Publications & Documents

This paper explores how teenage thinking about jobs and careers relates to adulthood labour market outcomes. The OECD working paper Career Ready? How schools can better prepare young people for working life in the era of COVID-19 identifies career certainty, alignment and ambition as relevant indicators related to career thinking. This paper extends analysis of these indicators to new longitudinal datasets from Australia, Denmark, and Switzerland, and incorporates two new indicators, instrumental motivation and career concentration. The findings provide further evidence that teenage career ambition, certainty, alignment, instrumental motivation and broad occupational expectations relate to positive employment outcomes, including in periods of economic turbulence. However, this is not always the case and on some occasions, this association is found only in specific subgroups. Finally, the paper presents evidence from the academic literature, analysis of OECD PISA data and accounts from practitioners, which focus on ways in which schools can foster students’ career thinking.

A well-coordinated adult learning system is essential to support the achievement of Korea’s long-term goals. The transformational effects of demographic change, digitalisation, globalisation, and most recently COVID-19 on life at work and outside of it amplify the importance of getting adults’ skills right. OECD research shows that individuals, employers and society benefit from adults having higher levels of skills. Korea is a global leader in student performance and tertiary attainment. Yet today, many adults in Korea have skill levels below the OECD average. A significant share of adults face barriers to participate in adult learning. Against the backdrop of a growing awareness about the importance of skills, Korea’s government and stakeholders have a unique opportunity to improve how they share responsibility and work together in the adult learning system. This report outlines how Korea can increase participation in adult learning by strengthening horizontal co-ordination across ministries, vertical co-ordination across levels of government, engagement of stakeholders and financing arrangements. The report provides examples of national and international good practices as well as a series of concrete recommendations to help Korea improve the governance of adult learning and in turn enhance economic growth and social cohesion.

This edition of the OECD Secretary-General's Report to Ministers outlines the main achievements of the OECD in 2020, notably the Organisation’s efforts to help manage the COVID-19 crisis and pave the way towards a stronger, more inclusive, resilient and green recovery. It describes the OECD’s work across major policy areas, with a focus on health, employment, inequalities, economics and tax, education, and the environment, among others. The report outlines the activities of the Secretary-General and his office, as well as those of OECD directorates, the Secretariats of Entities within the OECD family and OECD Social Partners. The OECD works on finding evidence-based solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges, promoting 'Better Policies for Better Lives'. The OECD is one of the world’s largest and most trusted sources of comparable statistical data and research. The OECD serves as not only a pathfinder for new narratives and new initiatives at the global level, but also as a ‘do’ tank ready to support members and partners with our data, standards and evidence-based policy advice.

School systems across the world are working to make the classroom more inclusive for all children, regardless of their origin and capacities, so that they have equal opportunities for quality learning. It has become essential to integrate students with special needs into mainstream formal education and they are, increasingly, enrolled in regular schools and classes in primary education. Inclusive classrooms exert more and particular demands on teachers, however. TALIS 2018 data alerts us to the pressing need to support teachers with students with special needs in primary schools. Support for students with special needs is a policy priority for principals and teachers in primary schools. Modifying lessons to support students with special needs is a particular cause of stress for teachers. And a significant proportion of teachers request further training in teaching children with special needs.

Iceland’s Education Policy 2030 (EP2030) is an education strategy document that outlines aims to achieve a dynamic and flexible education system to drive economic and social change. Its vision is ‘to accomplish high-quality education through life’, underpinned by the values of resilience, courage, knowledge and happiness. It has five pillars to attain this vision: equity, teaching, skills for the future, well-being, and education system quality. To strengthen the implementability of this document and use it effectively to inform action planning, Iceland should review its design to make it actionable, more closely consider stakeholder engagement approaches, fit implementation to Iceland’s decentralised context, and define a clear implementation strategy. Through this, Iceland will be better positioned to transition from strategy to action, over the course of the next ten years, and accomplish its objectives.

This paper reports the findings of an integrative review of the literature conducted to gain insight into the relationship between process quality, curriculum and pedagogy. Process quality attends to those aspect of early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision associated with children’s interactions and experiences in the ECEC setting, including with peers, adults, materials and other resources. Process quality is considered an important mechanism for moving quality ECEC provision beyond structural dimensions of quality alone (e.g. child-to-adult ratios, minimum space requirements). Curriculum and pedagogy in this paper examines the definitional relationship between teaching and learning, with this relationship having implications for the extent to which identified features of the ECEC curriculum may be used to leverage increased process quality. This paper finds that defining the relationship between curriculum and pedagogy is required to facilitate the use of curriculum as a lever for process quality according to the socio-cultural context in which ECEC is intended for young children

The Flemish Government asked the OECD to undertake a targeted diagnostic study of the Flemish system for teachers’ Continuing Professional Learning (CPL). Drawing on findings from interviews with Flemish stakeholders and schools, as well as document review, the study team identified strengths and weaknesses of the continuing professional learning system in the Flemish Community of Belgium, as well as opportunities and threats in going forward.

For the first time, the OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 project conducted comprehensive curriculum analyses through the co-creation of new knowledge with a wide range of stakeholders including policy makers, academic experts, school leaders, teachers, NGOs, other social partners and, most importantly, students. This report is one of six presenting the first-ever comparative analyses on curriculum, summarising existing literature, listing challenges and strategies countries reported, and suggesting lessons learned from unintended consequences countries experienced with their curriculum reforms. Major trends in curriculum innovations towards a '21st century curriculum' have emerged as four types: digital curriculum, personalised curriculum, cross-curricular competencies and content-based curriculum, and flexible curriculum. While these innovations hold the promise to enhance student learning and well-being, and to make learning more relevant for their social and future life, countries and schools also face the complex realities of equity gaps among students. This report takes a pragmatic look at equality, equity and inclusion in curriculum. It examines how curriculum can be adapted to meet specific needs of diverse learners, particularly vulnerable students. It also features a range of strategies which countries use to design curriculum, so that no student will be left behind.

Digital technologies have changed how people interact with information. PISA data shows that 15-year-olds increasingly read online to fulfil information needs (e.g. online news versus newspapers). At the same time, technological changes in the digitalisation of communication continue to reshape people’s habits (e.g. chats online versus emails). Fifteen-year-olds’ total online consumption has risen from 21 hours a week in PISA 2012 to 35 hours per week in PISA 2018 – almost the equivalent of an average adult workweek in OECD countries. The massive information flow that characterises the digital era demands that readers be able to distinguish between fact and opinion, and learn strategies to detect biased information and malicious content such as phishing emails or fake news.

Literacy in the 21st century is about constructing and validating knowledge. Digital technologies have enabled the spread of all kinds of information, displacing traditional formats of usually more carefully curated information such as encyclopaedias and newspapers. The massive information flow of the digital era demands that readers be able to distinguish between fact and opinion. Readers must learn strategies to detect biased information and malicious content like fake news and phishing emails. What the PISA 21st-century readers report reveals is that students’ access to digital technologies and training on how to use them greatly vary between countries and students’ socio-economic profiles. This report explores how 15-year-old students are developing reading skills to navigate the technology-rich 21st century. It sheds light on potential ways to strengthen students’ capacity to navigate the new world of information. It highlights how countries need to redouble their efforts to combat emerging digital divides. It also explores what teachers can do to help students navigate ambiguity and manage complexity.