International large-scale assessments provide cross-national data on students' cognitive and non-cognitive characteristics. A critical methodological issue that often arises in comparing data from cross-national studies is ensuring measurement invariance, indicating that the construct under investigation is the same across the compared groups.…

The ongoing debate over the positive effects of a growth mindset on student outcomes has called for investigations into its contextual moderators (see Yeager & Dweck in Am Psychol 75(9):1269--1284, 2020. 10.1037/amp0000794). This study examined the potential moderating role of parental support in the associations of a growth mindset with…

This paper explores how the OECD acts a broker of knowledge-making in the development of PISA, the most widely known International Large-Scale Assessment. Drawing on the work of Bandola-Gill, Grek, and Tichenor (2022) and analysing empirical data gathered through interviews with OECD staff and PISA contractors and experts, the paper analyses how…

This study examined how science epistemological beliefs and motivations (i.e., self-efficacy, enjoyment, interest, and instrumental motivation) were related to science performance in the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mainland China samples, using the data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015. The results showed…

Cross-national studies on socioeconomic status (SES) achievement gaps have focused on the size of the gap and given less attention to where in the SES distribution the achievement gap tends to be relatively large within a society, and whether this location varies across countries. We estimate the relative size of achievement gaps between students…

This study utilised 2015 PISA data from the United Kingdom and Hong Kong to examine the relations between outside school ICT use for learning and science performance through a mediation model. The results uncovered three key findings: Firstly, ICT use for learning exhibited negative total effects on science performance in the United Kingdom,…

This article argues that the worlds which comparative education has explored and is exploring are characterised by three main political patterns. The first and oldest is the competitive nation-state as the starting point of the comparison, an educationalised nation-state, one whose relative global strength in economy and military prowess is…

Ability grouping has attracted worldwide attention in relation to various subjects among different countries and regions. However, few studies have focused on the relationship between ability grouping and students' mathematical academic achievement in the Confucian Asian countries. Thus, in this study, we aimed to determine how different types of…

Creativity has fascinated scholars for generations, and its identification as one of the key 'twenty-first century skills' necessary for economic growth has led to renewed interest. This creates two challenges for the OECD: its flagship Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) does not directly measure creativity. Secondly, the…

In the face of ideologically driven inquiry and advocacy, debates about school choice and public-private-partnerships in education have produced more "light than heat." Although scholars have recently emphasized the need for a greater focus on the particulars of policy design, limitations of existing frameworks have inhibited rigorous…

This study explores the factors influencing mathematics performance, teacher satisfaction, and school environment across six economies using data from PISA 2022. Employing hierarchical linear modeling, the research examines individual and institutional variables at the student, teacher, and school levels. Key findings reveal significant…

International large-scale assessments, such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), are a crucial source of information for education researchers and policymakers. The assessment also includes a student questionnaire, however, the data can be biased by the differences in reporting behavior between students. In this paper, we…

The purpose of large-scale international assessments is to compare educational achievement across countries. For such cross-national comparisons to be meaningful, the participating students must be representative of the target population. In this paper, we consider whether this is the case for Canada, a country widely recognised as high performing…

Drawing on the construct of 'externalisation', this article examines how and why national policy experts use international knowledge in education policymaking. To understand how national policy experts deal with external source of information and expertise, I analysed the bibliographic references in policy documents prepared for an education…

According to PISA 2012, mathematics self-beliefs involve three dimensions: mathematics self-efficacy, mathematics self-concept and mathematics anxiety. This study utilized the multiple indicators, multiple causes (MIMIC) method, an approach for detecting whether there is a lack of measurement invariance or differential item functioning (DIF), to…