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A Study On Student Problem Solving Ability Based On PISA

Posted on:2017-05-09Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:X H ZhuFull Text:PDF
GTID:1227330485969039Subject:Comparative Education
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The transformation of the technologies in 21 century raises new requirements of man’s ability. The traditional schooling which takes knowledge and skill as its first priority is increasingly not adaptable to these requirements. The International society now pays more attention on students’problem solving (PS) ability in real situation. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) seeks to measure how well the students at the end of compulsory schooling are prepared to meet the challenges of future societies. Based on the perspective of PS, PISA assesses students’level of "literacy", general PS ability and also surveys the related non-cognitive features.Focusing students’ PS ability, the dissertation aims to explore three questions. First, how does PISA assess students’PS ability? Second, what are the features of students’ PS ability? And third, what are the features of teaching in terms of students’PS ability? By responding these questions, the dissertation hopes to promote the theory and methods of assessment of PS ability and offer policy consultancy for development of basic education based on in-depth data analysis.The dissertation adopts quantitative and qualitative research methods in combination. At first, a framework for analyzing PS ability has been formed through literature review. Based on that framework, contents and methods of PISA assessment of PS abilities have been well examined and analyzed. Next, the overall performance of students’PS ability and the relationships between different kinds of PB ability are analyzed using PISA 2009 and PISA 2012 international database. Then the study analizes teachers’teaching philosophy, classroom instruction strategies and ICT using in teaching.After literaturereview and especially international comparison, the research findings can be generalized as follows. Firstly, PISA examins students’ ability in different domains from a PS perspective, and provide many different angles to analize students’ PS ability which is regarded as a comprehensive ability with cognitive and non-cognitive contents. Secondly, Shanghai students perform very well in static subject domain PS, but their performance in computer-based subject domain is greatly lower than expected. Thirdly, there’s still a large space for Shanghai students in improving their general PS ability especially in interactive problem and performance of the top students. Fourthly, in terms of learning and PS strategies, Shanghai students have a higher level of motivation, PS perseverance and PS openness, while they are lacking of meta-cognitive skills and control strategies. Fifthly, Students’ PS abilities have strong relationship with teachers’ instruction methods. Although most of the Shanghai teachers believe the constructivist teaching philosophy and emphasize stimulating students’ engagement, the main instruction organization is still teacher oriented; infusion teaching, rote learning and standardized answers are still popular in classroom, especially, ICT using in teaching and learning is still very weak. Finally, the research makes discussion and suggestions on all the above performances.
Keywords/Search Tags:PISA, Problem Solving Abilities, Subject Problem Solving, General Problem Solving, Teacher’s Instruction
PDF Full Text Request
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