{"id":7172,"date":"2018-02-19T06:50:48","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T06:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7172"},"modified":"2018-02-19T06:50:48","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T06:50:48","slug":"dfe-rejects-pisas-new-dimension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2018\/02\/19\/dfe-rejects-pisas-new-dimension\/","title":{"rendered":"DfE rejects PISA's new dimension"},"content":{"rendered":"

I see that the BBC<\/a> is reporting (thanks, NAEE) that\u00a0the new PISA tests assessing\u00a0global competences will not be taken in England. \u00a0The DfE is, it seems, joining\u00a0the United States, Germany, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland and Ireland in\u00a0deciding not to do so. \u00a0Schools in Scotland, Australia and Canada will, however, as I expect will the Welsh.<\/p>\n

A Scottish government spokeswoman said it was keen on any test that would help young people to \"thrive in today's world\". \u00a0 Since when did any school test do this, I wondered. \u00a0She went on:<\/p>\n

\"The results will help us understand how we can further support young people to be responsible global citizens, capable of taking part in local, regional and global decision making and debate.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The BBC report said:<\/p>\n

\"The concept of global competence was intended to test how well young people were prepared to work alongside people from different cultures and with different beliefs. \u00a0The test will measure tolerance, cultural awareness and how well teenagers can distinguish between reliable sources of information and fake news. \u00a0It will consider issues such as racism, cultural identity and prejudice.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Andreas Schleicher, the OECD's education director, said the success of education systems had to be measured on more than exam results. \u00a0Alongside globalisation and the rise of social media, Schleicher said, there had been a \"polarisation\" in beliefs, which meant that some teenagers could be left with little awareness of the views of other people. \u00a0Schleicher says that the new PISA test is underpinned by the idea that young people should understand other cultures, show respect for \"human dignity\" and be able to objectively analyse information.<\/p>\n

He added that although OECD has been trailing these plans for a new kind of PISA test for the past year,\u00a0some countries were reluctant to be compared on these measures, and there had been a \"hesitation\" about moving from discussing students' beliefs to \"hard data\" from testing them. \u00a0\"I take a different view\" he said, \"the only way to get serious ... is to look at the truth.\"<\/p>\n

Truth? \u00a0It's hard to know where to start with this balony \u2013 other than to note that\u00a0Schleicher has a lot of personal kudos invested in the new test as I noted<\/a> last month. \u00a0His notion that the test would reveal the countries that paid only \"lip service\" to the ideas of tolerance and inclusion is risible. \u00a0\"What do students actually think? What do students actually know?\", he asks. \u00a0What will he think if they say they think (or know) his new test is rubbish, I wonder? \u00a0Of course, that's one question they won't be asked.<\/p>\n

It is regrettable, however, that DfE has said that it will not allow schools to take part because this would place an \"additional burden\" on them. \u00a0This is the argument of scoundrels as I noted<\/a> the other day about PIRLS. \u00a0Much better to say that the tests are nonsense, as they undoubtedly are.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I see that the BBC is reporting (thanks, NAEE) that\u00a0the new PISA tests assessing\u00a0global competences will not be taken in England. \u00a0The DfE is, it seems, joining\u00a0the United States, Germany, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland and Ireland in\u00a0deciding not to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}