PISA quiz: How much do you know about what we know about science education?

Three. Well done Chile’s doctor, Germany’s quantum chemist, and Iceland’s vet. You could argue it’s four if you count the UK’s Theresa May’s geography degree, even though it was as a Bachelor of Arts.

A verification method. In 2015, for the first time, the PISA science test was mainly delivered on computer. Doing so greatly expanded the scope of what was assessed, for example, students’ ability to conduct a scientific enquiry by asking students to design (simulated) experiments and interpret the resulting evidence. In order to compare the results of this test to those obtained by earlier cohorts of students on past PISA paper-based tests, it was necessary to establish first the equivalence of the paper- and the computer-based instruments using common items, so-called “link items”, or “link tasks”.

Singapore, with a score of 556 points, well above the 493 points average for OECD countries. Japan is the highest scoring OECD country, with 538.

Dominican Republic’s score of 332 points puts it at the foot of the table, well behind the average of 493 points for OECD countries. Mexico has the lowest score in the OECD, at 416 points.

21%. PISA ranges from Level 6, the highest, to 1 the lowest, itself split into 1a and an even lower level, 1b. Level 2 is considered the baseline level of science proficiency that is required to engage in science-related issues as a critical and informed citizen. All students should be expected to attain this level by the time they leave compulsory education. More than 90% of students in Viet Nam (94.1%), Macao (China) (91.9%), Estonia (91.2%), Hong Kong (China) (90.6%), Singapore and Japan (both 90.4%) meet this benchmark. (The Viet Nam sample covers only about one in two of its 15-year-olds – a reflection of inequities in access to secondary education in that country.)

7.7%. PISA ranges from Level 6, the highest, to 1 the lowest. Some 7.7% of students across OECD countries are proficient at Level 5 or 6. Compare that to one in four (24.2%) students in Singapore, and more than one in seven students in Chinese Taipei (15.4%), Japan (15.3%) and Finland (14.3%). By contrast, in 20 countries/economies, including OECD countries Turkey (0.3%) and Mexico (0.1%), less than 1% of all students are top performers.

Girls, but the differences are generally small. Where there are differences, girls are more likely than boys to support empirical approaches to enquiry as a source of knowing, and they are more likely to agree that scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change. The largest such difference between girls and boys is found in Jordan, where 86% of girls reported that a good way to know if something is true is to do an experiment, but only 62% of boys agreed with that statement. Wide differences in favour of girls are also found in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Lithuania and Slovenia.

Boys, but only slightly so, and not everywhere. Boys score four points higher than girls in science, on average across OECD countries – a small, but statistically significant difference. Boys perform significantly better than girls in science in 24 countries and economies. The largest advantage for boys is found in Austria, Costa Rica and Italy, where the difference between boys’ and girls’ scores is over 15 points. Girls score significantly higher than boys, on average, in 22 countries and economies. In Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Jordan, Qatar, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Arab Emirates, girls’ mean score is more than 15 points higher than boys’.

Much the same. The biggest improvement is for Portugal, at more than seven score points every three years on average, and Israel raised its score by about five points every three years. Partner countries/economies Macao (China), Romania, Singapore, and Trinidad and Tobago also show significant improvements over the period in which they participated in PISA. By contrast, in Finland, the Slovak Republic and the United Arab Emirates, student performance in science deteriorated by more than ten points every three years, on average. Performance in Australia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong (China), Hungary, Iceland and New Zealand deteriorated between five and ten points every three years; and mean performance in science in Austria, Croatia, Jordan, the Netherlands and Sweden declined by less than five points every three years, on average.

13% of students scoring below PISA Level 2 expect to work in an occupation that requires further science training beyond compulsory education. That percentage increases to 23% for those scoring at Level 2 or 3; 34% among those scoring at Level 4; but is still less than half (42%) among the top performers in science (those who score at or above Level 5).

It’s about the same, but what those who see themselves working in science want to do varies. On average across OECD countries, boys are more than twice as likely as girls to expect to work as engineers, scientists or architects (science and engineering professionals); and 4.8% of boys, but only 0.4% of girls, expect to work as ICT professionals. On the other hand, girls are almost three times as likely as boys to expect to work as doctors, veterinarians or nurses (health professionals).

Boys. In general, only a minority of students reported that they watch TV programmes about science, visit websites about science topics, or read science magazines or newspaper articles about science regularly or very often. But on average, nearly twice as many boys as girls reported doing so. This gender difference in favour of boys is observed across all science-related activities proposed, and in all 57 countries and economies that included this question in the PISA student questionnaire.

In general they do. As expenditure on educational institutions per student increases, so does a country’s mean science performance; but the rate of increase diminishes fast. At the same time, the results also show that lower spenders can do better than high spenders. Estonia, which spends about USD 66 000 per student, and Chinese Taipei, which spends around USD 46 000 per student, perform above Austria, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland – all of which spend more than double this amount (more than USD 132 000 per student).

Korea spends 4.29% of GDP according to OECD figures for gross domestic expenditures on R&D (GERD), compared with 2.97% for Switzerland and 2.74% for the US. At the other end of the scale, Chile spends 0.38%.

85% of Mexico’s students agreed that “I generally have fun when I am learning topics”, compared with 40% in the Netherlands and 66% in New Zealand. Mexico has the highest score for any country in PISA 2015, along with Kosovo, and ranks one point above Singapore whose students mean science score was 556 compared with 416 for Mexico, 509 for the Netherlands, and 513 for New Zealand.