Is more vocational education the answer?

by Herman van de Werfhorst, Andrea Forster, Thijs Bol*A few years ago, Eric Hanushek gave a keynote lecture at a conference at the Amsterdam Centre for Inequality Studies. The talk was entitled "Is more vocational education the answer?" and spoke to debates in the United States about whether or not to strengthen the vocational education and training sector. The U.S. education system is much more “general” ...

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A Brave New World: The new frontiers of technology and education

by Tracey BurnsProject Leader, Directorate for Education and Skills, OECD“I don’t actually have an attention problem. I just take the pill when I need to be sharp”. Legal drugs such as Ritalin, used for treating attention deficit disorder, are increasingly being repurposed by healthy students to feel sharper on exam day."Smart drugs" allegedly improve memory and concentration. In addition to Ritalin...

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Can analogue skills bridge the digital divide?

by Marilyn AchironEditor, Directorate for Education and SkillsThe digital divide has shifted. Instead of (and in some places, in addition to) separating people with Internet access from those without access, it now cuts a wide chasm between those who know how to get the most out of the Internet and those who don’t. It’s no longer a matter of getting the tool into people’s hands; it’s a matter of getting...

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What does a country average actually mean?

by Dirk Van DammeHead of the Innovation and Measuring Progress Division, Directorate for Education and SkillsThe institutional framework of the international community was created in the period following the Second World War. The building blocks for international organisations, including the OECD, were and are the nation-states of the post-World War and post-colonial order. However, nation-states...

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How to transform schools into learning organisations?

by Andreas SchleicherDirector, OECD Directorate for Education and SkillsSchools nowadays are required to learn faster than ever before in order to deal effectively with the growing pressures of a rapidly changing environment. Many schools however, look much the same today as they did a generation ago, and too many teachers are not developing the pedagogies and practices required to meet the diverse...

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