Degree Name
BS
Department
Economics
College
Family, Home, and Social Sciences
Defense Date
2020-07-28
Publication Date
2020-08-07
First Faculty Advisor
Donald Baum
First Faculty Reader
Eric Eide
Honors Coordinator
John Stovall
Keywords
immigration, education, PISA, Turkey, Western Europe
Abstract
This thesis examines how the country to which Turkish immigrant students immigrate affects their educational outcomes – specifically, math and science test scores and four constructed variables that measure how much students enjoy math and science and their self-rated confidence in the subjects. I use data from the 2003, 2006, 2012, and 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) exams. I examine Turkish immigrant students living in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark.
My findings are consistent with prior research showing that immigrant student test scores vary by destination country. I also find that Turkish immigrant students’ perceptions of math and science are lower than I expected in comparison to performance in these same subjects. In general, immigrant students performed better or similarly to their peers in Turkey in math and performed worse in science. However, reported enjoyment and confidence in both subjects were much lower than their peers in Turkey.
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Smith, Lisa Turley, "Differences in Immigrant Education by Destination Country: An Analysis of Turkish Immigrants' Perception of and Performance in Math and Science" (2020). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 156.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studentpub_uht/156
Handle
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/uht0165