Author: Aidan Clerkin

Mathematics in context: students’ attitudes towards mathematics and their experiences of the mathematics classroom in PISA 2022

This report describes students’ experiences of mathematics in Ireland, their feelings towards the subject, and also trends in mathematics performance, both overall and across different content areas and cognitive processes. Drawing on data from the 2022 cycle of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), collected from 15-year-old students and their school principals, various aspects related to the teaching and learning of mathematics are examined and compared with international averages for the OECD and the EU. The composition of the mathematics classroom, and the role of digital technologies, are examined along with the disciplinary climate in the mathematics classroom. Student perceptions of various teaching behaviours and their own learning strategies are explored. The report goes on to look at students’ familiarity with and exposure to various aspects of mathematics, their attitudes towards mathematics and the extent of confidence and anxiety associated with mathematics, concluding with a discussion of the key themes that emerge from the data.

The e-Appendix to this report is available: PISA 2022 Mathematics in context E-appendix.

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The home learning environment of students in Ireland: New findings from TIMSS 2023

This report focuses on the home learning environment of Fourth Class and Second Year students in Ireland using data from TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) 2023. It describes findings about students’ socioeconomic status, the availability of selected home resources for learning and home possessions, digital resources at home and use of digital resources for learning, parental education and occupation, home language, early childhood learning and skills, and the attitudes and expectations towards education of parents and students. These data are examined at a nationally representative level and for key subgroups of students: by gender, socioeconomic status, and school DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) status. Implications for policymakers in the Irish national context are discussed.

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Continuity and change in Ireland’s schools and classrooms: TIMSS 2011–2023

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of developments in schools, classrooms, and the teaching and learning of mathematics and science at primary and post-primary levels in Ireland between 2011 and 2023. Drawing on data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), collected from students, teachers, and school principals, the report examines trends in school composition, resources, and learning environments. It also explores the organisation and delivery of mathematics and science instruction, assessment practices, instructional challenges, and the integration of digital devices in teaching and learning. These findings are contextualised within national education policies and initiatives, highlighting how Ireland’s education system has adapted to changing pedagogical, technological, and societal expectations. By tracing patterns of continuity and change, the report provides valuable insights into the evolving educational landscape and provides a robust evidence base to inform future policy, practice, and evaluation in mathematics and science education.

e-Appendices associated with this publication: Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

 

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Exploring randomised controlled trials in education: key features and selected examples from Ireland.

Published in: Irish Educational Studies 2025

Abstract:

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for evaluating educational interventions. However, Ireland is approximately 20 years behind the US and 10 years behind the UK in implementing randomised controlled trials in education. This paper examines the role of RCTs in advancing educational research in Ireland, building on a recent commentary by Gilleece and Clerkin (2024. “Towards More Robust Evaluation of Policies and Programmes in Education: Identifying Challenges in Evaluating DEIS and Reading Recovery.” Irish Educational Studies). It explores the fundamental characteristics of RCTs, including randomisation, the use of control groups, blinding (or masking), sampling, power and analytical considerations. Additionally, the paper discusses other key aspects such as process evaluations, economic evaluations, ethical issues, and the importance of transparency in conducting RCTs. Selected examples of RCTs conducted in Ireland are presented to make the discussion directly relevant to the Irish context. RCTs are an essential tool for evidence-informed educational policy and practice and, where appropriate and feasible, can be used to address key national issues such as the Literacy, Numeracy, and Digital Literacy Strategy (2024-2033) implementation plan and the use of AI in education. We hope that this paper will serve as a practical guide for policymakers, researchers, and educators and will stimulate further discussion on RCTs in Irish education.

Slattery, E. J., Clerkin, A., Gilleece, L., Butler, D., Marshall, K., & Hedges, L. V. (2025). Exploring randomised controlled trials in education: key features and selected examples from Ireland. Irish Educational Studies, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2025.2523301

 

Trends in students’ school experiences and attitudes towards mathematics and science: TIMSS 2015–2023

This report describes the school experiences and attitudes of Fourth Class and Second Year students in Ireland. Drawing on data from the 2023 cycle of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), it delves into the experiences of students in relation to their attendance at school, sense of belonging, and experiences of bullying. Also discussed in the report are students’ attitudes towards mathematics and science; in particular, the extent to which students like learning, feel confident, and value mathematics and science. A key feature of this report is that it examines trends in students’ experiences and attitudes across the three most recent cycles of TIMSS (2015, 2019 and 2023). The findings point towards some noteworthy changes in Irish students’ experiences and attitudes over time. Finally, some conclusions and implications for policymakers in Ireland are outlined.

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Promoting participation and engagement: Ireland’s experiences across three decades of international large-scale assessments

Published in: Frontiers in Education

Abstract:

In large-scale assessments, the collection of high-quality representative data depends in part on (i) securing high participation rates and (ii) ensuring that participants demonstrate a sufficient level of engagement. This article explores the challenges of promoting participation and engagement with reference to Ireland’s experiences throughout multiple cycles of international and national large-scale assessments. Some factors likely to have influenced participation and/or engagement in the Irish context include: (i) the rising profile of large-scale assessments due to their prominence within a national strategy to improve literacy and numeracy; (ii) the transition of studies from paper-based to digital administration; (iii) the publication of new data protection legislation (both European and national); and (iv) pressures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Initiatives implemented by Ireland’s national study centre with the aim of promoting participation in and engagement with large-scale assessments can be broadly classified as relating to consultation, promotion, and support. Lessons from Ireland’s experiences are discussed in relation to future avenues of investigation that may increase our understanding of facilitators and barriers to engagement. Ireland’s experiences offer valuable lessons that could inform practices in other countries.

Delaney, E., Clerkin, A., Karakolidis, A., Gilleece, L., & Millar, D. (2025). Promoting participation and engagement: Ireland’s experiences across three decades of international large-scale assessments [Perspective]. Frontiers in Education, Volume 10 – 2025. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1565557

Environmental knowledge and attitudes in Ireland’s schools: Findings from TIMSS 2023

This report presents findings for Ireland for two aspects of students’ environmental awareness that were captured for the first time in the 2023 cycle of TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study). These are (i) students’ environmental knowledge – a subscale of the science assessment, drawing on selected items that are related to environmental and climate issues – and (ii) students’ attitudes towards environmental preservation. The report presents data for Fourth Class (primary) and Second Year (post-primary) students, and also describes environmentally relevant practices and attitudes of their parents, teachers, and principals, as recorded via questionnaires. The findings, which are novel in an Irish context, are discussed with reference to the broader national policy context of environmental awareness in schools.

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Reducing educational disadvantage across post-primary schools: Evidence from the first decade of the DEIS plan in Ireland

Published in: Studies in Educational Evaluation 2025

Abstract:

Equity in education is a policy priority internationally with policies and programmes designed to reduce gaps between more and less ‘advantaged’ learners. Evidence is mixed about the effectiveness of these, although limited use has been made of experimental or quasi-experimental designs in evaluation. Ireland’s main policy response to disadvantage since 2005 is the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) programme. This study uses a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to examine the effect of DEIS on outcomes for post-primary schools between 2007 and 2016. Using national-level data across this period, we find no impact on school-level outcomes including examination performance and retention rates. Furthermore, we find no effect of DEIS on the percentages of low or high achieving students in key subjects. These null effects are found despite widely-held beliefs that DEIS has had a positive effect. Findings highlight the importance for evidence-informed policy of methods that allow for causal interpretation.

Gilleece, L., Clerkin, A., & Flannery, D. (2025). Reducing educational disadvantage across post-primary schools: Evidence from the first decade of the DEIS plan in Ireland. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 86, 101466. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2025.101466

TIMSS 2023: Insights into mathematics and science achievement in Ireland

This report presents the achievement results for Ireland in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2023. TIMSS assesses the mathematical and scientific knowledge and skills of students in Fourth Grade and Eighth Grade (Fourth Class and Second Year in Ireland). TIMSS is a study of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and has been conducted every four years since 1995. TIMSS 2023 is the eighth cycle of the study and included 656,360 students from 65 countries.

This national report focuses on trends in overall achievement in Ireland, as well as the distribution of achievement (performance at various percentiles), student performance at the TIMSS International Benchmarks, relative strengths and weaknesses on the TIMSS content and cognitive domains, and teachers’ reports of curriculum coverage. Performance in Ireland is explored in the context of selected countries; compared with previous cycles of TIMSS where data are available (since 2011 for Fourth Class and since 2015 for Second Year); and, where applicable, examined by gender and by socioeconomic status at both individual level and at school level (DEIS status).

TIMSS 2023 also marks Ireland’s transition from paper-based to digital testing, as part of which Ireland completed a national mode effect study to examine the extent to which any differences in student achievement exist between digital and paper testing. Initial findings from this mode effect study are also presented.

Finally, some conclusions and implications for policymakers in Ireland are outlined.

e-Appendix associated with this publication – download

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Digital Learning Framework (DLF) national longitudinal evaluation: Wave 2 Final Report.

This is the final report on the Digital Learning Framework national longitudinal evaluation, following data collection for Wave 2 from Autumn 2021-May 2022. The data presented in this report provide an opportunity to consider how schools and students responded to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic with reference to the use of digital technologies for teaching, learning and assessment. The evaluation also considers the ways in which schools have had successes and met challenges in their embedding and implementation of the Department of Education’s Digital learning Framework. The report provides an overview of the current policy and research landscape with respect to the use of digital technologies in schools and over the course of the pandemic. It also presents new data at both primary and post-primary levels from schools (digital learning team leaders, school principals, and teachers), students, and professional development advisors specialising in the use of technology in education. The key findings from Wave 2 of the evaluation are highlighted, together with examination of changes from previous waves. Finally, the main successes and challenges encountered by schools in their implementation of the Digital Learning Framework over the period 2017-2022 are identified.

Final report of the longitudinal Digital Learning Framework Evaluation

This is the final report on the Digital Learning Framework national longitudinal evaluation, following data collection for Wave 2 from Autumn 2021-May 2022. The data presented in this report provide an opportunity to consider how schools and students responded to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic with reference to the use of digital technologies for teaching, learning and assessment. The evaluation also considers the ways in which schools have had successes and met challenges in their embedding and implementation of the Department of Education’s Digital learning Framework. The report provides an overview of the current policy and research landscape with respect to the use of digital technologies in schools and over the course of the pandemic. It also presents new data at both primary and post-primary levels from schools (digital learning team leaders, school principals, and teachers), students, and professional development advisors specialising in the use of technology in education. The key findings from Wave 2 of the evaluation are highlighted, together with examination of changes from previous waves. Finally, the main successes and challenges encountered by schools in their implementation of the Digital Learning Framework over the period 2017-2022 are identified

An in-depth analysis of the relative strengths and weaknesses of students in Ireland in mathematics and science in TIMSS 2019

This report is aimed at informing the work of teachers, school leaders, teacher educators, and curriculum developers in Ireland. It describes in detail the performance of Fourth Class (primary) and Second Year (post-primary) students on a range of mathematics and science topics and test items. In interpreting the data presented here from the TIMSS 2019 study (the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), students’ performance is discussed with reference to relevant aspects of the Irish curricula for mathematics and science, and to international comparisons of student performance.

The findings presented here build on the initial national report on TIMSS 2019 (Perkins & Clerkin, 2020), which described student performance in mathematics and science in terms of average achievement, distributions of achievement among higher- and lower-achieving students, gender differences, benchmarks of performance (Low, Intermediate, High, or Advanced), and high-level
descriptions of performance on the TIMSS cognitive and content domains. This report expands on the latter aspect by providing a detailed examination of Fourth Class and Second Year students’ performance on the TIMSS content domains and, in particular, on their constituent subdomains and topic areas.

Associated e-appendices

 

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Strengths and Weaknesses in Maths and Science at Fourth Class

Strengths and Weaknesses in Maths and Science at Second Year

Towards more robust evaluation of policies and programmes in education: Identifying challenges in evaluating DEIS and Reading Recovery

Published in: Irish Educational Studies

Abstract:

In recent years, countries including the UK and USA have seen advancements in the use of Randomised Controlled Trials in education, progress that has not been mirrored in Ireland. Ireland does not have a strong tradition of using experimental or quasi-experimental evaluation designs for monitoring and evaluation of education policy despite well-articulated commitments to the latter activities. An example is the evaluation of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) programme where little is known about the causal impact of DEIS on student outcomes, despite considerable State investment over almost 20 years. There appears to have been comparatively little critical review of the literacy and numeracy programmes offered to DEIS schools, with those included at the outset largely still on offer. Here, we draw on the wider literature on the evaluation of complex interventions and consider what lessons may be learned for Ireland, illustrating challenges and opportunities by focusing on DEIS and Reading Recovery (a literacy support programme widely used in DEIS schools). We advocate for greater use of experimental designs where feasible and appropriate; further gathering of comparable measures of achievement at pupil level to facilitate monitoring; and detailed consideration of quasi-experimental methods that can support causal conclusions.

Gilleece, L. & Clerkin, A. (2024). Towards more robust evaluation of policies and programmes in education: Identifying challenges in evaluating DEIS and Reading Recovery. Irish Educational Studies, 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2024.2334704

Trends in educational inequalities in Ireland’s primary schools: an analysis based on TIMSS data (2011-2019).

Published in:  Large Scale Assessments in Education

 

Abstract:

Background

Socioeconomic characteristics are persistently and systematically related to academic outcomes, despite long-standing efforts to reduce educational inequality. Ireland has a strong policy focus on alleviating educational disadvantage and has seen significant improvements in mathematics and science performance in recent years. This study investigates patterns of socioeconomic inequalities in 4th grade students’ performance in mathematics and science between 2011 and 2019. Two measures of inequality are examined: (i) inequality of achievement, i.e., the degree of variability in student performance and (ii) inequality of opportunity, i.e., the extent to which student performance is related to background characteristics.

Methods

Data for 4th-grade students in Ireland from TIMSS 2011, TIMSS 2015 and TIMSS 2019 were used. Mathematics and science achievement were the main outcome measures. The home resources for learning index was used as a proxy for student-level socioeconomic status. School-level socioeconomic status was examined according to schools’ participation in the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) programme, which is the Department of Education’s main policy initiative addressing educational disadvantage. Descriptive and multilevel regression analyses were conducted to explore variability in student performance and to investigate the variance in achievement explained by socioeconomic factors, across cycles and subjects.

Results

Between 2011 and 2015, between-student and between-school differences in mathematics and science performance became smaller, as shown by the decrease in standard deviations and the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). This points to reduced inequality of achievement. Between 2015 and 2019, a small increase in inequality of achievement was observed.

Regarding inequality of opportunity, students’ home resources for learning and school disadvantaged status were statistically significantly related to mathematics and science achievement across all three cycles. Overall variance explained by these two variables increased from 2011 to 2019. This points towards increasing inequality of opportunity over the period examined.

Performance gaps between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged schools have been reduced over time; however, the relationship between home resources for learning and achievement appears to have strengthened. Findings were consistent for both subjects.

Conclusions

The findings indicate that improvements in overall performance do not necessarily reflect improved equality. Ireland’s improvements in average mathematics and science performance between 2011 and 2015 were accompanied by reduced inequality of achievement. Performance differences between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged schools have been reduced over time, suggesting that the DEIS policy is meeting its goal of narrowing achievement gaps based on concentrations of educational disadvantage. However, inequality of opportunity linked to student-level socioeconomic factors (i.e., home resources for learning) appears to have increased over time. These findings are valuable in the context of measuring and tracking educational inequalities.

Duggan, A., Karakolidis, A., Clerkin, A., Gilleece, L., & Perkins, R. (2023). Trends in educational inequalities in Ireland’s primary schools: an analysis based on TIMSS data (2011-2019). Large Scale Assessments in Education, 11(39). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40536-023-00188-2

TIMSS 2019: Ireland’s results in mathematics and science

Students’ perspectives on learning mathematics and science: Results from TIMSS 2015 in Ireland

The home learning environment in Ireland: Insights from TIMSS 2015

The Transition Year experience: student perceptions and school variation

Summary

This report presents findings from a three-year, three-wave longitudinal study of students’ experiences and perceptions of Transition Year (TY) and associated socioemotional outcomes. Some aspects of the study have been reported elsewhere (Clerkin, 2016, 2018a, 2018c, 2019). The current report focuses especially on the student voice: what students know and think about TY while in Third Year, such as the parts of TY that would attract them and those that would deter; what they report from their experience as participants during TY; and how they view TY in retrospect from a more senior vantage point in Fifth Year and Sixth Year. A wide range of viewpoints is represented, including students who opted to take part in TY, students who took part in a compulsory TY, and students who chose to skip the programme entirely. The nature and extent of variation in students’ TY experience between schools is also considered.

National Schools, international contexts: Beyond the PIRLS and TIMSS 2011 test results

PIRLS and TIMSS 2011: Technical report for Ireland

The ERC publishes a periodic newsletter, eolas ón ERC, to keep stakeholders updated on research publications, ongoing projects in schools and standardised testing.