Latest Documents

Teaching in Focus No. 20 - What does teaching look like? A new video study

While teachers can make a great difference to student outcomes, we know little about how they teach and what makes “good” teaching. The TALIS Video Study is a new OECD project that aims at understanding what teaching practices are used, how they are interrelated, and which ones are most related to students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes.

What the expansion of higher education means for graduates in the labour market (OECD Education Today Blog)

A university degree has always been considered as key to a good job and higher wages. But as the share of tertiary-educated adults across OECD countries has almost doubled over the last two decades, can the labour market absorb this growing supply of skills?

PISA in Focus No. 79: Is too much testing bad for student performance and well-being?

Standardised tests help measure student’s progress at school and can inform education policy about existing shortfalls. However, too much testing could lead to much pressure on students and teachers to learn and teach for a test, something that would take the joy out of the learning process.

Busting the myth about standardised testing (OECD Education Today Blog)

Standardised testing has received a bad rap in recent years. Parents and educators argue that too much testing can make students anxious without improving their learning.

Educating our youth to care about each other and the world (OECD Education Today Blog)

In 2015, 193 countries committed to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, a shared vision of humanity that provides the missing piece of the globalisation puzzle. The extent to which that vision becomes a reality will in no small way depend on what is happening in today’s classrooms. Indeed, it is educators who hold the key to ensuring that the SDGs become a real social contract with citizens.

How can countries close the equity gap in education? (OECD Education Today Blog)

Education plays a dual role when it comes to social inequality and social mobility. It is the main way for societies to foster equality of opportunity and support upward social mobility for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. But the evidence is overwhelming that education often reproduces social divides in societies, through the impact that parents’ economic, social and cultural status has on children’s learning outcomes.

TopClass Podcast Episode 1: What is ‘neurodiversity’ in the classroom and how should we respond to it?

Not every student’s brain works and learns in the same way. Classrooms are increasingly becoming more aware of what is known as "neurodiversity" among their students, a term used to describe neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD and ASD.

TopClass Podcast Episode 2: Listen to the teacher! The Teaching and Learning International Survey

The Teaching and Learning International Survey (otherwise known as TALIS) is a survey conducted every five years that asks teachers and school leaders from around the world about the working conditions and the learning environment in their schools.

TopClass Podcast Episode 3: What collaborative problem solving can tell us about students' social skills

Do today’s students really know how to work well together? For the first time ever, the Programme for International Student Assessment 2015 (otherwise known as PISA) examined students’ ability to collaborate to solve problems and the necessary social skills involved in that process.

Education in Chile