Finnishschoolsandteachertraining.docVIP

PISA –survey, Finnish schools, teacher training and math. education Marjatta N??t?nen, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Helsinki, Finland Marjatta.Naatanen@helsinki.fi First I would like to thank for the opportunity to speak at this occasion. International comparisons International comparisons have got much attention lately. There are several, like PISA, which means OECD′s Programme for International Student Assessment and TIMSS, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. According to the experts of OECD, PISA measures how well young adults, at age 15 and therefore approaching the end of compulsory schooling, are prepared to meet the challenges of today′s knowledge societies. The assessment of forward-looking, focusing on young people′s ability to use their knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges, rather than merely on the extent to which they have mastered a specific school curriculum. This orientation reflects a change in the goals and objectives of curricula themselves, which are increasingly concerned with what students can do with what they learn at school, and not merely whether they can reproduce what they have learned. Key features of PISA –survey are, according to OECD, -its policy orientation, with design and reporting methods determined by the need of governments to draw policy lessons -the innovative literacy concept that is concerned with the capacity of students to apply knowledge and skill in key subject areas and to analyse, reason and communicate effectively as they pose, solve and interpret problems in a variety of situations; -the relevance to life-long learning (information on motivation, beliefs, strategies) -its regularity -the breadth of geographic coverage (49 countries have participated so far) Although PISA was originally created by the OECD governments for their own needs, it has now become a major policy tool for many other counties and economies as well. This means that PISA –survey is