Browse by: "PRE-2008"

This first book in the new OECD Insights Series examines the increasing economic and social importance of human capital - our education, skills, competencies, and knowledge. As economies in developed countries shift away from manufacturing, economic success for individuals and national economies is increasingly reliant on the quality of human capital. Raising human capital has emerged as a key policy priority, particularly for low-skilled individuals, who are at risk of being left even further behind.

Policy in this area is focusing on early childhood development, improving quality and choice in schooling, creating excellence in tertiary education, and widening access to adult learning. Drawing on the research and analysis of the OECD, this dynamic new book uses straightforward language to explain how countries across the OECD area are responding to the challenge of raising their levels of human capital.  This book includes Statlinks, URLs linking statistical tables and graphs in the text of the book to Excel spreadsheets showing the underlying data.

Investment in human capital is to the fore of debate and analysis in OECD countries about how to promote economic prosperity, fuller employment, and social cohesion. Individuals, organisations and nations increasingly recognise that high levels of knowledge, skills and competencies are essential to their future security and success. Investment in skills and competencies takes place in a variety of settings ranging from early childhood education to informal learning in the workplace, and involves a wide range of actors from individuals to enterprises and governments.

This report aims to clarify what is now known about human capital and how it can be measured. It responds to a request by governments represented in the OECD Council "to develop an initial set of indicators of human capital investment based on existing data, analyse areas where significant gaps remain in internationally comparable data, identify the cost of development of data collection for new measures and performance indicators, and report to Ministers in 1998".

The rights of students with disabilities to be educated in their local mainstream school is becoming more and more accepted in most countries, and many reforms are being put in place to achieve this goal. Further, there is no reason to segregate disabled students in public education systems; instead, education systems need to be reconsidered to meet the needs of all students. Based on in-depth analysis of inclusive practice in eight countries, this book addresses the issues that arise for such practices to be successful. The most detailed international comparative study ever carried out, this book shows that all students, whatever the type and extent of their disability, can be successfully included in mainstream schools, as long as certain safeguards are ensured.

Nine areas emerge as being of crucial importance: funding models, systems of public accountability for schools, pupil assessment, curriculum development, adult-to-student ratios, the role of classroom assistants, the functioning of support services, the training of teachers and other professionals and community and parental involvement. The country case studies are complemented by comprehensive annexes describing how teachers can be most efficiently prepared for special education, and developing a procedure for cost-effectiveness analysis of special education.

It is now widely agreed that learning is pivotal in the "knowledge societies" of today and, still more, of tomorrow. It is also widely agreed that schools have a key role to play in laying the foundations for lifelong learning for all of us. But, how well are these aims being met? How innovative are schools as institutions? And what are some of the most promising examples across OECD countries from which we can learn?

This volume addresses these questions, drawing on a major OECD/Japan conference which was held in Hiroshima and attended by experts from 24 countries and a "virtual" conference conducted in parallel. It presents key trends and policy challenges regarding schools for today and tomorrow, from European traditions across to the different perspectives of the Asia-Pacific region, with a particular focus on Japan. Alongside expert chapters are the innovative schools themselves, with examples taken and synthesised from many of the countries that attended the Hiroshima conference. The volume addresses issues of curriculum, innovation and the achievement of lifelong learning in the schools of tomorrow.

Today's "knowledge economies" are seeing the emergence of new paradigms for innovation and the advancement of knowledge in relation to economic activities. This report explores some key determinants of innovation and their implications for the advancement of knowledge in a particular sector – primary and secondary education.

The analysis shows that there is considerable scope for certain drivers that have helped speed up innovation in other sectors to take effect in education. However, in practice, a number of basic characteristics of education systems have prevented innovation from changing this sector fundamentally.

Nevertheless, educational policy makers can learn much from observing how innovation occurs and how sectors are transformed in the most knowledge intensive parts of the economy.

Earthquake-prone communities need earthquake-resistant schools. In 2002, a primary school in San Giuliano, Italy, collapsed killing 29 children and one teacher. In May 2003, a medium-sized earthquake in the city of Bingöl, Turkey, caused the collapse of three new schools and a dormitory, killing many children as they slept. All too frequently, earthquakes cause the collapse of school buildings and the injury and death of staff and students. Further, when schools are closed because of earthquake damage, education is hampered, community life disrupted, and potential emergency shelters unavailable. Where school attendance is compulsory, communities have an obligation to provide a safe study and work environment.

Why do schools collapse even during moderate earthquakes? Experts agree that many collapse due to avoidable errors in design and construction. Often, the needed technology is not applied and laws and regulations are not sufficiently enforced. Application of existing knowledge can significantly lower the seismic risk of schools and help prevent further injury and death of school occupants during earthquakes. Moreover, this can be accomplished at reasonable cost and within a reasonable period.

Keeping Schools Safe in Earthquakes presents expert knowledge, opinions and experiences, and provides valuable insight into the scope of problems involved in protecting schools and their occupants. Its recommendations are a call to action to all governments in OECD and partner countries to help facilitate their implementation.

To function and prosper in the learning society, the management of knowledge is becoming a new and crucial challenge for both private companies and public organisations. It is increasingly important for companies and organisations to produce, share and use knowledge on a national and global scale. However, there is an urgent need for analysis of the knowledge economy both at the micro- and macro economic level in order to understand its characteristics and dynamics, and to identify the most appropriate routes for policy development. Little is known on how sectors and organisations could use knowledge more efficiently and how to benchmark organisations as learning organisations. This book is an ambitious attempt to address these issues through a better understanding of knowledge and learning processes at a sectorial level. It analyses and compares concretely the processes of knowledge production, dissemination and use in the engineering, the information and communication technology, the health and the education sectors.

Governments urgently need better knowledge bases for determining educational policy and practice in an increasingly interconnected world. The rate, quality and success in knowledge creation, mediation and application are relatively low in the education sector compared with other sectors. Unlike sectors such as medicine and engineering, education has not yet seen continuous and clear improvements due to technical and organisational advances. The book makes a strong plea for strengthening the knowledge management at every level of the education system.

Knowledge and Skills for Life assesses how far students near the end of compulsory education (15-year-olds) have acquired some of the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in society.  It presents evidence on student performance in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy, reveals factors that influence the development of these skills at home and at school, and examines what the implications are for policy development.

The report shows considerable variation in levels of knowledge and skills between students, schools and countries. The extent to which the socio-economic background of students and schools affects student performance varies.  Some countries have managed to mitigate the influence of social background and some have done that while achieving a high overall mean performance.

A Winner of the 2001 Awards for Notable Government Documents conferred by the American Library Association/Library Journal

This report presents the first internationally comparable results to OECD's 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Survey of the educational performance of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics, and science in 25 OECD countries.  This year, the concentration was on mathematics. Beyond the examination of the relative standing of countries in mathematics, science and reading, the report also looks at a wider range of educational outcomes that include students’ motivation to learn, their beliefs about themselves, and their learning strategies. Furthermore, it examines how performance varies between the genders and between socio-economic groups; and it provides insights into some of the factors that influence the development of knowledge and skills at home and at school, how these factors interact and what the implications are for policy development.  Most importantly, the report sheds light on countries that succeed in achieving high performance standards while, at the same time, providing an equitable distribution of learning opportunities.

The report presents a wealth of indicators showing how countries compare in various measures of educational performance and factors that affect that performance.

Across the OECD, attention is focusing increasingly on what has been dubbed the "digital divide" - a term that refers to the gaps in access to information and communication technology (ICT). The stakes are high, as ICT is now integral to the social fabric and is the catalyst for "new economies" to emerge. Exclusion threatens the ICT "have-nots", whether individuals, groups or entire countries. Political awareness of the stakes at issue grows sharply, as indicated by the prominence of the digital divide in G-8 discussions.

Education and learning lie at the heart of these issues and their solutions. They are the lifeblood of our 21st century knowledge societies, and ICT is critical to them. The gaps that define the "learning digital divide" are thus as important as the more obvious gaps in access to the technology itself. Learning is central in the still more fundamental sense that the machines and equipment are useless without the competence to exploit them. Nurturing this competence is in part the job of schools and colleges, in part dependent on the learning that takes place throughout life in homes, communities, and workplaces.

This volume meets an important need in the contemporary international literature on education policy, lifelong learning, and economic and social development. It presents analysis of the "learning digital divide" in different countries - developed and developing - and the policies and specific innovations designed to bridge it. The evidence shows that ICT can be the solution to inequalities rather than their cause - digital diversity and opportunity rather than digital divide.

Enormous investments are being made in computers and Internet connectivity for schools. The aim is to provide high-quality learning and teaching and equip young people for the knowledge society. But how are the benefits of this educational investment to be realised? It calls for much more than installing the hardware, and is not simply a matter of using ICT to do traditional things in different ways. Schools have to learn to change and to change to new ways of learning.

There is an urgent need for quality software and digital materials for use in schools. Teachers - and students - must become discerning and knowledgeable ICT users. The school environment has to be fully supportive of ICT, making available expert assistance and advice to the teacher in this rapidly-changing field. New forms of curriculum and assessment are called for, new ways of organising schools, if the dramatic educational potential of ICT is to be delivered and realised.

Such a demanding "learning to change" agenda is the subject of this international report. It is illuminated by the views of individual students, who used ICT enthusiastically in their own learning, and shared their experiences in an OECD international network. The report looks at the vast educational possibilities arising from the Internet, bringing together the school, the home and the wider community. It examines how ICT, which is the subject of teacher professional development, can largely be the means for its delivery. There are numerous examples of promising practice and principles for the future.

In OECD countries, the number of cities and regions which put learning, education, research and innovation at the heart of their development strategies is rapidly increasing and bringing together governments, the private sector and society. The growing interest in learning cities and regions reflects the fundamental shifts which are taking place. Cities are becoming more knowledge-based and organised as never before around learning and human skills. Today, these factors are central not only to individual success but also to gaining national, regional and urban economic advantage. Comparative advantage is increasingly dependent on human resources, knowledge creation, and continuous, incremental innovation rather than on access to physical capital and raw materials.

This book presents different approaches to regional development based on knowledge and innovation in Andalusia, Spain (and some other countries). Potential applications to areas similar to Andalusia are also given. The study contains a synthesis of the presentations and discussions of the conference held in Malaga, Spain, on the 30th September and 1st October 1999, that focused on the current situation of the region, analysing its evolution over the last twenty years, and evaluating the policies already implemented in the region. A diagnosis of the present socio-economic system has been made in order to measure the applicability of policies that would help Andalusia to develop into a learning region, built on human, social, cultural and "synergetic" capital.

Lessons in Danger, the result of a joint OECD-US Department of Education collaboration, provides valuable insight into how school safety and security, particularly in emergency situations, are addressed in over 14 countries. Addressing such issues as risk assessment, crisis planning and management, infrastructure approaches, collaborative approaches, and education and training for emergency management, it describes the roles of architects, project managers, ministry officials, psychologists, teachers, security consultants, police officers, academics and many others in helping to implement solutions.