The impact of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) on aspects of education policy reform in Germany

Core Elements ◽

The Individual ◽

The poor performance of German students in PISA 2000 was a wake-up call for Germany, with the students’ scores in reading, mathematics and science being considerably lower than the OECD average. The immediate reaction to the disappointing results, dubbed the German “PISA shock”, stimulated a heated public debate and a strong policy response, with the German government enacting reform measures that led to significant improvement in the country’s educational performance. One of the core elements of the reform was the passage from the German Bildung, which is an education philosophy based on the development of the individual rather than on specific functional abilities, to a notion where educational standards and assessment of students’ achievements are central. Another crucial intervention was to define standards for teacher education, which led to a critical reflection on the quality of teacher training. In this article, we propose to review those measures, while touching upon others, of the German educational reform following the publication of the PISA results.

Do Prospective Teachers Care About PISA Studies? A Pilot Study among University Students in Germany

International Education Studies ◽

10.5539/ies.v10n5p26 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 26 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Olga Ioannidou ◽

Despoina Georgiou ◽

Andreas Obersteiner ◽

Nilufer Deniz Bas ◽

Christine Mieslinger

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

University Students ◽

Prospective Teachers ◽

International Student ◽

Teacher Education Program ◽

Student Assessment ◽

The Impact ◽

Very High ◽

Expected Outcomes

The results of international comparison studies such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) have initiated intense discussions about educational reforms in Germany. Although in-service and pre-service teachers are an essential part of such reforms, little is known about their attitudes towards PISA studies. The present study aims to fill this gap through the investigation of pre-service teachers’ awareness, interest, perception, and attitudes towards PISA. A questionnaire was used to survey a sample of 107 university students who were participating in a teacher education program. The results reveal that 100% of the participants are aware of PISA. Nearly 69% of the participants think that the impact of PISA is rather high or very high, while 41% of them believe that PISA results are reliable. Accordingly, half of the participants seem to be interested in PISA results for their country. The present study discusses these findings in the light of the expected outcomes as proposed in standards for teacher education.

The Impact of Schooling Intensity on Student Learning: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment

Education Finance and Policy ◽

10.1162/edfp_a_00263 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 679-701

Author(s):

Vincenzo Andrietti ◽

Xuejuan Su

Keyword(s):

Student Learning ◽

Test Scores ◽

International Student ◽

Unobserved Heterogeneity ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Immigrant Parents ◽

High Performing ◽

Time Required ◽

This paper uses a quasi-natural policy experiment in Germany, the G8 reform, to examine the impact of schooling intensity on student learning. The G8 reform compresses secondary school for academic-track students from nine to eight years, while holding fixed the overall academic content and total instruction time required for graduation, resulting in a higher schooling intensity per grade. Using German extension of the Programme for International Student Assessment data, we find that this reform improves test scores on average, but the effect differs across subgroups of students. The reform effect is larger for girls than for boys, for students with German-born parents than for those with immigrant parents, and for students having more books at home. The heterogeneous reform effects cannot be explained by changes in observed channels. Instead, quantile regression results suggest that unobserved heterogeneity plays an important role: Whereas high-performing students significantly improve their test scores, the lowest-performing students hardly improve at all after the reform. We interpret the unobserved heterogeneity as reflecting students’ capability to cope with the increase in schooling intensity.

Never Waste a Crisis: Understanding the Welsh Policy Response to PISA in the Context of the Globally Structured Reform Agenda

Cylchgrawn Addysg Cymru / Wales Journal of Education ◽

10.16922/wje.19.1.11 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 182-191

Author(s):

Lizzie Swaffield

Keyword(s):

International Student ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Education Systems ◽

National Education ◽

Reform Agenda ◽

National Education Systems ◽

Modes Of Governance ◽

This article considers the nature of the globally structured reform agenda including the role of international organisations and the development of new supra-national modes of governance. It discusses the impact of this agenda on education policy within national education systems with a particular focus on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) as an example of the globally structured reform agenda. It explores the role PISA has in global educational governance and in influencing the transfer of policy between education systems. Policy responses to PISA are critically discussed with a particular focus on the response in Wales. It is argued that new supra-national modes of governance shape education systems and the transfer of policy between them, but that they are also used as a tool to further domestic political agendas in order to bring about reforms.

Reflections on Analytical Choices in the Scaling Model for Test Scores in International Large-Scale Assessment Studies

10.31234/osf.io/pkjth ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alexander Robitzsch ◽

Oliver Lüdtke

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

International Student ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Individual Student ◽

Scaling Model ◽

Large Scale Assessment ◽

Wide Range ◽

Analytical Strategies ◽

The Individual

International large-scale assessments (LSAs) such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provide important information about the distribution of student proficiencies across a wide range of countries. The repeated assessments of these content domains offer policymakers important information for evaluating educational reforms and received considerable attention from the media. Furthermore, the analytical strategies employed in LSAs often define methodological standards for applied researchers in the field. Hence, it is vital to critically reflect the conceptual foundations of analytical choices in LSA studies. This article discusses methodological challenges in selecting and specifying the scaling model used to obtain proficiency estimates from the individual student responses in LSA studies. We distinguish design-based inference from model-based inference. It is argued that for the official reporting of LSA results, design-based inference should be preferred because it allows for a clear definition of the target of inference (e.g., country mean achievement) and is less sensitive to specific modeling assumptions. More specifically, we discuss five analytical choices in the specification of the scaling model: (1) Specification of the functional form of item response functions, (2) the treatment of local dependencies and multidimensionality, (3) the consideration of test-taking behavior for estimating student ability, and the role of country differential items functioning (DIF) for (4) cross-country comparisons, and (5) trend estimation. This article's primary goal is to stimulate discussion about recently implemented changes and suggested refinements of the scaling models in LSA studies.

An Examination of the Links between Technology, Culture, and Reading Proficiency: A Study of the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA)

10.31124/advance.13298645 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Andrew Schenck

Keyword(s):

International Student ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Reading Proficiency ◽

Reading Scores ◽

Digital Device ◽

Use Of Technology ◽

Device Use ◽

Impact Of Technology ◽

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between culture, technology, and reading. Reading scores from the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) were obtained from 41 countries and compared to: digital device use in the classroom, method of digital device use in the classroom, and digital device use outside the classroom. Results suggest that either no use or extensive use of technology improves overall reading scores. Cultural characteristics such as assertiveness or low institutional collectivism in some countries appear to mitigate this effect, decreasing the impact of technology on reading. Teacher control of technology had the highest impact on reading performance. Finally, as the use of technology outside the classroom increased, reading proficiency tended to decrease, with the exception of the Anglo cultural group.

REFORMATION OF THE PRESENT CURRICULUM OF THE PRE-UNIVERSITY EDUCATION ACCORDING TO THE COMPETENCE – BASED APPROACH

Social and Natural Sciences Journal ◽

10.12955/snsj.v8i2.544 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Zhuljeta Cinga

Keyword(s):

International Student ◽

Student Assessment ◽

School Curriculum ◽

University Education ◽

New Developments ◽

Instructional Objectives ◽

Instructional Plans ◽

Contemporary Education

Up to the present the efforts to raise the quality of the Albanian educational system have been focused mostly in the direction of the content of the school curriculum, delivery of knowledge through the standards, as well as in the direction of instructional plans and programs. These achievements have been insufficient for raising the quality of the contemporary education, a fact that was also noticed by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). 60% of students in Albania did not complete the second level of PISA. The curriculum compilers 2014 using the best international research and practice data in educational field raised the problem of the preceding curriculum, which they characterized as a curriculum traditional in essence. The aim of this work is to argue the proposals of the curriculum compilers for “a curriculum which creates conditions and supports the competence development” through competence mastering, focusing on the students, needs and demands for education, learning in situations and knowledge building from the students, against a curriculum centered in instructional objectives and focused on the subject content acquirement.Considering the fast rhythm of knowledge explosion in the society of technology and knowledge, the new developments in the work market, changes in conceptions in the learning process, the necessity of reformation of a curriculum “after the competence-based approach” will be argued.

Teacher Education in Singapore

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.293 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jason Loh ◽

Guangwei Hu

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Teacher Training ◽

International Student ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Leadership Role ◽

Ministry Of Education ◽

Teacher Training College

Since the turn of this century, and especially in the past decade, Singapore has consistently done well in international benchmark studies, be it the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), or the International Baccalaureate diploma assessment. Singapore’s sterling performance in these different benchmark assessments has been widely attributed to the quality of its teaching force, which is, in turn, ascribed to the teacher education programs provided by its sole teacher education institution – the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Teacher education began during the country’s colonial past, but there was no designated provider of comprehensive training until teacher training was institutionalized in 1950, when the Teacher Training College was established. After Singapore gained independence in 1965, the institution’s capacity expanded rapidly as a teacher training department and later as a statutory board within the Ministry of Education. In 1991, to raise the stature of teacher education, the Teacher Training College was incorporated as an autonomous institute within the newly formed NTU. Due to the need to ensure the survival of a tiny island nation over the years, it has been imperative to educate the population for industry and development. In the process, tensions have arisen from: (a) the recruitment of huge numbers of teachers and the concomitant quality of their training, (b) collaboration with the Ministry of Education, and (c) the influence of educational research on theory and practice. In the third decade of the 21st century, with the stranglehold that neoliberalism has on many educational systems around the world, including Singapore, will NIE be able to prepare its future teachers to navigate and survive in such a climate, while continuing to strengthen its theory-practice nexus? With the dwindling of student numbers across all sectors and the accompanying reduced need for new teachers in the country, will NIE look beyond the shores of Singapore, internationalize its programs, and take on a leadership role in the region?

Impact of Using ICT for Learning Purposes on Self-Efficacy and Persistence: Evidence from Pisa 2018

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13116463 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 6463

Author(s):

Rikito Hori ◽

Makoto Fujii

Keyword(s):

Online Education ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

International Student ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Ict Use ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

School Learning ◽

The Impact ◽

Out Of School

In recent years, the use of information and communication technology (ICT) has meant that learning is no longer limited to the school. In order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) goal 4, that is, to ensure quality education for all, to make educational resources and online learning are indispensable, and to access these resources anytime, anywhere through the Internet. In addition, the global pandemic of COVID-19 has made online education more necessary than ever before. Where and how ICT is used may have an impact on the components of motivation, such as self-efficacy and persistence. In this study, we quantified the impact of ICT utilization on the two components of self-efficacy and persistence. The effects of ICT use on both components were analyzed from the data taken from the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) administered to 15-year old students. The results revealed that students who frequently utilized ICT for the purpose of out-of-school learning, particularly for activities related to school projects, exhibited significantly higher levels of self-efficacy and persistence. The frequency of ICT usage for in-school learning revealed no effect on any of the two above components. In addition, utilization of ICT for recreational purposes outside of school showed significantly lower values in the area of persistence. These results indicate that it is important to set tasks that provide a continuum of ICT use, both in and out of school, in order to motivate learners. This has important implications for the design of learning in online education. Furthermore, it suggests that teachers should design exploratory type lessons that focus on strengthening students’ desire to learn outside of class.