O presente artigo analisa as concepções desenvolvidas por Peter Singer e Onora O’Neill sobre o alívio da pobreza. Para atingir esse objetivo, são apresentadas possíveis formas de entender a pobreza, seguidas de uma comparação das visões dos autores. As proposições de Singer são examinadas à luz do utilitarismo de preferências, visando compreender o desenvolvimento da teoria do autor até a elaboração do altruísmo eficaz. A revisão da teoria de O’Neill, por sua vez, é feita a partir da ética kantiana, tradição (...) na qual a autora se filia, e a partir de sua proposição sobre necessidade do estabelecimento de deveres para o alívio da pobreza. Nas considerações finais, o artigo faz uma comparação crítica entre as duas concepções examinadas. (shrink)

Gerolamo Saccheri, Logica dimostrativa. Edited and translated by Massimo Mugnai and Massimo Girondino. Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2012. Vol. I. LVII +295 pp. Vol. II. II + 168 pp. € 40.00. ISBN...

_Reconceptualizing STEM Education_ explores and maps out research and development ideas and issues around five central practice themes: Systems Thinking; Model-Based Reasoning; Quantitative Reasoning; Equity, Epistemic, and Ethical Outcomes; and STEM Communication and Outreach. These themes are aligned with the comprehensive agenda for the reform of science and engineering education set out by the 2015 PISA Framework, the US Next Generation Science Standards and the US National Research Council’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education. The new practice-focused agenda has (...) implications for the redesign of preK-12 education for alignment of curriculum-instruction-assessment; STEM teacher education and professional development; postsecondary, further, and graduate studies; and out-of-school informal education. In each section, experts set out powerful ideas followed by two eminent discussant responses that both respond to and provoke additional ideas from the lead papers. In the associated website highly distinguished, nationally recognized STEM education scholars and policymakers engage in deep conversations and considerations addressing core practices that guide STEM education. (shrink)

International large-scale assessments have gained much attention since the beginning of the twenty-first century, influencing education legislation in many countries. This includes Spain, where they have been used by successive governments to justify education policy change. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the PISA 2018 reading scores for this country, meaning the OECD refused to initially release the results. Therefore, in this paper we attempt to estimate the likely PISA 2018 reading scores for Spain, and for each region (...) within. The figure finally published by the OECD for Spain – in terms of reading scores – was 476.5 points, which is between the lower and upper bound of the interval we find (475 to 483 test points in 2018). Additionally, we report some robustness checks for the OCED countries participating in PISA 2018, which show that the difference between the actual scores and the ones we found with the imputation methods are quite close. (shrink)

Earlier than the Arabic-Latin transfer of Ptolemaic astronomy via the Iberian peninsula, a serious occupation with Arabic astronomy by Latin scholars took place in crusader Antioch in the first half of the twelfth century. One of the translators of Arabic science in the East was Stephen of Pisa, who produced a commented Latin version, entitled Liber Mamonis, of Ibn al-Haytham’s cosmography, On the Configuration of the World. Stephen’s considerations about the physical universe in relation to the doctrines of Ptolemaic (...) astronomy have hitherto received but little attention. The present paper discusses Stephen of Pisa’s treatment of the planetary spheres in regard to Ptolemy’s theory of oscillating deferents. Emphasis is given to geometric arguments in Stephen’s criticism of Ibn al-Haytham’s spherical model of the inner planets and to Stephen’s own attempt at an improved theory based on additional spheres. The paper argues that astronomical studies in Antioch were of an advanced level, involving independent judgement as well as an influence of contemporary trends in Arabic astronomy. (shrink)

Este ensayo aporta una visión distinta a la interpretación de los resultados comparados de PISA 2000 contra 2015. Donde no se sobredimensiona a los países con mejores condiciones iniciales, ni se estigmatiza a aquellos cuyas condiciones de partida son más difíciles. Por tanto, México no puede ser considerado como el país de la OCDE con el sistema educativo más ineficaz. No existe evidencia que demuestre que estas evaluaciones hayan tenido como consecuencia mejoras en la calidad de la educación. Palabras (...) clave: Calidad de la educación, Evaluación educativa. PISA 2015. (shrink)

A groundbreaking text for the account of the problem of evil in German idealism. Here is a brief review for the German audience.

The OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is increasingly depended upon by education policy makers to provide reliable measures of their country's education system against international benchmarks. PISA attempts to provide efficient, scientific and technical means to develop educational policies which achieve optimal outcomes (Berg & Timmermans, 2000, p. 31). This kind of scientific evidence is seen by policy makers as being free of prejudice and ideology. Science is expected to represent the truth, state universal facts and (...) make predictions. Thus PISA seeks to rank countries' performances, work out future scenarios and offer policy direction. By what means does PISA gain knowledge and speak with confidence about diverse cultures and distant nations? How does it acquire a ‘voice from nowhere’ (Haraway, 1988; Suchman, 2000), and become a modern-day Oracle that countries might consult for policy advice? Modelled on early actor-network accounts of laboratory life, this ethnography traces how PISA knowledge comes to be made, guided by interview data with two ‘insiders’ in the ‘PISA laboratory’. It traces the translations and the circulating reference that turn PISA into a ‘centre of calculation’. It highlights how human and non-human entities are imbricated in the assembling of scientific facts and argues for a suspension of the divide between ‘science’ and ‘politics’. In the process, the paper offers an empirical instantiation of how some concepts from actor-network theory may be applied in the field of education policy, and ponders the implications of such an understanding for evidence based policy making. (shrink)

Academic resilience is evident in students who are living in vulnerable environments, yet achieve success in academic outcomes. As a result, substantial attention has been devoted to identifying the factors associated with academic resilience and supporting students to be resilient. This study used the Classification and Regression Tree and Multilevel Logistic Regression modeling to identify the potential factors related to students’ academic resilience. Using these tools, the study analyzed the B-S-J-G sample in PISA 2015. The variables that significantly predicted (...) whether a student is disadvantaged and resilient or not resilient were shown to be: Proportion of teachers in school with master’s degrees, Proportion of teachers in school with bachelor’s degrees, Environmental awareness, Science learning time per week, Number of learning domains with additional instruction, and Students’ expected occupational status. These findings may enlighten governments, teachers, and parents on ways to assist students to be resilient. (shrink)

Neoliberal educational reforms include extensive use of standardized tests. We examine the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) initiated and developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Examining previous research on teachers’ reactions to neoliberal reforms altering their work context, we have identified three theoretical frameworks in use: labour process theory, derived from structural Marxism; post-structuralism, relying primarily on Foucault’s conceptualizations; and ‘new professionalism’, which has emerged from the theory of professions. A major weakness in these (...) frameworks is their inability to account for different reactions to the same structural and cultural conditions. Therefore, we suggest utilizing Archer’s theories of reflexivity and reflexive modes to understand these reactions. Presenting one Norwegian lower secondary school teacher’s reflexive engagement with PISA in the Norwegian school context as an example, our mixed methods case study indicates autonomous reflexivity as the prevailing mode. Meta-reflexivity rates second in prevalence. (shrink)

Water mattered in medieval Pisa. As it was not a natural port, Pisa had to protect, manage, and maintain its maritime landings and riverine passages to neutralize its Mediterranean competitors and ensure its prosperity. This paper addresses the three bodies of water and waterways most important to the Pisa - the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Auser and Arno rivers - and how architecture interfaced with hydrotopography. Architectural structures defined a unique visual culture in Pisa in practical, (...) topographical, and symbolic ways. The organization of the city, its key monuments, and their ornamentation all demonstrated the significance of the city’s complex relationship with water that was key to Pisa’s success in the Middle Ages. (shrink)

Proceedings of the 1978 Pisa, Italy, September 4-8, 1978 Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science.

Proceedings of the 1978 Pisa, Italy, September 4-8, 1978 Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science.

The OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is increasingly depended upon by education policy makers to provide reliable measures of their country's education system against international benchmarks. PISA attempts to provide efficient, scientific and technical means to develop educational policies which achieve optimal outcomes (Berg & Timmermans, 2000, p. 31). This kind of scientific evidence is seen by policy makers as being free of prejudice and ideology. Science is expected to represent the truth, state universal facts and (...) make predictions. Thus PISA seeks to rank countries' performances, work out future scenarios and offer policy direction. By what means does PISA gain knowledge and speak with confidence about diverse cultures and distant nations? How does it acquire a ‘voice from nowhere’ (Haraway, 1988; Suchman, 2000), and become a modern‐day Oracle that countries might consult for policy advice? Modelled on early actor‐network accounts of laboratory life, this ethnography traces how PISA knowledge comes to be made, guided by interview data with two ‘insiders’ in the ‘PISA laboratory’. It traces the translations and the circulating reference that turn PISA into a ‘centre of calculation’. It highlights how human and non‐human entities are imbricated in the assembling of scientific facts and argues for a suspension of the divide between ‘science’ and ‘politics’. In the process, the paper offers an empirical instantiation of how some concepts from actor‐network theory may be applied in the field of education policy, and ponders the implications of such an understanding for evidence based policy making. (shrink)

This article gives a critique of the methodology of OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). It is argued that PISA is invalidated by the fact that the methodology chosen does not constitute an adequate operationalisation of the question of inquiry. Therefore, contrary to the claims of PISA, PISA is not an assessment of the ‘knowledge and skills for life’ of students, but only of ‘knowledge and skills in assessment situations’. Even this latter form of assessment (...) is not fully reliable, however, because of problems at the level of concrete test items and because of an inherent confusion of relative and absolute evaluation. (shrink)

The OECD global governance of education has been gradually increasing. Its field of interest is currently expanding from educational evaluation through PISA to curriculum reform through the Education 2030 project. Here, it is interesting to note that the nature of the terms the OECD has been creating reveals a ‘humanistic turn’. This shows up well in the frequent occurrence of terms such as ‘well-being’, ‘attitudes and values’, ‘inclusiveness’, ‘responsibility’, and ‘sustainability’ in the ongoing Education 2030 project. Perhaps this new (...) humanistic discourse increases the likelihood of the smooth adoption of the OECD’s proposed curriculum redesign in more countries. If the OECD’s new discourse captures and transforms contemporary people's ways of thought and practice about education, then this is related to the problem of colonialism in our era. It is also worth noting that language plays a vital role in colonization. In particular, the need for translation between different languages serves as a useful means for colonization. Conversely, it is also seen as having a potential decolonizing power. In this context, I would like to examine the new language the OECD has adopted, specifically regarding student experience and the nature of knowing. Next, I shall attempt to criticize the underlying educational assumptions in the OECD’s pronouncements. Following this, I shall explore how the OECD’s new discourse has been translated in South Korea, taking this as an example of wider experience in the East Asian context and possibly elsewhere. Finally, I shall conclude by considering the direction of curriculum decolonization in terms of translation. (shrink)