STUDENT APPROACHES TO LEARNING - OECD

[Pages:100]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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Chapter

1

THE PISA SURVEY AND STUDENT APPROACHES TO LEARNING

CHAPTER 1 Learners for life: Student approaches to learning

Introductory overview: Approaches to learning and why they are important

Education systems aim to enable students not just to acquire knowledge but also to become capable, confident and enthusiastic learners. At school, students who have positive approaches to learning, in terms of both attitudes and behaviours, tend to enjoy good learning outcomes. Beyond school, children and adults who have developed the ability and motivation to learn on their own initiative are well-placed to become lifelong learners.Thus, an overall assessment of the outcomes of schooling needs to consider not only students' knowledge and understanding but also their approaches to learning.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) aims to measure such wider outcomes of schooling, at the same time as assessing student performance in terms of reading, mathematical and scientific literacies. Key results from the PISA 2000 survey have been presented elsewhere1.This report focuses on the results in terms of approaches to learning, looking at the learning strategies that students adopt, at their motivation and at their confidence in their own learning abilities. The survey's investigation of the learning approaches of 15-year-olds in 26 countries, set alongside its assessment of their knowledge and skills, creates a unique resource. It makes it possible: to understand better how various aspects of student attitudes to learning and their learning behaviour relate to each other and to learning outcomes; to observe how these relationships differ across countries; and to note the distribution of relevant characteristics among different students, across and within countries.

These findings build on existing knowledge about approaches to learning. Prior research has identified some key features of these approaches that frame the analysis of PISA results. It shows that learning is more likely to be effective where a student plays a proactive role in the learning process ? for example drawing on strong motivation and clear goals to select an appropriate learning strategy. Such a proactive process is often described as "self-regulated" learning.

A large-scale survey cannot easily make a direct assessment of the extent to which students actually regulate their learning in practice. However, research has also identified some measurable characteristics of students that are associated with the tendency to regulate one's own learning, as well as with better student performance.These characteristics are the three main aspects of approaches to learning that students were asked about in PISA: their confidence in their own learning abilities (self-related beliefs), their motivation and their tendency to adopt certain learning strategies.

The analysis that follows does not, therefore, take a neutral view of alternative learning approaches, but rather centres on some positive features that put students in a better position to regulate their own learning. However, this does not mean that it prescribes a single, uniform learning approach ? the evidence shows for example that different kinds of strategy can contribute to positive learning outcomes. Moreover, the analysis also considers a further dimension of student approaches concerning alternative styles of learning not associated directly with self-regulation, i.e., whether students feel positive about learning in co-operative or in competitive situations.

The remainder of this chapter sets out the context for the presentation of PISA results that follows. First, it explains how the measurement of approaches to learning fits into the PISA survey. Next, it summarises existing evidence on this subject and how that affects the way in which the PISA survey tackles the issue.The chapter then sets out specifically what students were asked in PISA about how they approach learning and how this relates to various aspects found to be important by prior research. Lastly, the chapter concludes by summarising what PISA can and what it cannot, add to existing knowledge about student approaches to learning.

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