PISA maths – England versus East Asia
      Shanghai-China
         Singapore
     Hong Kong-China
           Korea
       Chinese Taipei
          Finland
        Liechtenstein                                        By age 15, children in 
         Switzerland                                         East Asian counties 
           Japan
           Canada                                            are approximately 1.5 
        Netherlands                                          years of schooling 
        Macao-China
        New Zealand                                          ahead of children in 
          Belgium
          Australia                                          England
          Germany
           Estonia
           Iceland
          Denmark
          Slovenia
          Norway
      Slovak Republic
           France
           Austria
           Poland
          Sweden
          England
              0.00    0.50     1.00    1.50    2.00     2.50    3.00
                           Years of schooling ahead of England
    Huge policy interest in this….
    These regions and nations – from Alberta to Singapore, Finland to 
    Hong Kong, Harlem to South Korea - should be our inspiration’ 
      (Secretary of State for Education in England, Michael Gove)
     ‘we must learn from high-performing nations like Japan’
   (Shadow Secretary of State for Education in England, Stephen Twigg)
    ‘We have to see this as a wake-up call….. We can quibble, or we can 
        face the brutal truth that we’re being out-educated’
          (US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan)
                    WHY!?
                 ....we don’t really know
        Possible explanations
 • Biology / genetics  
 • Cultural differences
   - Commitment and highly value education (‘Tiger mums’)
 • ‘Failing’ secondary schools
 • Teaching methods
 • Design of the curriculum 
 • Many more!!
               Possible explanations
  • Biology / genetics - Can’t do anything about
  • Cultural differences – Hard to change in short-run
    - Commitment and highly value education (‘Tiger mums’)
  • ‘Failing’ secondary schools
  • Teaching methods       Things we can change
  • Design of the curriculum 
  • Many more!!