October 2011 ~ Global perspectives on education

Good fences make good neighbours

12:39 AM vocational universities regions cities partnerships innovation

by Oscar ValienteConsultant, OECD Directorate for Education‘Good fences make good neighbors’ says Robert Frost’s protagonist in ‘’Mending wall’. Frost himself was not so sure. Barriers in education – like barriers between people - are not what cities and regions need in our time: rather what they need is better collaboration between the vocational and the university sectors for social and economic development. A very good example of this is the area...

What’s in children's school bags?

2:16 AM keywords oecd education pisa performance learning

by Marilyn AchironEditor, Indicators and Analysis Division, Directorate for EducationThe textbook in your or your child’s backpack: who decided it was the best one to use? And does it matter to your or your child’s success in school if that decision is taken by your school or by your government? The latest edition of PISA in Focus looks into how those issues relate to learning outcomes.For example, school systems that grant individual schools autonomy...

Chinese lessons

12:35 AM China education EAG schools reforms PISA

by Andreas SchleicherHead of the Indicators and Analysis Division, OECD Directorate for EducationWhile in China last month for the launch of the first Chinese edition of Education at a Glance, I had the privilege of spending half a day in one of the experimental schools in Shanghai that is developing and piloting the next generation of the provinces educational reforms. Shanghai, among today’s top performers in PISA serves, in turn, as a pilot...

Making bullying prevention a priority in Finnish schools

12:13 AM antibullying bullying school Finland KiVa children equity cyberbullying

by Christina SalmivalliProfessor of Psychology at the University of Turku, FinlandWorldwide, an average of 10% of children and youth are targets of on-going negative treatment by their peers at school. Bullying is aggressive, harmful behavior which is targeted repeatedly at one and the same individual. Apart from its repeated nature, bullying can be differentiated from occasional conflicts or fights in another respect as well: it occurs between...

Celebrating teachers and new ones at that!

9:00 AM new teachers, TALIS, UNESCO, World Teachers' Day

by Julie BelangerAnalyst, OECD, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation World Teachers' Day, held every year on 5 October, was started by UNESCO in 1994. Today, 18 years later (long enough for a generation to have started and completed school), we join our colleagues in celebrating teachers the world over.The aim of World Teachers' Day is to mobilise support for teachers to ensure that the needs of future generations will continue to be met....