Secondary analysis of large-scale assessment data: an alternative to variable-centred analysis

International large-scale assessments are now part of the educational landscape in many countries and often feed into major policy decisions. Yet, such assessments also provide data sets for secondary analysis that can address key issues of concern to educators and policymakers alike. Traditionally, such secondary analyses have been based on a variable-centred approach that gives rise to league tables. In the study reported here, a person-centred analysis is used as an alternative to the traditional approach. Data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) were analysed to investigate Asian students' attitudes to their future civic participation. Cluster analysis with validity measures showed that 4 distinct groups of students were identified within the societies studied thus highlighting the diversity within the samples. These results cannot be achieved with a conventional variable approach to analysis, and they suggest the usefulness of exploring alternative approaches to secondary data analysis.