The most recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey enables educators, policy makers and the wider community to compare Australian students with each other, as well as with their counterparts across the world. PISA measures the extent to which 15-year-old students near the end of compulsory education have acquired the…

This Snapshot investigates the career guidance and support available for 15-year-old students in their schools, who has the responsibility for providing this support and whether the type of support available varies according to students' socioeconomic background and the location of their school. It also examines the types of activities students…

This paper uses data from PISA 2018 in Germany to explore how the students' chronotype (known as larks and owls) and their academic achievement is related to truancy. We used an adapted version of the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ) to measure the students' chronotype. The results demonstrate a correlation between the students' social jet…

Assuming that free school choice is one of the parameters contributing to segregation in the Belgian educational system, the government implemented decrees to alter school enrolment policies in order to regulate school choice. In this study, two statistical approaches (a 'Lorenz' index and a multilevel one) have been used to measure the evolution…

This article examines French and English average performances and educational inequality in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) between 2000 and 2018. It asks why English average scores in 2018 are much higher than those of France when they were fairly similar in previous PISA assessments. It questions why the impact of…

Past studies have supported the view that parent background and family socioeconomic status determine the post-secondary educational expectations of adolescents. They build on Pierre Bourdieu's social reproduction theory, but do not fully explain why some adolescents aspire to post-secondary education and some do not. The capability approach…

This paper offers a conceptual framework that combines Sen's concept of capability and Bourdieu's forms of capital to understand the generative mechanisms of educational advantage or disadvantage. The paper illustrates some ways that the Sen-Bourdieu framework can be applied to understand the Programme for International Student Assessment 2015…

The literature on the relationship between socioeconomic background (SES) and university education is inconsistent. Some studies conclude SES is important to university entry and course completion, others find trivial SES effects, net of students' prior performance, and a third group concludes that SES effects are important and policy relevant…

Financial literacy, specifically its measurement and education in this field, is a very current topic. The main aim of this research was to find out whether secondary school education had a positive impact on the level of student's financial literacy and to identify other important factors that affected its level. All 363 first-year bachelor's…

Why do certain students thrive when facing adversity while others languish? In the mindset theory, growth mindset is opposed to fixed mindset, and could explain why some people fulfil their potential and others do not. With the COVID pandemic dragging on, having a growth mindset may be even more critical. For students who are able to set their own…

Most students have the beliefs and dispositions to help them cope and learn in challenging situations. The current pandemic has been ongoing since early 2020. This has affected ways in which teaching and learning are organised. Schools have had to provide education in different ways from the past. A special survey conducted as a collaborative…

With most students around the world having experienced remote learning over the past year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of teachers and schools has become all the more evident. Temporary school closures underline how richly students benefit from being in school with their teachers and classmates. "Positive, High-achieving…

Using survey data collected by the Organization for the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its 2015 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA2015), this study explores the relationship between family economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) and students' exposure to school bullying for students in…

International comparisons are never easy and they are not perfect. But PISA shows what is possible in education and it helps countries to see themselves in the mirror of student performance and educational possibilities in other countries. This article summarises key policy insights from PISA. It highlights how excellence and improving equity need…

This investigation focuses upon the nation of Finland. Described by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs ("This is Finland", n.d.) as a parliamentary democracy, Finland is a free-market economy with a young but progressive history. While the nation's scores on the 2015 triennial PISA continue to indicate above average performance on all three…