The results of the International Academic Achievement Survey, which measures the academic ability of 15-year-olds around the world, have been compiled, and Japan has significantly improved reading comprehension, which had been considered an issue, and has risen in average scores and rankings in all fields, becoming the world's top level. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) believes that the period of school closure due to the coronavirus pandemic was shorter than in other countries, and that the efforts of schools were affected.
table of contents
Approximately 69,<> people worldwide participate in the PISA
Japan rises in all three areas, becoming the world's top level
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the learning environment, etc., analyzed by the OECD
PISA Math What Problems?
What was the "reading comprehension" that was an issue in Japan?
Efforts to improve reading comprehension in subjects other than Japanese
Concerned about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on academic achievement Some sites have begun to work on it
Open Table of Contents
table of contents
table of contents
Approximately 69,<> people worldwide participate in the PISA
Japan rises in all three areas, becoming the world's top level
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the learning environment, etc., analyzed by the OECD
PISA Math What Problems?
What was the "reading comprehension" that was an issue in Japan?
Efforts to improve reading comprehension in subjects other than Japanese
Concerned about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on academic achievement Some sites have begun to work on it
Approximately 69,<> people worldwide participate in the PISA
This international academic achievement survey called "PISA" is conducted by OECD = Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and surveys 15-year-old children around the world once every three years on their academic ability in the three fields of mathematics, science utilization ability, and reading comprehension.
This time, it was postponed by one year due to the influence of the new coronavirus, and last year it was held for the first time in four years.
Approximately 3,3 people from 1 countries and regions around the world participated, including approximately 1,4 first-year high school students from 81 schools from Japan.
Japan rises in all three areas, becoming the world's top level
As a result, the average score in all three areas increased compared to the previous year in 2018, and the rankings of 3 countries and regions were among the highest in the world, with "reading comprehension," which has been considered an issue, rising from 81th to 15rd place, "mathematical literacy" from 3th to 6th place, and "scientific literacy" from 5th to 5nd place.
Singapore ranked first in all three categories.
On the other hand, the average score of the 2 countries that participated in the survey as a member of the OECD declined in all three areas, including the largest decline in mathematics to date compared to the previous survey.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) believes that the results of this survey were influenced by the fact that the period of school closure due to the coronavirus pandemic was shorter than in other countries, the progress of efforts in classes at school sites, and the progress of the development of the ICT environment and the familiarity of people with the PISA exam taken on a computer.
"The dedication of the faculty members led to the results of securing learning opportunities."
Shiro Terashima, Director of the Academic Achievement Research Office of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, said, "The early reopening of schools while taking measures to prevent infection, and the dedication of teachers to secure learning opportunities, may have led to the world's top-level results in all three fields
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the learning environment, etc., analyzed by the OECD
This is the first international academic achievement survey conducted since the spread of the infection.
The OECD also analysed how the pandemic has affected children's learning environments and academic performance in various countries.
Which children said they had been out of school for more than three months?
The percentage of students who answered that they had been closed for more than three months due to the new coronavirus was 3.37% on average in the 50 countries that participated in the survey that are OECD member countries, but it was significantly lower at 3.15% in Japan.
In countries and regions where the number of respondents who responded that they had been closed for more than three months, the average score in mathematics, which was the core area of the survey, tended to be higher.
Comparing the three elements... Japan is a "resilient" country
In order to investigate the status of responses in each country and region during the coronavirus pandemic, we compared three elements with the previous survey before the pandemic: a sense of belonging to the school, such as "you can make friends quickly at school," indicators that represent socioeconomic equity in education, and math grades.
As a result, all three factors were stable or improved only in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Lithuania.
The OECD has described them as "resilient" countries and regions that are better prepared to weather the disruption of the pandemic and continue learning in adverse circumstances.
"Confidence to learn from yourself" Is Japan at the bottom?
On the other hand, when asked about their confidence in learning autonomously in eight items, such as motivating themselves to study at school and making study schedules on their own if schools are closed again, most of the Japan answered that they were not confident.
The index calculated from the eight responses was the lowest among the 8 OECD member countries for which this index was calculated.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) said, "I think we have dealt with the situation well as a whole, but it is important for children to be able to learn autonomously on a regular basis in a rapidly changing society, and we would like to promote efforts to improve the environment."
PISA Math What Problems?
In the International Achievement Survey, we focus on one of the three fields as a central field each time, and this time we focused on "mathematics."
We will look specifically at problems that have a level of difficulty from level 3 to 1.
Level 3 Question: "What is the blank planet?"
For example, in the "Level 3" question, the average distance from the Sun to each planet is shown in a table, and then the content is to answer what the three planets are with only the distance between the planets written as a reference.
The correct answer rate of Japan students was 3.67%, ranking second among the 5 countries that participated in the OECD member survey.
Level 6 Question: "What is the change in forest area?"
In the "Level 6" question, which was the most difficult, the transition of the ratio of forest area to national land area of each country was shown, and the participants were asked to answer using spreadsheet software which country had the largest difference in change between the two periods from 2005 to 2010 and 2010 to 2015.
The ability to process multiple data according to the purpose and interpret the results was tested, and the correct answer rate in Japan was 2.33%, but it ranked first.
What was the "reading comprehension" that was an issue in Japan?
"Reading comprehension" is the ability to find necessary information from texts and diagrams and evaluate them.
Compared to "mathematics" and "science," which have maintained the world's top class since the first survey, it has been ranked low and has been regarded as an issue.
Japan's ranking of "reading comprehension" fell from 1th place in 1 to 2000th place in 8, which was one of the reasons why it was called the "PISA shock" because of the decline in academic ability due to "relaxed education."
After that, although there was an improvement, it fell again to 2003th place in the previous year in 14.
This year, in 2018, the team improved to third place, with an average score of 15 points, which is the same level as in 2022.
In the reading comprehension question given this time, a sentence about a certain product was sent from different standpoints, such as the selling company and the online magazine.
From there, they were given questions to find and answer the necessary information, and writing questions to evaluate the credibility and explain the rationale for how they would deal with it.
Efforts to improve reading comprehension in subjects other than Japanese
In order to improve reading comprehension, which has been an issue in the past, classes that incorporate reading aloud and other subjects other than Japanese language to focus on understanding and expressing oneself are also expanding.
Itabashi Daiichi Junior High School in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo, actively provides opportunities for students to read aloud and summarize the contents of textbooks and other materials in subjects other than Japanese in order to improve reading comprehension.
On this day, first-year students learned about the formation of the EU = European Union in geography class, and after the students read aloud the key points of the textbook, the teacher carefully explained them one by one, asking the students the meaning of words such as "integration" and "secession," which are easy to stumble upon.
In addition, terms such as "gross national income" were checked in the glossary at the end of the textbook, and I learned how to look up words I didn't understand on my own.
Then, I wrote down the benefits of joining the EU for each country in my own words on a printout, and the students taught each other which parts of the textbook to refer to.
One of the female students said, "There are some difficult words in the textbook, but if you look up the meaning, you will deepen your understanding and understand."
Another female student said, "I think I will deepen my understanding because I will re-read it when I summarize it so that it is easy for me to understand."
"I feel a change in my vocabulary as I repeat the number of times."
Teacher Kentaro Miyagi said, "In the beginning, there were times when I didn't understand words that adults would think 'these words,' but as the number of times I did it was repeated, I felt a change, such as an increase in vocabulary.
Concerned about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on academic achievement Some sites have begun to work on it
In this survey, it was considered one of the countries that survived the chaos of the spread of infection compared to other countries, but some sites have started to work on it because they are concerned about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on academic achievement in the future.
In Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture, due to concerns about the establishment of basic academic skills due to school closures and online classes due to the new coronavirus, classes that teach mathematics twice a week at an elementary school designated as a model school have been held twice a week since June.
According to the NPO that we work with, there are children who do not understand some of the basic content, such as units that they took during the time when they could not go to school due to the Corona disaster, and they are trying to improve their thinking skills and acquire basic academic skills.
On this day, 4 students from the 6th to 30th grades of elementary school participated, and after checking whether they understood what they had learned so far in printouts, the children discussed with each other and asked for answers to questions such as "How many folds should I fold to make a star shape with origami?"
In order to improve their expressive skills, they were tasked with teaching other children how to solve the problem when they knew the correct answer, and the sixth-graders were seen thinking together while teaching the fourth-graders how to find the angle.
"Even if you have doubts about whether you have really acquired it, it is important to establish basic academic skills."
Yasutaka Sasaki, president of the NPO E-nnovation, said, "There are some children who have completely missed parts of the unit that did not come to school during the coronavirus pandemic, and if they don't understand, they go back to multiplication and division. The school has dealt with various things such as online classes, but there are doubts about whether it has really acquired as an academic ability, such as fewer opportunities to discuss with classmates. If you don't have a foundation, you won't be able to understand it in junior high school, so I think it's important to establish basic academic skills."
"The movement to think about reading comprehension with a high resolution in each subject is a factor in the improvement."
Noriko Arai, a professor at the National Institute of Informatics who has studied reading comprehension and was also involved in the development of artificial intelligence to pass the University of Tokyo, said, "In an era where technology has changed dramatically and the future is unpredictable, the message of PISA, which tests the ability to continue learning, is beginning to permeate the field. Classes that acquire the ability to interpret texts while reading and comprehending materials have been put into practice, and there has been a movement to think about reading comprehension at a high resolution in each subject, which is a major factor in the overall improvement in reading comprehension."
Regarding the education policy that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has been promoting, he said, "It has been four years since a clear message began to take root that this is the ability to think, make decisions, and express oneself Japan. It would be good if we could work together to deepen the reform of teachers' work styles, which is now important, without going against it."
In a society where IT technology is changing, such as the advent of generative AI, he said, "There are many aspects that AI can replace, and it is important for humans to acquire literacy, which is the foundation for acquiring new technologies, in each subject, in each subject, as a view of academic ability and human image that will be required in the future, rather than learning new technologies more and more."
"It is important to improve the environment, such as increasing the number of teachers, and to steadily improve classes."
Professor Hiroyuki Tanaka of Waseda University's Graduate School of Teacher Education, who is familiar with academic achievement issues, said, "The PISA problem is a rather complicated applied problem that involves combining materials and describing one's own thoughts, and children in Japan were not good at it. I think that the fact that we worked hard to develop the children's thinking and expressive abilities led to great results."
He added, "Competition with other countries is not the only purpose of education, but as efforts are being made in various countries after the coronavirus pandemic, it is doubtful whether Japan will be able to continue to provide similar education in the future to maintain academic ability and ranking. School teachers are currently in a situation where they are exhausted due to the need for work style reforms, and it is difficult to further improve academic ability without increasing the burden in the limited number of hours, but it is important to improve the environment at school sites by increasing the number of teachers, and to make steady efforts to improve classes, such as making effective use of one terminal per student."