Samband menntunar foreldra við frammistöðu þátttakenda í PISA-könnuninni á Norðurlöndum

Abstract

Tilgangur rannsóknarinnar var að skoða tengsl milli menntunar foreldra og árangurs barna þeirra í PISA (e. Programme for International Student Assessment). Alveg frá því að PISA var lagt fyrir í fyrsta sinn hefur því verið haldið fram að Ísland hafi þá sérstöðu að hverfandi tengsl séu milli menntunar foreldra og árangurs barna þeirra í PISA, ólíkt því sem gerist í öðrum löndum. Í þessari rannsókn voru notuð gögn úr PISA frá fyrirlögn árið 2015 og einskorðaðist greiningin við Norðurlöndin fimm. Markmiðið var að svara spurningunni hvort Ísland hefði raunverulega sérstöðu í þessum efnum eða hvort lítil tengsl sem hefðu komið fram til þessa mætti rekja til þeirra aðferða sem notaðar voru til að meta tengsl menntunar foreldra og árangurs barna þeirra. Niðurstöður þessarar rannsóknar benda til þess að á öllum Norðurlöndum sé umtalsverður munur á meðalárangri þátttakenda sem eiga foreldra með grunnskólamenntun og þeirra þátttakenda sem eiga foreldra með háskólamenntun. Þá sýna niðurstöður skýrt að Ísland er ekki verulega frábrugðið hinum Norðurlöndunum að þessu leyti. Ef viðmið OECD um meðalframfarir nemenda á einu skólaári eru notuð til túlkunar er ekki hægt að álykta annað en að munur á meðalárangri barna grunn- og háskólamenntaðra foreldra sé mjög verulegur. Niðurstöður sýndu að þessi munur samsvarar meðalframförum á tveimur skólaárum í stærðfræðilæsi, meðalframförum á rúmum tveimur skólaárum í lesskilningi og tæpum tveimur árum í náttúrufræðilæsi.

Factors within school are not the sole determinants of academic performance. Research has shown that social circumstances, like parents and family, peer group, leisure-time activities as well as other factors in the larger social milieu of individuals affect educational attainment (Bong, 2008; Coleman et al., 1966; Morgan & Sørensen, 1999; Sun, 1999). In this regard, research conducted in several different countries has consistently found that, of background factors, parents’ level of education is one of the strongest predictors of student achievement (Davis-Kean, 2005; Israel, Beaulieu, & Hartless, 2001; Magnuson, 2007; Sirin, 2005). Educated parents tend to have greater academic expectations and are more likely to motivate their children academically (Mullis, Rathge, & Mullis, 2003). Furthermore, children of educated parents generally have more advantages and opportunities since their parents tend to be able to provide them with more educational resources and learning opportunities, as well as being more capable of helping them with academic course work (Gutman & Eccles, 1999). In Iceland, some have argued, based on data from Iceland’s participation in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), that educational equality is one of the main strengths of the Icelandic education system. Reasons include that there is less difference between schools in Iceland than in any other OECD country and that the effect of social factors, such as parents’ level of education, is almost nonexistent in the Icelandic school system (Almar M. Halldórsson, Ragnar F. Ólafsson, Óskar H. Níelsson, & Júlíus K. Björnsson, 2010; Almar M. Halldórsson, Ragnar F. Ólafsson, & Júlíus K. Björnsson, 2013; Menntamálastofnun, 2017).

The PISA study is an international survey carried out triennially. Iceland has participated in the study since it was first conducted in the year 2000. The aim of the PISA study is to evaluate education systems worldwide by assessing 15-year-old students, where many are near the end of their compulsory education. The PISA study assesses participants’ knowledge in three core domains: literacy in reading, mathematics, and science. In 2015, the main focus was on science literacy. As well as testing these three domains, participants answer a questionnaire with questions relating to their background.

The current study is based on data from the 2015 PISA study, utilizing the sample from the five Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Sweden. The aim of the study was to explore whether the relationship between student achievement and their parents’ education level is different in Iceland than in the other Nordic countries. Furthermore, we expected that prior findings of very little association of parents’ education level with student achievement could be due to the statistical methods used.

In reports on the main findings of PISA from the Icelandic Directorate of Education it is claimed that the association of parental education and student academic achievement is “practically 0” (Almar M. Halldórsson et al., 2010, 2013; Menntamálastofnun, 2017). This claim is based on the small value of the Pearson product moment coefficient of correlation (r) and the coefficient of determination (R²/η²Rv). This statistical approach is flawed for several reasons, most importantly that these coefficients describe the importance of the variance or heterogeneity of one variable for the variance of another and not the effect size in the unit of measurement. These coefficients can, therefore, be small as a result of little variability or homogeneity of the predictor. As achievement on PISA is measured on an equal-interval scale based on item-response theory that is neither test- nor population-specific, we simply compared mean achievement of students, conditional on parents’ educational level. We also examined the proportion of students at each ability level (as defined by OECD) conditional on parents’ educational level. Then, we examined the proportion of students at each ability level (as defined by OECD) conditional on parents’ educational level.

Findings indicated that in all the Nordic countries there is considerable difference in the performance of participants whose parents have compulsory education compared with participants who have parents with higher education. Furthermore, our findings show that the Icelandic results are quite similar to the results from the other Nordic countries in this regard. If the OECD guideline for the average yearly progress of students is considered, the difference in achievement between Icelandic participants with parents who have compulsory education and those who have parents with higher education was two years for mathematics, over two years for literacy and close to two years for science.