This study attempted to identify the influence of the curricular context factors within studentand
school-levels on the science achievement of Korean students. The subjects of the study
were 4,158 students nested within 139 high schools in Korea, and the data were from PISA
2006 focusing on science and collected information on student attitudes toward science by the
OECD. The study used two-level model analyses. The variables, with the exception of dummy
variables, were centered around the grand mean of each variable.
The results of the study can be summarized as follows. Males or students whose fathers had
higher educational levels showed higher science achievement scores. Among the context factors,
self-directed science study time, science interest, and science values were positively related to
science achievement, whereas private tutoring time on science and science activities had no
significant relationship with achievement. At the school level, school average ESCS had positive
effects on science achievement, while the shortage of science teachers showed negative effects
on achievement. These findings suggest that, in the future, the government should increase the
number of qualified science teachers on a national level. Among the curricular context factors,
the average time of school science classes showed a positive relationship with science
achievement, whereas other context factors at the school level were not related to achievement.