Literacy Skills For The World Of Tomorrow

This report extends the picture of literacy skills th PISA 2000 provides to additional countries that have recently joined the programme: Albania; Argentina; Bulgaria; Chile; Hong Kong-China; Indonesia; Israel; FYR Macedonia; Peru; Romania and Thailand.

This book examines the results of the special portion of the 2003 PISA survey of student achievement relating to problem-solving skills. It examines how countries can raise their performance in this area and what countries with lower performance levels can learn from those whose students do well.

This report presents the first internationally comparable results to OECD's 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Survey of the educational performance of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics, and science in 25 OECD countries.

In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, stating every human being’s right of equality in dignity and right. However, notwithstanding recognition by the international community of its importance and codification in numerous national and sub-national constitutions and legislation, reinforced by various multilateral and regional human rights treaties, the right of equality continues to be unable to take complete firm hold in all regions and countries. Evidence, as presented by the insightful papers in this collection, published initially as a Special Double Issue of The International Journal of Human Rights dedicated to exploring the place of equality in Asia-Pacific societies, suggests that although progress is being made the right of equality has not yet fully materialized, both in law and in reality, in the world’s most populous region. Many factors, particularly entrenched cultural heritage and practices, the lingering effects of colonialism and newly found independence, and, above all, pervasive ignorance and prejudices, continue to impede the recognition, development and protection of equality in this region. Of course, equality, a normative right and entitlement by virtue of our humanity, has neither been fully achieved in societies outside the region. Such neo-colonial thinking in fact perpetuates and assists in the subjugation of the right of equality in the Asia-Pacific Region as a matter of relevance and concern only to Western countries. Accordingly, we hope that our discussions will also be able to shed light and generate reflections on realities outside the region as interlinked with our aim. The Editor’s book fee has been donated to the UNICEF Tsunami Fund. This book was previously published as a special issue of The International Journal of Human Rights.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment(PISA) assesses the extent to which students, who are near the end of compulsory education, have acquired some of the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in society. It presents evidence on student performance in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy; reveals factors that influence the development of these skills at home and at school; and examines the implications for policy development. With to report Literacy Skills for the World of Tomorrow--Further results from PISA 2000, OECD and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics extend the picture that PISA provides to additional countries that have recently joined the programme. The report shows considerable variation in levels of knowledge and skills between students, schools and countries. Not all of these differences are due to the social and economic conditions in which students live and schools or countries operate. Some countries have managed to mitigate the influence of social background and some have achieved this while reaching a high overall level of performance. These are noteworthy achievements. Will other countries take up to challenge?

Vol. 4/edited by Eric A. Hanushek, Stephen Machin, Ludger Woessmann. What is the value of an education? Volume 4 combines recent data with new methodologies to examine this and related questions from diverse perspectives. School choice and school competition, educator incentives, the college premium, and other considerations help make sense of the investments and returns associated with education.

International comparisons of student achievement in mathematics, science, and reading have consistently shown that Japanese and Korean students outperform their peers in other parts of world. Understandably, this has attracted many policymakers and researchers seeking to emulate this success, but it has also attracted strong criticism and a range of misconceptions of the Japanese and Korean education system. Directly challenging these misconceptions, which are prevalent in both academic and public discourses, this book seeks to provide a more nuanced view of the Japanese and Korean education systems. This includes the idea that the highly standardized means of education makes outstanding students mediocre; that the emphasis on memorization leads to a lack of creativity and independent thinking; that students’ successes are a result of private supplementary education; and that the Japanese and Korean education systems are homogenous to the point of being one single system. Using empirical data Hyunjoon Park re-evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the existing education systems in Japan and Korea and reveals whether the issues detailed above are real or unfounded and misinformed. Offering a balanced view of the evolving and complex nature of academic achievement among Japanese and Korean students, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Asian, international and comparative education, as well as those interested in Asian society more broadly.