A detailed review of the education sector in Australia as in the data provided by the 2006 edition of the OECD's annual publication, 'Education at a Glance' is presented. While the data has shown that in almost all OECD countries educational attainment levels are on the rise, with countries showing impressive gains in university qualifications, it also reveals that a large of share of young people still do not complete secondary school, which remains a baseline for successful entry into the labour market.

/pdf/education-at-a-glance-m5vl7o68j5.pdf

Education at a Glance

Human Development Report 2006

The Nature of Prejudice

“One warm day in the spring of 2006, I visited a U.S. History class at a public charter school in a large Midwestern city …” (p. 1) This is the beginning of Diana Hess’ book about the methods of democratic discussion in classroom and it indicates its strong narrative quality including several teacher portraits and scenic vignettes. The book is winner of the 2009 “Exemplary Research in Social Studies” award from the National Council for the Social Studies. In an interview with Kerry G. Hill for the campus journal (School of Education, University of Wisconsin http://campusconnections.education.wisc.edu/post/LEARNING-Diana-Hess.aspx) the author roots the book’s content back to her own biography and socialization: While growing up in northern Illinois, Diana Hess recalls members of her family engaging in lively, raucous political discussions. “Disagreement wasn’t a negative thing,” she remembers.

Controversy in the Classroom. The Democratic Power of Discussion

Devolution and Choice in Education, the School, the State and the Market

School factors related to quality and equity. Results from PISA 2000

This article uses an educational effectiveness approach to model the impact of student, school, and educational system characteristics on several cognitive and non-cognitive student outcomes related to citizenship education. Using multivariate multilevel analysis, data from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2009 were analyzed, encompassing 102,396 lower secondary-school students (14-year-olds) in 4,078 schools in 31 countries. The results indicate that schools have a small influence on students' civic knowledge and hardly an impact on civic attitudes and intended civic behavior. Civic competences are mainly explained by individual student characteristics and out-of-school factors. Factors at the school level that were found to make a difference in students' civic competences are related to stimulating a democratic classroom climate in which free dialogue and critical debate on controversial political...

The contribution of schooling to secondary-school students’ citizenship outcomes across countries

Over the past 2 decades, a large number of countries have been engaged in the decentralization of decision-making to schools. Although the motives and incentives for school autonomy are often diverse, it is commonly believed that decentralization will enhance the quality of schooling. Based on a secondary analysis of data from OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2000), this study aims at testing to what degree this assumption is supported by empirical data. For that purpose, 4 domains of autonomy and internal decentralization are taken into account: personnel management, financial resources, student policies, and curriculum. The results indicate that more autonomy in personnel management is related to higher levels of reading literacy. This relationship, however, disappears when differences between schools' student composition are taken into account. No significant associations were found for the other 3 domains.

The effect of school autonomy and school internal decentralization on students' reading literacy

In this study, a comprehensive educational effectiveness model is tested in relation to student's civic knowledge. Multilevel analysis was applied on the dataset of the IEA Civic Education Study (CIVED; Torney-Purta, Lehmann, Oswald, & Schulz, 2001), which was conducted among junior secondary-school students (age 14), their schools, and their teachers. In total, 28 countries, 4,136 classrooms, and 93,565 students were included in the analysis. The results indicated that the influences on students' civic knowledge are multilevel. Students' civic knowledge and skills were partially explained by individual characteristics, by factors related to quality and opportunities for civic learning offered by classrooms and class composition, and by factors at the national context level. We conclude that most effectiveness factors are relevant for the field of civic and citizenship education and that schooling and educational policy matter for students' success in this field.

Effective civic education: an educational effectiveness model for explaining students' civic knowledge

Instructional and distributed leadership are regarded as important for creating and sustaining professional learning communities and for creating a climate conducive to student learning. Instructional leadership comprises leadership practices that involve the planning, evaluation, co-ordination and improvement of teaching and learning. Distributed leadership in schools is not only a reflection of leadership being shown by the principal, but also of others acting as leaders in school. Four types of leaders and leadership are identified in this study, based on their instructional and distributed leadership, as well as their involvement in educational activities with their school. The first type – “integrated leadership” – refers to principals who are attentive to both instructional and distributed leadership in their schools and spend considerable time on curriculum and teachingrelated tasks in their school. “Inclusive leaders” engage staff, students and their parents or guardians in the decisions at school, but relatively less often take up a role as instructional leaders and spend less time on curriculum and teaching-related tasks in school. “Educational leaders” are strongly engaged in instructional leadership, but much less in involving stakeholders in the decisions at school. “Administrative leadership” refers to principals who spend a large portion of their time on school management and administrative issues and are, as a result, less engaged in distributed and instructional leadership activities than integrated leaders. Further on, this study examines how these leadership types relate to the establishment of professional learning communities and a learning climate in schools. At the core of the emphasis on professional learning communities is the idea that knowledge is situated in the day-to-day experiences of teachers and is best understood through critical reflection with others who share the same experience. Moreover, teachers who actively engage in professional learning communities will be able to increase their professional knowledge, which might lead to the enhancement of student learning. In this study, professional learning communities are characterised by a reflective dialogue among staff, deprivatisation of practice, a collective focus on student learning, collaboration and a shared sense of purpose. “Learning climate” refers to the establishment of an orderly climate for learning and positive teacher-student relationships within the school. The findings in this report are based on the data of the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013.

Ralf Maslowski

Papers

School factors related to quality and equity. Results from PISA 2000

The contribution of schooling to secondary-school students’ citizenship outcomes across countries

The effect of school autonomy and school internal decentralization on students' reading literacy

Effective civic education: an educational effectiveness model for explaining students' civic knowledge

School Leadership for Learning: Insights from TALIS 2013