STUDENT APPROACHES TO LEARNING - OECD

LEARNERS FOR LIFE STUDENT APPROACHES TO LEARNING

RESULTS FROM PISA 2000

Cordula Artelt J?rgen Baumert Nele Julius-McElvany

Jules Peschar

OECD ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT

FOREWORD

FOREWORD

What are students like as learners as they approach the end of compulsory education? The answer matters greatly, not only because those with stronger approaches to learning get better results at school but also because young adults able to set learning goals and manage their own learning are much more likely to take up further study and become lifelong learners.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides a unique opportunity to look at how students approach learning, alongside how well they perform in key subject areas.This report analyses the results, focusing on aspects of students' motivation, self-belief and use of various learning strategies that together make it more likely that a student will become a confident and self-regulated learner.

The results confirm strong links between such student approaches to learning and measurable student outcomes. For example, students showing strong interest in reading and those who are more confident of their ability to solve problems that they find difficult are more likely to perform well.The report also shows particularly strong links between students' tendency to control their own learning, by consciously monitoring progress towards personal goals, and their motivation and self-belief.This suggests that effective learning cannot simply be taught as a skill but also depends heavily on developing positive attitudes.

This report offers policy-makers a fine-grained analysis of which particular learner characteristics are prevalent in different countries. It also identifies differences between the approaches to learning of various groups, including male and female students, and those from more and less advantaged social backgrounds. The results point to ways in which education systems can focus efforts to help different groups of students become more effective learners.

PISA is a collaborative effort, bringing together scientific expertise from the participating countries, steered jointly by their governments on the basis of shared, policy-driven interests. Participating countries take responsibility for the project at the policy level through a Board of Participating Countries. Experts from participating countries serve on working groups that are charged with linking the PISA policy objectives with the best available substantive and technical expertise in the field of international comparative assessment of educational outcomes. Through participating in these expert groups, countries ensure that the PISA assessment instruments are internationally valid and take into account the cultural and curricular contexts of OECD Member countries, that they provide a realistic basis for measurement, and that they place an emphasis on authenticity and educational validity.The frameworks and assessment instruments for PISA 2000 are the product of a multiyear development process and were adopted by OECD Member countries in December 1999.

This report is the product of a concerted effort between the authors Cordula Artelt, J?rgen Baumert, Nele Julius-McElvany and Jules Peschar, the countries participating in PISA, the experts and institutions working within the framework of the PISA Consortium, and the OECD.The report was prepared by the OECD Directorate for Education under the direction of Kooghyang Ro and Andreas Schleicher.The development of the report was steered by the Board of Participating Countries, chaired by Eugene Owen of the National Center for Education Statistics in the United States.Annex E of the report lists the members of the various PISA bodies as well as the individual experts and consultants who have contributed to this report and to PISA in general.

The report is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword ................................................................................................................3

Chapter 1:The PISA survey and student approaches to learning....................................7 Introductory overview: Approaches to learning and why they are important ...........................8 The PISA survey, and where approaches to learning fit in ..................................................9 Existing evidence on approaches to learning, and how this frames PISA's approach ..................9 The PISA questionnaire on student approaches to learning, and what student characteristics it identifies 11 What PISA adds to knowledge in this field, and what it does not........................................ 12

Readers' guide ....................................................................................................... 17

Chapter 2: Motivation, self-related beliefs, learning strategies and performance: How they are associated in PISA .............................................................. 19

Introduction ...................................................................................................... 21 Student approaches to learning and student performance ................................................ 21 How do student approaches to learning relate to each other?............................................ 25 The factors in combination: How much do these characteristics together explain differences in student performance and the use of control strategies? ................................................ 32 Summary of key findings and their implications ............................................................ 33

Chapter 3: Comparing countries: Profiles of student approaches to learning ................ 35 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 37 In what respects can the average strength of student learning approaches be compared across countries? ......................................................................................................... 37 International comparison of the student learning characteristics ....................................... 40 Clusters of students with similar characteristics ........................................................... 44 Summary of key findings and their implications ............................................................ 49

Chapter 4: Differences in the approaches to learning between different groups of students............................................................................................. 51

Introduction ...................................................................................................... 53 Gender differences in approaches to learning............................................................... 53 Family background and approaches to learning............................................................. 58 Immigration status and approaches to learning: differences between students with and without an immigrant background.......................................................................................... 62 Differences between the learning approaches of weak and strong readers ............................. 65

Chapter 5: Key findings and policy implications ........................................................ 69 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 70 Key results of the cross-national analysis of student approaches to learning ........................... 70 Implications for educational policy and practice ........................................................... 72

References............................................................................................................. 75

Annex A: PISA questionnaire items measuring student characteristics as learners ........ 79

Annex B: Background to scales measuring learner characteristics ............................. 83

Annex C: Data tables .............................................................................................. 89

Annex D: Standard errors, significance tests, effect sizes and structural equation models.. 125

Annex E: The development of the PISA thematic report - A collaborative effort......... 129

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