[Culturechat] PISA CH Report

[Vance Roy]

Below is the report on PISA  that was in SWISS INFO.
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The results, from the Programme for International Student Assessment  
(Pisa), showed that 15 year olds in Switzerland had climbed in the  
international rankings in science and maths, since the last study.

In reading there was a slight improvement, but the score was slightly  
above the international average.

Switzerland’s showing in the first study, published in 2001, provoked a  
national debate about why pupils had such poor literacy skills. Some  
blamed the use of Swiss-German dialect in primary schools, others the  
high proportion of foreigners.

Experts say the better score this time around probably has little to do  
with lessons learnt since the last Pisa study.

Dramatic

Anton Strittmatter from the Swiss Teachers Association observed that  
the improvement was more likely down to the development and reforms of  
the past ten years since dramatic changes could not be achieved in such  
a short period of time.

The new study, conducted in 2003, found that Swiss pupils had improved  
their ranking in maths (9) and science (12) since 2000, but that  
reading was as poor (13) as three years ago.

With 527 points in maths and 514 points in science, they have scored  
clearly above the average of 500 points, whereas in reading they  
achieved only 499 points.

“The improvement in science is considerable and in maths it is slightly  
better, [whereas] the situation with regard to reading is equally bad,”  
Jürgen Oelkers, pedagogic professor at Zurich University, told  
swissinfo.

Oelkers believes the good results in maths can be attributed to new  
teaching methods used in the last three years of secondary school.

Realistic

“Classes are more pupil oriented and tasks are presumably more  
life-oriented than they used to be. The Pisa test, combining both,  
requires problem-solving strategies and realistic and down-to-earth  
tasks and solutions,” he said.

Oelkers thinks the improvement in the Pisa scores could be down to the  
fact that teachers had taken the Pisa test more seriously this time,  
and might have prepared their pupils better.

That possibility worries some experts, who fear that schools may be  
more interested in having their pupils achieve better scores, rather  
than improving education standards overall.

“How stable the results of the Pisa study are will need to be further  
discussed, because ‘teaching for the test’ is not what one wants,” said  
Strittmatter.

Room for improvement

“We have to accept that there is still room for improvement as the  
results of [the most recent] test have shown,” he added.

Gianni Ghisla, co-founder of the educational journal “Babylonia”, warns  
that at the moment achieving a higher ranking seemed to be more  
important than improving standards. “Improving the ranking does not  
automatically mean improving pupils’ performance.”

The study showed that reading was a weakness among 15-year-olds in  
Switzerland.

Oelkers maintained that the reading score, which had not improved  
significantly, was below average and was certainly not satisfactory.

“We infer from the test result that improving the reading ability of  
students is more difficult [than we thought it would be] and that more  
needs to be done,” he said.

According to Strittmatter, the situation is not generally serious, but  
the fact that a high percentage of pupils does not achieve the required  
standard is alarming.

Boys

“We have to make an effort to integrate disadvantaged students and,  
especially to teach boys to read,” he said.

It is essential that schools focus on certain groups - especially boys  
from families with little education – and help them learn to read much  
earlier and more effectively, says Oelkers.

He said most primary schools were already introducing special  
programmes, which would certainly “boost [reading results] in the next  
Pisa study”.

Job market

Pisa is based on studies analysing the employment outlook for adults.  
These studies show that reading is a core competency in the job market.

Oelkers said Pisa provided a meaningful comparison among countries  
because it was based on the same criteria.

“The comparison, which has been carried out in a relatively large  
number of countries, represents a test with only one set of rules that  
apply to all countries.”

Ranking high in the Pisa test is not a question of national pride, but  
a question of how pupils compare with the peers in other countries,  
according to Oelkers.

“It is about developing labour markets and it is important for [pupils  
to] achieve good results.”
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Vance Roy
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch
http://homepage.mac.com/fredch

Pleasure is the aim of all ambition--James Douglas