2015 National Assessment of World Studies (Nature and Technology) in Primary Education in Flanders

In 2015 a national assessment was carried out, which was commissioned by the Flemish government, to assess whether pupils have achieved the attainment targets for world orientation (domains of nature and technology) at the end of primary education. This assessment was partly a reiteration of the national assessment on world orientation conducted in 2005. Data were collected through seven written tests: six covering the nature domain and one covering the technology domain. A representative sample of 3361 pupils from 130 Flemish primary schools participated. In addition, a practical test was administered to a subsample of 5 randomly selected pupils per site to assess certain technical skills covered in the attainment targets for technology. Tests were supplemented with background questionnaires for pupils, parents and teachers. These questionnaires collected, among other things, information on general background characteristics of the pupils and their families, attitudes of the pupils and their parents toward nature and technology, classroom practices, and the teachers' didactic approaches. The response rates to these questionnaires were 99% for the pupils, 93% for the parents and 99% for the teachers.