merrion street

The latest report from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) shows that 15 year old students in Ireland performed at the average level of participating countries on computer based assessment of problem solving.

Ireland ranked 17th of the 28 OECD countries who took part in the study, and 22nd out of all 44 participating countries. Countries like the United States, Norway, Denmark and Sweden performed similarly to Ireland; while Canada, Australia, Finland and the UK performed significantly better than Ireland. The top six performing countries are in Asia, with Singapore ranked first.

Both the lowest and highest performing students in Ireland for problem solving score similarly to the OECD average; there is no significant difference between the performance of male and female students; while the performance of students from immigrant backgrounds is significantly higher than the corresponding average for the OECD, it is still significantly lower than those for native students.

Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn said, “The performance of Irish students on problem solving in this PISA study is good, but there is considerable room for improvement.”

“I believe we have the methods to significantly improve such skills at our disposal, we just need to embrace them wholeheartedly. Project Maths and the emphasis on skills development in the new Junior Cycle Student Awards (JCSA) offer students and teachers new ways of thinking and learning that should improve our 15 year olds’ problem solving capabilities.”

Compared to the PISA results for Maths, English and Science in 2012 which were released late last year, Ireland performed less well than expected in computer based problem solving. The findings also suggest a lack of familiarity with using computers, at home and school, for school-related tasks, and this may have contributed to a lower performance.

Minister Quinn said, “The short-comings identified in this and previous PISA reports have informed the changes that we are introducing through Project Maths and the JCSA.”

“There is also evidence which suggests that the student centred approaches and ICT activity of Transition Year result in better problem solving skills. Such problem solving skills are promoted and embedded in the six key skills outlined in the new framework for Junior Cycle.

“Improvements in ICT, such as high speed broadband being available in all second level schools from September and the new Digital Strategy for Schools which my Department is drafting, will also benefit students,” concluded Minister Quinn.

Minister of State with responsibility for STEM, Sean Sherlock T.D., added, “Most of the students who participated in this study had not experienced the implementation of Project Maths. With its emphasis on skills development, problem solving in real-life contexts and use of ICT, I believe once the new methodologies for Project Maths are fully embedded they will help to raise all students’ achievements.”

In 2012, problem solving was included as an optional assessment in PISA. It was a 40 minute computer-based assessment of problem solving. In Ireland, 1,303 15 year olds in 183 schools participated.

Report details:

Summary results for Ireland on problem solving: www.erc.ie/p12psreport

OECD’s reports on PISA 2012 results, including Volume 5, the report on problem solving: