Students from Shanghai are the best in the world in using their knowledge.
Polish 15 year olds scored very well in Europe – only five countries scored better; Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland. The Report shows that Poland has one of the best results in the world when it comes to the increase in the number of students with the best results. Since the year 2000, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has surveyed the level of education around the world, grading students’ ability to use their knowledge, instead of the knowledge itself – that is what PISA (Programme for International Student Assesment) is all about.
PISA assesses15 year olds from around the world in terms of: problem solving, analysis, argumentation and interpretation. It examines their ability to think and the level of their adult-life preparation. If, for example, reading is tested, students work on real-life texts, such as manuals or newspaper articles.
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/
Polish 15 year olds scored very well in Europe – only five countries scored better; Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland. The Report shows that Poland has one of the best results in the world when it comes to the increase in the number of students with the best results. Since the year 2000, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has surveyed the level of education around the world, grading students’ ability to use their knowledge, instead of the knowledge itself – that is what PISA (Programme for International Student Assesment) is all about.
PISA assesses15 year olds from around the world in terms of: problem solving, analysis, argumentation and interpretation. It examines their ability to think and the level of their adult-life preparation. If, for example, reading is tested, students work on real-life texts, such as manuals or newspaper articles.
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/
PISA is one the World’s biggest students’ skill testing survey. About 0.5 million teenagers take part in it. How has it been for Poland so far? In 2000, Poland scored way below the OECD average, so did Russia, Greece and Israel. Then, we gradually progressed in reading and natural sciences, and we ended up in the middle of the chart in mathematics. We were 25th in Reading and Interpretation in 2000. In 2006, we improved and jumped to 9th place (57 countries were surveyed), in 2009, we dropped to 15th, (out of 65 countries). We scored better than several European countries: Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark and France. We scored similar to Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Estonia.
Young Finns are undisputed masters of this survey. In the first edition, 15 year olds from Finland were the best in reading and interpretation and reached 3rd place in reasoning in natural sciences. In the next editions, they always reached the podium. They were the best in reading and natural sciences in 2003, and finished 2nd in solving mathematical problems. In 2006 and 2009, they placed in the top three. In the recent edition, the Finns were anxious about the test – two weeks before the results were made public, Finnish newspapers wrote about “failure.”
Korean teenagers have scored very well over the years. In Korea however, great PISA results (mostly in math and science) are achieved by long hours of private lessons that students attend. Sometimes the extra lessons end in the middle of the night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6yhiGj-252k
For many people, Poland is an example of educational success. American journalist Amanda Ripley placed Poland among the countries with the most effective education systems. When selecting "schools that teach thinking" she took the results of PISA into account. In her book, she tries to answer why Poland scores better than the USA in global education rankings, even though Americans spend more money on education (per student).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XchNCnYo6KA
What do you think – why do Polish students score so well? Why do Asian nations score best? Is it because they are so hard-working, or maybe something else? Do you think that good education has impact on economical development, or it’s not that important?
What do you remember about your schools, did you have to learn a lot?
Korean teenagers have scored very well over the years. In Korea however, great PISA results (mostly in math and science) are achieved by long hours of private lessons that students attend. Sometimes the extra lessons end in the middle of the night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6yhiGj-252k
For many people, Poland is an example of educational success. American journalist Amanda Ripley placed Poland among the countries with the most effective education systems. When selecting "schools that teach thinking" she took the results of PISA into account. In her book, she tries to answer why Poland scores better than the USA in global education rankings, even though Americans spend more money on education (per student).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XchNCnYo6KA
What do you think – why do Polish students score so well? Why do Asian nations score best? Is it because they are so hard-working, or maybe something else? Do you think that good education has impact on economical development, or it’s not that important?
What do you remember about your schools, did you have to learn a lot?
I remember I had to learn a lot of things, very different things.
ReplyDeleteI went to Belgium for few years and thought, that they have a much better education. Much more fun. But then I found out, by accident, something very weird. I was in class with a lot of french people, and when a teacher was giving back our exams she told everyone, that she was very surprised. I had the best writing in french. Better, than the natives. That tells a lot about education in west, especially in writing... weird, right?
Asian students study well because of culture and work ethics. The society has been extremely competitive, they work longest hours in the world and work is basically a much bigger part of their lives compared to other cultures. Having spent significant amount of times in Asia, I'm stunned by the culture and would love to stay and live there for even longer but.. not work there. Working at an Asian company I also see their work ethics everyday, and trust me when I say they're not fans of leaving the office early. Also, they actually pay more attention to quality of work and pay attention to details - that's especially true for Japan, Korea and north-eastern parts of China (the rest of China just works long hours without that much attention to work quality ;-))
ReplyDeleteShanghai is an extremely competitive city where you can win big or lose big - you can earn a job at a major multinational company earning major money, or be broke - and the single most important factor is your education. There's also extremely high competition for the best universities - those who can move to study abroad compete to do that, the rest competes for spots at top universities to secure their future.
So in short, I believe it's a combination of competitive environment, long working hours combined with attention to detail that mostly contribute to that.
In Poland, we obviously have smart kids and students who will still be forced to work for relatively low salaries considering the work they have to do. We are known to be THE cheap labor of Europe. Poland is struggling in a major time of change, and in that struggle many people see a chance - to get good education for cheap and be able to do cool, positive things in the future. That was once where Korea was, 20 years later they are one of the world's most developed and fastest developing countries at the same time. Let's hope the same will happen in Poland.
What do you think – why do Polish students score so well?
ReplyDeleteI am not sure why did Polish students well. But I am pretty sure this is not because of the system we have. Especially when private higher school education is based on what in Poland is call as "Wykłady Blokowe" in which students are introduced to some lectures from which they would have to pass a test or make an assignment.
Why do Asian nations score best?
Because they really try and they are oriented on education quality. I have seen a movie when some asian kids at school where doing some advance math without using calculators. To make it even more impressive they would do it in only few seconds. Pretty amazing really.
Is it because they are so hard-working, or maybe something else?
Yes, the mentality of the society is very important. If everyone want to be needed and want to be good at something, there is a great chance he will be. Motivation would be one of the important factors. Of Course motivation is not everything. It is important that country provide required support for education and have a good program for improvement.
Do you think that good education has impact on economical development, or it’s not that important?
I think that good education is fundamental for economical development. Industry requires technicians and experts. And they are outcome of good education.
What do you remember about your schools, did you have to learn a lot?
Now a days I forgot most of the thing I would learn back in days, however this is not only about remembering. Its about training ability to learn and creative thinking. That comes with practice . Learning stimulate your brain and that is why it is important to keep education level high from early stages.
Polish students score well because they are trained to work hard in school. The education level at most of the schools is very high and teachers are demanding. I am not sure how it looks exactly now but at least that’s how it was when I was in middle and high school. Asians score well because like Simon S. said they are tough to work hard from the very early age. They see that their parents have to work hard to achieve something and thus they do the same. It’s in their culture that education is the most important part of their lives. A well-educated society has a high impact on the economic growth of the country as we are entering a high tech age where qualified and educated individuals are of high importance.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Polish students score so well due to the fact that polish schools and teachers are quite demanding. We get to learn quite a lot on different subjects and while other countries learn mainly about their geography or history here in Poland we try to cover most of the Europe and world.
ReplyDeleteI am not really sure about Asians but I would guess that their good scores are just the evidence of all the hard work they put into learning. Very often people on internet joke that Asian people are so smart due to demanding fathers that require their children to be the best in everything and that without a perfect score degree you are just a disgrace to the family. Hopefully these are only jokes and not the real reasons.
My school was quite an adventure as I really liked to learn about everything. Teachers were demanding but thanks to them I got proper education and I will be always grateful for that.
I thnk that polish students score very well because our nation is the best:D Jokes aside, we have to learn a lot of different thing from different subjects.
ReplyDeleteI am convinced that Asian students score so well, because they learn all the time, literally all the time. They are also scared if they will not suceed they will loose everything. Their society is very competitive because of the number of people. Good education is extremely important and has siginificant impact on economical developement.
I remember that I had to learn a lot of things on every subject. I know now that it was misteak that thise thing were not shown in a bigger perspective. I've learned some facts on my history lessons, some other on polish lessons and so on, bt it was never gathered together.
@ Dalvia - I had similar situatuion but with spanish people. Once they asked for help in math, when I saw the excercises I realised that they leran things we learned 3 years ago and we were the same age then….