PISA and PIRLS

The following sections are included:

• Contents
• About the Author
• Prologue

The OECD’s Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA; Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, n.d.) ranks 65 nations (and economies) on the academic achievement of 15-year-old students in Reading, Mathematics, and Science. These nations can be expected to differ widely in culture, although cultural differences do not feature as a potential factor in student performance. As schools are established by nations differing in culture and thereafter function in their respective cultural contexts, the importance of a possible cultural influence on the operation of schools and, in turn, on student learning cannot be over-emphasized.

International studies of student performance such as TIMSS (Trends in Mathematics and Science Study), PIRLS (Programme in International Reading and Literacy Study) of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Centre, n.d.) and PISA (Programme for International Student Achievement) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development are supposed to provide useful information for the evaluation and development of education systems. These studies try to do this by comparing participating countries on achievements in core subjects such as Reading, Mathematics, and Science, and relate these results to background conditions or factors believed to be responsible for achievement or the lack of it. However, in the highly competitive world of today, this noble intention seems to have been overlooked or even side-stepped as countries keenly compare their own rankings with those of other countries. This attitude of one-up-man-ship cannot escape attention as it glaringly shows up in postings on the Internet…

The concept of principal as instructional leader is reminiscent of the one-room-one-teacher little red house of the early history of gathering a small group of children to learn together — an invention for an economy which did not foresee its growth and impact in years to come. When the little red house grew larger both in terms of enrolment and space, the school as we know it today emerged. The growth necessitated some form of organization and, usually though not always, the most capable among the teachers was designated the principal teacher or the principal. For the British, this is the head teacher or head master. The job titles mean the same thing, referring to the one who led a group of teachers, small in number though it may be as compared with the army of teachers in a present-day mega school…

Of all school personnel, the principal is entrusted to lead the school in translating national education policy into classroom practices through selecting and monitoring teacher performance, managing finance to procure needed facilities and materials, and, above all, monitoring student behavior and achievements. This being the case, it is a truism that how the principal perceives and deals with the teachers and students can be expected to impact on student achievement as one of the ultimate goals of educating. In short, principal leadership may be seen as the cause and student performance the effect…

There is no denying that reading is the most important subject in the school curriculum. Reading is the key to learning other subjects that require reading competence. Beyond the school years, reading is needed for handling many real-life tasks on and off the job. Besides, the development of a keen interest in reading affords an individual to access up-to-date information from print and digital sources as well as develop a pleasant pastime. It is not by chance that reading is a focus of international comparative studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA; OECD, 2009) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS; Mullis, Martin, Foy, and Drucker, 2012)…

Reading is important. That no one can deny. Reading is important educationally. The ability to read is needed not so much for its own sake but as a tool to effective learning of almost all other subjects in the school’s curriculum. Without reading competence, students are handicapped in acquiring knowledge from print and their progress in schooling is handicapped. Reading is also important for social, economic, and political reasons. It is a common observation that the literacy level of a country is associated with its economic and political development. Countries improve their economic and political lots by first or concurrently improving their people in literacy.

Science is one of the three core subjects, together with Reading and Mathematics, of the school curriculum worldwide. Reading ability is a tool for acquiring new knowledge and absolutely necessary for the learning of Science in the school context. It is no coincident that the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA; 2010) places a premium on Reading as its key focus of international comparisons. This being the case, it is of theoretical and practical significance to find out the extent to and manner with which reading ability contributes to achievement in Science.

Reading, Mathematics, and Science are three core subjects in the school curriculum all over the world. It is therefore not a coincidence that the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA; OECD, 2010) places a premium on Reading as its key focus of international comparisons, together with Mathematics and Science. While mathematics itself is a special form of language, reading as one aspect of natural language plays a critical role in the learning of mathematics, since so many mathematical concepts are described and conveyed through language, especially reading. In other words, language (or more specifically, reading) is a thinking tool by which mathematical thinking is conducted. Thus, the extent to which and what kind of reading contributes to mathematics learning is not a trivial question to mathematics educators.

In the present day, collaborative problem solving is gaining importance as development projects require the cooperation of people with different expertise and capabilities. It is timely that PISA included collaborative problem solving as one domain of its 2015 survey, in which Singapore topped the list of more than 50 participating countries and economies. This article highlights some of the key findings and reflects on their interpretation. In addition, results of the re-analysis of the two sets of relevant attitudes (valuing relationship and teamwork) are presented and discussed…

PISA started with assessment of Reading, Mathematics, and Science, rotating the three subjects in consecutive surveys. These are always referred to as hard skills. Then, in 2015, PISA added soft skills such as information and communication technology as well as financial literacy as additional domains to the three subjects. Doing this reflects the concerns of present day education. Continuing this line, PISA will include creative thinking in its 2021 survey. To educationists in the world, this is definitely a welcome new development of PISA.

Data collection tools are critical to research. The validity of results of international surveys like PISA depends on the tests (and questionnaires) they use to collect the needed data. There are important qualities for these tests, such as reliability and validity of the data collected; one quality that seems to be taken for granted is the readability of the data collection tools…

Just as the adage goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat, there is more than one way to analyze a set of data. That is why we have two kinds of statistics — the individual and the aggregate. The question is, which one do we look up and which one do we make up? And, more importantly, do they tell the same story and, if not, why…

The following sections are included:

• Importance of Mathematics
• Interest and Achievement
• Method
• Results
• Discussion and Conclusion
• References

The world is obsessed with ranking in international educational comparative surveys. Immediately after the release of such ranking results, many national commentaries popped up on the Internet. A glaring common feature of these commentaries is the almost exclusive mention of rankings to the exclusion of the scores used as the basis of ranking. Tacitly, the assumption is that a better ranking indicates an improvement in performance; countries which have improved rankings are assumed to have improved performance and vice versa. This assumption is in fact flawed. By focusing exclusively on changes in ranking and neglecting changes in score, there is a risk of misinforming, for the simple fact that rankings and scores are not perfectly consistent. In short, an improved ranking in a particular year is not always a bona fide indicator of an improvement over the previous year’s performance…

The following section is included:

• Epilogue