Reader’s guide
The results referred to in this volume are provided in Annex C.
The publication features results on teachers and school principals working in schools providing lower secondary education (ISCED Level 2) in 48 countries and economies, as well as in 2 sub-national entities (the Flemish Community of Belgium and the French Community of Belgium) that opted for their data to be adjudicated. It also features results on primary teachers and school principals in 15 countries and economies (ISCED level 1) and on upper secondary teachers and school principals in 11 countries and economies (ISCED level 3).
In tables, countries and economies are ranked in alphabetical order. There are two exceptions to this rule:
The Flemish Community and the French Community of Belgium are indented and italicised, under Belgium, for tables based on ISCED 2 teacher and principal data for TALIS 2018.
Countries that have not met TALIS standard participation rates are placed at the bottom of the tables.
There are six sub-national entities participating in TALIS 2018. They are referred to in the following manner:
The province of Alberta, in Canada, is referred to as Alberta (Canada).
The Flemish Community of Belgium is referred to as Flemish Comm. (Belgium) in tables and figures.
The French Community of Belgium is referred to as French Comm. (Belgium) in tables and figures.
Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires is referred to as CABA (Argentina).
The nation of England is referred to as England (United Kingdom), or England (UK) in tables and figures.
The municipality of Shanghai, in China, is referred to as Shanghai (China).
Chinese Taipei and Cyprus did not participate directly in TALIS 2018: their data collection and processing were managed exclusively by the international research consortium. Their data are reported in the result tables listed in Annex C.
Two notes are added to the information on Cyprus:
Note by Turkey: The information in this document with reference to “Cyprus” relates to the southern part of the Island. There is no single authority representing both Turkish and Greek Cypriot people on the Island. Turkey recognises the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Until a lasting and equitable solution is found within the context of the United Nations, Turkey shall preserve its position concerning the “Cyprus issue”.
Note by all the European Union Member States of the OECD and the European Union: The Republic of Cyprus is recognised by all members of the United Nations with the exception of Turkey. The information in this document relates to the area under the effective control of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus.
One note is added to the information on the data for Israel:
The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.
The classification of levels of education is based on the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). ISCED is an instrument for compiling statistics on education internationally. ISCED-97 was recently revised, and the new International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED-2011) was formally adopted in November 2011 and is now the basis of the levels presented in this publication. It distinguishes between nine levels of education:
early childhood education (ISCED level 0)
primary education (ISCED level 1)
lower secondary education (ISCED level 2)
upper secondary education (ISCED level 3)
post-secondary non-tertiary level of education (ISCED level 4)
short-cycle tertiary education (ISCED level 5)
bachelor’s or equivalent level (ISCED level 6)
master’s or equivalent level (ISCED level 7)
doctoral or equivalent level (ISCED level 8).
More information can be found in Annex B.
The report uses “teachers” as shorthand for the TALIS target population of lower secondary teachers. TALIS covers teachers who, as part of their regular duties in a target school, provide instruction in programmes at the ISCED 2 level (lower secondary education). “Primary teachers” refer to teachers providing instruction in programmes at the ISCED 1 level (primary education). “Upper secondary teachers” refer to teachers providing instruction in programmes at the ISCED 3 level (upper secondary education).
The report uses “principals” and “school leaders” as equivalent shorthand for the TALIS target population of lower secondary principals. School principals provided information on their schools’ characteristics and their own work and working conditions by completing a principal questionnaire. Where responses from school principals are presented in this publication, they are usually weighted by the school weights. In some cases, principal responses are treated as attributes of the teachers’ personal working conditions. In such cases, principals’ answers are analysed at the teacher level and weighted by the teacher weights.
The OECD and TALIS averages correspond to the arithmetic mean of the respective country estimates. They are calculated for most indicators based on the main survey data (ISCED 2 level) presented in this report. The European Union average, called “EU total”, takes the European Union Member States as a single entity, to which each country contributes in proportion of the estimated size of the target population. It can be used to assess how a country compares with the European Union as a whole. The system-level estimates of the Flemish Community of Belgium and the French Community of Belgium are not included in the international averages, as these sub-national entities already contribute to the international averages through the means of Belgium as a whole.
The system-level estimates of countries that have not met the standards for TALIS participation rates are excluded from the international averages. This is the case for the estimates based on the responses of lower secondary principals in Australia.
In the case of some countries, data may not be available for specific indicators, or specific categories may not apply. Readers should, therefore, keep in mind that the terms “OECD average”, “TALIS average” and “EU total” refer to the countries included in the respective averages. Each of these averages may not necessarily be consistent across all columns of a table.
The number of countries or economies included in an international average is indicated next to that average:
OECD average-31 :1 arithmetic average based on ISCED 2 teacher data across 31 OECD countries and economies with adjudicated data. The report refers to the average teacher “across the OECD” as equivalent shorthand for the average teacher “across the 31 OECD countries and economies participating in TALIS”.
OECD average-30: arithmetic average based on ISCED 2 principal data across 30 OECD countries and economies with adjudicated data. The report refers to the average school or principal “across the OECD” as equivalent shorthand for the average school or principal “across the 30 OECD countries and economies participating in TALIS”.
TALIS average-48: arithmetic average based on ISCED 2 teacher data across 48 TALIS 2018 countries and economies with adjudicated data.
TALIS average-47: arithmetic average based on ISCED 2 principal data across 47 TALIS 2018 countries and economies with adjudicated data.
EU total-23: weighted average based on ISCED 2 teacher or principal data across all EU Member States that participate in TALIS with adjudicated data.
The list of countries and economies included in each international average is provided in Annex B.
Five symbols are used to denote non-reported estimates:
TALIS results are based exclusively on self-reports from teachers and school leaders and, therefore, represent their opinions, perceptions, beliefs and accounts of their activities. No data imputation from administrative data or other studies is conducted and, as with any self-reported data, this information is subjective and may, therefore, differ from data collected through other means (e.g. administrative data or video observations). The same is true of school leaders’ reports about school characteristics and practices, which may differ from descriptions provided by administrative data at a national or local government level.
Because of rounding, some figures in tables may not add up exactly to the totals. Totals, differences and averages are always calculated on the basis of exact numbers and are rounded only after calculation.
All standard errors in this publication have been rounded to one, two or three decimal places. Where the value 0.0, 0.00 or 0.000 is shown, this does not imply that the standard error is zero, but that it is smaller than 0.05, 0.005 or 0.0005, respectively.
This volume only comments on statistically significant differences or changes. These are denoted in darker colours in figures and in bold font in tables. See Annex B for further information.
For further information on TALIS documentation, instruments and methodology, see the TALIS 2018 Technical Report (OECD, 2019[1]) and TALIS 2018 and TALIS Starting Strong 2018 User Guide (OECD, 2019[2]).
This report uses the OECD StatLinks service. All tables and charts are assigned a URL leading to a corresponding ExcelTM workbook containing the underlying data. These URLs are stable and will remain unchanged over time. In addition, readers of the e-books will be able to click directly on these links and the workbook will open in a separate window if their Internet browser is open and running.
References
[2] OECD (2019), TALIS 2018 and TALIS Starting Strong 2018 User Guide, OECD, Paris, http://www.oecd.org/education/talis/TALIS_2018-TALIS_Starting_Strong_2018_User_Guide.pdf.
[1] OECD (2019), TALIS 2018 Technical Report, OECD, Paris, http://www.oecd.org/education/talis/TALIS_2018_Technical_Report.pdf.
Note
← 1. On 25 May 2018, the OECD Council invited Colombia to become a Member. While Colombia is included in the OECD averages reported in this publication, at the time of its preparation, Colombia was in the process of completing its domestic procedures for ratification and the deposit of Colombia’s instrument of accession to the OECD Convention was pending.