Cognitive diagnosis of mathematics performance between rural and urban students in Taiwan

This study was an empirically substantive examination of mathematics achievement differences between urban and rural Taiwanese students at a cognitive attribute level. Participants were eighth-grade students who participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study of 1999. The rule-space method was applied to produce a diagnostic description of urban and rural students' cognitive knowledge, abilities, and skills related to TIMSS mathematics items. The results indicated that students in urban schools performed better than those in rural schools on high-level mathematics contents (Algebra and Geometry) and abstract thinking skills (Proportional reasoning, Logical reasoning, Solution search, and Open-ended items). Furthermore, greater proportions of urban students were classified into the knowledge states with more mastery attributes and greater proportions of rural students occupied the knowledge states with fewer mastery attributes. Detailed discussion and suggestions are provided in the paper.