Tertium Comparationis, Vol. 11 (2005), No. 2

International vergleichende Schulleistungsforschung –
Anfragen an Verbreitung, Grundannahmen und politische Nutzung

Editor: Norbert Wenning

Contents

• Editorial
• Knut Schwippert und Wilfried Bos: Die Daten der Vergleichsuntersuchungen und ihre Nutzungsmöglichkeiten für erziehungswissenschaftliche Forschung
• Horst Entorf: PISA-Ergebnisse, sozioökonomischer Status der Eltern und Sprache im Elternhaus: Eine international vergleichende Studie vor dem Hintergrund unterschiedlicher Einwanderungsgesetze
• Ludger Wößmann: Ursachenkomplexe der PISA-Ergebnisse: Untersuchungen auf Basis internationaler Mikrodaten
• Wolfgang Küper: Schulleistungsuntersuchungen in Afrika: MLA, PASEC, SACMEQ
• Wendelin Sroka: Europäische Benchmarks für Bildungssysteme – Instrumente bildungspolitischer Steuerung?
• S. Karin Amos: Die USA als Argument: Anmerkungen anlässlich der Debatte um Bildungsstandards
• Krassimir Stojanov: Bildung und Education: Implizite bildungsphilosophische Annahmen bei der PISA-Studie in vergleichender Perspektive
• Christel Adick: Transnationalisierung als Herausforderung für die International und Interkulturell Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft
• Verzeichnis der Autoren
• Berichte und Notizen
• Rezensionen

Knut Schwippert und Wilfried Bos

Die Daten der Vergleichsuntersuchungen und ihre Nutzungsmöglichkeiten für erziehungswissenschaftliche Forschung

The article describes the research tradition in which the findings of large-scale surveys on school achievement are discussed at present. From a contemporary point of view educational science in Germany – strongly influenced by the humanities – missed to participate in international large-scale surveys for two decades. Now educational science in Germany has to catch up with the results of studies like TIMSS, PISA, and PIRLS, which meanwhile have gained pronounced attention among experts, the public and the media. This could be of great profit for the empirical educational research, but on the contrary, the extensive reception of the findings of the PISA study has turned to a drop of bitterness. Several discussants, referring to the TIMSS and PISA results, read the findings carefully, others simply methodically misinterpreted the data. The authors give examples of some of the most popular misinterpretations of the findings of large-scale surveys and present starting points for the German educational science to attend and to further develop the processes of discussion. (The article is based on a conference paper held by the authors and the oral notation was kept for this journal).

Download Article

contents

Horst Entorf

PISA-Ergebnisse, sozioökonomischer Status der Eltern und Sprache im Elternhaus: Eine international vergleichende Studie vor dem Hintergrund unterschiedlicher Einwanderungsgesetze

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the importance of different immigration policies associated with corresponding migration backgrounds, command of national languages and intergenerational mobility for the PISA 2000 school performance of teenagers living in European countries (France, Finland, Germany, United Kingdom, and Sweden) and traditional countries of immigration (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US). Empirical results show that the influence of the socioeconomic background of parents differs strongly across nations. A particularly low social mobility is found for Germany. Moreover, for all countries our estimations imply that for students with a migration background a key for catching up is the language spoken at home. In Germany, for instance, results for the group of students with a full migration background reveal a gap of about 60 PISA scores for those students who speak a foreign language at home compared to those who do speak German at home.

Download Article

contents

Ludger Wößmann

Ursachenkomplexe der PISA-Ergebnisse: Untersuchungen auf Basis internationaler Mikrodaten

The paper estimates the correlates of student performance across countries using student-level data from the PISA-2000 study. There is a substantial relationship of international student performance in math, science, and reading with institutional features. In particular, there are positive associations with accountability through external exit exams, school autonomy in personnel-management and process decisions, and private operation of schools. By contrast, there is no positive association with private school funding, and a negative association with autonomy in areas with scope for decentralized opportunistic behavior. Student performance shows a positive relationship with school autonomy particularly where external exit exams are in place, highlighting the role of external exams as 'currency' of school systems. Positive associations of student performance with resource endowments of schools are mainly related to resource quality. While there is a strong association with family background, computer availability at home shows even a negative relationship with student performance on basic skills, after holding other effects constant. The explanatory power of the model between countries is remarkable.

Download Article

contents

Wolfgang Küper

Schulleistungsuntersuchungen in Afrika: MLA, PASEC, SACMEQ

In contrary to other regions like Latin America, African countries so far only occasionally participated in international assessments of students achievements. After the World Conference of Education in Jomtien (1990), however, several African countries got involved in different projects of such assessments. The main results of 3 principal projects of this kind: Monitoring Learning Achievement (MLA), Programme d'Analyse des Systèmes Éducatifs (PASEC) und Southern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) are described in this article, putting them into the context of other historical assessment and evaluation schemes in Africa.
It has to be considered that the assessments of these newer projects refer exclusively to cognitive aspects and not to emotional and other aspects of values and norms in education. Altogether, however, they show that more than half of the pupils do not comply with the defined minimum requirements of the tests. This means that, with regard to cognitive aspects, they practically learn nothing or very little at school. Africa seems to be far away from the Millennium Goal of achieving universal primary education, at least with regard to quality.
In order to get a real impact on the improvement of the quality of education these assessments have to be integrated much more into the structure and the processes of general government policy in the education sector and to be related much more to the other historical forms of assessment. Moreover, there are two decisive factors for a needed more learner-centered educational process in Africa: education in the mother tongue and more consideration of traditional African forms of learning. The relation of such aspects to achievement tests could be investigated much more within programmes of German educational cooperation in Africa in cooperation with researchers in those countries. There is a big danger that the promotion of education in the poor countries of Africa will get even more frustrated if results of learning processes in schools will not be improved.

Download Article

contents

Wendelin Sroka

Europäische Benchmarks für Bildungssysteme – Instrumente bildungspolitischer Steuerung?

This paper is focussed on the efficacy of the benchmarks for the education systems in Europe, set by the European Council of Education Ministers as targets for 2010. First, the use of benchmarks in education policy is characterised, followed by an outline of the development of the EU-benchmarks for the education systems. The analysis of two exemplary benchmarks – on reading literacy of 15-year olds and on the participation of adults in lifelong learning – demonstrates considerable weaknesses in terms of the technical design and of the political construction of these benchmarks. The author concludes that so far the specifications of the EU-benchmarks allow effects on education policies only to a very limited extent.

Download Article

contents

S. Karin Amos

Die USA als Argument: Anmerkungen anlässlich der Debatte um Bildungsstandards

The article takes a closer look at the mode of reference to international controversies on educational standards in the German academic debate in favour of their introduction. It argues that the references to the US-American state of the debate are highly selective and do not yet sufficiently address the central issue behind the present American standards-based educational reform: it is embedded in the educational initiative of the current political administration known as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The Act is directly linked to a massive national mobilisation and claims to solve the problems associated with equity and quality by holding the educational system and not the individual responsible for test-measured learning outcomes. Hence, performance standards have been linked to high stakes testing rewarding or punishing schools. Even before massive disillusionment with NCLB has set in, critics have warned against the negative effects of high stakes testing especially with regards to students at risk. The example shows that the attempt to force schools to ensure that students meet minimum standards has adverse effects.

Download Article

contents

Krassimir Stojanov

Bildung und Education: Implizite bildungsphilosophische Annahmen bei der PISA-Studie in vergleichender Perspektive

The paper examines the question of the compatibility between the conceptual framework of the PISA-study and the semantics of the German term 'Bildung'. My claim is that the PISA-framework embodies a social-pragmatist approach to the processes of 'meaning-making', and that this approach is not compatible with one of the semantic dimensions of 'Bildung', namely with its emphasis on a socially independent world of cultural objectivations that has to be mirrored by canon-building school curricula. Therefore the attempt of the German PISA-Consortium to adopt that semantic dimension of 'Bildung' by both conceptual revisions of the original framework and supplement national studies should be considered as a very problematic one.

Download Article

contents

Christel Adick

Transnationalisierung als Herausforderung für die International und Interkulturell Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft

Developments and phenomena called 'transnational' have already largely been discussed in economics (e.g. transnational corporations) and in sociology (e.g. transnational migration), whereas they are as yet rather marginal in comparative education. It is supposed that the reason for this time lag is not due to a general backwardness of education, but lies in the predominance of the 'nation-state paradigm' in comparative educational research: Historically, nation-states have gained control over formal education by mechanisms such as compulsory education, state administration and public finance; no wonder, then, that the nation-state has become the leading unit of analysis in comparative research. – But at the fringes of this nation-state model 'transnational' developments and phenomena have occurred, which cut across national borders and which have to be researched as new educational realities with particular characteristics of their own, and in their relation to and possible impact on the nation-state model of education. The article analyses three different dimensions of transnationalisation as they have begun to be discussed in education: 'transnational convergences', 'transnational education' in the supply of higher education, and 'transnational educational spaces' in transmigrant communities. The author then proposes to take the latter as the umbrella term for further discussion and research on transnationalisation in comparative education, using 'transnational' educational spaces in their distinctiveness as compared to 'national' as well as 'international' educational spaces.

Download Article

contents

Startseite	Tertium Comparationis