Background questionnaires in IEA studies

Abstract

Over the last 50 years the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA, after its acronym in Dutch) has designed and conducted comparative studies in education. The objective of these studies is to collect information to identify key elements of quality in education, through a comparison of the educational systems of different countries. These studies have been carried out in the areas of mathematics, the sciences, reading, and civics and citizenship education, among others. Some of these studies (mathematics, science, reading) have been on a regular basis, so as to allow for analyses of trends in the evolution of the educational systems of the countries. Each of these studies has consisted of a test designed to measure knowledge in the area of interest. In the same way other projects of educational systems in the IEA studies evaluation have been carried out, these tests have been accompanied by background questionnaires that are administered to the students, their teachers, school principals and, in some cases, their parents. This paper presents a brief description of these background questionnaires, their purpose, possible