Serious flaws in how PISA measured student behaviour ( continued )
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Serious flaws in how PISA measured student behaviour ( continued )
Second , there are some questions about the classroom disciplinary data that call into question the certainty with which the numbers are calculated and compared . These relate to student motivation in answering the questions , and to the differing interpretations by people from many different cultures about the meaning of the same words and phrases .
Third , there are well-documented problems related to the data with which the questionnaire responses are cross-correlated , such as the validity of the PISA test scores .
In short , it may well be that discipline is a problem in Australian schools , but this research cannot provide us with that information . Surely the most one can say is that the results might point to the need for more extended research . But far from a measured response , the media fed the findings into the continuing narrative about falling standards in Australian education .
The media plays a pivotal role
When ACER released its report , the headlines and associated commentary once again damned Australian schools . Here is the daily paper from my hometown of Adelaide .
Disorder the order of the day for Aussie schools ( Advertiser , 15 / 3 / 2017 )
‘ Australian school students are significantly rowdier and less disciplined than those overseas , research has found . An ACER report , released today , says half the students in disadvantaged schools nationally , and a third of students in advantaged schools , reported ‘ noise and disorder ’ in most or all of their classes …. In December , the Advertiser reported the ( PISA ) test results showed the academic abilities of Australian students were in ‘ absolute decline ’. Now the school discipline results show Australian schools performed considerably worse than the average across OECD nations …. Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the testing showed that there was ‘ essentially no relationship between spending per student and outcomes . This research demonstrates that more money spent within a school doesn ’ t automatically buy you better discipline , engagement or ambition ’, he said ( Williams , Advertiser 15 / 3 / 17 ).
Mainstream newspapers all over the country repeated the same messages . Once again , media commentators and politicians had fodder for a fresh round of teacher-bashing .
Let ’ s look at what is happening here :
• The mainstream press have broadened the research findings to encompass not just 15 year old students in science classrooms , but ALL students ( primary and secondary ) across ALL subject areas ;
• The research report findings have been picked up without any mention of some of the difficulties associated with conducting such research across so many cultures and countries . The numbers are treated with reverence , and the findings as the immutable ‘ truth ’;
• The mainstream press have cherry-picked negative results to get a headline , ignoring such findings in the same ACER report that , for example , Australia is well above the OECD average in terms of the interest that students have in their learning in Science , and the level of teacher support they receive ;
• Key politicians begin to use the research findings as a justification for not having to spend more money on education , and to blame schools and students for the ‘ classroom chaos ’.
These errors and omissions reinforce the narrative being promulgated in mainstream media and by politicians and current policy makers that standards in Australian education are in serious decline . If such judgments are being made on the basis of flawed data reported in a flawed way by the media , they contribute to a misdiagnosis of the causes of identified problems , and to the wrong policy directions being set .
The information that is garnered from the PISA process every three years may have the potential to contribute to policy making . But if PISA is to be used as a key arbiter of educational quality , then we need to ensure that its methodology is subjected to critical scrutiny . And politicians and policy makers alike need to look beyond the simplistic and often downright incorrect media reporting of PISA results .
Alan Reid is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of South Australia . Professor Reid ' s research interests include educational policy , curriculum change , social justice and education , citizenship education and the history and politics of public education . He has published widely in these areas and gives many talks and papers to professional groups , nationally and internationally . These include a number of named Lectures and Orations , including the Radford Lecture ( AARE ); the Fritz Duras Memorial Lecture ( ACHPER ); the Selby-Smith Oration ( ACE ); the Hedley Beare Oration ( ACE -NT ); the Phillip Hughes Oration ( ACE - ACT ); the Garth Boomer Memorial Lecture ( ACSA ); and the national conference of the AEU .
EduResearch Matters | October 2 , 2017 at 7:02 am | Tags : PISA | Categories : PISA and classroom discipline , PISA and media reporting , PISA rankings | URL : HYPERLINK " http :// wp . me / p4vxS5-DB " http :// wp . me / p4vxS5-DB
32 SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 66 NO 4