Pondering over PISA : More to Reflect

No matter what our view or belief in education is, there remain fundamental measures that can be done to enhance education and promote fairness, equity and capacity among global learning communities. It is the role of both public and private sectors - governments, ministries of education, school leadership, facilitating organizations, foundations, accreditation bodies, social impact bonds and many other different parties, to examine closely real-world contexts and respond effectively to the findings.

Education is about widening the scope of learning about the world, how it functions and most importantly, how to sustain it for a better future. Many educators, such as in my case, have our own perspectives and pertinent questions regarding the entire historical and current processes, but cannot neglect that, as long as schools are still open for millions of children and teachers around the world, attempts at making them better can undoubtedly mitigate problems and relieve many of those undergoing conflicts, including social and emotional ones. Quality education is obligatory at this advanced age and universal tools are highly recommended so that unbiased, broad, and formalized results can shed the light upon policies, their variables and other overall aspects. All these educational bodies have been working for decades to generate methods and protocols to probe into policies respectively, so that pedagogical practices can be analyzed and later developed.

I was never an advocate of standardized testing for various reasons, but this is another topic that requires more pages to discuss. What can be reinforced is that unfortunately, the side effects of standardized tests outweigh the benefits, especially in the case of middle and high school national tests. The pressure alone exerted on the learners, teachers, and systems are exhausting and even harmful on the long term. However, the points to be discussed today are rather the effective ways that these tests can be employed for improving education. Data, when studied properly, can point out issues at the heart of every system, no matter how little they are compared to the side effects.

One specific test is OECD PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) that tests 15-year-old learners from over 90 countries. That is the stage that would determine whether these learners will be dropouts or continue to higher education. The assessment tests 3 academic areas: reading, mathematics and science. Three more fields were added in 2015 and 2018 respectively: problem-solving, global competence and an optional financial literacy. The questionnaire part of the assessment is more interesting, as it undertakes questions about the environment both in school and at home, so that important factors can be studied, optimizing the efficiency of the findings.

The latest cycle was conducted in 2018 but results will be released in December 2019. The only report that can be referred to for the present moment is PISA 2015. Since 2000, many countries through the data collected from the PISA studies, could unveil areas in reading, mathematics and science that needed more reform, and they systemically planned to overcome the deficits. This is the aim of this study in the first place.

However, there are points that I find worthy to ponder at :

1. Despite the fact that numbers, as parts of statistical analysis, provide solid base and facts that have to be accepted as true in such quantitative studies, and that Rasch model is extended to two parameters in 2015 instead of one for reduction of measurement errors, one cannot say that the numbers represent the real capacity and status of the country as a whole. OECD even confirms this observation, stating that target population, demographic characteristics, and student competency are outside the assessment control range. Numbers do depict in a large scope high or low performance, illustrated in clear graphs, but that alone cannot accurately predict high-growing, prosperous and innovative future of a country or the opposite to that. The education process, furthermore, encompasses other soft factors that, whether acknowledged or not, remain forceful in the overall processes of a learner’s journey towards university and career success later in life. The skills in the tests in the same manner were not fully covering global expectations in the past decade. It is only recently that problem solving and financial literacy have been added. So labeling countries according to the graphs is not always fair in my humble opinion, but also cannot be fully accurate, especially that those findings tremendously affect ministries and authorities in shaping their educational policies, which is one of the main purposes of standardized, international tests. Knowing what to select from the surveys for further national studies is highly recommended.

2. Highly-scoring countries in reading, mathematics and science and low-scoring countries in these core subjects do not necessarily depict their rank, as top successful or least successful. As many studies have shown, excellence or lack in mathematical and science does not relate to entrepreneurial skills required in this 21st century. Whilst some countries can score high in mathematics and science, they may not produce innovations on the industrial and the economic levels. And whilst some countries score low in these core subjects, they may be able to build sustainable industry and economy. The results and the urge to act can also be misleading, in the sense that countries will start to focus on testing instead of the efforts to innovate and create. Again, countries should be smart in their selection of what is helpful in these result reports and what is not.

3. The new trends suggested through the questionnaires are helpful, as they draw attention to the environment, where the 15-year-old boys and girls live. Both home and school are fundamental factors for students to perform better. We all know the importance of motivation, engagement, positive relationships, good attitude, confidence, and communication in reaching heights and displaying prowess. We also know that school management can either nurture the learning environment or neglect it. That’s why the results can be to a certain extent thought-provoking, when leaders study the findings from an all-around perspective, pertaining to the country’s specific, realistic situation, not the international one-size-fits-all. The changes in scaling by OECD for 2015 and 2018 were nevertheless useful, as they tackled calibration, cycles, and national parameters, but that still requires an in-country study of what lies in between the graphs.

4. Some alarming numbers strike a universal chord regarding the students’ well-being surveys. Anxiety much showed to relate to physical activities. Many of those who participated in physical activities were less likely to feel anxiety and dissatisfaction. 26% of 15-year-old boys and girls spend their time online during weekends and 16% spend their time online during weekdays. I find these alarming, considering that online is not always safe and resourceful. It is urgent to look deeply into such social matters in each country respectively. Although this is a universal concern, each country still has hidden conditions, that command specific intervention from the national community.

I have always been known to read multiple stories, articles, books, views, and opinions, but I am always selective of what harmonizes with my intellect and intuition. It is education after all, and after living the educational process and environment, much is revealed, leaving open-ended questions: To what extent and in what precise contexts can educational bodies utilize international assessments? What governs sustainable high performance? What scope can these assessments cover to optimize these surveys? After all these tough competitions, which countries will be at the top in economy and sustainability, not just in international charts in the next triennials? Can we truly decipher this

entire process? Will these problem-solving and financial results assist us in solving our crucial global matters before it is too late?