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Did you ever wonder if education has a role to play in stemming the obesity epidemic sweeping across all OECD countries? Or what the impact of increasing urbanisation might be on our schools, families, and communities? Or whether new technologies really are fundamentally changing the way our children think and learn?
Trends Shaping Education examines major trends affecting the future of education and sets the background on upcoming challenges for policy makers and education providers alike. This work does not give conclusive answers: it is not an analytical report nor is it a statistical compendium, and it is certainly not a statement of OECD policy on these different developments. It is instead a stimulus for thinking about major tendencies that have the potential to influence education, and conversely, the potential of education to influence these trends.
In the wake of the technological revolution that began in the last decades of the 20th century, labour market demand for information-processing and other high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills is growing substantially. The Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), was designed to provide insights into the availability of some of these key skills in society and how they are used at work and at home. The first survey of its kind, it directly measures proficiency in several information-processing skills – namely literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments.
The Survey of Adult Skills: Reader’s Companion, Second Edition describes the design and methodology of the survey and its relationship to other international assessments of young students and adults. It is a companion volume to Skills Matter: Further Results from the Survey of Adult Skills. Skills Matter reports results from the 24 countries and regions that participated in the first round of the survey in 2011-12 (first published in OECD Skills Outlook 2013: First Results from the Survey of Adult Skills) and from the nine additional countries that participated in the second round in 2014-15 (Chile, Greece, Indonesia [Jakarta], Israel, Lithuania, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia and Turkey).
Every three years, the Programme for International Student Assessment, better known as PISA, evaluates 15 year-old students around the world to determine how well their education system has prepared them for life after compulsory schooling. Once the results are published, the media rush to compare their countries’ positions in the international league tables. Government policy makers, journalists and academic researchers mine the report to find out how successful education systems elicit the best performance from their students while making access to high-quality education more equitable. But sometimes the key messages don’t make it back to the teachers who are preparing their country’s students every day.
Ten Questions for Mathematics Teachers… and How PISA Can Help Answer Them aims to change that. This report delves into topics such as, “How much should I encourage my students to be responsible for their own learning in mathematics?” or “As a mathematics teacher, how important is the relationship I have with my students?”. It gives teachers timely and relevant data and analyses that can help them reflect on their teaching strategies and how students learn.
If the quality of an education system can never exceed the quality of its teachers, then countries need to do all they can to build a high-quality teaching force. Teaching Excellence through Professional Learning and Policy Reform: Lessons from around the World, the background report to the sixth International Summit on the Teaching Profession, describes the knowledge, skills and character qualities common to the most effective teachers. It examines the education policies and practices that help teachers to acquire these tools, including through induction and mentoring programmes, ongoing professional development activities, student assessments, and collaboration with colleagues. The publication also discusses the importance of involving all stakeholders – especially teachers – in the process of education reform.
This report examines the nature and extent of support for teacher professionalism using the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013, a survey of teachers and principals in 34 countries and economies around the world. Teacher professionalism is defined as the knowledge, skills, and practices that teachers must have in order to be effective educators.
The report focuses on lower secondary teachers (ISCED 2) in different education systems and looks at cross-cultural differences in teacher professionalism. It explores how teacher professionalism is linked to policy-relevant teacher outcomes such as perceived status, satisfaction with profession and school environment or perceived self-efficacy. The publication also tackles equity concerns in teacher professionalism: it examines professionalism support gaps, which are defined as differences in support for teacher professionalism in schools with high levels of disadvantage as compared to those with low-levels of disadvantage. Last but not least, the report presents a number of policy-relevant recommendations to enhance teacher professionalism and equity in access to high-quality teaching in OECD member countries.
In the wake of the technological revolution that began in the last decades of the 20th century, labour market demand for information-processing and other high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills is growing substantially. The Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), was designed to provide insights into the availability of some of these key skills in society and how they are used at work and at home. The first survey of its kind, it directly measures proficiency in several information-processing skills – namely literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments.
This volume reports results from the 24 countries and regions that participated in the first round of the survey in 2011-12 (first published in OECD Skills Outlook 2013: First Results from the Survey of Adult Skills) and from the nine additional countries that participated in the second round in 2014-15 (Chile, Greece, Indonesia [Jakarta], Israel, Lithuania, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia and Turkey). It describes adults’ proficiency in the three information-processing skills assessed, and examines how skills proficiency is related to labour market and social outcomes. Another related report, The Survey of Adult Skills: Reader’s Companion, Second Edition, describes the design and methodology of the survey and its relationship to other international assessments of young students and adults.
The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is the largest international survey of teachers and school leaders. Using the TALIS database, this report looks at different approaches to school leadership and the impact of school leadership on professional learning communities and on the learning climate in individual schools.
It looks at principals’ instructional and distributed leadership across different education systems and levels. Instructional leadership comprises leadership practices that involve the planning, evaluation, co-ordination and improvement of teaching and learning. Distributed leadership in schools explores the degree of involvement of staff, parents or guardians, and students in school decisions.
How are principals’ and schools’ characteristics related to instructional and distributed leadership? What types of leadership are favoured across countries? What impact do they have on the establishment of professional learning communities and positive learning environments? The report notes that teacher collaboration is more common in schools with strong instructional leadership. However, about one in three principals does not actively encourage collaboration among the teaching staff in his or her school. There is room for improvement; and both policy and practice can help achieve it. The report offers a series of policy recommendations to help strengthen school leadership.
The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines not just what students know in science, reading and mathematics, but what they can do with what they know. Results from PISA show educators and policy makers the quality and equity of learning outcomes achieved elsewhere, and allow them to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. PISA 2015 Results (Volume II): Policies and Practices for Successful Schools, is one of five volumes that present the results of the PISA 2015 survey, the sixth round of the triennial assessment. It examines how student performance is associated with various characteristics of individual schools and school systems, including the resources allocated to education, the learning environment and how school systems select students into different schools, programmes and classes.
The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines not just what students know in science, reading and mathematics, but what they can do with what they know. Results from PISA show educators and policy makers the quality and equity of learning outcomes achieved elsewhere, and allow them to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. PISA 2015 Results (Volume I): Excellence and Equity in Education, is one of five volumes that present the results of the PISA 2015 survey, the sixth round of the triennial assessment. It summarises student performance in science, reading and mathematics, and defines and measures equity in education. It focuses on students’ attitudes towards learning science, including their expectations of working in science-related careers. The volume also discusses how performance and equity have evolved across PISA-participating countries and economies over recent years.
“What is important for citizens to know and be able to do?” The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) seeks to answer that question through the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student knowledge and skills. The PISA 2015 Assessment and Analytical Framework presents the conceptual foundations of the sixth cycle of the triennial assessment. Similar to the previous cycles, the 2015 assessment covers science, reading and mathematics, with the major focus on scientific literacy this cycle. Financial literacy is also evaluated as an optional assessment, as it was in 2012.A questionnaire about students’ background is distributed to all participating students. Students may also choose to complete additional questionnaires: one about their future studies and career, a second about their familiarity with information and communication technologies. School principals complete a questionnaire about the learning environment in their schools, and parents of students who sit the PISA test can choose to complete a questionnaire about the home environment. Seventy-one countries and economies, including all 34 OECD countries, participated in the PISA 2015 assessment.
Skills are central to Peru’s future prosperity and the well-being of its people. Peru's economic development to date has largely been driven by abundant natural resources and high commodity prices in the global market. The goal for the future is to ensure productive diversification, expand export capacity and take part in global value chains with more complex goods and services. Boosting the development, activation and use of skills will be key to achieving these ambitions. As demonstrated by the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), which Peru is currently deploying, higher skills levels are not only associated with higher productivity and earnings, but also with other important outcomes, such as better health, higher levels of trust and greater propensity to contribute to society through volunteering.
The OECD Skills Strategy Diagnostic Report: Peru sets out nine skills challenges for Peru. These challenges were identified through two interactive workshops with stakeholders as well as through analysis of the OECD and other data sources. The first six challenges refer to specific outcomes across the three pillars of developing, activating and using skills. The next three challenges refer to the “enabling” conditions that strengthen the overall skills system.
The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The OECD Reviews of School Resources explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education.
The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as public funding of individual schools; human resources, such as teachers, school leaders and education administrators; physical resources, such as location, buildings and equipment; and other resources, such as learning time.
This series offers timely policy advice to both governments and the education community. It includes both country reports and thematic studies.
The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The OECD Reviews of School Resources explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education.
The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as public funding of individual schools; human resources, such as teachers, school leaders and education administrators; physical resources, such as location, buildings and equipment; and other resources, such as learning time.
This series offers timely policy advice to both governments and the education community. It includes both country reports and thematic studies.
The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The OECD Reviews of School Resources explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education.
The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as public funding of individual schools; human resources, such as teachers, school leaders and education administrators; physical resources, such as location, buildings and equipment; and other resources, such as learning time.
This series offers timely policy advice to both governments and the education community. It includes both country reports and thematic studies.
The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The OECD Reviews of School Resources explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education.
The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as public funding of individual schools; human resources, such as teachers, school leaders and education administrators; physical resources, such as location, buildings and equipment; and other resources, such as learning time.
This series offers timely policy advice to both governments and the education community. It includes both country reports and thematic studies.
The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The OECD Reviews of School Resources explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education.
The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as public funding of individual schools; human resources, such as teachers, school leaders and education administrators; physical resources, such as location, buildings and equipment; and other resources, such as learning time.
This series offers timely policy advice to both governments and the education community. It includes both country reports and thematic studies.
The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The OECD Reviews of School Resources explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education.
The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as public funding of individual schools; human resources, such as teachers, school leaders and education administrators; physical resources, such as location, buildings and equipment; and other resources, such as learning time.
This series offers timely policy advice to both governments and the education community. It includes both country reports and thematic studies.
The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The OECD Reviews of School Resources explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education.
The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as public funding of individual schools; human resources, such as teachers, school leaders and education administrators; physical resources, such as location, buildings and equipment; and other resources, such as learning time.
This series offers timely policy advice to both governments and the education community. It includes both country reports and thematic studies.
How can the Netherlands move its school system “from good to great”? This report draws on international experience to look at ways in which the strong Dutch school system might go further still on the path to excellence. Clearly the Dutch school system is one of the best in the OECD, as measured by PISA and PIAAC and is also equitable, with a very low proportion of poor performers. The report therefore proposes an incremental approach to reform, building on strengths while responding to some emerging challenges. The Netherlands should strengthen the quality of early childhood education and care, revisit policies related to early tracking with more objective testing and track decisions, and enhance the permeability of the system. It should develop the professionalism of teachers and school leaders through enhanced collective learning and working, while at the same time strengthening accountability and capacity in school boards. This report will be valuable not only for the Netherlands, but also to the many other education systems looking to raise their performance who are interested in the example of the Netherlands.
This report reviews the collection, availability and quality of system-level data and metadata on education from countries participating in the PISA for Development project: Cambodia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Senegal and Zambia. PISA for Development aims to increase low income countries’ use of PISA assessments for monitoring progress towards national goals for improving education and for analysing the factors associated with student learning outcomes, particularly among poor and marginalised populations. The project also helps track progress towards the international education targets defined in the Education 2030 Framework for Action, which the international community adopted in 2015 as the strategy for achieving the Education Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
The report suggests technically sound and viable options for improving data quality, completeness and international comparability in the six countries that are reviewed. It also provides insights into overcoming some of the challenges common to countries that participate in PISA for Development and to other middle income and low income countries.