International Online Conference About PISA

PISA research was launched in 2000, bringing the concepts of reasoning and applying knowledge to real-world contexts to the center stage of education.  PISA uses the word “literacy” to encapsulate the nature of this skill. It advocates a shift of focus by education systems from a traditional inward-looking perspective that prefers basic, pure and procedural knowledge, towards an outlook that favors induction, experimentation and modeling.

Some countries, such as the Netherlands, already used a similar vision (Realistic Mathematics) in their curriculum; therefore, their students traditionally perform very well on PISA. Others, such as Singapore, had to go through a significant change in curriculum and teaching methods. Singapore has been revising its curriculum and teacher training since 2003 in line with PISA, and its students are among the top performers. There are countries however, Israel included, that are concerned about their performance on PISA, but not at a level that impels them to make systemic changes.

Now, as first steps towards rethinking how Israel should integrate the applied skills in middle school mathematics are taking place, there is a growing interest around the issue. An emerging community of researchers, developers and teacher leaders is now focusing its efforts on applied mathematics, with the support of the foundation.  In their discussions with each other and with the foundation, they all express their desire to learn more about the PISA framework and about experience in countries that embarked on this direction more than a decade ago. Questions that arise are:

1. What are the similarities and differences between the PISA mathematics framework and other approaches, such as modelling, inquiry and problem solving?
2. How are the top PISA 5-6 levels manifested in practice, in the content of test tasks, learning assignments and instructional practice?
3. How have countries around the world adapted their curriculum and teaching approaches to the PISA framework?
4. What difficulties have teachers encountered in trying to teach this content and how have they overcome them?

In an attempt to address these questions and to assemble knowledge and partners, we approached the University of Haifa. They are proposing to hold an international conference, which will invite as keynote speakers, some of the leading experts in this area, including: Zbigniew Marciniak, the co-chair of the PISA mathematics framework, a mathematics professor from Poland who previously served as Minister of Science and Deputy Minister of Education; and Merrilyn Goos, an expert in mathematics literacy from Australia.

The conference will be held online on 6-7 September 2020, over two days with 150 participants. The first day will be comprised of lectures and panel discussions, while the second will include workshops in which Israeli developers will present their programs and receive feedback from the international guests.

All background materials and the content of the conference and workshops will be fully available to the professional community in an online version, free of charge.

* The text presented above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation Board / Grant 410