Hello, I’m Wade Zaglas, education editor at Education Review. This week was all about Australia’s underwhelming 2018 PISA results, so thought it would be best to produce a Response from the Sector, a five - to 10-minute run down of what Australia’s educations experts (not the media or the politicians) think about the results.

Dr Steven Lewis, a research fellow from Deakin University, said "We should remember that these numbers often indicate an equity problem.”

"While Australian students’ performance remain above the OECD average in reading and science, the fact that we are now equal to it in mathematics should be cause for concern, and there has been a steady decline across all domains since testing began in 2000."

The failure to address the needs of Indigenous Australian students was also brought up in academic discussions, with some arguing the Closing the Gap initiative has done little to address education disadvantage.

A more controversial view was esposed by Asssocuiate Profesor Jihyun Lee from the UNSW.

"The PISA 2018 report shows that Australia will need to seriously address the issue of classroom discipline," said Lee. "Simply put, if students don’t listen to what the teacher says, if there is noise and disorder in a learning space, and if a teacher has to wait for a long time for students to quiet down, how can we expect students to learn effectively in school?"

"Australia ranked 70th out of all 77 PISA 2018 participant countries/economies on this classroom disciplinary dimension. Forty-three percent of Australian students reported that there is noise and disorder in their language-of-instruction lessons in every or most lessons, which is the 5th highest percentage among all countries/economies."

Hello, I’m Wade Zaglas, education editor at Education Review. This week was all about Australia’s underwhelming 2018 PISA results, so thought it would be best to produce a Response from the Sector, a five - to 10-minute run down of what Australia’s educations experts (not the media or the politicians) think about the results. Dr Steven Lewis, a research fellow from Deakin University, said "We should remember that these numbers often indicate an equity problem.” "While Australian students’ performance remain above the OECD average in reading and science, the fact that we are now equal to it in mathematics should be cause for concern, and there has been a steady decline across all domains since testing began in 2000." The failure to address the needs of Indigenous Australian students was also brought up in academic discussions, with some arguing the Closing the Gap initiative has done little to address education disadvantage. A more controversial view was esposed by Asssocuiate Profesor Jihyun Lee from the UNSW. "The PISA 2018 report shows that Australia will need to seriously address the issue of classroom discipline," said Lee. "Simply put, if students don’t listen to what the teacher says, if there is noise and disorder in a learning space, and if a teacher has to wait for a long time for students to quiet down, how can we expect students to learn effectively in school?" "Australia ranked 70th out of all 77 PISA 2018 participant countries/economies on this classroom disciplinary dimension. Forty-three percent of Australian students reported that there is noise and disorder in their language-of-instruction lessons in every or most lessons, which is the 5th highest percentage among all countries/economies."

Education Review

Hello, I’m Wade Zaglas, education editor at Educa…

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