scholarly journals The OECD and IELS: Redefining early childhood education for the 21st century

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Euan Auld ◽  
Paul Morris

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has unveiled plans to move into the field of early childhood education through the introduction of the International Early Learning Study (IELS), a new comparative test of five-year olds that is being piloted in three nations. This article explores the dynamics of this new project and serves three purposes. First, we situate IELS within the OECD’s broader agenda in education governance, and with regard to its existing comparative assessments, namely the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Second, we identify the main commentaries and critiques of the OECD’s activity and assessments, specifically relating to PISA. In the concluding section we anticipate a possible future when such tests are established in the early childhood education sector and reflect on its possible impact. We argue that the advent of comparative testing of five-year olds heralds an attempt to introduce a new paradigm for early childhood education, one which stresses cognitive skills and children’s role as future sources of human capital.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (01) ◽  

The results of the program for international student assessment (PISA) in 2018 in the category of reading ability, Indonesia ranked 74th out of 79 countries, while for the assessment of mathematical ability and scientific ability, Indonesia ranked 73rd and 71st out of 79 participating countries PISA Achievement of Indonesia's ranking in the PISA assessment has always been constant since the beginning of Indonesia's participation in the assessment from 2000 to 2018. With consistent results that are ranked below bring the consequence of thinking that the quality of Indonesian education is not in accordance with global community standards and below the countries other in the world. Government efforts to make improvements to the results of the PISA assessment are changes in the curriculum, but in reality the results of PISA have not experienced significant changes. This paper is an effort to provide a view on the improvement of PISA results through improving the quality of early childhood education, among others for several reasons, first, the opinions of experts based on the results of their research which found that the development of intellectual abilities reached 80% at an early age so the term which is often used is the golden age (golden age); second, all indicators in the program for international student assessment (PISA) begin to be studied and developed by children in early childhood education institutions ranging from literacy reading (language), mathematical literacy and scientific literacy to be the focus in early childhood learning in institutions PAUD is holistically integrative; third, PAUD access which has not yet covered the whole territory of the Republic of Indonesia, as well as the quality and quality of early childhood education institutions that have not been maximized.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 410-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piriya Pholphirul

Several research papers have assessed the long-term benefits of pre-primary education in terms of academic performance and labor market outcomes. This study analyzes data obtained from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to estimate the effects of preschool enrollment of Thai students on producing long-term benefits in their academic performance. Results show that a mother’s educational attainment has a significant impact on the decision to enroll her child in preschool. Regarding the long-term benefits, our findings show that pre-primary education bears a significant and positive association with cognitive skills in all three areas of literacy tested under PISA, namely, reading, mathematics, and sciences. Regarding the economic status of students’ families, results indicate that the benefits of pre-primary education in cognitive skill improvement tend to be greatest in the case of students from low- to middle-income families. Evidence supports the promotion of long-term benefits of pre-primary education and, thus, the universal early childhood education policy. In particular, support should be given to childhood education programmes that specifically target children from disadvantaged groups and low-income households.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 557-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nevena Kulic ◽  
Jan Skopek ◽  
Moris Triventi ◽  
Hans-Peter Blossfeld

This review looks at the current state of research on early childhood education and care (ECEC) from a sociological stance. We summarize how children's experiences and benefits from participation in ECEC are related to their families’ socioeconomic position in modern industrial nations. By bringing together child development and intervention research from economics, education, and psychology with a sociological, social stratification perspective, our report focuses on ECEC as a policy strategy for equalization in early childhood. We argue that two major stratifiers, families and country-specific ECEC settings, need to be considered more closely when we seek to understand the efficacy of early educational interventions in modern societies. While well-targeted educational programs are found to lowerachievement gaps among children from different social backgrounds, a disproportionate use of early education by socioeconomically privileged families may offset the benefits of early interventions. In addition, the current stratification patterns in various nationwide ECEC contexts may further strengthen the gaps in children's (early) achievements.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 362-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andi Salamon ◽  
Jennifer Sumsion ◽  
Linda Harrison

Research about infants’ capacity to communicate using cries, smiles and sophisticated emotional strategies to connect with adults in their lives has predominantly emerged from the field of developmental psychology, with relatively limited attention to how babies enact such communicative practices with key adults in naturalistic settings. This article examines the emotional communicative practices infants use with educators in early childhood education and care contexts. Drawing on data from a study about educators’ conceptions of infants’ capabilities, the article frames babies’ intentional use of emotionally evocative communication as ‘emotional capital’. Transcripts of digital videos, pictures and written observations are used to illustrate how infants actively draw on reserves of emotional capital to guide the course of their relationship with educators, affording a view into how these efforts to communicate emotional messages are understood and met by their educators. Drawing on the theory of practice architectures, implications for the relationships that develop between infants and their primary carers/educators are discussed. Concluding thoughts acknowledge infants’ agency and active contribution to the dynamics within those relationships.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kylie Hillman ◽  
Sue Thomson

Australia was one of nine countries and economies to participate in the 2018 TALIS-PISA link study, together with Cuidad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (Argentina), Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Georgia, Malta, Turkey and Viet Nam. This study involved coordinating the samples of schools that participated in the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA, a study of the performance of 15-year-old students) and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS, a study that surveys teachers and principals in lower secondary schools) in 2018. A sample of teachers from schools that were selected to participate in PISA were invited to respond to the TALIS survey. TALIS data provides information regarding the background, beliefs and practices of lower secondary teachers and principals, and PISA data delivers insights into the background characteristics and cognitive and non-cognitive skills of 15-year-old students. Linking these data offers an internationally comparable dataset combining information on key education stakeholders. This report presents results of analyses of the relationships between teacher and school factors and student outcomes, such as performance on the PISA assessment, expectations for further study and experiences of school life. Results for Australia are presented alongside those of the average (mean) across all countries and economies that participated in the TALIS-PISA link study for comparison, but the focus remains on what relationships were significant among Australian students.


Author(s):  
Lei Liu ◽  
Jiangang Hao ◽  
Alina A. von Davier ◽  
Patrick Kyllonen ◽  
Juan-Diego Zapata-Rivera

The purpose of our project is to explore the measurement of cognitive skills in the domain of science through collaborative problem solving tasks, measure the collaborative skills, and gauge the potential feasibility of using game-like environments with avatar representation for the purposes of assessing the relevant skills. We are comparing students' performance in two conditions. In one condition, students work individually with two virtual agents in a game-like task. In the second condition, dyads of students work collaboratively with two virtual agents in the similar game-like task through a chat box. Our research is motivated by the distributed nature of cognition, extant research on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) which has shown great value of collaborative activities for learning, and the framework for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) framework. This chapter focuses on the development and implementation of a conceptual model to measure individuals' cognitive and social skills through collaborative activities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignasi Navarro-Soria ◽  
José Daniel Álvarez-Teruel ◽  
Lucía Granados-Alós ◽  
Rocío Lavigne-Cerván

The aim of this study was to assess the predictive capacity of some of the most relevant cognitive skills pertaining to the academic field as measured by the Spanish Primary School Aptitude Test Battery. This psychometric tool was applied to all students who were enrolled in the final year of Early Childhood Education (631 students) in the public schools of the province of Alicante (in the South-East of Spain) and a follow-up of their academic progress was carried out when they completed Primary Education (6 school years). The results obtained show that medium-high and high scores in Verbal Aptitude and Numerical Aptitude tests in Early Childhood Education (5 years of age), can predict academic success at the end of Primary Education (12 years of age) in instrumental subjects such as: (1) Language (Verbal Aptitude Odds Ratio = 1.39 and Numerical Aptitude Odds Ratio = 1.39) and (2) Mathematics (Verbal Aptitude Odds Ratio = 1.47 and Numerical Aptitude Odds Ratio = 1.52). We have determined the importance of developing pedagogical programs that stimulate the development of these skills during Early Childhood Education, while implementing support strategies during Primary Education, for those students who present underdeveloped aptitudes in these areas. In this way, school difficulties would be prevented in the instrumental subjects that provide access to other academic areas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-81
Author(s):  
Gisele Reinaldo Da Silva ◽  
Paula Cristina Teixeira Freire

Este artigo tem como proposta comparar as avaliações Classificatória e Diagnóstica no que se refere à adequabilidade de sua aplicação no âmbito da educação infantil. Objetiva-se, neste estudo, compreender como a avaliação Diagnóstica contribui na construção da aprendizagem da criança, ao analisar seus estágios de aquisição de conhecimentos de maneira significativa, à medida que identifica potencialidades e dificuldades do educando antes e durante cada fase de ensino. Em contrapartida, defende-se, neste estudo, a inadequabilidade da adoção da avaliação Classificatória na educação infantil, em sua proposta de classificar indivíduos conforme critérios padronizados e previamente estabelecidos, gerando hierarquização entre os educandos, avaliados de maneira pontual e quantitativa, através de graus e notas.  Promove-se, assim, uma revisão bibliográfica qualitativa acerca de concepções teórico-críticas comparativas entre as distintas formas de avaliar, a partir da qual se conclui que o ato de avaliar não é um ato neutro que se encerra na confirmação, mas, sim, um ato construtivo, amoroso, inclusivo e dialógico, distintos dos exames classificatórios, que são excludentes. Desta forma, esta pesquisa destaca-se por contribuir para o desenvolvimento da criança como ser social, através do fomento de suas habilidades afetiva, emocional e cognitiva, propiciado pela interação e aprendizagem com o meio em que vive.   Palavras-chave: Formas de Avaliação. Primeira Infância. Avaliação Somativa. Avaliação Analítica.   Abstract This article aims to compare Classificatory and Diagnostic evaluation concerning the applicability in the environment of early childhood education. It seeks to understand how the Diagnostic evaluation contributes to the child learning process, by analyzing the stages of knowledge acquisition in a significant way, as it identifies learners’ potentialities and difficulties before and during each educational phase. In contrast, this study defends the inadequacy of adopting the Classificatory evaluation at early childhood education, in its proposal of classifying individuals according to standardized and previously established criteria, creating a hierarchy among students, assessed in a punctual and quantitative way, through grades. Thus, a qualitative bibliographic review about comparative theoretical-critical conceptions between the different ways of evaluating is promoted, from which we conclude that the act of evaluating is not a neutral act that ends in the confirmation, but a constructive, loving, inclusive and dialogical act, discrete from the classificatory examination that is exclusionary. Thus, this research stands out for contributing to child development as a social being, through encouraging their affective, emotional and cognitive skills, promoted by the interaction and learning in the environment they live.   Keywords: Assessment Methods. Early Childhood. Somative Evaluation. Analytic Evaluation.   


SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824401989943
Author(s):  
Ömer Volkan Yaz ◽  
Mehmet Altan Kurnaz

The purpose of this study is to comparatively investigate the science teaching curricula in Turkey, which have undergone changes four times since the millennium. For this purpose, we carried out a technical and taxonomic examination of the learning outcomes listed in the science curricula that were introduced in 2000, 2005, 2013, and 2017 concerning Revised Bloom Taxonomy (RBT). In this study, the document analysis method was used. We classified a total of 2,613 learning outcomes in our analyses, which were limited to those related to the cognitive domain. The reliability score of the classifications was .89 according to the equation proposed by Miles and Huberman. The analyses showed that the teaching curricula decreased the intensity of the focus on knowledge and cognitive skills rather than making fundamental changes. Moreover, there was significant parallelism among the examined curricula in terms of the dimensions of the taxonomy. Using national-level results in international exams such as PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), we concluded that Turkey had not been successful enough in developing the examined curricula.


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