Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

On December 03rd 2019, Stuff news reported on the results of the 2018 round of the OECD’s PISA(1) testing in Reading Literacy, Mathematics Literacy and Science Literacy(2). The article noted the consistent downward trends in achievement, since 2012, of New Zealand 15 year olds in these three ‘curriculum’ areas.

I want to concentrate on Reading Literacy. In 2018, students were selected from subject English classrooms to complete the PISA test, and the subsequent analysis then refers to English classrooms, teachers and their practice. My assumption therefore was that the ‘literacy’ test would focus on the conventional skills of comprehending and explaining the language and literary features of texts – that comprehension meant understanding what the texts were about at surface and deeper levels. And like many initial assumptions, it was misinformed.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has published details of its new Study on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES). While the OECD has been administering international large-scale assessments on ‘cognitive skills’ and ‘competencies’ with both children and adults for many years, the new SSES survey represents a significant shift in focus to ‘non-cognitive’ aspects of learning and skills. While details of the science behind its cognitive skills and competencies tests are relatively well known, it is now becoming clear that the OECD’s social-emotional skills programme will emphasize the psychometric science of ‘personality’ measurement.