The human element and its importance in developing education

From the archive of workshops at the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education with Finland and Germany

Thanks to Prof. Magdy Qasem

Thanks to all the teams that took part in the workshops

 

Day and date: Wednesday 21 May 2014

Venue: the Authority's Shubra branch.

Opening the session, Dr Pathi noted that in any country the human element is the most important thing, which is why we turn to education reform in every country.

• There are two main reasons for taking part in international examinations and studies:
• To understand why students in some countries do better than students in others, both at the level of the curriculum and at the level of teacher training, in order to improve the educational process.
• When a reform or a development is carried out in education, we must see its result; to confirm it there must be a quality system that allows comparison between countries and within a single country. The same applies inside a country, so that steps are taken to standardise the examination and the marking system and avoid discrepancies.
• This requires complete clarity about what is being measured.
• It requires a body of staff capable of running such tests.
• He noted that the National Authority in Egypt is the body charged with conducting such tests and with carrying out school reviews.
• International examinations can be used to compare schools with schools in another country, which is why we focus on quality assurance when developing schools.

& The general framework of the study:

In yesterday's workshop, on Tuesday, we focused on the structure of examinations and questionnaires and on how they can be designed.

• We will present a questionnaire specific to the PISA study, how information can be gathered through it, and how we approach students and teachers to develop good items for improving the examination.
• How we prepare pilot tests with a small proportion of students before applying them across the school.

& The framework of the study in general:

First: preparing for the study / planning:

• There is a great deal of discussion between countries in drawing up this preparation, because without a good plan the test will not produce good results once it is applied in the school. Analysing the results will help reviewers use these tests to compare between schools and within a single school across several previous years.
• When designing the test we bear in mind that it is designed to measure one thing - mathematical ability, for example, or skills - and which objectives the test covers.
• What matters is that the world is changing very fast, so we must consider the skills the student needs in order to take part in the various fields of life.
• There are two aspects we rely on when designing the study:

1) Curriculum-based analysis, found in TIMSS and PIRLS, where the curriculum is analysed and that information is used in planning, as with any examination in any country.

2) The second approach is not concerned with the curriculum but with the skills the student acquires and how they will be of use outside, as in the PISA study; this motivates students more than theoretical study does.

Second: setting standards:

This is done by defining the minimum level the student must reach. It matters at national level: setting a minimum level of performance and using it when applying assessment at school level. That matters for raising standards, not for counting the students who fall below the minimum

but it also helps identify the number of students who reach the highest level, the high achievers. This is part of quality assurance: relying on the tests and comparing parts of them with one another.

• Analysing a sample examination:
• An activity was run for the groups: a sample examination was presented and its questions analysed, and it was found to include the following:
• multiple-choice questions — essay questions – mathematical skills questions converting units of measurement from kilometres to centimetres.
• The test covers many elements and the questions are suitable for students from every country; many of the questions are universal, such as measuring distances and speed, and cycling …
• The test included a question on charts and tables that present information in the form of price quotations or a catalogue.
• PISA examinations over the past ten years show a decline in students' current attainment. This does not represent a change at school level only but a change at the level of whole countries, reflecting greater economic problems in schools now than before, as well as a change in students' thinking, because the future is unclear to them and they are not sure of finding good jobs.
• In Finland they have tried to improve the national curriculum using information technology, and they are considering having more activities with practical exercises for students to use in applied fields.
• This means training teachers continuously in how to make use of students' learning in mathematics and how to apply skills in practical life.
• In Finland the Ministry of Education is considering what it wants to do over the next twenty years and which competencies the student needs in order to benefit society - that is, making the school environment an environment of everyday life. This requires cooperation with parents and with society as a whole.
• The second point is motivating the student to learn, and here the role of technology becomes clear.
• University curricula are currently being developed to match the requirements and changes of society.
• There is a policy direction to extend compulsory education from nine years to ten, and they are considering better in-service teacher training, following five years of university study.
• Examination results are used to improve education in general, not simply for the student to pass the examination.

& Questionnaires:

The questionnaires include questions for school principals and for teachers, and questions for parents to measure the support they give their children in learning, particularly in grade four.

• The questionnaire is administered to students, linking the level of the environment and the parents' educational level to student performance; this can be used to direct financial support to poorer areas and then to measure its effect on raising educational standards.
• After these questionnaires are administered, the results are analysed statistically so that the minimum performance required of students is defined.
• The most significant use of international examinations to improve education took place in Poland after the PISA examination of 2000. Every country needs confidence in itself, and this serves as a mirror reflecting the country's level so that it can assess itself.
• After the examinations are analysed, one branch within a subject may prove stronger than another branch of the same subject, and that is used in developing education.
• Mr Vaktor noted that there are three kinds of reading:
• Literal reading / in which Finland achieves a higher level.
• Analytical reading /
• Critical reading / Finland lags behind in this kind of reading.

As a result, Finland focused on the branches whose curricula had not achieved much success.

• After performance at a school is measured and assessed, the information obtained is not publishable; it is given to the school to make use of, so as not to harm the school.
• Training teachers themselves matters a great deal to Finland, as does measuring the effect of that training on student performance.
• Examination results are analysed and the way in which a student answered wrongly is identified, so that it is avoided in future and the correct information is given.
• In 1990 and in 2011 the examination results were similar, and the most similar element in both was the student's inner confidence when solving a mathematical problem. There is also a factor connected with the learning environment, but factors relating to teachers' backgrounds and to the teaching environment inside schools carried little weight.
• The questionnaires administered to teachers cannot be observed by the reviewer, because the teachers themselves are the ones answering them; likewise, schools at a similar level show no clear differences between them.
• The learning environment affects the educational process itself, as does whether the teacher uses particular approaches. This shows that we can influence these factors and adjust or change them.