PISA: a political project and a research agenda

Abstract

PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is one of two large scale international comparative projects of student assessment that now exert considerable influence upon school science education policy, the other being TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study). This paper focuses on PISA, now the most influential study. This article outlines the origins of PISA, identifies some of the challenges in its construction and the claims made for it. It argues that while the statistical and methodological aspects of PISA have received much research attention, other elements of PISA have been largely ignored. In particular, there are several outcomes of PISA testing that point towards a significant research agenda. In addition, the political, ideological and economic assumptions underpinning the PISA project have implications for school science curriculum policy that deserve closer scrutiny and debate.

The Impacts of Content & Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Method on University Students' Reading Comprehension Skills in Indonesia

“…The survey results published in 2019 also still position Indonesia in the lowest ranking [2]. Despite the many controversies about this PISA study [3], the results of this study at least illustrate that literacy in Indonesia is still very minimal.…”

Humanistic science education: The history of science and other relevant contexts

“…Political debates over renewing science curricula are invariably policed by state standards, teachers’ concerns, and public opinion aimed at the minority of science‐interested students (i.e., the 9% to less‐than‐30%). These debates often revolve around the political context of international test scores from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA); scores are often misinterpreted by the general public or misrepresented by politicians who cherry‐pick the data and who are unable to critique the validity of PISA itself (Sjøberg & Jenkins, 2020).…”

Untitled

“…Simply put, high PISA scores may be harbingers of bad news for learners. Sjøberg and Jenkins (2020) stated, "the PISA science scores correlate negatively with Future science orientation (r = −0.83)" (p. 3).…”

“…Canada's Fraser Institute lauds it (Allison, 2021). Sjøberg and Jenkins (2020) concluded, "PISA scores and rankings are not facts, nor are they objective or neutral outcomes of the project. There is therefore an important task facing the science [and mathematics] education community, namely to give the PISA project the rigorous scholarly examination it deserves" (p. 11).…”

“… Setting aside the notion that Saskatchewan learners must be assessed by written tests that are based largely on a (a) European type of mathematics curriculum, (b) European genre of composing test questions (e.g., PISA mathematics scores in French Québec verses the rest of Canada's), and (c) the fallacy that those test scores represent the quality of the educational jurisdiction (Andrews, 2016;Sjøberg, 2015;Sjøberg & Jenkins, 2020).…”