Catalogo dei Corsi di studio

NAME OF THE COURSE

Quality Indicators of the Educational System


EDUCATIONAL GOALS

General goals
Course's general goal is the knowledge of mass education processes, with the resulting progressive increase of the study titles obtained and the increasing need of an effective connection between education and society, as well as the dynamics of expenditure for education. These aspects will be considered by retracing the ways the main countries have elaborated the various systems of indicators in order to monitor the functioning of national educational systems, especially the most qualified model of the system of indicators created by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCSE) by means of the programme INES (Indicators of Education Systems). During the course, it will be presented the evolution of the system of indicators and its current structure, with a special reference to the data concerning the scholastic results. For this purpose, will be taken into consideration the specific results of the most recent international investigations realised by OCSE and IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement). It will be especially examined the investigation PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) as for all theoretical and operational aspects of an educational investigation: reference frameworks, construction and testing of tools, administration on the field, analysis of results. A specific part of the course, equal to 1 ECTS, will be dedicated to an in-depth analysis on data and indicators concerning the level of childhood (ISCED classification 0, especially 01 and 02); it will also discuss both the international data (OCSE, UNESCO) and the national ones (ISTAT) with analyses on local realities (services available, demographical dynamics, funds).

Specific goals
At the end of the course, the student must prove to:
know and understand the main general problems related to the use of statistical data in learning science;
be able to indicate purposes and opportunities of a system of indicators that takes into consideration the data of an educational system's functioning, including on a local scale;
know and indicate the various operational stages of an experimental research in an educational area;
use the results of an educational research in order to identify problems and improvement strategies about the educational processes;
be able to analyse information and to reflect on problems related to the study field, showing a scientific aptitude, and critical and self-critical skills;
possess instrumental abilities (writing, IT, and foreign languages) about the study of statistical data;
critically analyse the daily information presenting data and results about the educational system;
be able to interact with one's colleagues on the themes of the course applied to the information about education coming from the mass media.

Programme

General aim of the course is the knowledge of the mass education process, with the consequent increase in educational qualifications and the growing need for an effective link between education and society, as well as the dynamics of expenditure dedicated to education and training.
These aspects will be considered by reviewing the processes that have led the main countries to develop different systems of indicators to monitor the functioning of national education systems, in particular the most qualified model, represented by the system of indicators developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) through the INES program (Indicators of Education Systems).
For this purpose they will also be taken into consideration the specific results of the most recent international surveys conducted by the OECD and the IEA (International Association for the Evalutation of Educational Achievement). In particular, the PISA survey (Program for International Student Assessment) will be considered in detail as regards all the theoretical and operational aspects of an educational survey: frameworks, construction and testing tools, field administration, analysis of results.
A specific part of the course, corresponding to 1cfu, will be dedicated to data and indicators concerning the level of early childhood (ISCED 0 classification, in particular 01 and 02); both international data (OECD, UNESCO) and national data (ISTAT) will be considered, with in-depth analysis of the local situation (available services, demographic dynamics, state of expenditure).

Adopted texts

- Asquini, G., Qualcosa si muove ma non basta. Primi risultati dell’indagine OCSE-PISA 2015 , in «Education 2.0», 4 febbraio 2017, (pdf file is available or downloadable from www.educationduepuntozero.it)
- Asquini, G., Primi risultati del Problem Solving Collaborativo in PISA 2015 , in “ Lifelong, Lifewide Learning (LLL)”, V. 13 N. 30 2017. (pdf file is available or downloadable http://www.edaforum.it/ojs/index.php/LLL)
- Asquini, G., PISA 2015: la lenta evoluzione dei quindicenni italiani, in Notti, A (a cura di) La funzione educativa della valutazione , Pensa Multimedia 2017 (pdf file is available)
- Bottani,N., Tuijnman,A., Indicatori internazionali dell'educazione: struttura, sviluppo e interpretazione , in Valutare l'insegnamento , a cura di OCSE, Armando, 1994, 27-42. (pdf file is available)
- INVALSI, Indagine OCSE-PISA 2015: I risultati degli studenti italiani in Scienze, Matematica e Lettura, Invalsi, Frascati, 2016 (pdf file is available or downloadable www.invalsi.it)
- OECD, Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2018 , OECD Publishing, 2018 (in press) (pdf file is available or downloadable www.oecd.org), nduring the lessons will be shown the series of data to be studied in depth.
- OECD, Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2018. Country note. Italy, 2018 (in press) (pdf file is available or downloadable www.oecd.org)
- OECD, Pisa 2015 Results in Focus , OECD, Paris, 2016 (pdf file is available or downloadable www.oecd.org)
During the lessons will be provided further reading, in particular for early childhood level.

Prerequisites

- Individual study skills; - Basic knowledge of the English language is required (or French, OECD official language).

Frequency modes

Attendance during the course activities will be counted. A small number of absences is allowed. For problems about a constant course attendance (including those interested in the 24 FIT credits) the teacher must be contacted for a meeting in which specific program and study materials will be provided.

Exam modes

For attending students (at least 2/3 hours in the classroom)
- 2 Formative tests (open ended questions) on important topics of the course. Each test will be evaluated on a 4 scale (from insufficient to excellent). The linguistic aspects of the answers will not be evaluated. In case of a positive result the topic will not be requested during the oral examination. In the event of an intermediate result (sufficient, good) the topic will be proposed in the oral exam only for the critical results in the formative test. The non-participation in the formative tests does not affect the oral examination.
- Oral examination. The first part of the exam consists in the discussion of an OECD indicator projected on a screen, to highlight the most relevant aspects and the links with other indicators. For the subsequent interrogation and other topics of the course the results of the formative tests will be taken into account. The correctness of the exhibited contents, the clarity of the exposure, the ability to link the different topics will be assessed on the 30/30 scale.

For non-attending students
Given the topics of the course the attendance is strongly recommended. In case of absolute impossibility to attend a meeting wirh professor is required (during the professors' reception) for the supply of the examination material (bring a usb drive), the illustration of the specific study program, the presentation of the modalities of the oral examination. It is not possible to take the oral exam without the meeting with the professor.