PISA and Global Education Policy

Jennifer Chung, DPhil (2009), University of Oxford, is a Senior Lecturer of Education and Social Sciences at St Mary’s University. Her research interests involve Nordic education, and Finland in particular. She is currently researching teacher education in Finland and the potential of policy export.

"This volume (…) deals with the attempt, developed by the OECD, to implement an international standard to compare educational outcomes for several nations, known as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Using aggregate scores generated by PISA in participating European countries, Chung hones her focus on Finland, which has consistently maintained top PISA scores since the program was first conducted in 2000. Seeking to understand the factors underlying this success, the author conducts an in-depth historical investigation in chapters 2 and 3, laying the groundwork to compare other European countries participating in PISA later. The text delves into an important discussion of OECD, PISA, and their connections in chapter 4, and chapters 9 and 10 cover the challenges of PISA adoption. The concluding chapter considers the possibility of PISA's serving as a comparative database for educational systems in the future. Some shortcomings of this study include the omission of the American education system from discussions and the rather limited bibliography." - J. H. Larson, University of North Dakota"The book is a good guide for policy makers, offering the theoretical approaches and lessons learned to date on public policy transfer; and for political scientists and educationalists, who can learn about teaching guidelines through the book, and other pedagogical approaches, as well as for those interested in Finnish society, history, and their education system. All of the above is only a fraction of the very interesting and rich content of the book, which is the result of the author's many years of work and research in the field of Nordic education systems. The book brings new dimensions to political science knowledge, as well as general insights and interesting facts, and contributes to a different perspective on everyday events and the development of the world in a global context." - Urša Koritnik translated from Šolsko polje, volume 31, issue 1/2 (2020)

• ForewordMichael CrossleyAcknowledgementsIntroduction1 The Global Context of Education Policy-Making1 Introduction2 Summary2 The Backdrop for Success: Finland’s Context and Configuration1 Introduction2 Summary3 The Education System of Finland1 Introduction2 The Current Education System of Finland3 Education Provision for Minority Groups4 Teacher Education in Finland5 Summary4 The Programme for International Student Assessment: The Birth of an Achievement Study that Captured Worldwide Attention1 Introduction2 Summary5 Issues of Policy Transfer1 Introduction2 Summary6 Strengths of Finnish Education1 Introduction2 Teachers3 Equality4 High Value of Education5 Structure, Organisation, and Characteristics of Finnish Schools6 Summary7 Weaknesses of Finnish Education1 Introduction2 The Downsides of Mixed Ability Teaching3 Decreasing Importance of Education4 Lack of Enjoyment in School5 Budget Cuts6 Structural Weaknesses7 Summary8 Finnish Responses to PISA1 Introduction2 Positive Responses to PISA3 Negative Responses to PISA4 Additional Responses to PISA5 Summary9 Cross-National Attraction and Education Policy Transfer1 Introduction2 Summary10 The Temptation of Uncritical International Transfer: The Politics of Finland’s Success in PISA1 Introduction2 Summary3 ConclusionConclusionAppendix: List of ParticipantsReferencesIndex