the three research questions from different angles and with different, yet complementary techniques offers the most comprehensive analysis of the available TIMSS data.

In TIMSS, participating education systems are asked in the curriculum questionnaire which TIMSS science topics are included in their intended science curricula. By coding the changes in countries’ responses, some measure of the changes in national science curricula between 1999 and 2015 (for Grade 8) and between 2003 and 2015 (for Grade 4) may be determined. Countries can also be categorized by how stable or changeable their curriculum is on the basis of the number of changes they have made to their curriculum, the average number of curriculum changes at Grades 4 and 8 for each TIMSS cycle and the topics common to the vast majority of participating countries’ intended science curricula. The analysis found there was considerable variation among countries in terms of the number and nature of changes they made to their science curriculum between 1999 (2003 for Grade 4) and 2015. Cluster analysis and discriminant analysis revealed which science topics were most discriminating in terms of predicting country clusters. For both grades, and for each TIMSS cycle, the analyses produced two groups of countries based on responses to the curriculum questionnaire. The cluster and discriminant analyses provide stronger evidence for convergence in science curricula over time at Grade 8 than at Grade 4. The implemented science curriculum of 15 countries was examined in more depth using the TIMSS teacher questionnaire responses; due to difficulties in obtaining robust comparable data for countries across the different TIMSS cycles and the significant caveats that would have applied to any conclusions drawn from these analyses, these data are not considered.

In this exploration of the globalization of science curricula, a coding exercise, cluster analysis and discriminant analysis of twenty years of TIMSS data were used to answer three research questions: (1) Have there been changes in intended science curricula over the last 20 years? (2) If changes do exist, do they support the hypothesis that science curricula are becoming increasingly similar across countries? (3) Are there groups of countries where curricula are increasingly similar; can the basis of an international core curriculum be identified? The analysis provides strong evidence to suggest that there have been changes to countries’ intended science curricula. The coding exercise found that all countries in the analysis had made changes to their intended curricula, although the extent of curricular changes varied considerably between countries. Cluster and discriminant analyses showed that over time there was a tendency for countries to cluster into one particular grouping based on responses to the TIMSS curriculum questionnaire. The number of TIMSS science topics that could be considered core to the curricula of the majority of participating countries increased over time, particularly at Grade 4, suggesting that science curricula are becoming increasingly similar across countries. Among the two groups of countries identified by the cluster and discriminant analyses, there was a clear tendency for one group to include a wider science curriculum encompassing a greater range of science topics than the other group. At Grade 8 the results strongly suggest that there has been convergence in science curricula over time. In terms of whether an international core curriculum can be identified, there are some TIMSS science topics which could be considered core to the curricula of most countries. Assessment is likely to play an important role, as high-stakes assessment is likely to influence science curricula and what is taught in schools.

The impacts of globalization on science education and curricula are of considerable interest internationally, not least in terms of preparing a nation’s students for employment in a rapidly changing world. This study was not a measure of the total science curriculum for each country considered, but a measure of the similarity of their intended science curriculum to the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) framework; further research into the effects on the science curricula of countries that have not participated in TIMSS or using data from other relevant large-scale assessments would add an additional dimension to understanding the globalization of science curricula. Research exploring the processes by which countries embark on science curriculum reform would be an important avenue for further work in order to gain a better understanding of why countries decide to make the changes they do.