Estonian Human Development Report

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Table 1.3.1. PISA 2006 study results and average point scores and comparison with 2003 results Position Country Score 2006 * Here only the countries that participated in 2003 were taken into account. Source: PISA website: www.pisa.oecd.org Position 2006* Score 2003 Position 2003 1 Finland 563 1 548 1 2 Hong Kong (China) 542 2 539 3 3 Canada 534 3 519 11 4 Taiwan 532 - - - 5 Estonia 531 - - - 6 Japan 531 4 548 2 7 New Zealand 530 5 521 10 8 Australia 527 6 525 6 9 The Netherlands 525 7 524 8 10 Liechtenstein 522 8 525 5 11 South Korea 522 9 538 4 12 Slovenia 519 - - - 13 Germany 516 10 502 18 14 United Kingdom 515 - - - 15 Czech Republic 513 11 523 9 16 Switzerland 512 12 513 12 17 Macao (China) 511 13 525 7 18 Austria 511 14 491 23 19 Belgium 510 15 509 14 20 Ireland 508 16 505 16 21 Hungary 504 17 503 17 22 Sweden 503 18 506 15 23 Poland 498 19 498 19 24 Denmark 496 20 475 31 25 France 495 21 511 13 26 Croatia 493 - - - 27 Iceland 491 22 495 21 28 Latvia 490 23 489 25 29 USA 489 24 491 22 30 Slovakia 488 25 495 20 31 Spain 488 26 487 26 32 Lithuania 488 - - - 33 Norway 487 27 484 28 34 Luxembourg 486 28 483 29 35 Russia 479 29 489 24 36 Italy 475 30 486 27 37 Portugal 474 31 468 32 38 Greece 473 32 481 30 International mean 473 39 Israel 454 - - - 40 Chile 438 - - - 41 Serbia 436 33 436 34 42 Bulgaria 434 - - - 43 Uruguay 428 34 438 33 44 Turkey 424 35 434 35 45 Jordan 422 - - - 46 Thailand 421 36 429 36 47 Romania 418 - - - 48 Montenegro 412 - - - 49 Mexico 410 37 405 37 50 Indonesia 393 38 395 38 51 Argentina 391 - - - 52 Brazil 390 39 390 39 53 Colombia 388 - - - 54 Tunisia 386 40 385 40 55 Azerbaijan 382 - - - 56 Qatar 349 - - - 57 Kyrgyzstan 322 - - the results. Based on the average score, Estonian students were positioned along with Japan at 5–6 position in the general PISA scale (see Table 1.3.1.). Another means of assessment is grouping by achievement scores. For this, the PISA test assignments are grouped into six levels of difficulty and the students are also divided into six groups according to their performance. The firstand below-first-level group includes students that were not able to implement their knowledge to solve the simplest PISA assignments. It was considered that basic science proficiency had been acquired if the students achieved at least the second level. The highest or sixth level presumed that the students were able to use their knowledge in real life situations, were able to associate various information sources and demonstrate reflection and argumentation skills. Figure 1.3.3. shows the achievement scores of students from Estonia and its neighbouring countries, compared to Germany (known for its differentiated educational system) and the US (known for its high educational costs). On the general scale of students’ achievement scores in natural sciences, Estonia’s students ranked second (after Finland). From the study, it appeared that, compared to the international average, Estonia has significantly few students whose knowledge about natural sciences is below the level of basic proficiency. This is confirmed by the results of the comparative TIMSS 2003 study, from which it became clear that 99% of students in Estonia surpassed the lowest level, while the international average was 78% (The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study TIMSS 2003, 143). This demonstrates that in Estonia the share of poor students is very small when compared internationally. Unfortunately, however, very talented students that form a brilliant apex are also lacking. Students that achieved the highest scores, or the sixth level, in Estonia comprised 1.4%, which lagged behind such countries as Finland, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, and Slovenia. The average percentage of students with high achievement scores (total of the fifth and sixth levels) in the OECD was 9%, while in Finland and Estonia it was 21% and 11.5% respectively. From this, one can conclude that Estonia has future challenges in its work with gifted children – current subject Olympiads and science schools have inspired too few of our students. Our neighbouring countries (Latvia, Lithuania and Russia) were distinguished by relatively low average results. It turned out that the format of the PISA questions differed significantly from their usual methods for testing knowledge, and the study also screened out a large number of students in these countries who lack basic knowledge and proficiency in natural sciences. The United States is known for its high educational costs per student. It is quite natural to expect that this would result in good general results and a low ratio of poor students, since large amounts have been invested in various support systems. However, the PISA showed that high educational costs do not always entail effective educational organization and good results. In Germany, students are divided into types of schools according to their abilities with the assumption that this will allow the individual talents of each child to be taken into consideration. Yet, this was not confirmed by the PISA studies. A differentiated school system produces even greater differences between students, and in Germany, there is also a high correlation between the students’ socio-economic background and their results. In Germany, the | 22
social context explains 19% of the variance in the results of the students, while in Estonia and Finland these indicators are 9.3% and 8.3% respectively. Thus, the PISA shows unequivocally that a good educational system can compensate for the impact of low income and problematic home situations. In the best educational systems, monitoring and intervention has been brought to the school level, where it is possible to detect students who need help and to consistently support their needs (Barber; Mourshed, 2007: 48). As the final report of the PISA study (OECD 2007) emphasizes, the social and monetary price of educational failure is very high. Young people who lack the necessary competence to cope in today’s society give rise to great expenditures for health care, welfare and care institutions, and are detrimental to the security of the society as a whole. Therefore it is very important to analyze the factors that cause the differences in the results of schools and students, and thereby to mitigate the inequality of learning opportunities. Challenges for Estonian education based on PISA The PISA 2006 study confirms that in the field of natural sciences Estonia’s students have sufficient knowledge and proficiency to recognize and explain natural phenomena, and they also managed well with searching for proof and using it in everyday situations. The current natural sciences curriculum and teaching methods as well as the basic and in-service training of the teachers have provided fertile ground for this. However, a series of problems also appeared that await fast and effective solutions, as well as subsequent in-depth studies. In the analysis of the results, the small ratio of talented students has already been discussed. In addition, the regrettable but expected fact appeared that Estonian students have very low interest in professions related to sciences. The students’ answers show that 26% of our students want to work in professions related to natural sciences (this included all fields of activity related to natural sciences, such as engineering and medicine), 22% wish to continue studies in the natural sciences after completing secondary school and only 14% would like deal with scientific research work. All these indicators are lower than the average among the participating countries. A somewhat surprising general trend was that the motivation to study natural science subjects and to tie one’s future to them was highest in countries where the general level of achievement was lower. On the other hand, a relatively negative attitude toward natural sciences was characteristic of countries that ranked among the top ten. The interest in natural science specialization in universities has also suddenly decreased in these countries. This presents a challenge to the schools: to find new teaching methods in order to make the study of natural sciences more attractive. Figure 1.3.3. Percentage of students according to proficiency level in the PISA 2006 natural sciences test 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% ESTONIA Finland latvia Source: PISA website: www.pisa.oecd.org The third challenge for Estonian education resulting from the PISA is related to the future of the local Russianlanguage schools. A uniform national curriculum, textbooks, teacher training, school financing, etc. create equal expectations for both Estonian- and Russian-language schools. Nevertheless, the PISA study revealed a statistical difference depending on the language of instruction in both the average results and the achievement scores. Of Estonianlanguage school students, 5% were included in the first- and below-first-level group in natural sciences (non-acquisition of basic proficiency), while 13.6% of Russian-language students were in this group. Of Estonian-language students, 14% attained the highest score (fifth and sixth level), while only 6.3% of Russian-language students did so. This points to differences in the schools’ teaching content and form and narrows the choices of Russian-language students after the completion of basic school. Numerous studies confirm that the expertise of teachers affects learning results more than any other factor. The students of top-quality teachers develop faster than those of ineffective teachers (Barber; Mourshed, 2007: 12). The quality of Estonia’s Russian-language educational system can also not be better than the teaching quality of the teachers. The key to this lies in the initial and in-service training of the teachers at schools with Russian-language instruction. The 2009 graduates are our first generation to have completed the PISA test and their choices and careers will demonstrate the effectiveness of our education and ability to cope with the circumstances that have changed during the last decade. We can only include ourselves among the top educational systems when the educational success of Estonia’s students is matched by increased interest and joy of learning. Lithuania Russia Germany USA OECD average Below-first level 1 st level 2 nd level 3 rd level 4 th level 5 th level 6 th level Higher and technical education in Estonia A very topical indicator (% of students specializing in science and technology among students at the tertiary level) has been highlighted by the Human Development Report’s statistical table dealing with education. The value of this indicator in Estonia was 23%, while at the same time this indicator was highest – 40% – in North Korea. This indicator was higher than Estonia in exactly half the EU states: Finland (38%), Greece (32%), Spain (30%), Czech Repub- 23 |
Page 1 and 2: Estonian Human Development Report
Page 3 and 4: Estonian Human Development Report T
Page 5: 4.2. Ethnic differentiations in sat
Page 9: Preface This year, the Estonian Hum
Page 12 and 13: CHAPTER 1 Estonian Human Developmen
Page 14 and 15: Figure 1.1.3. Life expectancy in co
Page 16 and 17: Figure 1.2.2. Life expectancy at bi
Page 18 and 19: to reality. The greatest inaccuracy
Page 20 and 21: Figure 1.2.9. Internal migration ev
Page 22 and 23: 12. Marksoo, A. 1992. “Dynamics o
Page 26 and 27: Table 1.3.2. Number of students in
Page 28 and 29: 1.4. The gross domestic product and
Page 30 and 31: Figure 1.4.3. Estonian GDP (right a
Page 32 and 33: 1.5. Changes in the Estonian Human
Page 34 and 35: 2.2. Health of Estonian residents i
Page 36 and 37: Table 2.2.4. Differences in life ex
Page 38 and 39: Figure 2.4.1. Healthy life years of
Page 40 and 41: Figure 2.4.4. Various accidents, tr
Page 42 and 43: 2.5. Lifestyle and behaviour as a s
Page 44 and 45: Figure 2.5.5. Smoking in Estonia in
Page 46 and 47: Figure 2.6.1. Overview of the compo
Page 48 and 49: Table 2.6.2. Use of specialized med
Page 50 and 51: dren. The majority of services are
Page 52 and 53: Figure 2.8.2. How much a health dis
Page 54 and 55: 2.10. Policy recommendations aimed
Page 56 and 57: CHAPTER 3 Quality of life and life
Page 58 and 59: Table 3.2.1. Characteristics of liv
Page 60 and 61: Table 3.2.4. An assessment of the e
Page 62 and 63: Figure 3.2.4. Difference in the job
Page 64 and 65: Table 3.2.6. Agreement with stateme
Page 66 and 67: Figure 3.3.1. Satisfaction with lif
Page 68 and 69: Figure 3.3.4. Percentage of people
Page 70 and 71: Figure 3.4.1. Types of quality of l
Page 72 and 73: Figure 3.5.1. Percentage of teenage
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Figure 3.5.4. Percentage of respond
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Arieh A., Conti C., Kutsar D., Nicg
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Figure 3.6.2. Subjective quality of
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Pieper, A. Sixsmith, Care related q
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Figure 3.7.1. The placement of Euro
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Figure 4.2.1. Life satisfaction by
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Table 4.2.1. Factors forming genera
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Annexes Annex 4.2.1. Socio-demograp
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Figure 4.3.1. Changes in the assess
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Figure 4.3.4. Attitudes of the Esto
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olds considered themselves to be pa
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Table 4.4.3. Agreement of the Russi
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Table 4.5.2. The prospects of non-E
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Figure 4.5.4. Certainty of Estonian
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mote equal opportunities. At the (e
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CHAPTER 5 Quality of life in a cons
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Figure 5.2.1. GDP and AIC per capit
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Figure 5.2.3. Distribution of consu
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Figure 5.2.4. Indexes of environmen
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Table 5.3.1. Comparison of countrie
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Figure 5.3.3. Comparison of types o
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Table 5.3.5. Connections between po
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Table 5.4.1. Who and what are the f
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Table 5.4.3. Young people’s asses
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Figure 5.4.6. Time spent on the con
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Table 5.4.6. The perception of prob
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5.6. Summary To briefly summarize t
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Table 6.2.1. Objective and subjecti
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Figure 6.2.4. Relationship between
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Figure 6.2.7. Difference between th
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Figure 6.3.1. GDP, government secto
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Figure 6.3.3. Employed 15-74-year-o
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Figure 6.3.8. Percentage of social
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References 1. Aaviksoo, A., G. Paat
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Figure 6.4.1. Labour market flexibi
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Figure 6.4.3. Creations of jobs ind
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Figure 6.4.5. Public expenditures o
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Figure 6.4.6. Ratio of the particip
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6.5. Cities as development engines
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Table 6.5.2. Existence of developme
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have been underfinanced or are not
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Table 7.1. Factors that favour and
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Table 7.2. Potential economic devel
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Authors Chapter 1 Ene-Margit Tiit,
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Margit Keller (PhD) is a Senior Res
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Special prizes Estonian Human Devel
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Estonian Human Development Report H
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Estonian Human Development Report H
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Estonian Human Development Report T
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Honorable mentions Estonian Human D
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Estonian Human Development Report P
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Estonian Human Development Report A
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Estonian Human Development Report T
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Estonian Human Development Report

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