Includ-ed, red europea de educación inclusiva

On 9th September, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) launched the annual report ‘Education at a Glance 2014’ on the state of play and challenges faced by national education systems. These years’ report highlights once more the growing importance of investment in education for future growth and employment in the EU and for more inclusive European societies.

The report covering 34 OECD member countries (including 21 EU Member States) draws on data compiled by the OECD, Eurostat and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It provides data on the structure, finances, and performance of education based among others on the following widely known OECD surveys: Survey of Adult Skills, PISA - Programme for International Student Assessment measuring the skills of 15 year olds, and TALIS - Teaching and Learning International Survey on teachers and school leaders.

[incluD-ed published position papers on the Survey of Adult Skills and the PISA study we invite you to read.]

The Education at a Glance 2014 edition introduced new chapters such as on becoming a teacher and professional development activities for teachers. It furthermore provides data on attainment, employment, intergenerational education mobility, earnings, and social outcomes related to skills proficiency as well as on upper secondary completion rates and the types and use of student loans. Of great interest is as well the OECD’s analysis of the impact of the recent economic crisis on the interplay among educational attainment, employment, earnings and public finance.

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incluD-ed analysed the report in regards to inclusive education and related issues and could find some references to students with special education needs that are of interest to the incluD-ed virtual community:

 ‘Education at a Glance 2014’ underlines in its editorial that “the increasing social divide between the educational “haves” and “have-nots” – and the risks that the latter are excluded from the social benefits of educational expansion – threatens societies as a whole.” Now that skill levels are raised in general, it is important to pay attention to the way education and skills are distributed across the population. “Analysis of data from the Survey of Adult Skills shows that when people of all skills levels benefit from greater access to education, so do economic growth and social inclusion. Countries with small shares of low-skilled adults and large shares of high-skilled adults – i.e. countries with a higher degree of inclusiveness in their skills distribution – do better in terms of economic output (per capita GDP) and social equality (Gini coefficient) than countries with a similar average level of skills but with larger differences in skills proficiency across the population (Van Damme, 2014)”, as resumed in the ‘Education at a Glance 2014’ report.

1. 1. The report states that more and more children with special needs are integrated into mainstream classes what leads to a greater need and use of more specialized personnel and support services. Nevertheless, this impacts the resources available to reduce the student-teacher ratios (see Education at a Glance 2014, p. 445).
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2. 2. Teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction is related to the type of students in a teacher’s class, so “findings from TALIS 2013 suggest that priority should be given to ensuring that teachers are well equipped to teach diverse and challenging classrooms. This is especially important when considering that more than one in five lower secondary teachers, on average, reported that they need professional development in order to teach students with special needs and another 13% reported a need for professional development in the area of student behaviour and classroom management” (ibid., p. 447).
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3. 3. Teacher training is increasingly seen as a process of lifelong learning since knowledge and understanding of teaching, skills and practices as well as expectations of staff may change over time. The 2014 report gives in this regard several examples including “the growing diversity of learners, the greater integration of children and students with special needs, and the increasing use of information and communication technologies”. In regards to vocational education and training, the report clearly underlines that “teachers and trainers need to remain up-to-date with the changing requirements of the modern workplace (OECD, 2005)” (ibid., p. 518)
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3. According to the 2013 OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), teachers themselves across all participating countries report a high level of need for professional development in regards to teaching students with special needs. “About 22% of teachers, on average, report that they need more professional development regarding this specific aspect of teaching, reaching a high of 60% of teachers in Brazil and 47% in Mexico” (ibid., p. 521).

 

Find more information on the OECD report “Education at a Glance 2014” and the press release by the European Commission here.