Ecological Fallacy in the Analysis of TIMSS 2015: Focused on the Relationship between Affective Domains and Achievement in Mathematics Learning
- 서울대학교 교육종합연구원
- The SNU Journal of Education Research
- Vol.29, No.2
- : KCI등재
- 2020.06
- 1 - 22 (22 pages)
This paper explores ecological fallacy in the analysis of TIMSS 2015. Specifically, we investigated whether the correlation between achievement and each of the variables that measure affective domains of mathematics (interest, engagement, confidence, and value) differs, depending on whether the data is aggregated or not. We analyzed the data of 252,625 8th-grade students, sampled from 39 countries. The data were analyzed in three stages. Firstly, the correlation coefficients were calculated from aggregate data, which was grouped by country. Secondly, the same procedure was carried out but with disaggregate data. Thirdly, the correlation was calculated within individual countries. When the correlation coefficients were calculated from aggregate data, all of the correlation coefficients were negative. In contrary when the same was calculated from disaggregate data, some correlation coefficients were positive, and some were negative. Lastly, every correlation coefficient that was calculated within each country was positive. In summary, this result aligns with the concept of ecological fallacy, and implies that inferences about individuals cannot be made from aggregate data in TIMSS 2015.
I. Introduction
II. Literature Review
III. Research Method
IV. Results
V. Summary and Discussions
References