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The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a survey of the knowledge and skills of 15 year olds that was first carried out in 2000 and repeated every three years to measure the changes that take place over time. This document summarises the results of PISA 2003, focusing on Australia's results and how the Australian students performed in comparison with students from other countries. It shows how well prepared Australian students are to meet the challenges of the future, whether they have the ability to analyse, reason and communicate their ideas effectively, and whether they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life. Overall, Australian students performed consistently well in the four assessment domains: mathematics, reading, scientific literacy and problem solving. Key messages for Australia from PISA 2003 include: in relation to socioeconomic background, students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds have a distinct advantage; in relation to Indigenous students, a very small proportion of students performed well in mathematical literacy; and in relation to gender differences, while there was no overall gender differences apparent in mathematical performance, males tended to be over-represented at the upper levels of achievement.

The full report is indexed at TD/TNC 93.855. Show less

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a survey of the knowledge and skills of 15 year-olds that was first carried out in 2000 and repeated every three years to measure the changes that take place over time. This report presents results from PISA 2003, examining ICT [information and computer technology] within the PISA framework - that is, how familiar students were with ICT as they near the completion of compulsory schooling and how well they use the technologies that are available. The report also looks at aspects of the so called 'digital divide', examining access and use of ICT in Australia by state, by gender, by Indigenous background, by socioeconomic background and by geographic location. These characteristics are compared to how well students performed in mathematics, the main area of student performance in PISA 2003. The data on which this report is based are largely self-report data, obtained from the student questionnaire, and there are some points in the report where there may be the possibility of cultural bias in the manner in which questions are answered. As well, in the intervening four years there have been major advances in such things as the availability and reliability of broadband internet. However, this report provides a baseline from which changes in ICT usage can be gauged using the data from PISA. Findings include: all Australian students have access to a computer at school, and most also have access to a computer at home; fewer Indigenous students and fewer students from the lowest level of socioeconomic background have access at home; Australian students use computers frequently and while entertainment is a large part of this, they use computers for a wide range of functions; Australian students were highly confident of being able to perform routine ICT tasks such as opening, saving and deleting files by themselves, and they were amongst the most confident in the world at performing Internet tasks. Show less

Results from international programs that assess the skills and knowledge of young people have indicated that Australia's Indigenous students perform at a significantly lower level than non-Indigenous students. An in-depth comparison of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students' performance on the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) across three cycles is provided in an accompanying volume to this report, while the current report provides an understanding of how various aspects of students' background and psychological constructs relate to each other and to student performance. Chapters two through five each focus on a different group of potential influences on the performance of students, comparing the profiles of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, while chapter six presents results of multivariate analyses that assess which factors have a significant impact on the reading, mathematics and scientific literacy of Indigenous students.

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This report of the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) is the first international comparative study to examine students' acquisition of computer and information literacy (CIL). It examines the CIL achievement for participating ICILS countries, for the Australian jurisdictions and for particular groups of students, and explores the influence the influence of student characteristics and students' use of computer technologies in and out of school on CIL achievement. The research questions were: (1) What variations exist between countries, and within countries, in student computer and information literacy? (2) What aspects of schools and education systems are related to student achievement in CIL? (3) What characteristics of students' levels to access to, familiarity with and self-reported proficiency in using computers are related to student achievement in CIL? (4) What aspects of students' personal and social backgrounds (such as sex, socioeconomic background and language background) are related to computer and information literacy?

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The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 is the seventh cycle of PISA since it was first conducted in 2000 and measures students' skills in the core areas of reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy. Since PISA 2012, financial literacy has been included as an additional optional assessment that accompanies the core assessments. In Australia, the financial literacy assessment is funded by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. This report presents the results for the third assessment of financial literacy and focuses on the measurement of financial literacy for Australia as a whole and for different demographic groups, including sex and socioeconomic background. This report also examines students' experiences, attitudes and behaviours in financial literacy, including their opportunities to acquire financial literacy at school and at home, students' experience with money and their confidence in handling money matters and their engagement with money.

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The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) seeks to measure how well young adults at age 15 (and, therefore, near the end of compulsory schooling in most participating education systems) are prepared to use their knowledge and skills in particular areas to meet real-life challenges. PISA's orientation reflects a change in the goals and objectives of curricula, which increasingly address how well students are able to apply what they learn at school. The assessment focuses on reading, mathematics, science and problem-solving and, for the first time, PISA 2012 also included an assessment of the financial literacy of young people. Around 510,000 students (representative of about 28 million students overall) from all 34 OECD member countries and 31 partner countries and economies participated in PISA 2012, representing more than 80 per cent of the world economy.

This report presents the results of the PISA 2012 assessment for Australia. It presents the results for Australia as a whole, for the Australian jurisdictions and (where relevant) for the other participants in the study, so that Australia's results can be viewed in an international context. Show less

The three-yearly OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessments provide an opportunity to monitor the performance of Australian students in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy. In particular, the assessments allow examination of the performance of particular equity groups and to look at how well particular groups of 15-year-old students, approaching the end of their compulsory schooling are prepared for meeting the challenges they will face in their lives beyond school. A special focus for Australia has been to ensure that there is a sufficiently large sample of Australia's Indigenous students so that valid and reliable analysis can be conducted. This has been achieved in each cycle of PISA and this report presents analyses of the achievement of Indigenous students in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy in each of the cycles. Achievement is presented in two ways in this report: in terms of mean scores and in terms of proficiency levels. Across the three PISA cycles, Indigenous students have performed at a substantially and statistically lower average level in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy than their non-Indigenous peers. Only 12 per cent of Indigenous students were able to achieve the highest levels of reading literacy, and no more than five per cent achieved the highest level in mathematical and scientific literacy. Significant gender differences were found between Indigenous males and females in reading literacy, favouring Indigenous females. The performance of Australian Indigenous students in PISA continues to raise concerns about the educational disadvantage faced by these students. From an international perspective, they are performing well below the OECD average and from a national perspective, they are achieving well below the performance of non-Indigenous students. The results from the three PISA assessments have shown that the performance of Indigenous students has not improved over time. These results suggest that initiatives to improve the education of Indigenous students through educational policy have to date had little effect. In terms of real-life functioning and future opportunities, Indigenous students remain at a substantial disadvantage. Show less

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a survey of the knowledge and skills of 15 year olds that was first carried out in 2000 and repeated every three years to measure the changes that take place over time. This document details the results of PISA 2003, focusing on Australia’s results and how the Australian students performed in comparison with students from other countries. It shows how well prepared Australian students are to meet the challenges of the future, whether they have the ability to analyse, reason and communicate their ideas effectively, and whether they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life. Overall, Australian students performed consistently well in the four assessment domains: mathematics, reading, scientific literacy and problem solving. Key messages for Australia from PISA 2003 include: in relation to socioeconomic background, students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds have a distinct advantage; in relation to Indigenous students, a very small proportion of students performed well in mathematical literacy; and in relation to gender differences, while there was no overall gender differences apparent in mathematical performance, males tended to be over-represented at the upper levels of achievement.

Highlights from this report are indexed at TD/TNC 81.175. Show less

In every [Programme for International Student Assessment] PISA survey, students from every participating country are assessed in the core domains of mathematics, science and reading literacy. In addition to assessing these literacy domains, the OECD proposes additional assessments in other domains. In PISA 2003, a paper-based assessment of cross-disciplinary problem solving was first assessed, when it was included as a core domain. In PISA 2012, problem solving was once again assessed, this time as an optional computer-based assessment. The focus of the PISA 2012 assessment of problem solving was: Are today's 15-year-old students acquiring the problem-solving skills that will prepare them to meet the challenges of the future? This report describes how PISA defines and measures problem solving, and presents the performance of Australian students in problem solving.

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a survey of the knowledge and skills of 15 year olds that was first carried out in 2000 and repeated every three years to measure the changes that take place over time. This report presents the findings of the Australian Indigenous students in comparison with other Australian students and to students in other countries, and also examines some of the characteristics of the Indigenous students. Among the findings are: performance of the Indigenous students is at a lower level than the non-Indigenous students and below the OECD mean; gender differences are similar to the other Australian students, with females performing better than males in reading literacy; and there are differences in the learning strategies, learning preferences and behaviours of Indigenous students compared to non-Indigenous students, with Indigenous students having less preference for a competitive learning environment and being less likely to use elaboration and control strategies. The contents are: Executive summary; Introduction; Reporting results in PISA; PISA in Australia; Who were the participants; Results on the literacy measures; Results using proficiency levels; Performance differences in relation to background characteristics; Other student characteristics; Students' reading habits; Learning strategies; Learning preferences and behaviours; Comparing learning strategies, learning preferences and behaviours for Indigenous students; The learning environment; Learning outside school; Familiarity and competency in using computers; High and low achieving Indigenous students; Conclusion. Show less