An international study that analyzed education systems in 81 countries pointed to the commitment of teachers and parents as one of the keys to student success, remembering that sometimes “a family dinner is enough.”
The 2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is the first large-scale study to collect data on student achievement, well-being and equity before and after the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nearly 700,000 students from 81 countries took math, reading and science tests and responded to various surveys.
OECD researchers compared test results taken in 2018 and 2022, analyzed how students learned during the pandemic, and listened to the views and perceptions of students and school principals.
The report, published on Tuesday, argued that the decline in results “can only be partly explained by the pandemic” as many countries had already seen declines in results.
For example, in Portugal, school principals point to teacher shortages and poor teacher qualifications as the main reasons for poor teaching quality.
In 2022, 62% of students in Portugal attended schools where principals reported that the quality of teaching was affected by teacher shortages, and 27% reported poor quality teaching staff.
According to international research highlighting the importance of commitment, in the previous PISA, conducted in 2018, the percentage of principals mentioning these issues was much lower, with only 32% talking about teacher shortages and 23% talking about teacher qualifications. teachers and families in academic success.
“Having OECD teachers available to help students most in need had a stronger impact on maths scores compared to other experiences related to Covid-19 and school closures,” says the report, which shows maths scores were 15 points higher on average in schools where students agreed that they had good teachers.
Parental involvement has also proven important, especially among the most disadvantaged.
“The level of active support that parents offer their children can make all the difference,” the report says, adding that sometimes “seemingly innocent activities such as sharing a family meal or simply talking” are enough to see improvements in student performance. and well-being.
There is also mention of a parent or family member asking a student what they did at school that day, with Portugal featured as one of the countries where at least 80% of young people said their family was concerned.
Among the nearly seven thousand students from 224 Portuguese schools who took part in PISA, many recognized the importance of teachers.
Three out of four young Portuguese students acknowledged additional support from their mathematics teachers, noting other challenges in their learning process.
One in four students (25%) said they couldn’t hear what the teacher was saying in class, 34% said they were distracted by the use of digital devices, and 25% were distracted by classmates who were using equipment.
About 17% were unable to perform well in any or almost none of the classes. The report also found that on average, “schools in OECD countries where mobile phone use was banned had fewer students reporting being distracted when using digital devices.”
On the other hand, “students who spent up to an hour a day on digital devices for learning activities at school scored 14 points higher in math than students who spent no time at all.”
Researchers believe that technologies used for leisure rather than learning, such as cell phones, are “often associated with poorer outcomes.”
Evidence of this is that students who said they were distracted by classmates who used digital devices in at least some math classes scored 15 points lower than students who said this never or almost never happened.
Regarding investment, the study concludes that there is a positive relationship between investment in education and average educational attainment up to a threshold of 69 thousand euros (at purchasing power parity) in total expenditure per student aged 6 to 15 years.
“For many OECD countries that spend more per student, there is no relationship between additional investment and student achievement,” says the study, citing the examples of Korea or Singapore, which have a “high-quality teaching system” with relatively low income, “prioritizing quality of teaching over class size and funding mechanisms that match resources to needs.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.