OECD Conference Educating for Innovative Societies on 26 April 2012 - Session 3: STEM Education in Innovation-Driven Societies - Science Education for Innovation-Driven Societies by Francesco Avvisati, OECD

1. Science Education for
Innovation-Driven Societies
Francesco Avvisati
OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI)
Paris, Educating for Innovation-Driven Societies, 26 April 2012

2. Outline
• How does science
education contribute to
individual skills for
Education innovation?
and
training • Do education systems
foster all skills for
Skills innovation?
• Are certain science
Innovation
pedagogies more effective
in that respect?
• How can technology and
informal learning help?

3. HOW DOES SCIENCE
EDUCATION CONTRIBUTE TO
INDIVIDUAL SKILLS FOR
INNOVATION?

4. Innovation intensity by field of study
• Traditional views emphasise role of STEM graduates,
but... innovation intensity: any type
100 product or service
90 technology or tools
& computing
engineering
social sciences
80 architecture knowledge or methods
sciences
& maths
agriculture
education
70
humanities
business
arts
60
health
other
50
law
40
30
20
10
0
4

5. Non-disciplinary skills and innovation
• Critical skills according to tertiary educated workers
1 2 4
come up with new ideas/solutions 4.1
willingness to question ideas 3.1
present ideas to audience 2.9
alertness to opportunities 2.8
coordinate activities 2.6
analytical thinking
acquire new knowledge
mobilize capacities of others
make your meaning clear
master of your own field
write reports or documents
work productively with others
write/speak a foreign language
use time efficiently
use computers and internet
perform under pressure Odds ratio (innovative
negociate vs non-innovative
knowledge of other fields graduates); based on
assert your authority Reflex and Hegesco 5

6. Science education and Innovation Skills
• need to consider learning outcomes that
go beyond mastery of content knowledge
and of procedural knowledge:
– Skills in thinking and creativity, positive
habits of mind (curiosity, perseverance,...)
and social skills;
• Science, as a subject, offers excellent
opportunities for developing these...
• ... but how far are they really fostered in
today’s schools?

7. DO EDUCATION SYSTEMS
FOSTER ALL SKILLS FOR
INNOVATION?

8. Do countries foster simultaneously subject-based and
behavioural skills? Not necessarily
Example: Science scores and interest in science
640
LOW SCORE HIGH SCORE
Interest in Science Topics
HIGH INTEREST HIGH INTEREST
620
IDN MEX
600
BRA CHL
580
PRT
560
GRC
540 TUR RUS ESP HKG
ITA
FRA MAC
520 SVK DEU
HUN
ISR LUX AUT SVN JPN
500
POL BEL CHE EST
CZE KOR
480 USA IRL
NOR GBRAUS CAN
ISL
460 DNK NZL
LOW SCORE FIN HIGH SCORE
SWE NLD
LOW INTEREST LOW INTEREST
440
380 400 420 440 460 480 500 520 540 560 580 600 620
Source: OECD, based on PISA 2006 Science Score

9. Robustness
partial correlation coefficents between science interest and
science score
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
partial correlation -0.74 -0.71 -0.66 -0.69 -0.74 -0.56
controls:
GDP p/c X X X
Luxembourg X X
Self-concept (mean) X X
Self-efficacy (mean) X X
Culture (Hofstede 4-
dim) X X
N 34 34 33 34 32 31

10. 0
-1
1
-0.5
0.5
1E-15
0.3
-0.3
0.6
-0.6
CHL CHL
USA POL
PRT MEX
ISR HUN
ITA PRT
POL USA
BEL EST
NZL TUR
MEX SVK
TUR CZE
NLD ITA
SVK ESP
ESP ISR
CZE GRC
HUN LUX
AUT AUT
Source: OECD, based on PISA 2006
EST DEU
GBR BEL
SVN NZL
GRC NLD
CAN GBR
DEU IRL
FIN CHE
IRL FRA
AUS AUS
CHE CAN
LUX KOR
FRA SVN
DNK DNK
SWE JPN
NOR SWE
ISL FIN
JPN NOR
between-school correlation of average interest and scores
within-school correlation of individual interest and scores
KOR ISL
BRA BRA
RUS RUS
The Test-Score/Interest Paradox
HKG IDN
IDN MAC
MAC HKG

11. ARE SOME PEDAGOGIES
MORE EFFECTIVE IN
FOSTERING ALL SETS OF
SKILLS FOR INNOVATION?

12. A within-country analysis
Teaching indicators in PISA 2006 based on 4 clusters of activities:
• Interaction • Hands-on
– Collaboration and – Guided activities
participatory around lab
exchanges experiments
• Application • Investigation
– Drawing connections – Autonomous student
between school inquiries
science and the
outside world

13. Pedagogies for innovation skills
Science score Interest in Science Topics
0.3 0.3
0.25 0.25
20
0.2 0.2
0.15 0.15
0.1 0.1
8 3
0.05 4 0.05 6
0 1
-1 -2 0
-2 -2 -1 -1
-0.05 -0.05
-0.1 -10 -0.1
-0.15
-0.15

14. Effective Science Pedagogies
• The current teacher has more impact on interest
than on scores;
• Structured inquiry (“hands-on”) dominates
unstructured inquiry for scores
• Interest and curiosity are nurtured with
“applications”: i.e. when the teacher…
– …explains how a school science idea can be applied to a
number of different phenomena
– …uses science to help students understand the world
outside school
– …explains the relevance of science concepts to our lives
– … uses technological applications to show how school
science is relevant to society

15. Leverage technology, harness informal learning opportunities,...
INNOVATING SCIENCE
EDUCATION

16. Francesco.Avvisati@oecd.org
THANK YOU
www.oecd.org/edu/innovation