TIMSS in a Western European Context

This special issue focuses on national findings and analyses from five Western European countries that participated in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). TIMSS is an international, com-parative study designed to provide policy makers, educators, researchers, and practitioners with information about mathematics and science achieve-ment and its learning contexts in order to enhance mathematics and science learning within and across systems of education. TIMSS is conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Eval-uation of Educational Achievement (IEA). It is co-ordinated by the Inter-national Study Centre at Boston College in the United States. More than 40 educational systems participate in TIMSS. It is the most complex IEA study to date and the largest international comparative study on education-al achievement ever undertaken. The study focuses on three populations o