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| | | 12 November 2009 |
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The following is based on the analysis of data from all of the countries that participated in PISA and the associations identified between different factors and student attainment may not pertain in the UK. However, they do provide interesting insights into what factors may be influential in particular circumstances.
Expenditure on Education
There is a positive association between adjusted national income (GDP) per capita and student attainment. This association suggests that 27% of the variation between countries' mean scores can be predicted on the basis of their GDP per capita. There is unlikely to be a direct causal relationship between GDP and student attainment but a more likely one would be between actual spend on education per student and student attainment. In fact this variable only explains about 17% of the variation between countries' mean performances. The figures suggest that spending alone is not sufficient to achieve high attainment.
School Related Factors
Engagement with School
In 21 of the 28 countries for which data are available, more than one quarter of students agreed or agreed strongly that school was a place they did not want to go to and the percentage of students saying this was as high as 44% in one country. In half of the OECD countries the majority of students also agreed or strongly agreed that school was a place where they felt bored. This suggests that disaffection with school at this age is common. This does matter as students with more positive views about school performed better on average on the combined reading literary scale than those who did not hold such views.
Student Related Factors Influencing the School Climate
Both the student and head teacher questionnaires included questions on the respondents' perception of factors that affect the schools' climate for learning. Head teachers identified student absenteeism as the most frequent obstacle to learning, 48% on average identifying this as hindering learning either to some extent or a lot. Disruptive behaviour was the next most frequently mentioned obstacle to learning, mentioned by 41% of head teachers, then students skipping classes mentioned by 33% and students lacking respect for teachers mentioned by 24%. Fourteen per cent indicated that students' intimidation or bullying of other students hindered learning to some extent or even a lot. The student related factors emphasise the importance of the Discipline Task Force's work on the causes of indiscipline and ways of dealing with it.
From students the most frequently mentioned problem influencing their learning was wasting time at the beginning of lessons, more than 5 minutes spent doing nothing reported by 40% of students. On average a third of students reported that the teacher had to wait a long time for students to quieten down in most or every lesson and that there was noise and disorder in their home language class. Fewer than 20% of students in the UK reported that students tended not to listen to what teachers say.
The Learning Environment
Teacher support for their students is known to have a beneficial effect on students' performance. In PISA students were asked about the teachers' interest in their progress and about whether teachers continue to teach until students understand. In the UK these questions were asked about students' English teachers.
On both these questions students rated UK teachers highly although there was
considerable variation in the responses in other countries.
It is interesting to speculate about the relationship between teachers' support
and student performance. If the encouragement offered by teachers is effective
then it is reasonable to expect that this relationship will be positive. On
the other hand if teacher support is targeted on particular groups (for example
less able students) or on the classes in which they are placed, the relationship
could be negative because of the detrimental effect on the other students.
In practice the relationship is mixed and generally weak, probably reflecting different practices in different countries. However, in those countries which value teacher support above the OECD average, the correlation between teacher support and student performance on the reading literacy scale tended to be positive and statistically significant. This applies to the UK but more research would be required to explore how this relationship arises.
In many countries head teachers' perceptions of school climate were related to students' performance. In particular, in the UK, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Poland and the Netherlands the head teachers' index of student related factors affecting school climate explains between 12 and 18% of the variation in reading literacy performance. In these countries between 80 and 111 points separate the performance of students in schools where the head teachers' views fall in the top and bottom quarters on the index of factors affecting school climate. The relationship between students' views on factors affecting school climate and student performance in reading literacy tended to be weaker but was clearly visible in many countries. This exemplifies the importance of school ethos which has received considerable emphasis in Scotland in recent years through school self evaluation and the Ethos Network.
Using head teachers' responses to questions on their schools infrastructure and the quality of educational resources two indices were developed. Only in a few countries did some head teachers report that their schools' infrastructure hindered learning. In others, including the UK, head teachers were more concerned about educational resources such as computers, library and teaching materials, including text books and multimedia resources for learning. Educational resources were closely related to students' performance in the UK. The difference between the top and bottom quarters in terms of educational resources on the reading literacy scale was substantial (39 points).
In schools where head teachers reported, on average, a higher degree of autonomy student performance on the reading literacy scale tended to be better. This seems to support the case for devolved school management, which is well advanced in Scotland. Schools in which teachers were strongly involved in school management also performed better than others. There was a weaker but positive association between student performance and schools' budgetary autonomy.
Teaching Related Factors
Teacher Related Factors Affecting School
Climate
Head teachers were asked about teacher related factors affecting school climate. The questions were whether they perceived learning in their schools to be hindered by low expectations of students by teachers, poor teacher-student relationships, absenteeism among teachers, staff resistance to change, teachers not meeting individual students' needs and students not being encouraged to achieve their full potential. In Scotland the regime of target setting for schools may help to influence the last of these. As would be expected in most countries the relationship between head teachers' perceptions of teacher related factors and student performance was positive, that is more positive views were related to higher performance. However, the relationship was, with few exceptions, not very strong.
Head teachers were also asked about teachers' morale and commitment by indicating how strongly they agreed or disagreed with statements such as "teachers work with enthusiasm", "teachers take a pride in this school" and "the morale of teachers in this school is high". The relationship between these perceptions and student performance tended to be modest and in the UK only explained just over 2% of the variation in reading literacy scores.
Competitive and Co-operative Learning
Separate indices for competitive and co-operative learning were created from students' responses. The competitive index was derived from questions about whether students like trying to do better than others, like being the best at something, work well when trying to be better than others and learn faster when trying to be better than others. The co-operative learning index was derived from questions about whether students like working with others, like helping others do well in a group, learn most when working with others and perform best when working with others. Both indices tended to be positively related to performance on the combined reading literacy scale although the relationship was more pronounced in the case of competitive learning. The differences in performance between the top and bottom quarters of the indices were 32 points for the competitive index and 22 points for the co-operative index. The results suggest that, if operated in tandem, both types of learning can add to learning effectiveness.
Learning Outside School
Those attempting to improve educational outcomes seek to increase or use more effectively the time students are engaged in learning activities. Most of this is done through manipulating the instruction time of students but homework policies and practices are another element. In many OECD countries homework constituted a major part of students' learning time. In PISA students were asked how much time they spent on homework in their home language, in mathematics and in science.
The results indicate that an average of 4.6 hours homework per week was done on these three subject areas ranging from 3.3 hours or less in Japan and Sweden to 5.8 hours in Greece and Hungary. This amounts to more than 30% of instruction time in schools in these subjects. In addition students reported attending additional or remedial courses outside their schools. For example, on average across all OECD countries 25% of students reported that in the last three years they sometimes or regularly attended extension or additional courses outside their school. In the case of Japan and Korea the figures were 64% and 71% respectively.
The relationship to student performance may not be straightforward for homework. Some teachers may assign more homework to students they think need to improve their performance. Slower learners may need more time to complete the same amount of homework. Students who report spending relatively little time on homework may either be able students who complete their homework quickly or disengaged students who do not wish to spend time on school related activities at home.
Despite these complexities the relationship between the time spent on homework in the three subject areas and student performance tended to be consistently positive. The homework index explained between 7 and 15% of the variation in reading literacy performance in the UK, Australia, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Spain, the Russian Federation and the USA. The association between homework and student performance tended to be stronger in countries where the homework index was higher perhaps indicating that a certain level of homework has to be reached before it becomes effective. This finding supports the emphasis placed on homework and supported study in Scotland.
Computers as a Tool for Learning
The part of PISA dealing with computers was an international option in which 16 countries took part. In these countries 65% of students said they used a computer because they were very interested in computers. In no country was this percentage lower than 50%. Male students showed much stronger interest in computers than female students except in the USA where interest was equally shared. On average 69% of students said they were comfortable or very comfortable using a computer to write a paper and 56% to take a test on a computer.
An index was derived from various questions about students' interest in computers, such as whether it is important to work with a computer, that playing and working with a computer is fun, that they use a computer because they are very interested and they forget the time when they are working with a computer. Students with higher values in this index tended to perform better on the combined reading literacy scale. The interpretation of this relationship requires some caution, however, as not only is the direction of influence unclear but also there may be third factors in operation such as students from more affluent homes with greater access to computers having more interest in them.
Student Related Factors
Students' Subject Interests
The students' interest in reading was assessed with a number of questions in their questionnaire. These included ones to determine whether they thought reading was fun and whether they became totally absorbed in their reading. An index of interest in reading was derived from these questions and its relationship to reading literacy was analysed. About half of the students surveyed in PISA were generally positive about reading. The results also showed that interest in reading was not associated with different levels of reading literacy performance between countries, but there was an association between them within individual countries.
The index for interest in mathematics varied more than that for reading. As with interest in reading, interest in mathematics was not associated with differences in attainment between countries but it was with attainment within individual countries, although to a lesser extent than interest in reading.
Student Engagement with Reading
Students were asked how frequently they read for pleasure, whether they enjoyed talking about books and how frequently they visited libraries and bookshops. The results suggest much more needs to be done to foster positive engagement with reading. Forty four per cent of students reported reading only to obtain information they needed, more than a third that they read only if they had to and 22% agreed or agreed strongly with the statement "reading is a waste of time". The index of engagement with reading was positively associated with reading literacy attainment in virtually every country, with greater performance in all but 6 countries of one proficiency level between the bottom and top quarters of the engagement in reading index.
Time Spent Reading for Enjoyment
Students were asked about the time they spent reading for enjoyment. On average over all OECD countries 32% of students said they did not read for enjoyment at all. The performance in reading literacy of students varied substantially with the amount of time they read for enjoyment _ more time, higher scores _ indicating the need to provide an environment that encourages reading outside of school.
Gender Differences in Performance
In the last major international study looking at performance in mathematics and science, the IEA Third International Mathematics and Science Study (1995), there were few statistically significant gender differences at age 9 and these were all in favour of male students. At age 13 there were more significant gender differences again in favour of male students. This suggested that gender differences were more pronounced and pervasive at higher grade levels.
In PISA the different subject areas produced different patterns of gender differences. In reading literacy female students reached significantly higher levels of performance than male students with the greatest difference (45 points) being on the reflection and evaluation scale. The next greatest difference was on the interpretation scale (29 points) and the difference was least on the retrieving information scale (24 points). This superior performance from female students was therefore not only universal but was also large. In all OECD countries males were more likely than females to be among the lowest performing pupils, the ratio of males to females performing at levels 1 or 2 in the combined reading literacy ranging from 1:1.3 to 1:3.5 in different countries.
In mathematical literacy there were statistically significant differences in the performance of male and female students in about half of the countries which participated in PISA, all in favour of male students. However, the average gender difference (11 points) was only about one third of that in reading where it was in favour of female students. The advantage for male students was mainly due to high levels of performance of a comparatively small number of male students. The proportion of male and female students performing at the lowest levels was roughly equal.
In scientific literacy there was no clear pattern of gender differences. The gender differences in science at age 13 in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study were much larger, almost always favouring male students. The difference between the Third International Mathematics and Science Study and PISA may be explained in part by the fact that the PISA assessment of scientific literacy placed greater emphasis on life sciences in which female students tend to perform well. PISA also had a higher proportion of open-ended and contextualised tasks in which female students tend to do better, rather than the multiple choice tasks favoured by male students.
The significant variation in gender differences between countries, between students' ages (in past studies) and between subjects indicates that policies and practices can reduce gender differences. There is, therefore, a need for attention to be given to the under performance of male students in reading literacy in Scotland.
Gender Differences in Subject Interest
Female students tended to express greater interest in reading than male students, whereas the opposite was true in mathematics. This was also true for engagement in reading, attitudes towards reading and time spent reading. In general female students were more likely to read more demanding texts. Gender differences in performance in reading literacy and mathematical literacy were closely mirrored in student interest in the respective subject areas and this relationship held true in all countries which participated in PISA. However, the nature of this relationship may well be complex in that interest and performance probably reinforce one another but it does reveal inequalities between the genders in the effectiveness with which schools and societies promote motivation and interest in different subject areas.
Gender Differences, Learning Strategies and Self Concept
In the majority of countries female students reported emphasising memorisation strategies more than male students. Male students tended to use elaboration strategies more often than female students. In countries with significant gender differences, female students were also more likely to adopt a self evaluation perspective during the learning process which has implications for recording student progress. These differences may indicate ways of tackling the problem of gender inequality.
There is evidence that individuals' beliefs about themselves were strongly related to successful learning and this was confirmed by the PISA results. Female students expressed greater confidence about their performance in reading than male students and in mathematics males tended to have a higher self concept than female students.
Home Related Factors
Family Background and Student Performance
Students come from a variety of family backgrounds and schools need to provide for a very diverse student body in this respect. The learning environment can be enhanced by this variety of backgrounds. However, the variation in student ability increases the challenges that schools face. To investigate this PISA developed a socio-economic index based on the occupations of students' parents.
Differences in socio-economic status were associated with large differences in student performance. In the UK the difference between students in the top and bottom quarters of the socio-economic index were well above the equivalent of one proficiency level on the reading literacy scale. Students who were in the bottom quarter of the socio-economic index scale were more than twice as likely as other students to be among the bottom 25% of the UK's students on the reading literacy scale. The development of New Community Schools should impact on the problems of poverty and deprivation and thus help to improve these students' performance.
Family wealth was also considered in PISA and found to have a similar but less pronounced relationship than parental occupation to students' performance. The largest differences in performance between students in the top and bottom quarters of family wealth were found in the USA (85 points) whereas in Finland (in reading literacy) and Japan (in mathematical and scientific literacy) students in the bottom quarter for family wealth had high scores.
Communication in the Home
Parental support for their children's education is widely seen as an essential element in their success at school. PISA asked students to indicate how often their parents communicated with them to discuss political or social issues, books, films or TV programmes and how well they were doing at school, when they were eating their main meal and when spending time just talking. The responses were used to construct two indices, from the first three questions one of cultural communication and from the second three one of social communication.
On both indices more frequent communication was associated with higher average scores on the combined reading literacy scale but the association was stronger for cultural communication. This indicates that communication between parents and students is of educational benefit and that measures to increase this communication should be encouraged. This is one aspect of the Early Intervention initiative which should continue to receive attention.
Parental Education
PISA gathered information on their mothers' occupations from the students. This showed that students whose mothers had completed upper secondary education achieved higher levels of performance in reading literacy and that in most countries mothers' completion of tertiary education gave a further, if lesser, advantage. However, although this trend holds good in all countries students' performance levels vary between them. For instance, in Australia, Finland and Korea students with the least educated mothers have mean scores above the mean score for students in all OECD countries.
Family Structure
Students participating in PISA provided information about who usually lived at home with them. The results indicated that overall about 15% of students were in one parent families and this was over 20% in the UK. Overall there was a 12 point difference in performance on the reading literacy scale to the disadvantage of students from single parent families compared to other students, a difference which was over 28 points in the Netherlands, UK and the USA. It seems there is an issue about how to facilitate productive home support for children's learning which does not demand more time and resources than single parents can supply if the performance of these students is to be improved.
Activities Related to Culture
PISA asked students about possessions related to classical culture in their homes, for instance whether their homes contained classic literature, books of poetry or works of art. Such possessions were related to student performance in reading literacy and to a lesser extent in mathematical and scientific literacy. The lack of such possessions is of course relative and students with few possessions in one country may perform better than pupils with more possessions in another country. Students with the highest levels of cultural possessions, who tended to have higher socio-economic home settings, typically did exceptionally well in PISA. In the UK the average scores for students in the top quarter of cultural possessions exceeded 560 points in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy compared to mean scores of 523 points, 529 points and 532 points respectively.
It does not appear to be the case that the kind of cultural activities on which school curricula often build make a difference to student performance. However, the effects of cultural possessions emphasise that there is benefit in home based access to literature and art.
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