Dr. Thien Lei Mee
Brief CV
Dr. Thien Lei Mee is a research and development specialist in SEAMEO Regional Centre for Education in Science and Mathematics (RECSAM), Penang. From an initial interest in school effectiveness research, she has extended the research area to student learning assessment related to international large scale assessment and comparative studies. She is currently involved in research projects focusing on educational assessment and evaluation. She has conducted training related to the educational assessment and test item development to the educators from Southeast Asian and African countries.
She is the member of the Network on Education Quality Monitoring in the Asia Pacific (NEQMAP), UNESCO Bangkok. She was the secretary for the 1st Symposium on PISA organized by SEAMEO RECSAM in 2014. She has been invited as the keynote speaker in the international conference that related to international large scale assessment in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Japan. She has also invited as an international trainer in large scale secondary data analysis workshop in Vietnam. She is also the international reviewer for the PISA 2012 Vietnam National Report. She has served in the editorial board of Journal of Science and Mathematics in Southeast Asia, Learning Science and Mathematics Online Journal, International Journal of Higher Education, and International of Psychological Studies. She is the editorial team member for Japanese elementary mathematics text book appointed by University of Tsukuba, Japan. Her publication include refereed journal such as Asia Pacific Education Researcher, Large Scale Assessment in Education, Social Psychology in Education, and Quality and Quantity as well as book chapters and book related to TIMSS and PISA.
Abstract
What can PISA data tell us? Students' Performance in Mathematics Literacy in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand
In the 2012 cycle, all 34 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries and 31 partner countries and economies participated in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which represented more than 80 per cent of the World economy. PISA assesses to what extent the 15-year-old students are acquiring key knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in societies. PISA is administered every three years and examines how well they can extrapolate from what they have learnt and apply the knowledge and studies in unfamiliar settings, both in and outside of school or to real-life situations and be equipped for full participation in society. In total, 510,000 students between the ages of 15 years 3 months and 16 years 2 months completed the assessment tests in 2012, representing about 28 million 15-year-old students in the schools of the 65 participating countries and economies. Notably, five Southeast Asian countries participated in PISA 2012: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. These five countries show a diversity of performance in mathematics, science, and reading Literacies. Singapore and Vietnam record high performance in reading, mathematics, and science literacies. However, the performance on PISA 2012 tests in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand indicate the challenges to improve students’ reading, mathematics, and science literacies. Considering this, it is very interesting to present factors associated with Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai students’ performance in mathematics literacy based on PISA 2012 dataset. The PISA empirical results have provided the empricial evidences for suggesting changes to policies and practices in education for these countries.