Category Archives: Education

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village The translation and adaptation of measurement instruments is of vital importance in achieving comparability of data in large-scale assessments. What is meant by “comparability” and how can translations be produced that meet the objectives for comparability? This was the overarching question at a methodological seminar …

“Report of OECD-GESIS seminar on translating/adapting instruments in large-scale assessments now published”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Reading is no longer mainly about extracting information; it is about constructing knowledge, thinking critically and making well-founded judgements”. “Students need to be able to read complex texts, distinguish between credible and untrustworthy sources of information, and between fact and fiction, and question or seek …

“Two recent key international assessments, PISA and ICILS, raise serious concerns about students’ capacity to critically assess information found online”

In general, the press reports too much on country ranking and benchmarking, and too little on more interesting data such as within-country variance; gender equality in the three OECD PISA studies domains; resources invested in education; the correlation between the students’ (and schools’) socioeconomic status and their performance on PISA literacy scales; the effect of …

“Release of OECD PISA studies 2018 results – worldwide resonance 🌎”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village The assessment framework of the OECD Study on Social and Emotional Skills (SEL) has just been published. (1) Together with the previously published conceptual framework, the Study now has complete framework documentation explaining all of its substantive and methodological aspects, writes OECD Project Manager for …

“Social and emotional skills are not only important for individuals but also shape the larger communities and societies we live in”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Contrary to common assumption young people do not necessarily develop sophisticated digital skills just by growing up using digital devices: 18% of students who took part in the latest cycle of the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) failed to reach even the lowest …

“The latest cycle of ICILS reveals that over 40% of students have only minimal ability to critically assess information found online”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Two recent articles in the Harvard Business Review present radically opposing views on the issue of skills training as a possible future alternative to higher education. This is an issue which is likely to continue to be the object of heated debate and both authors …

“Are apprenticeships going to emerge as a viable and scalable future alternative to college?”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village The E-ATP conference was a vibrant event, bustling with awareness of disruption in the testing industry and eagerness to board the train to transform assessments. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, brain science, big data, personalized and adaptive learning, rapidly changing skills and other technology, combined with …

“Highlights from the E-ATP Conference in Madrid”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Economists at the Paris School of Economics and Dauphine University in France believe there is. In a recent study they have analyzed data on how 300.000 teenagers in 64 countries performed on math and reading in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), in 2012. …

“Is there a connection between student reading scores and the STEM gender gap?”

Online, remote, on-demand, self-paced, informal, diverse, flexible, practical, life-long, augmented, gamified, automated … these are some of the buzzwords related to the future of education, as seen by some of the most innovative players in the field. An interesting overview. Source: https://www.disruptordaily.com/what-is-the-future-of-education-11-experts-share-their-insights/ Photo credit: Caleb Minear @ Unsplash

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Leonardo da Vinci had a voracious and prolific creative talent, says the author of this article, and today’s models of assessment and methods of teaching are not receptive, or conducive, to creative impulses and disruptive, rebellious thinking. The article offers an interesting reflection on “the …

“Would Leonardo da Vinci have excelled in our “myopic” school system?”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village About 32 million unique online vacancy postings from seven EU countries (Czech Republic, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Italy, UK) have been collected by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) and processed through big data and machine learning techniques.(1) Skills intelligence is …

“EU agency analyses 32 m online job offers to map skills most in demand”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Education is changing to better cater to Gen Zers’ specific needs, e.g. their wish to be the “architects” of their educational experience and to engage with the world as it changes. At Bennington, “pop-up” courses have been set up on  “fast-breaking issues of the day” …

“Pop-up courses and self-designed majors:  how education is to changing to become more appealing for Gen Zers”