Science Education News (SEN) Journal 2017 Volume 66 Number 4 December 2017 | Page 29

Serious flaws in how PISA (continued)
ARTICLES
For a start, the five statements listed above are based
pedagogical assumptions.
They imply that a ‘disciplined’ classroom environment
is one that is quiet and teacher directed, but there is
no rationale provided for why such a view has been
adopted. Nor is it explained why the five features of
such an environment have been selected above other
possible features. They are simply named as the arbiters
of ‘disciplinary climate’ in schools.
In 2015 students were asked to respond to statements
Explorers
Hidden
Continent
of Zealandia
on (continued)
some unexplained
related probe
to classroom
discipline.
They were asked:
‘How
often do these things happen in your science classes?
•
Students don’t listen to what the teacher says
There
is noise and disorder
Our goals • are
to understand
why Earth’s surface moves (the
• The
teacher has
wait greenhouse
a long time for
the students
study of plate
tectonics)
and to how
climate
systems
work (climate to change).
The
southwest
Pacific
location
makes
quieten down
Zealandia • ideal
for testing
ideas
on well
how the Earth works.
Students
cannot
work
Problem of possible interpretation
The formation
of the Pacific
Ring
of Fire for changed
the after
way the
our
• Students
don’t start
working
a long time
planet moved:
new
volcanoes and mountains grew, natural
lesson
begins.
resources formed, and the changes had long-term effects on
Then, for each of the five statements, students had to
global climate.
However, let’s accept for the moment that the
five statements represent a contemporary view of
classroom disciplinary climate. The next problem is
one of interpretation. Is it not possible that students
from across 72 countries might understand some of
these statements differently? Might it not be that the
diversity of languages and cultures of so many countries
produces some varying interpretations of what is meant
by the statements, for example that:
tick one of the boxes on a four point scale from (a) never
Zealandia or was
closer
to (b)
the in
South
50 million
ago, but
hardly
ever;
some Pole
lessons;
(c) in years
most lessons;
had a warm
was this possible? If computer models
and climate.
(d) in all How
lessons.
can’t predict such warm conditions in the past, could models of
future global
warming with
also be
Problems
the underestimates?
PISA process and
interpretation
of data
The answers
to these and many
more questions lie beneath the
waves, recorded
in sediment
have with
accumulated
Even before
we look layers
at what that
is done
the results over
of
millions of years.
Texas A&M University technical staff process a recently-
To read
the full
article, core.
subscribe
to Sutherland,
the STANSW CC BY-ND.
collected
sediment
Rupert
Science Education News (SEN) Journal
the questions posed in PISA about classroom discipline,
alarm bells would be ringing for many educators
reading this blog.
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No rationale for what is a good classroom environment
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 66 NO 4