PISA UK Education Ratings

The lastest PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) ranking, showed that the UK is fairly average in its scores (although ranked 11th in Science) throughout the 34 participating countries and has been stagnant for the past few years. This animation gives an interesting overview of the assessment process behind the PISA rankings are made and it is important to understand the impact that these have on how government's shape educational policy. PISA looks at the correlation between what is learnt at school and then applied in contexts outside of school. The following statement is made in the PISA 2009 Assessment Framework:

PISA 2009 covers the domains of reading, mathematics and science not merely in terms of

whether students can reproduce specific subject matter knowledge, but also whether they can extrapolate from what they have learned and apply their knowledge in novel situations

There is no mention of creativity, possibly because it is difficult to quantify and compare easily, but I can't help thinking that it needs to be more explicit in the types of intelligences it aims to measure, especially since it is focused on very traditional academic concepts of intelligence with respects to reading, maths and science. It would be interesting to know how they might measure according to Gardner's Multiple Intelligences:

The Secret Power of Time

Another fascinating RSAnimate video talking about the revolution in time taking place, particularly for the younger generation affected by digital technology. Professor Philip Zimbardo implies that this is having a profound impact on boys, who spend a disproportionate amount of time in front of games consoles and affects their interest in schooling which appears 'analogue'. The question for us educators is whether we can we ever return to a traditional method of getting students to focus on writing, reading and arithmetic using conventional methods? How then should schools work around the use of computers and emerging technology to engage students? Less subjects? More independent learning with access to computers?

I have forgotten the reference but a colleague was telling me about an educational experiment in which students were asked to follow a course online and they then came in voluntarily to lessons to be supported by teachers with understanding their homework/independent assignments. Schools could allocate far more time to independent study in order to develop self-management (to use a PLTS term!) or even expect that homework is completed during curriculum periods allocated for independent study.