Herman G. van de Werfhorst, Emma Kessenich, and Sara Geven The crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has disordered the educational process of millions of children. Distance education through online communication channels has become the practice in many societies since March 2020 (UNESCO 2020[1]). While schools slowly reopen in many societies, and despite the great […]
Nani Teig A growing body of research has investigated the effectiveness of inquiry-based teaching, such as by engaging students in conducting scientific experiments. Yet, this research abounds in conflicting findings: While some studies showed that this teaching approach is positively related to higher science achievement, others found negative or insignificant relations. What may cause the […]
Despite the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), not enough students are interested in pursuing a STEM career. Moreover, among the few students who do show an interest – and do pursue a STEM career – the proportion of women is small.
Jelena Veletić Evidence shows that some of the key aspects of educational policies, like school leadership, are very sensitive and shaped by the culture and context where they are executed. Nevertheless, we frequently want to compare and contrast such concepts across different cultures and contexts. To do so, our instrument (e.g. test, questionnaire) must operate […]
PISA measures 15-year-olds achievement scores in mathematics, reading and science and has evolved into a powerful tool in politics, as the scores can be compared across countries and over time. Apart from the scores themselves, there is also significant interest in the achievement differences between boys and girls.
Evi E. Konstantinidou The Rise of Distance Learning During recent months, mitigating COVID-19 has meant the severe curtailment of normal life, including global closures of schools. This approach to control the spread of the virus has produced an unprecedented wave of disruption in the education of more than 80 per cent of students worldwide, as […]
When talking about equality in education, the difficulties begin with defining what equality in eduation means. A basic function of education is societal integration: providing individuals with the necessary knowledge and skills to participate in society. In this regard equality in education means that everyone is granted a certain minimum level of education which is needed for participation in society. This can be a challenge for education systems, particularly in times of increasingly diverse student bodies.
David Rutkowski & Leslie Rutkowski The 2018 cycle of the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) featured nearly 80 system-level participants from all continents, excluding Antarctica. Participants include all OECD countries, accounting for most of the wealthiest countries in the world and a number of newcomers, such as Belarus whose, GDP per capita falls well […]
Results from PISA 2018 reveal a persistent gender gap in favour of 15-year-old girls in reading. On average, across 29 OECD countries with comparable data since 2000, this gap was 32 points in in 2000, 39 points in 2009 and 30 points in 2018. PISA scores have a standard deviation of around 100 points: this means that gender gaps in reading were large in 2000 and remain large in 2018. In some of the countries that are often considered to be champions of gender equality, boys’ underachievement in reading is especially pronounced: in Finland it was 51 points in 2000, 55 points in 2009 and 52 points in 2018. In Norway it was 43 points in 2000 and 47 points in both 2009 and 2018.
In recent years, levels of social segregation have increased in several European capital cities. Against this background, a recent study analyzed to what extent education systems in European countries are socially segregated, and whether social segregation between schools is related to social inequality in student achievement.
