An Analysis of Factors Affecting Pupils’ Science Achievement in Italy

Background indices in the TIMSS 2007 data are complex variables referring to educational contexts which are presumed to affect students’ achievement in science subjects. The objective of this paper is to examine, for the Italian 4th grade data, the relationships between these indices both at school and at pupil level and the proficiency scores for overall achievement in science subjects. A multilevel analysis was conducted adopting a four-stage procedure and considering the home/student level nested under the school/teacher level. The results showed that pupils’ performance in science subjects is significantly related to being a native student, to gender, to home educational resources, such as the number of books at home, to student self-confidence in learning science and to student perception of being safe at school.