Top Class: The OECD Education Policy Podcast | Teachers, PISA, Students
OECD Education & Skills
Everything you need to know about teaching and learning in one podcast. Top Class, the OECD Education Podcast, interviews leading educators, researchers and policy experts about the big issues facing education systems around the world.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed and arguments employed on the "TopClass" podcast and the recordings contained therein do not necessarily represent the official views of the OECD, its member countries, or non-members who have participated in any related work. This site may display third party videos or recordings. The inclusion of such videos or recordings does not imply any endorsement of, or responsibility for, the opinions, ideas, or information presented in these videos. The "TopClass" podcast is subject to the Disclaimers section of the General Terms and Conditions of the OECD website. http://www.oecd.org/termsandconditions/
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed and arguments employed on the "TopClass" podcast and the recordings contained therein do not necessarily represent the official views of the OECD, its member countries, or non-members who have participated in any related work. This site may display third party videos or recordings. The inclusion of such videos or recordings does not imply any endorsement of, or responsibility for, the opinions, ideas, or information presented in these videos. The "TopClass" podcast is subject to the Disclaimers section of the General Terms and Conditions of the OECD website. http://www.oecd.org/termsandconditions/
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 7, 2019 • 27min
What is the “digital gender gap” and how can it be bridged?
We’ve heard a lot about adolescent girls showing less interest than boys in technology studies and about the dearth of women in tech industries; but in the United States, women were among the vanguard of programmers in the early days of computing. What happened? We talk with Francesca Borgonovi, a senior education analyst, and Luca Marcolin, an economist, both at the OECD, about why girls shy away from tech studies, why careers in technology are not attractive to more women, and what can be done to improve the gender balance in the tech world.
Jan 14, 2019 • 26min
How will technology and artificial intelligence (AI) affect education?
Technology has changed the way societies function, and schools will need to adapt in order to prepare students for the technology-rich environments they will face. But the gadget-filled modern world is still relatively new, and understanding how education should respond to it is still a work-in-progress. The influence of artificial intelligence, in particular, deserves serious consideration from educators. In this episode, we sit down with Yuhyun Park, founder of the DQ (Digital Intelligence Quotient) Institute, and Ruben Laukkonen, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Amsterdam, to discuss the effects technology and A.I. might have on schooling worldwide.
Dec 14, 2018 • 21min
What can low- and middle-income countries learn from PISA?
Since 2000, some 80 countries and economies – including 40 middle-income countries and 4 low-income countries – collaborate every three years to compare how well their school systems prepare young people for life and work. As more countries joined the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), it became apparent that the test needed to evolve to successfully cater to a larger and more diverse set of countries. In response to this challenge, the OECD and a number of partners launched the PISA for Development initiative in 2013. In this episode, Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s Director of the Directorate of Education and Skills, and Jaime Saavedra, the World Bank’s Director of Education, speak about how this initiative further develops the PISA instruments to better support evidence-based policy making in middle- and low-income countries.
Nov 22, 2018 • 25min
What it means to be a disadvantaged student
Education is not only a desired end in itself, it can also help people move up the social ladder. But results from international assessments of students and of adults’ skills show that disadvantaged students often find themselves stuck on the bottom rungs – both at school and later on in life. In this podcast, OECD analysts Daniel Salinas and Pauline Givord discuss what OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data reveal about equity in education and breaking down the barriers to social mobility. They discuss the obstacles disadvantaged students face as they progress through school, and how education policy can help dismantle them.
Oct 18, 2018 • 12min
What is the true value of higher education?
Some of the most striking findings from Education at a Glance , our annual report on the global state of education, focused on the value of higher education today. Has the value of a university degree changed over time? And what impact does this have on the job market? OECD Director for Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher sat down with us to discuss these and other key issues from the report.
www.oecd.org/education/education-at-a-glance/
Jul 19, 2018 • 20min
Why social and emotional skills matter in 21st century education
Purely knowledge-based models of education – those that prize rote learning over all else – are slowly becoming relics of the 20th century. Education is now moving towards a more well-rounded, whole-child approach that puts greater emphasis on a student’s overall development than on the number of dates they can recite. In this version of education, social and emotional skills are as important as cognitive ones. But what exactly are these skills? How do we measure them? And are they really learnable? Miloš Kankaraš and Francesca Gottschalk, Analysts in the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills, discuss the new value placed upon social and emotional skills, as well as the significance of emotional well-being as part of overall development.
Jun 19, 2018 • 19min
How physical and mental health affects student learning
Increasingly sedentary lifestyles and poor attitudes towards diet and nutrition are having hugely damaging effects on the overall health of the younger generation. This is not only bad for the body, but for the mind too – remember that children are now also confronted with an extremely complex world where the truth is a moving target and new lifestyle-altering technologies appear every other month. But what effect does poor physical and mental health have on the learning process? Dr. Uwe Pühse, Head of Sport Science at the University of Basel, and Tracey Burns, Senior Analyst in the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills, discuss the potential damage that can be done to a student’s education, and what we can do about it.
May 3, 2018 • 21min
What we can learn from classrooms in the world’s top-performing education systems
Lucy Crehan, education author and former teacher, shares insights from her visits to classrooms in top-performing education systems. Topics include teaching practices in Finland, Canada, Japan, Shanghai, and Singapore, group learning and well-being in Japan, the importance of relationships in education, and an outstanding teaching example in Sweden.
Apr 17, 2018 • 17min
Why education systems must support students with an immigrant background
With more people settling abroad than ever before, societies are becoming increasingly diverse. Nowhere is this shift more observable than in the classroom. But what effect does migration have on the students themselves? How should schools respond to the newly multicultural student body? Francesca Borgonovi, Senior Analyst at the OECD, and Jens Nymand-Christensen, Deputy Director-General for Education and Culture in the European Commission, discuss findings from a new OECD study (co-financed by the European Commission) on the performance of students with an immigrant background, analysing how these students fare in the education systems of their host countries. Despite challenges, some students succeed against the odds, and this is referred to as their “resilience.”
Mar 7, 2018 • 23min
Confronting gender imbalances in science, technology, engineering and mathematics
Is there an equal share of men and women working in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or STEM)? Do girls and boys in school have preconceived biases about whether they should pursue these subjects? To celebrate International Women’s Day and as part of the OECD March on Gender initiative, Caitlyn Guthrie, Advisor in the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills, and Raffaella Centurelli, Advisor in the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, discuss gender imbalances in the STEM fields, both in school and in the job market, suggesting workable ways to reduce gender inequity and promote equal opportunities for all.
