Kuwaiti Students’ Achievements in Mathematics: Findings From the TIMSS Assessments: Reality and Reasons

Kuwait, has participated in international TIMSS test for many years, however, there has been little systematic effort to compile and assess changes between genders. This study attempts to look at the results of Kuwaiti students on the TIMSS mathematics assessments in general and according to gender in particular and the views of supervisors on the relatively low performance of Kuwaiti students. The study employed a mixed method approach in which data analysis of test results, IEA-issued documents, and statistics and official reports were used. Two focus group interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of nine educational supervisors from mathematics and science. The results show that the performance of Kuwaiti students in both the fourth and eighth grades was extremely low on the TIMSS mathematics assessments in general and in content areas in particular, since the first participation in 1995, even though the performance of eighth graders showed a slight improvement in 2015 in all areas. The TIMSS results also show that the higher the level of thinking that was assessed, the lower the performance of Kuwaiti students was. The data indicate that throughout all years, Kuwaiti girls outperformed boys, considering the slight improvement especially in 2015, yet both performances lagged behind international norms. Focus group transcript analysis reveals that supervisors perceived that students’ low performance on the TIMSS assessment test is related to a number of reasons as lack of interest in TIMSS test, unfamiliarity with TIMSS questions, and students’ weakness in the Arabic language. The paper concludes the need to systematically evaluate the TIMSS results, and develop interventions and a competent national curriculum in Kuwait.


Introduction
Mathematical knowledge and competence is indispensable as it is fundamental to the development of science and technol ogy (Kusmaryono, 2014), and relates to the everyday activi ties and transactions of people (Rudhumbu & Rudhumbu, 2018). Mathematics can also help in promoting critical think ing skills, reasoning, and problem solving (Firdaus et al., 2015). Moreover, it fulfills many critical needs of society in applied scientific fields, as mathematics is the basis of, and entry to, all other sciences, including astronomy, physics, environmental study, and engineering. With the importance of mathematics comes the need to evaluate students' per formance; this is key to gauging the relative level of mathe matical competence, the educational systems efficacy, and associated pedagogy in any country. Mathematical education includes factors related to the curriculum, students, and teach ers. Assessment of all of these factors is important in the eval uation of progress-or lack of progress-in mathematics in comparison with other countries.
Within the context of globalization, education and the direction of assessment has shifted from a national local focus into relative international competence (Rigas, 2013;F. Singer et al., 2014). Many countries have a strong interest in competing and raising their educational standards and stu dents' achievement through international assessment tests. One of the foremost associations focused on evaluating the levels of students' attainment worldwide is the International Organization for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). This organization designed the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and since 1995 has administered a global testing system every 4 years to evalu ate students' levels in the subjects of mathematics and 1031903S GOXXX10.1177/21582440211031903SAGE OpenAl-Mutawa et al.

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1 Kuwait University, Kuwait 2 Ministry of Education, Kuwait science in any given country. The testing is designed to inform educational policies and practices, and monitor national curriculum. International assessment allows researchers, policymakers, and administrators to better eval uate their educational systems and guides reform efforts focused on curriculum enhancement and professional devel opment (Moses & Allulu, 2012;Nelson, 2002;Wiberg, 2019). In addition, such assessments allow countries to benchmark their progress over time and against their peers, and may help improve education performance and economic outcomes (Kijima & Lipscy, 2016, p. 2).
Kuwait was the first Arab country to take part in these tests when they were first introduced in 1995. This study aims to analyze and discuss the results of Kuwaiti students throughout the TIMSS assessments with the hope that it helps governments and educational administrators to effec tively evaluate and reshape their education system so as to enhance mathematics achievement.

Purpose of the Study
Kuwait has a future vision to become a financial and com mercial international center that attracts foreign investments and increases the wellbeing of its citizens (General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development [GSSCPD], 2007); however, Kuwait has failed to meet the international educational assessment standards. Study of educational performance of Kuwaiti students in TIMSS reveals low scores in comparison to TIMSS performance of all other participating countries in these tests in years 1995, 2007, 2011, and 2015. We could find little evidence that these test results received much attention in Kuwait. Since Kuwait's first participation over 20 years ago, the results have not been systematically analyzed, and students' weak nesses in mathematics have remained largely undiscussed and unaddressed. This study aims to remedy this failure by identifying Kuwaiti fourth and eighthgrade students' per formance in mathematics on the TIMSS assessments during the years in which Kuwait participated. We also investigated the perceptions of educational supervisors as to the reasons for these results and analyze the importance of these results in reforming the educational process and meeting the future expectations.
Using data analysis of test results and focus group inter views, the study attempts to answer three main questions: Question 1: What are the results of Kuwaiti students on the TIMSS mathematics assessments over the years the test has been used? Question 2: What are the results of Kuwaiti students on the TIMSS mathematics assessments according to gender? Question 3: What are the views of supervisors on the relatively low performance of Kuwaiti students on the TIMSS assessments?

Literature Review
The international assessment (TIMSS) provides an opportu nity for participating countries to compare students' educa tional achievement in mathematics and science across nations (Neuschmidt, 2018) and chronologically. Such com parisons inform educational systems and are used to guide reform and to identify and remediate areas of low(er) stu dents' performance. Researchers and national educational authorities have analyzed and discussed mathematics and science curriculum and student performances and attempted to extrapolate factors related to TIMSS test performances in Middle Eastern countries and in other nations around the world. These results have proven useful not only to help improve mathematics and science learning but also to inform politicians and decisionmakers (Grønmo & Onstad, 2013).
Participation in TIMSS has provided a consistent picture of mathematics as a school subject, and has provided impor tant information for recent changes in mathematics in school as well as in teacher education in mathematics (Grønmo & Onstad, 2013). Studies have found that TIMSS was used as a tool for evaluating the effectiveness of different instructional practices (Ericsson et al., 2018). TIMSS have been employed as a benchmark to measure school effectiveness and school reform and also used to inform systemlevel policies for the further monitoring and evaluation of the education system (Gustavo & Topper, 2017;Tobin et al., 2015;Wang, 2001).
Evidence from international differences in students' achievement suggests that what matters is not so much the amount of input that school systems are endowed with, but rather how to use their resources (Woessmann, 2016). TIMSS results are used by researchers to compare educa tional effectivenessenhancing factors in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including Kuwait (Neuschmidt, 2018).
The results from TIMSS research in different years show that in general, in most countries, there are no significant gender differences in math test results Mullis et al., 2008Mullis et al., , 2012Mullis et al., , 2016. When difference exists, it tends to be in favor of boys (Mejía Rodríguez et al., 2020;Smith, 2014). Only in few countries, small effect size gender differences were found in favor of girls such as Qatar, Kuwait and Thailand, and Malaysia (Ismail & Awang, 2009;MejíaRodríguez et al., 2020;Reilly et al., 2017;Smith, 2014).
The studies that discussed the causes for the decline of students results in TIMSS revealed many points such as the lack of curriculum (Wijaya, 2017), insufficient subject knowledge of some teachers, teachercentered activities, socioeconomic status (Ceylan & Akerson, 2014;Mlachila & Moeletsi, 2019), school climate (Barakat & Hirzallah, 2010), attitude toward math, and math selfconcept (Kiamanesh & Mohsenpour, 2010). There is also strong evi dence to suggest that "teachers' understanding and imple mentation of school curriculum, their expectation and ability to inspire students, and their collaboration with other teach ers play a significant role in improving students' academic achievement" (Badri et al., 2019, p. 32). Finally, parents' and students' attitudes and aspiration toward mathematics, selfconfidence in learning mathematics, and schoolrelated characteristics have a significant effect on students' achieve ment (Ismail & Awang, 2009).
Many studies such as Barakat and Hirzallah (2010), AlFares and AlHela (2014), and Sumaida and Grace (2014) have evaluated the results of Arabic countries that partici pated in TIMSS 2011, and identified some variables that might explain the low scores of Arab students' achievement.

Conceptual Framework
Careful analysis of student assessment results can help schools plan instructional improvements (Murnane et al., 2005). Studies showed that largescale international assess ments can be a valuable resource for studying global trends and evolving systems in education, and provide important data for studying the context and processes of education and development (Johansson & Hansen, 2018;Strietholt & Scherer, 2018;TorneyPurta & Amadeo, 2013). Braslavsky (2005) states that increased participation of developing countries in largescale assessment programs coincides with a shift in global focus from educational quantitative indicators such as enrolment rates to focus more on quality of education. A huge body of research has used interna tional largescale assessments (ILSAs) data to conduct sec ondary analysis to explain student performance using background factors such as gender (Kaplan, 2019). Lockheed and Wagemaker (2013) indicate that ILSAs can provide comparative information about the effectiveness and efficiency of education systems when their results are appropriately analyzed. Many ILSA studies (Lindblad et al., 2015;J. D. Singer et al., 2018;Tobin et al., 2015) provide evidence on the impact of this type of test, such as shaping discourses about education, in terms of discussions about educational quality, changes in educational policy, changes in curriculum and teaching, track changes over time, and as an accountability tool. International achieve ment testing is one component of a conceptual model that identifies factors assumed to impact academic and related political, educational, and economic issues.
Based on many related studies, Ababneh et al. (2016) dis cussed the impact of international tests in five different areas and recommended the "TIMSS Impact Model" ( Figure  1). The model suggests that international tests have a sig nificant impact on the process of policymaking in many par ticipating countries through reviewing, assessing, and formulating education policies, reforms, and recommenda tions. In addition, it shows that international tests helped to develop teachertraining guides that would affect teachers' development and support their teaching practices in the classroom and consequently improve students' learning skills. Another direct impact of these tests, as suggested by the model, is the revision and assessment of the school cur riculum and the content of textbooks. International tests pro moted some countries to establish high quality standards at the national assessment level. Finally, countries are seeking to improve the capacity of researchers and educators in the analysis of international test results through attending train ing workshops in order to benefit from and apply interna tional knowledge in the local context.
This model formed a base on which the researchers rely during the conduct of this study, as this study can help the educational policymaker in Kuwait to review, evaluate, and reformulate policies related to mathematics in terms of con tent, method of teaching, and challenges facing its teaching. The results of this study can also add important value to the professional development of mathematics teachers, allowing them to understand the weaknesses of their students in this subject, their causes, and the differences that occur in aca demic achievement between boys and girls. The results of this study can also help in the process of reviewing the con tent of teaching of mathematics in Kuwait, the neighboring Arab countries, and the world generally. Finally, the research ers of the present research gain support in terms of strength ening and building their research capabilities in the field of dealing with such research issues, and it also helps them to train their academic counterparts and teachers on issues related to how to deal with the results of Kuwaiti students in TIMSS tests and how to read these results with scientific and accurate indications.

Method
This study employed a mixedmethod approach whereby data analysis of test results was used and focus group inter views were conducted. We analyzed IEAissued docu ments, surveys, statistics, and official reports specific to the performance and results of fourth and eighthgrade Kuwaiti students on the TIMSS mathematics tests (these included Mullis et al., 1997Mullis et al., , 2008Mullis et al., , 2012Mullis et al., , 2017. These documents were categorized and analyzed through content analysis, which is a tool focused on logical and organized description, and quantitative and qualitative data analysis (Saber & Khafaja, 2002). A procedure was developed to ensure the reliability and stability of the content analysis tool to classify, explain, and analyze the data through tables and figures. This procedure included the steps of data anal ysis discussed by Ritchie and Spencer (1994), which are identifying data, determining the framework of informa tion, indexing or determining certain categories, filling in tables, and drawing and explaining maps.
To answer the third research question relating to supervi sors views on the relatively low performance of Kuwaiti stu dents on the TIMSS assessments, we used two focus group interviews with a convenience sample of nine educational supervisors from mathematics and science. In Kuwait, edu cational supervisors are employed at the Ministry of Education to monitor and evaluate teacher performance, per form supervision, improve curriculum and teaching meth ods, and guide the educational process. The first group consisted of four supervisors, and the second group consisted of five supervisors. Each interview lasted from 45 to 60 min and the process was recorded and transcribed. We used an interview schedule consisting of two main research ques tions but allowed and encouraged diverse responses and dis cussion among participants.
Two open questions were asked in the focus group inter views: the first question was about supervisors' perception of the reasons behind the low results of students on the TIMSS assessments, and the second question was about the minis try's preparations and support for this assessment. During the interview other subquestions emerged which are related and linked to the two main questions mentioned earlier. A copy of the interview questions is shown in Table 1.
An inductive content analysis approach was used to ana lyze content of the interviews, in which categories of analy sis were derived from the data (Kibiswa, 2019). A thematic unit of analysis was chosen and the transcripts were classi fied using both themes from the research questions and emergent themes. After that the data were categorized and coded and recoded again until the researchers achieved suf ficient coding consistently and consensus. Finally, the coded interview data was grouped into major themes and the trust worthiness of the qualitative content analysis in this study was ensured by following the steps suggested by Elo et al. (2014). In this study the trustworthiness was checked in dif ferent phases of preparation, organization, and reporting.

Study Results
We first turn our attention to Research Question 1: What are the results of Kuwaiti students on the TIMSS mathematics assessments over the years the test has been used? Several issues emerge from this main question. Table 2 shows that the highest performance of fourthgrade students on the TIMSS assessments in mathematics occurred during Kuwait's first participation in 1995; however, this score was low in comparison to the average international score. In 2007, fourthgrade students' performance was the lowest among all the years that Kuwait participated in these  1995, 2007, and 2015. The performance of eighthgrade students was also low in comparison with international performance. In 1995, eighthgrade Kuwaiti students' average score was 392 points, putting them in the last place with the weakest performance among the partici pating countries. In Kuwait's second participation in 2007, the students' performance fell lower than the first perfor mance. In 2015, eighthgrade students showed improvement in comparison to the previous eighthgrade performance in 2007 but was similar to the performance in 1995.

Average Kuwaiti Student Performance From an International Perspective
Table 2 clearly shows that the performance of Kuwaiti students in both the fourth and eighth grades was extremely low on the TIMSS mathematics assessments. This result was apparent from Kuwait's first participation in 1995 and remained the case throughout its participation in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Table 3 shows the following details regarding the average performance of fourth and eighthgrade Kuwaiti students in the key mathematics content areas in 1995, 2007, 2011, and 2015. Table 3 shows that in areas of Numbers and Data Display in grades 4 and 8, scores were constantly increas ing, although the results remained low. For example, the result of the fourth grade student in Numbers increased from 321 in 2007 to 333 in 2011 and then 356 in 2015. In Geometric forms, the results of fourthgrade students increased slightly during the years of participation, and the result of the eighth grade did not change, although the results generally remained very low. The score for eighth graders in Algebra rose slightly.

Average Kuwaiti Student Performance in the Cognitive and Skill Domains
The data in Table 4 show the performance of fourth and eighthgrade students in 2007 in the cognitive domain and in the area of knowledge was much lower than the international average. In the area of deduction, the results were not calcu lated accurately in 2007 because of the extremely low points; therefore, the results are not shown for this area. However, the performance of both fourth and eighthgraders improved in 2015 compared with that of 2011, yet it was still weak in comparison to the international average. We note that the higher the level of thinking that was assessed, the lower the performance of Kuwaiti students.  Question 2: What are the results of Kuwaiti students on the TIMSS mathematics assessments according to gender?
Alongside our examination of the international aspect of Question 1, we looked at the performance of fourthgrade students on the TIMSS assessments in 2007, 2011, and 2015 by gender. The results appear in Table 5.
The data show that throughout all years, girls outper formed boys, considering the slight improvement especially in 2015, yet both performances lagged behind international averages. We deepen our examination of the average perfor mance in the mathematics content areas by focusing on the gender variable. Our results are presented in Table 6.
The data show fourthgrade female students outperformed male students in all areas. Although the performance of Kuwaiti boys and girls improved in each subsequent year of participation, it remained low, compared to international averages. In 2015, girls' performance improved in the areas of numbers and geometry but dropped in the area of data display as compared to 2011. As for the male and female performances in the mathematics content areas for eighth grade students, girls outperformed boys in the areas of geo metrical forms, data display and algebra. Despite female students' outperformance of male students and the improve ment in male students' performance, the average scores for both genders was still low in comparison to the international scores. However, in the area of numbers, eighthgrade boys scored 1 point higher than eighthgrade girls in 2007, in 2015, both genders performed similarly, with male students outperforming female students.
Finally, the average performance in the cognitive and skill domains focusing on the gender variable presented in Table 7.
In general, the performance of fourth and eighthgrade Kuwaiti students of both genders in the cognitive and skill domain was very low in 2007, 2011, and 2015, despite female students' outperformance of male students. The per formance of female students in the fourth grade showed slight improvements in the areas of knowledge and applica tion between 2007 and 2011, but the performance level dete riorated quickly in the area of knowledge in 2015. A slight improvement occurred in boys' performance in 2011 com pared to 2007, and they also showed improvement in 2015, although their performance was still extremely low com pared to the international average. Two open questions and subsequent follow up questions were asked in the focus group interviews (Table 1).
First, the analysis of responses showed that supervisors perceived that students' low performance on the TIMSS assessment test is related to a number of reasons, including the following.  Lack of interest in the test. All supervisors agreed that the test is not taken seriously by all parties in the educational pro cess: not school administration, teachers, students, nor their parents. Students are not interested in performing well on the TIMSS assessment because the assessment does not count toward their grades and students do not perceive that it is linked to their success or failure; likely teachers imply such notions to students. Therefore, students do not pay much attention to preparing for and completing the repeated TIMSS assessments, nor do they exert much effort with chal lenging questions. One of the supervisors provided an exam ple of students' lack of interest in the test: Students and their parents do not show enough interest in the pilot test that we use to prepare students for the TIMSS assessment test as some students are absent on the test day. The number of unanswered questions is large; students' answers to the TIMSS pilot test is a tragedy.
Lack of student knowledge about or appreciation of the value of testing. Supervisors perceived that teachers are not suf ficiently familiar with the nature of the TIMSS tests nor of the value that the tests results can be to administrators, teachers, or students themselves. One of the supervisors commented, "I was a teacher for more than 20 years, and I do not know anything about it. We only receive test papers and hand them over." Style of the TIMSS questions. The respondents mentioned that students are not familiar with the type and nature of the TIMSS questions; the questions that teachers generate and students work through in classroom study, differ signifi cantly from those they experienced on the TIMSS. The supervisors believe that some of the teachers themselves lack the skills and experience to solve the TIMSS questions.
In addition, there are many questions the students perceived as boring or perhaps too challenging. Many of the TIMSS questions focus on higher thinking skills. However, the mathematics curriculum in Kuwait generally focuses on lower cognitive skills, such as memorizing and remember ing; this finding is aligned with Alajmi's (2009) conclusions that the Kuwaiti mathematics curriculum "focuses on proce dural knowledge, following procedures and finding exact answers" (p. 266).   346  305  355  338  362  320  360  349  399  396  International  480  480  454  447  492  492  504  505  483  479  Application  Kuwaiti students  320  289  370  351  348  310  355  340  391  388  International  480  481  452  450  488  489  504  505  481  480  Deduction  Kuwaiti students  ----341  316  340  323  379  369  International  501  502  471  465  487  489  504  504  482  477 Weakness of students in Arabic language skills. The respon dents agreed that the cumulative weakness of students in the Arabic language influences their ability to read and thor oughly understand the test questions. The TIMSS test con tains 26 detailed questions, and the students are supposed to be able to answer most or all of the questions in 45 min. However, many students suffer from poor reading skills and, therefore, cannot finish reading the questions in the desig nated time. One of the supervisors mentioned, We have a problem in the language. A fourthgrade student can hardly read the questions in the allotted time. The eighthgrade students sometimes do not understand the meanings of the questions. There is also a problem in translating the questions from English to Arabic.
Second, although Kuwait first participated in the TIMSS assessments 20 years ago, student preparation for the test only began to take place in 2018 when the ministry formed a committee for science and mathematics. One of the supervi sors clarified that "for the latest TIMSS test, the ministry began serious preparations earlier this summer, unlike previ ous years in which teachers and administrators had no idea about TIMSS. As a committee we feel pressured." The respondents mentioned examples of the ministry's preparations, such as the publication of TIMSS test introduc tory booklets, the inclusion of curricula activities and tests for questions similar to the TIMSS test questions, additional time allocated during school, the selection of outstanding teachers to teach fourth and eighth graders, and the participa tion of supervisors, department heads and some teachers in training courses on issues related to the test. One of the supervisors elaborated, TIMSS introductory booklet included similar questions to the real TIMSS test, and supplementary material that is elaborated and taught in extra periods, however, there was a shortage of experienced teachers, and some administrators did not allow extra periods for TIMSS.
In addition, two TIMSS pilot tests were conducted in 2019 with a random sample of students, as a way for stu dents to become familiar with TIMSS test questions and prepare them for the real test. However, the results were not promising.
The supervisors mentioned that the period tests at the end of the first semester included questions similar to the TIMSS test patterns, but they noted that there has been no indepen dent or systematic analysis of questions and responses to identify the quality of students' answers, as one of the super visors commented that "analysis of the answers of some questions are based on personal judgments." The supervisors' responses in the focus group revealed that the recent interest of the ministry has focused on trying to improve the competitiveness of the students in the upcom ing test rather than focusing on reviewing the teaching methods, the pattern of questions, changing the curriculum content, or improving or focusing on teacher professional development. One of the supervisors added "we need to have an accountability system, and focus on improving the quality of education."

Discussion
The results of the TIMSS assessments show low perfor mance of Kuwaiti students in both the fourth and eighth grades, with a continuing weakness (compared to interna tional averages) since Kuwait's first participation approxi mately two decades ago, up to 2015 (the last participation). The low performance was most apparent in the cognitive and skill domains, in all content areas for mathematics, and in comparison, with international averages overall. Despite the slight improvements in the performance of students in 2007, 2011, and 2015, there were no changes in the performance of Kuwaiti students relative to their international peers, despite Kuwait being one of the first countries to participate in the TIMSS assessments.
Participation in the TIMSS assessments is intended to identify the strengths and weaknesses of an educational sys tem in terms of the curriculum and teaching methods and other variables so as to focus on the strengths and overcome any challenges. However, in Kuwait the evaluation of the results and meaningful response was not within the policy or priorities of the ministry of education. According to the par ticipants in the focus group interviews, interest in the test and the results did not start until this year. Therefore, the lack of a common and shared vision in the ministry about the aim and benefits of participation in the TIMSS may have contrib uted to the continuous low results throughout the participa tion period. Huffman (2001) points out that creating a shared vision based on common values is considered as a critical component of any change process. Therefore, governments, including Kuwait and other Arab countries, need to develop and share an understanding of the role and value of these international benchmarking tests in the reform process.
In addition, the lack of student interest is in line with House's (2006) study, which emphasized the importance of the relation between personal beliefs and educational achievement-he found that students who scored low on the TIMSS assessments tended to believe that mathematics was a boring subject. In addition, it seems that students usually pay more attention to the tests and assignments that they are evaluated on, but if the test has nothing to do with their eval uation such as TIMSS, then they usually do not take it seri ously in terms of preparation and answering all questions. This is in line with studies of Abu Tayeh et al. (2018) and Yahya and Ayasrah (2018), who found that there is a lack of interest in Jordan's students and their families in the TIMSS test, and they often do not have the awareness of the signifi cance of these tests for students or the country . These results showed that students did not care about doing required assignments and did not care about test results that did not affect their achievement. Also, the study of Butakor et al. (2017) attributed the cause of Ghanaian students' low perfor mance in TIMSS 2011 to the lack of students' interest and confidence in mathematics and students' lower educational aspiration. From our discussions with educational supervi sors in the focus groups as well as our own experiences in Kuwaiti classrooms, these problems related to student com mitment to the tests are also a concern in Kuwait.
Another reason for Kuwaiti students' low performance is that the curriculum does not include sufficient skills and exercises that focus on higher order thinking skills, deduc tive ability, and more abstract mathematical concepts. As Sumaida and Grace (2014) note, students of Arab countries suffer from weak performance in general due to the inability of students to apply their knowledge to solving matters with which they are unfamiliar, whereas most mathematical modes of learning, mentioned in documents and school books, aim at achieving some mathematical tasks more than helping to do a mathematical activity aiming to delve deeper into mathematical concepts, linking them, and applying them in different domains . . . Concentrating the curriculum . . . on the knowledge content more than focusing on developing mathematical competencies. (pp. 84-86) In the era of globalization, international assessments have a significant impact on education policymaking and educa tional quality, accountability, and outcomes (Kijima & Lipscy, 2016) and are noted as prerequisites for economic and politi cal development (Kamens, 2015). Such international tests help educational systems determine their strengths and weak ness, as well as address their future agenda (Rigas, 2013). Schools, administrators, and teachers can also reflect on the global test results and make recommendations for good prac tices (Cambridge Assessment International Education, 2017) and reform plans.

Conclusion
Despite all the efforts done in this study, the small number of supervisors interviewed is a clear limitation, which does not allow generalizations. It could have expanded more to include those from different disciplines. However, the use of mixed methods provided a better and deeper understanding of the issues related to the performance of Kuwaiti students on TIMSS assessment. Also, this study made a significant and meaningful contribution to the literature concerning international testing. Kuwait was the first Arab country to participate in TIMSS assessment, yet it showed very poor performance since its first participation. Conceptual models for school improvement consistently show the valuable role of international tests and benchmarking in driving educa tional reform. In particular, our results show the need in Kuwait for consideration of curriculum content areas and the cognitive and skill domains. In addition, the need to system atically evaluate the performance of Kuwaiti students on TIMSS assessment over a number of years, as we have begun in this study, will help educational officials to invest in human and education resources and improve accountability. Education policymakers in Kuwait need to carefully evaluate the national mathematic curriculum for all grades and improve it with reference to international standards so that it aligns with the intent of increasing quality of life and living in Kuwait through participation in the TIMSS assessments.
We also see this step as one in the development of a new competencebased curriculum.
We hope that the explicit presentation of these results will be at least a small motivation to improving education in Kuwait. We also hope that this work inspires, rather than depresses Kuwaiti teachers, governments, and educational leaders to continue to actively assess student performance, to systematically discuss results, and to design and test reme dial interventions. Finally, we hope that others will suggest solutions and proposals that would improve the performance of Kuwaiti students in mathematics, and study and present results from other curricular areas and on related interna tional education studies in the Arab world and in other non Western countries.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author ship, and/or publication of this article.