PISA and TIMSS Result

We investigate the gap in math and science achievement of third-and fourth-graders who live with a single parent versus those who live with two parents in 11 countries. The United States and New Zealand rank last among the countries we compare in terms of the equality of achievement between children from single-parent families and those from two-parent homes. Following a multilevel analysis, we find single parenthood to be less detrimental when family policies equalize resources between single-and two-parent families. In addition, the single-and two-parent achievement gap is greater in countries where single-parent families are more prevalent. We conclude that national family policies can offset the negative academic outcomes of single parenthood.

This article is devoted to the explanation of the influence of social origins on student achievement. Using the data of the Project for International Student Assessment on 25 nations, I show that cultural capital provides a relevant, but far from exhaustive, account of schooling inequalities; furthermore, the explanatory power of Bourdieu's theory seems impressively similar across countries. I also try to argue that, in order to elaborate a more satisfactory explanation, we need to take into account at least two more factors: occupational aspirations and economic resources. Finally, I discuss whether the above mentioned factors can be integrated into a coherent theoretical framework to achieve a better understanding of educational inequalities.

Considerable research has demonstrated that teachers’ self-efficacy plays a major role in implementing instructional practices in classroom lessons. Only few studies, however, have examined the interplay between how teachers’ self-efficacy and the challenges that lie outside their influence are related to their implementation of cognitive-activation strategies (CAS), especially in science classrooms. Using the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 data from Grades 4, 5, 8, and 9, we explored the extent to which teachers’ self-efficacy in teaching science and the perceived time constraints explained variation in the enactment of general and inquiry-based CAS. Overall, the findings revealed that highly self-efficacious teachers reported more frequent implementation of both general and inquiry-based CAS, whereas those who perceived strong time constraints reported a less frequent use of inquiry-based CAS. We further found that these relations differed significantly between primary- and secondary-school teachers and discuss these findings in light of teachers’ professional competences and the resources for science activities in primary and secondary education. We point to the theoretical implications of this study for enhancing the conceptual understanding of generic and specific aspects of CAS and the practical implications for teacher education, professional development, and educational policy.

[ABSTRACT]
Developing creative thinking skills in school children has become an important topic of discussion for education research and policy. International assessments of students' academic learning skills have started to consider students' creative thinking and problem solving skills along with assessments of traditional academic subjects. In this study we use the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 data to propose a survey based measure of math-creative thinking skills and further examine its relationship to math achievement. The results show that within schools, at the student-level, math-creativity is positively related to student achievement. Between countries, average math performance is negatively related to average math-creativity skills. Many countries that performed poorly on the 2012 math assessment have relatively higher proportions of students who consider themselves open problem solvers. Our findings highlight the importance of considering level of analysis when examining the relationship of creativity with achievement.

This study investigates predictors of reading literacy and its improvement during one year of education in secondary school. In a sample of 3352 Polish students attending vocational school and 3 types of high-schools (1708 males and 1644 females, mean age 16.7 at the beginning of the study), reading literacy was measured twice in the first and the second year of secondary education using the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tools. During the year, intelligence was also assessed and trait- and state-anxiety test was implemented after the second reading measurement. Results showed that vocational school students had lower reading scores than high-school students in the first reading test and this difference grew larger by the second test. Girls not only outperformed boys in reading but improved their skills during the year more than boys as well. We observed positive effects of intelligence and negative overall effect of trait- and state-anxiety. SES only predicted intelligence and first time reading performance.

Background: The recommendation from national documents and reports to promote inquiry-related science activities has not been supported by recent studies, which have found the overall frequency of inquiry activities to be negatively associated with student learning outcomes. This study was inspired by such conflicting reports and aimed to clarify the associations of science-specific, inquiry-related activities and epistemological beliefs with students' mathematical and scientific literacies. Results: A secondary analysis of the database from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2015 of Australia (N 1 = 14,530) and Taiwan (N 2 = 7708) utilizing structural equation modelling revealed that these two countries exhibited similar data patterns. Results suggested that open-inquiry activities (such as debating and planning experiments) had a negative relationship with secondary students' mathematical and scientific literacies. Structured inquiry learning (such as students explaining their ideas and teacher explaining how an idea can be applied to different phenomena) and epistemological beliefs about science were significant and positive predictors of student mathematical and scientific literacy performance. Conclusions: The current study further highlights and provides empirical evidence that the teacher's role in structured inquiry (especially pertaining to the relevance and applicability of these ideas) appears to be essential to the development of student literacy. Educational implications and recommendations are discussed.

Educational opportunities in the home, at school, and within the community differ across countries and affect students’ achievement and future success in science fields. Bandura’s Social (Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory, 1986) and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory (Ecological models of human development. In International Encyclopedia of Education, 1994) both support the notion that students’ attitudes towards science and home resources can be associated with their academic achievement. In order to examine the possible home and student level factors in science achievement, we examined fourth graders’ home resources and attitudes towards science in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 in South Korea, Turkey, and the United States where students’ science achievement scores varied. Findings from multiple linear regression analyses indicated that having a positive attitude toward science and more home resources positively related to fourth grade students’ science scores. Among different home resources, the number of books owned at home appeared to better predict students’ science scores. Providing students with science books in early grades may increase their interest in science and contribute to their science achievement in the future. Longitudinal studies of science achievement in these three countries and other countries may be included in further research.

In the last decade, developed and emerging economies have become increasingly aware of the importance of ensuring that their citizens are financially literate. Eighteen countries and economies, including 13 OECD countries, participated for the first time in 2012 on the financial literacy assessment of 15-year-old students. Financial literacy scores varied according to the participating countries, and they were determined by factors related to the teaching-learning process, especially those related to the delivery of financial education in schools. This paper assesses the effectiveness of the provision of financial education in the school curriculum across all the countries that participated in PISA 2012—data from 2015 did not allow such analysis. We measured the direct effect of different ways of financial education delivery on students' financial literacy scores, after controlling for math and reading performance, and individual characteristics of students and their schools. The majority of the countries have introduced financial education topics in the curriculum somehow. But only in the Flemish Community of Belgium, the United States, and Latvia—and to a lesser extent in Australia, Estonia, France, Israel, Poland, Spain, the Czech Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Slovak Republic—the way how financial education (FE) is delivered is positively correlated with students' financial literacy scores: FE taught as part of business or economics courses in Belgium, FE taught as part of a cross-curricular subject in the U.S., and FE taught as part of mathematics in Latvia. Our main findings pose fundamental challenges for educational policy regarding school-based FE. The first is to decide at what age (grade) interventions should be introduced into the education system so that students are not only financially literate but also financially competent. The second is to devise instructional approaches that more effectively lead young people to put pertinent financial knowledge into practice and to do so correctly when they make financial decisions.

This paper aims to discover the level of equity in the Turkish education system using maths outcomes of 15-year-old students in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam. In order to do that, associations between various social background variables and student performance are analysed via multilevel models. Female pupils, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and students from eastern regions are all found to be disadvantaged in terms of maths outcomes. The biggest gap between students in Turkey is due to school types. The difference between selective academic schools and other types of schools is more than 100 points, which is equal to the difference between almost four grade years. However, the positive effect of attending selective academic schools is smaller for girls. Further investigations indicate that, in the Turkish education system, school type at secondary level represents the effects of socio-economic background and educational and physical resources at school in addition to previous achievements of pupils. Results of the analyses show that it is very hard to claim that the education system in Turkey is operating in a way that mitigates existing inequalities in the society. To the contrary, there are indications that the Turkish education system itself reproduces inequalities.

High student achievement across East Asia is often explained as an outcome of highly competitive, stress-inducing college entrance exams across the region. This 'exam hell' drives students to study longer and harder than their peers worldwide, a race that leads—unsurprisingly—to higher marks in international comparisons such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Yet, the race comes at a considerable cost: psychological pressure, forfeited childhoods, regimes of rote memorisation, lack of creativity and private outlays for cram schools. In this article, we seek to refute this outdated narrative by focusing on changes in Japanese education over the past three decades. We first analyse quantitative data for learning time based on three longitudinal surveys conducted by researchers in Japan to show that learning time for Japanese upper secondary students declined during 1980–2000 (Study 1). We then turn to analyse PISA 2015 data to show that now Japanese students study less than their peers in major Anglo-American countries: the USA, the UK and Australia (Study 2). These findings run counter to well-worn images frequently rehearsed in both the academic and popular literature. In helping to remove one of the most persistent stereotypes about East Asian education, we seek to help make visible other explanations for East Asian student achievement.

Previous studies have assumed a linear relationship between inquiry-based teaching and student achievement in science. However this assumption may be questionable. Recent evidence on the effectiveness of inquiry-based teaching has yielded conflicting findings. To test the linearity assumption, the present study investigated the relation between inquiry-based teaching and achievement by taking into account the possible existence of nonlinear relations using Norwegian TIMSS 2015 data. A multilevel structural equation modeling analysis showed that the relationship was curvilinear. Inquiry-based teaching was positively correlated with achievement, but high frequency of inquiry activities was negatively related to achievement. Furthermore, we found that classroom SES did not affect the strength of the relationship between inquiry and achievement. These findings challenge the linearity assumption and contribute to explaining the conflicting evidence in earlier research as well as promote the effectiveness of inquiry-based teaching regardless of students’ socioeconomic backgrounds.

The impact of ICT on educational achievements is a controversial issue which has attracted increasing attention from both policy makers and researchers. Policy makers have shown great enthusiasm over the positive impact of ICT on teaching and learning, investing substantially in this area. However, scientific evidence does not clearly support this effort. This paper analyses the impact of the use of ICT at school on students' outcomes in compulsory secondary education in maths, reading and science. It uses data from three rounds 2 require a careful evaluation, to identify in which fields, for which uses and for which methods of use, it may render a positive effect on educational outcomes.

The OECD’s PISA exercise has by now been widely critiqued. Whilst we
agree with most concerns, we begin with the assumption that PISA will
remain an enduring and powerful feature of the global educational
landscape. Even if the PISA test itself were discontinued, a similar largescale
quantitative assessment exercise would soon arise to take its place.
As such, we focus herein on strategies for rearticulating ILSAs such as
PISA: the creative use of data to shift the exercise away from
dissemination of one dominant worldview towards the recognition of
alternatives. To do this, we discuss the approach and findings from our
recent papers, and then suggest future directions. Rather than mere
accommodation, re-articulation underscores an approach to critique that
is generative for theory and practice, one that extends of the horizon of
possibility beyond culturally saturated notions of ‘good’ education.

Facing increasing critique that PISA focuses too narrowly on cognitive
achievement and human/knowledge capital, the OECD has recently
shifted some of its focus to student happiness. The 2017 Students’Well-
Being report distinguishes between ‘happy schools’ and ‘unhappy
schools’, showing that among students who combined high performance
and life satisfaction, northern European countries topped the
charts. Meanwhile, students in East Asian countries including Japan,
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea registered the lowest ‘life satisfaction’
scores among all participating countries. This piece points out
some of the problems inherent in the OECD’s recent turn to happiness,
problematizing the OECD yardstick of life satisfaction. Attempting to
keep the critique constructive, we suggest that the OECD may want to
consider using alternative metrics, then briefly highlight one developed
in East Asia from different first assumptions: the Interdependent
Happiness Scale. In conclusion we flag, but cannot answer, some
related educational questions concerning policy, pedagogy, and priorities
for the future.

Schooling and education are becoming increasingly globalized, and the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) has become the prime driver for global educational governance. PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and its focus on league tables, country rankings and its celebration of "winners"; successful learners, successful schools and successful education systems influence educational debates and educational policy at a global scale.
This essay presents details of the development of PISA and critical points of two categories. The first critique relates to the PISA project as such. These problems are inherent in the PISA undertaking, and hence cannot be “fixed”. The main point here is that PISA assumes that the quality of a nation's education system can be reduced to a single, universal and global metric – independent of that nation's history and culture, values and ideals underpinning the school system.
The second category of critical points relates to some surprising and problematic results that emerge from analysis of PISA data: It seems that pupils in high-scoring countries also develop the most negative attitudes to the subject. It also seems that PISA scores are unrelated to educational resources, funding, class size, teaching time etc. PISA scores are also negatively related to the use of active teaching methods, inquiry based instruction and the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology). Whether one "believes in PISA" or not, such problematic and challenging results need to be discussed.
The essay ends by more directly addressing PISA as an instrument for governance: how the OECD through PISA and PISA-related projects globally exert power and influence on educational debates, policy and governance. The most important influence is the implicit epistemic governance: how PISA redefines and narrows the meaning and value of education.

The United States and Canada, two countries known to have large immigrant populations, have long since reflected a dichotomy, where Canada is generally perceived to be a country with language policies that demonstrate its receptiveness to embrace multiculturalism in schools and classrooms. In contrast, the United States has consistently espoused the notion that one is "American first " and one's cultural identity follows behind. It is within this context that the following study examines the difference in reading literacy performance between youth in the U.S. who self-identify as native English speakers and those who self-identify as non-native English speakers on the PISA assessment. The study also explores the difference in reading literacy performance among Canadian youth who self-identify as native English speakers, those who selfidentify as native French speakers and those who self-identify as neither native English nor native French speakers on the PISA. Implications for policy, practice and society are discussed. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/17454999211057449

This report provides an exploratory analysis of teacher education and development policies in a group of countries that participated in the Repeat of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study at the Eighth Grade (TIMSS 1999) and scored as well as or higher than the United States in eighth-grade mathematics or science. In addition to the United States, the report provides information on the systems of Australia, England, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, and Singapore. While the focus is on eighth-grade mathematics and science teacher education and development policies, most of the issues discussed are also related to teachers of other subjects.

Several recent, highly influential comparative studies have made strong statistical claims that improvements on global learning assessments such as PISA will lead to higher GDP growth rates. These claims have provided the primary source of legitimation for policy reforms championed by leading international organisations, most notably the World Bank and OECD. To date there have been several critiques but these have been too limited to challenge the validity of the claims. The consequence is continued utilisation and citation of these strong claims, resulting in a growing aura of scientific truth and concrete policy reforms. In this piece we report findings from two original studies that invalidate these statistical claims. Our intent is to contribute to a more rigorous global discussion on education policy, as well as call attention to the fact that the new global policy regime is founded on flawed statistics.

Founded on several highly influential quantitative studies, the past decade
has witnessed the OECD and World Bank increasingly converge on the
view that cognitive levels of students and education quality, as proxied
by international large-scale assessments (ILSAs), are the primary
determinant of national economic growth worldwide. More recent OECD
and World Bank pronouncements have further suggested these
dynamics are clearly illustrated in East Asia’s education and ‘Economic
Miracle’, in particular the cases of South Korea and Singapore. Herein we
utilise the OECD’s own data to examine this new development narrative,
finding little evidence in support of these claims.

This paper evaluated the performance of Spanish secondary schools whose 15-year-old students were assessed in mathematical competencies by the OECD (PISA program) in 2003 and 2012. The technique employed was the stochastic frontier analysis for panel data using a sample of schools which participated simultaneously in both waves. First, the parametric measurement of time-varying technical inefficiency was done in this paper using three standard models. Second, we used the four random component stochastic frontier model proposed by Kumbhakar, Lien, and Hardaker [2014. Journal of Productivity Analysis, 41(2), 321–337] that distinguishes between residual or transient technical inefficiency and persistent technical inefficiency, separated from heterogeneity. Persistent (time invariant) inefficiency was a larger problem than residual (time varying) inefficiency when evaluating the educational performance of Spanish secondary schools over time. Finally, we introduced the recent model recommended by Badunenko and Kumbhakar [2017. European Journal of Operational Research, 260(2), 789–803] to accommodate heteroscedasticity associated with both heterogeneity and the noise terms, incorporating at the same time determinants of both persistent and time-varying inefficiency. School inefficiency was presumably not caused by something unexpected within each year such as greater difficulty in hiring teachers, but rather by persistent factors such as classroom management—schools with better disciplinary climate tend to be less inefficient in educational production. In addition, we identified the motivation of the students of each school (interest in and enjoyment of mathematics) as the effect of heterogeneity on learning outcomes.

Herein we examine the dominant image of East Asian schools as marked by a darker side of widespread bullying, leading to high rates of youth suicide. First outlining the substantial literature on bullying in the English language, we turn to show how-paradoxically-the rates of bullying and suicide are no higher, or in nearly all cases, lower than both Anglo-American systems (Australia, England, New Zealand, United States) and high PISA performers (Canada, Finland, Estonia). To explain this, we extend a constructivist approach proposed by sociologists of Japanese youth, suggesting that recurrent 'moral panics' such as bullying are determined, at least in part, by underlying differences in self-construal and views of how society functions. This analysis contributes to recent work that has challenged persistent stereotypes of East Asian education, those images blocking deeper engagement with the underlying differences in approach and philosophy these systems represent.

The paper compares the nature of the textual construction of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) science test items and the Greek school science textbooks. Significant differences between PISA science items and school science textbooks are revealed, which could contribute to a disorientation of the students in relation to what is expected in each specific context. This disparity could potentially be one of the factors explaining the low level of Greek students' attainment in PISA.

This paper seeks to empirically evaluate the association of decentralization of education systems and student achievement. It employs PISA (2015) data to perform multilevel analysis for each and
every participating country. Decentralization effects are estimated on the  imputed scores of mathematics after controlling for various student-level and school-level covariates. Findings reveal an important pattern across the analyzed countries. The random intercepts models suggest that decentralization has no significant effect on student achievement. The results of this paper challenge the primary notions of advocating for decentralization in education systems for improving student outcomes. Based on the empirical evidence from a multitude of countries, this paper argues that decentralization could be more of a false promise and an ineffective prescription.

The aim of the present study was to reveal the psychometric properties of the items in the cognitive test of PISA 2015 assessing scientific literacy according to different item types and to examine scientific literacy in relation to different independent variables. In the sample of PISA 2015 Turkey, 175 students from 5895 students were included in the study with the aim of researching. Descriptive statistics and various hypothesis tests were used to obtain the findings of the research. When scientific literacy and item difficulty averages for all three item types were examined, students with a high level of scientific literacy level were more successful at responding to constructed response (CR) items, while students with a low level of scientific literacy were more successful at answering multiple choice (MC) items. Male students were more successful than female students in responding to MC and complex multiple choice (CMC) items, while female students were more successful than male students in answering CR items. It was found that students with a high level of economic, social and cultural status were more successful than those with a low level of economic, social and cultural status. FARKLI MADDE TÜRLERİNE GÖRE FEN OKURYAZARLIĞININ İNCELENMESİ: PISA 2015 TÜRKİYE ÖRNEĞİ ÖZ Bu araştırmanın amacı, farklı madde türlerine göre PISA 2015 fen okuryazarlığı bilişsel testinde yer alan maddelerin psikometrik özelliklerini ortaya koymak ve farklı madde türlerinden elde edilen fen okuryazarlığı puanlarını farklı bağımsız değişkenlere göre incelemektir. PISA 2015 Türkiye örnekleminde yer alan 5895 öğrenciden, araştırmanın amacı doğrultusunda 175 öğrenci çalışmaya dâhil edilmiştir. Araştırmaya iki fen kümesinde yer alan toplam 35 fen okuryazarlığı maddesi alınmıştır. Araştırmanın bulgularını elde edebilmek için betimsel istatistikler ve çeşitli hipotez testleri kullanılmıştır. Çoktan seçmeli (ÇS) maddelerin daha kolay olmasının yanında ayırt ediciliğinin oldukça düşük olduğu; cevabı yazılan (CY) maddelerin ise diğer madde türlerine göre zor ve ayırt ediciliğinin daha yüksek olduğu belirlenmiştir. Karmaşık çoktan seçmeli (KÇS) maddelerin ise ÇS maddeleri ile benzer bir madde güçlüğüne sahip olmasıyla birlikte, ayırt ediciliğinin ÇS maddelerine göre daha yüksek olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır. Üç ayrı madde türündeki fen okuryazarlığı ve madde güçlük ortalamaları incelendiğinde, fen okuryazarlık düzeyi yüksek olan öğrencilerin CY maddelerinde; fen okuryazarlık düzeyi düşük olan öğrencilerin ise ÇS maddelerinde daha başarılı olduğu belirlenmiştir. Bu çalışmada kullanılan madde türü sınıflandırması PISA 2015 uygulamasına aittir. Farklı madde türü sınıflandırmaları ile bu araştırma tekrar edilebilir. Ayrıca fen okuryazarlık düzeyi düşük, orta ve yüksek olan ülkelerden elde edilecek örneklemler üzerinden benzer bir çalışma yürütülebilir. Bu araştırma doğrultusunda Türkiye'de, özellikle merkezi sınavlarda farklı soru türlerinin birlikte kullanılması yönünde atılan adımların olumlu sonuçlar verebileceği düşünülmektedir. Farklı madde türlerinin fen başarısının belirlenmesinde birlikte kullanılması önerilmektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Madde türü, PISA, fen okuryazarlığı, çoktan seçmeli maddeler, karmaşık çoktan seçmeli maddeler, cevabı yazılan maddeler 1 Dr. Öğr. Üy., Niğde Ömer Halisdemir Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, esinyilmaz@ohu.edu.tr, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6755-9018 2 Doç. Dr., Akdeniz Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, hkogar@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5749-9824

Variations in mean PISA scores have not been adequately explained to date, suggesting the limits of our current understanding of the relationship between educational practices and students' performance. In contrast to previous research that applies existing theories to explain observed variations, this study attempts to extend our existing theoretical horizon using PISA-derived data. We first introduce findings of PISA-Science data that run counter to the fundamental assumptions of both student-centered and teacher-centered learning theories; namely, countries having lower levels of students' initiative to design and carry out their own projects had higher scores. We then propose an alternative theory of learning (Type II learning) to explain this counterexample by rethinking the learning process at its philosophical and ontological depths. We conclude by noting a surprising paradox: the Type II learning made visible through PISA data appears to undermine the core premise of the OECD's whole approach to PISA itself.

The year 2015 was significant for the arena of international
development, as UNESCO’s Education for All agenda was replaced
by Education 2030, which would identify minimum standards of
education quality. The OECD had been working on extending its
existing PISA assessment into low- and middle-income countries
through PISA for Development (PISA-D) and positioned the new
assessment as a means of tracking progress on the post-2015
goals. The organisation maintains that PISA-D was introduced
primarily in response to the demands of the international
community, especially low- and middle-income countries, and that
the assessment was developed in partnership with them. This
paper investigates those claims through an analysis of the arrival
of PISA-D in Cambodia, situating the analysis within UNESCO’s
shifting agenda and the strategic visions of the OECD and World
Bank that first emerged in the 1990s. The result is a very different
picture to the portrayals of local agency, demand, consensus and
partnership that adorn the official websites and pamphlets of
global agencies and much academic research, raising serious
doubts about education governance post-2015.

East Asian dominance in international large-scale assessments is widely
known. This is often explained as an outcome of highly competitive,
exam-oriented education systems in East Asia, wherein students
partake in a fierce competition for limited college entrance. Although
achievement scores may be comparatively higher, the argument goes,
the relative success comes at a steep price, with the emphasis on
high-stakes tests heightening student stress and anxiety. In this paper
we refute this persistent and out-dated stereotype by focusing on
changes in Japanese education over the past several decades. The
two original studies we report herein show that not only do Japanese
students feel less school-related anxiety and stress than they once did,
but these levels are now comparable to students in America, Australia,
and the United Kingdom. In showing that stereotypes do not match
empirical realities, we seek to open a richer discussion around East
Asian student achievement. We conclude by extending the discussion
to recent changes in China, Taiwan, and South Korea. We then raise
the possibility that fundamentally different outlooks on the learning
process explain both differences in achievement and the persistence
of the West’s distorted images of Japanese and East Asian education.

Educational reform programs usually institute systemwide changes. However, this assumption of similar school problems mask variations between schools and students. The 2018 Philippine PISA data (n = 7233) reveal salient variations in academic achievement that happen between schools and among students. Between schools, material resource and school climate problems have different origins and influence depending on school type and location, while among students, gender and socioeconomic status act as predictors but fail to fully explain the variation. This has implications for school-specific investments for material resource and school climate improvement , and student-specific interventions that detect and instruct those who are lagging behind.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has developed impressive machinery to produce international comparative data across more than 70 systems of education and these data have come to be used extensively in policy circles around the world. In many countries, national and international comparative data are used as the bases for significant, high-stakes policy and reform decisions. This article traces how international comparability is produced, using the example of equity measurement in OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). It focuses on the construction of the objects of comparison and traces the struggles to produce equivalence and commensurability across diverse and complex worlds. Based on conversations with a number of measurement experts who are familiar with the OECD and PISA, the article details how comparability is achieved and how it falters and fails. In performing such an analysis, this research is not concerned with ‘exposing’ the limitations of comparison or challenging their validity. Rather, based on the work of Steve Woolgar and other scholars, it attempts to mobilise a ‘sociology of measurement’ that explores the instrumentalism and performativity of the technologies of international comparisons.

Since the introduction of PISA, the OECD has become an increasingly powerful player in education governance and policy within its member countries, as well as elsewhere. It has also become evident that education systems scoring well in the exam have become sources for policy and practice borrowing for other countries. For example, Finnish teenagers’ consistent success in the PISA exam has kept the Finnish education system in the limelight of international attention for a number of years. This essay provides critical observations regarding politicisation of PISA results from a Finnish perspective.  Using Finnish teacher education, as well as quality assurance and evaluation as an example, we argue that Finnish education system has developed within a particular place and time, through political processes that are not replicable in different political contexts.

Problem solving plays an important role in mathematics and should
have a prominent role in the mathematics education. The term
“problem solving” refers to mathematics tasks that have the potential to
provide intellectual challenges for enhancing students’ mathematical
understanding and development. In addition, the contextual problem
that requires students to connect their mathematical knowledge in
solving mathematical situational problem is believed to be an impact on
the development students’ problem-solving ability. The tasks that have
been developed by PISA meet both of these criteria. As stated by the
NCTM, that problem-solving skill and ability should be developed to
students when they were in primary school (K5-8), therefore, it is
important to do an effort to guide students in developing problemsolving

ability from primary school such as accustom students to do
some mathematical solving-problem tasks. Thus, in this research we
tried to investigate how to develop mathematical problem-solving tasks
like PISA’s question that have potential effect toward students’
mathematical problem-solving abilities?. We used a formative
evaluation type of development research as an mean to achieve this
research goal. This type of research is conducted in two steps, namely
preliminary stage and formative evaluation stage covering self
evaluation, prototyping (expert reviews, one-to-one, and small group),
and  field test. This research involve four primary schools in
Palembang, there are SD Muhammadiyah 6 Palembang, MIN 1 & MIN
2 Palembang, and SDN 179 Palembang. The result of this research
showed that the mathematical problem-solving tasks that have been
developed have potential effect in exploring mathematical problemsolving

ability of the primary school students. It is shown from their
work in solving problem where all of the indicators of problem solving
competency have emerged quite well category. In addition, based on
interview result from some students, known that they like to do such
tasks because can improve their reasoning, creativity and thinking
ability.

With recent increases in international migration, some political and academic narratives argue for limiting migration because of possible negative effects on the host country. Among other outcomes, these groups argue that immigrant students have an impact on education, negatively affecting native-born students’ academic performance. The authors contextualize the relationship between immigrant status and academic achievement by considering a macro social setting: country-level foreign-born population. The authors examine achievement from the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment in 41 high-income countries. The authors use within- and cross-level interactions to examine (1) the relationship between immigrant status and academic achievement, (2) the moderating effect of student socioeconomic status on achievement, and (3) how country-level foreign-born population affects both immigrant and native-born students’ performance. The findings indicate that immigrant students perform similarly to native-born students when considering other contextual factors, with socioeconomic status moderating the effect of immigrant status. Furthermore, all students, immigrant and nonimmigrant students alike, benefit academically from more immigration.

Scholars studying the global governance of education have noted the increasingly important role corporations play in educational policy making. I contribute to this scholarship by examining the Assessment and Teaching of twenty-first century skills (ATC21S™) project, a knowledge production apparatus operating under cognitive capitalism. I analyze how ATC21S
gains symbolic power and authority as it defines what counts in education through three key processes: (1) By legitimizing and disseminating new knowledge about twenty-first century skills; (2) By implementing this knowledge concretely in schools and (3) By embedding this new knowledge within a global alliance. I suggest that the knowledge produced by ATC21S in calculating and measuring twenty-first century skills contributes to the
capture of living labor and its reproduction for the knowledge economy through the school system.

This study investigated the professional traits of mathematics teachers that affected mathematical achievement for fourth-graders in the TIMSS 2015 study, including teaching experience, degree of educational qualification, teacher specialization, and amount of professional development, all broken down further by gender. This investigation compared TIMSS 2015 results of students in four countries (Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Saudi Arabia) and used a causal-comparative design with data available through the IEA website. The findings indicated that the traits of professional development, specialization, educational qualification, and teaching experience among mathematics teachers were found to have various levels of impact on the achievement of fourth-grade students in the participating countries, as will be stated in the discussion of the results.

Recent years have brought a major shift in the field of international comparative education with the rise of quantitative assessments of student achievement. Within these studies, outside-school-time (OST) as a supplement and complement to schooling has been included. However, OST is difficult to define and measure; and challenges multiply when comparisons are made across countries and cultures. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) managed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has sought to confront these challenges. It has had some success, and the 2015 PISA iteration showed advances over its predecessors but also showed significant shortcomings. With a methodological thrust, this paper examines the challenges of preparing appropriate questions in English, translating those questions into other languages, and preparing meaningful cross-national comparisons. The paper has pertinence not only within the specific domain of OST studies but also the wider thrusts of quantification in international comparisons.

Expanding numbers of researchers are focusing on the scale and impact of private supplementary tutoring. Such tutoring is widely called shadow education, since much of its curriculum mimics that of regular schooling. Although shadow education has expanded significantly worldwide and is now recognized to have far-reaching significance, research faces methodological and conceptual challenges. This article focuses on analyses of shadow education data from the Third (or Trends in) International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA). An initial problem arises from definitions of shadow education and therefore from research focus. Further challenges arise from the initial phrasing and
then translation of items in international questionnaires. The article notes that some studies have been grounded in problematic data, which has led to misleading pictures.
Methods and approaches are maturing, but much refinement remains necessary for an adequate understanding of the nature and implications of shadow education.

The OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is increasingly depended upon by education policy makers to provide reliable measures of their country's education system against international benchmarks. PISA attempts to provide efficient, scientific and technical means to develop educational policies which achieve optimal outcomes (Berg & Timmermans, 2000, p. 31). This kind of scientific evidence is seen by policy makers as being free of prejudice and ideology. Science is expected to represent the truth, state universal facts and make predictions. Thus PISA seeks to rank countries' performances, work out future scenarios and offer policy direction. By what means does PISA gain knowledge and speak with confidence about diverse cultures and distant nations? How does it acquire a ‘voice from nowhere’ (Haraway, 1988; Suchman, 2000), and become a modern-day Oracle that countries might consult for policy advice? Modelled on early actor-network accounts of laboratory life, this ethnography traces how PISA knowledge comes to be made, guided by interview data with two ‘insiders’ in the ‘PISA laboratory’. It traces the translations and the circulating reference that turn PISA into a ‘centre of calculation’. It highlights how human and non-human entities are imbricated in the assembling of scientific facts and argues for a suspension of the divide between ‘science’ and ‘politics’. In the process, the paper offers an empirical instantiation of how some concepts from actor-network theory may be applied in the field of education policy, and ponders the implications of such an understanding for evidence based policy making.

La estandarización de pruebas para valorar a los sistema educativos ha ido in-crescendo desde que el discurso de las competencias cobrara protagonismo en la Unión Europea. El análisis de la ideología que sustentan dichas prácticas, así como del paradigma que se esconde tras ellas, son objetivos de este artículo. Para ello se realiza una reflexión por una de las máximas representantes de esta corriente en Europa, las denominadas pruebas PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment)(Programa Internacional para la Evaluación de Estudiantes). Los autores plantean una serie de argumentos que tratan de explicar por qué las pruebas estandarizadas representan un modelo de eficiencia en educación y no tanto, de calidad, donde la evaluación es entendida como un proceso de recogida de información útil y valiosa para emprender procesos de mejora. Y analizan algunas de las cuestiones más significativas que se desprenden del uso de pruebas estandarizadas en educación, tales como el uso político que se hace de los resultados, el sobre valor que se le otorga a las materias instrumentales o el desmantelamiento que se produce de la función social de la escuela, entre otras.

Drawing inspiration from the research conducted in Italian schools involved in the reform process, the article proposes to investigate two visions in the research on Sociology of Education: one distal and the other proximal. The distal vision is offered by quantitative research nowadays supported by extensive public funding and framed as comparative international programmes, while the proximal one concerns mainly qualitative methodological and epistemology perspectives. In an attempt to bring the strengths of each into focus, the article approaches these two visions.

http://eer.sagepub.com/content/13/1.toc

doi:10.2304/eerj.2014.13.1.47

Using newly available data from the Trajectories in Education and Careers Study, the first longitudinal study on a representative sample of high school students in Russia, we examined the importance of investments in human and cultural capital on students’ mathematics and reading standardized examinations, as well as on the likelihood of matriculation into a selective institution of higher education. Studying mathematics and the Russian language on one’s own for more than a year was positively and significantly associated with standardized scores and with an increased likelihood of matriculating into a selective university. A higher number of books at home was also associated with an increased likelihood of matriculating into a selective university. The findings are discussed within the particular institutional context of the Russian educational system.

The present study investigated differences between disadvantaged and resilient students in terms of sense of belonging, as measured in PISA 2012. To this end, a segmentation method was employed to define student segments differing in ratios of resilient students. Results indicated that there is a relationship between academic resiliency and sense of belonging. While the relationship between resiliency and the some predictors seemed to be varying, there are some predictors with direct relationships with academic resiliency.

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las diferencias de eficiencia y sus factores explicativos de los estudiantes, según su pertenencia a escuelas públicas y privadas utilizando datos PISA 2012 para Colombia. La metodología utilizada es no paramétrica order-m y el enfoque metafrontera. Así mismo, se aplicó un
análisis de segunda etapa para determinar los factores explicativos de la eficiencia. Los principales resultados obtenidos son los siguientes: a) la existencia de diferencias de eficiencia entre escuelas públicas y privadas, b) la influencia de los efectos de los estudiantes y de la escuela como componentes de la
ineficiencia; 3) la identificación de la influencia positiva sobre la eficiencia de la pertenencia de los alumnos a familias monoparentales o nucleares frente a otro tipo de tutela, la influencia de la formación de los padres, la pertenencia
del alumno al grado que estudia, el mejor clima en el aula y la localización de la escuela en el caso de la titularidad pública. El tamaño de la escuela no resultó significativo.

Using quantile regression analyses, this study examines gender gaps in mathematics, science, and reading in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Jordan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Qatar, Tunisia, and Turkey among 15 year-old students. The analyses show that girls in Azerbaijan achieve as well as boys in mathematics and science and overachieve in reading. In Jordan, girls achieve as well as boys in all subjects. In Qatar and Turkey, girls underachieve in mathematics, achieve as well as boys in science and overachieve in reading. In Indonesia, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tunisia, girls underachieve in mathematics and science but overachieve in reading. On the basis of the analyses, two generalizations can be made. First, key country-level economic and social characteristics appear unrelated to achievement gender gaps. Second, the overachievement of girls in reading and underachievement in mathematics and science are similar to findings from non-Muslim industrialized countries.

Öz: Bu makalede 1) TIMSS'in ne olduğu ve nasıl yapıldığı açıklanmakta, 2) geometri bölümünde ne tür soruların sorulduğu ve bu sorularla öğrencilerin hangi tür bilgi ve becerilerinin yoklanmak istendiği irdelenmekte, ve 3) anılan bilgi ve becerilerin geliştirilmesi için öğrencilere ne tür etkinlikler yaptırılabileceği tartışılmakta ve etkinlik örnekleri sunulmaktadır.

Extending recent analyses using PISA data, the current study
utilises the OECD’s Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) to test the central
claims of knowledge capital theory. PIAAC has a distinct advantage
over PISA in that it more directly tests levels of purported ‘knowledge
capital’ across an entire national workforce, rather than
offering approximations based on the performance of 15-yearold
students. Findings from our two original studies reported
herein further refute the tight linkage between cognitive levels
and GDP growth per capita envisaged by proponents of knowledge
capital, most notably the OECD and World Bank. These
results suggest that knowledge capital theory is now degenerate.
If scholars are willing to extend this reporting of results refuting
knowledge capital theory, this will likely accelerate the theory’s
loss of momentum in the coming years.

"The main argument of this paper is that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) perform differently and policies that do not consider differences across HEIs are likely to increase inequalities. We test the hypothesis by analysing the case of Italian Universities and by using indicators of research quality. We find deep inequalities in research performance, which are strongly correlated to geographic location.
Moreover, we find that inequalities cannot be explained only by the weakness of the local economic context, since they are also strongly linked to the social context and to the adoption of policy measures that that do not address the peculiar features of the HEIs and the context in which they are located.

draft available below"