PISA: Programme for International Student Assessment (2025)

The home learning environment for 15-year-old students has changed in meaningful ways over the last decade, especially after 2018, according to PISA data. The rise of digital technology has meant books – traditionally the leading pedagogical resource – are increasingly competing with digital devices and Internet access. Since 2015, the overall number of books available at home decreased moderately, while the availability of educational software has surged. Certain types of books, such as dictionaries, have decreased the most, probably replaced by digital equivalents (online dictionaries). In contrast, paper copies of classic literature are more widely available at home than before. While there is potential for digital technologies to enhance education, this largely remains untapped, and the risks for adolescents’ well-being are clearer today. Education policy should explore ways to support families and students to navigate these complex changes in the family learning environment, balancing traditional and digital resources effectively.

The results of the PISA 2022 financial literacy assessment show that many 15-year-olds should be better prepared for their financial future, as they are not able to apply their financial knowledge to real-life situations. In every participating country and economy, students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds performed significantly worse than their advantaged peers. PISA data also show that students who discuss money matters with their parents, and those who make autonomous decisions about how to spend their money, achieve higher levels of financial literacy. This PISA in Focus examines the proportion of students who do not achieve baseline financial literacy and explores the links between socio-economic backgrounds, parental interactions and financial literacy performance.

For the first time ever, PISA measured the creative thinking skills of 15-year-old students across the world. Alongside assessments in mathematics, science and reading, students in 64 countries and economies sat an innovative test that assessed their capacity to generate diverse and original ideas, as well as to evaluate and improve upon others’ ideas in creative tasks. These ranged from written and visual expression to scientific and social problem solving. This PISA in Focus highlights some of the main findings from Volume III of PISA 2022. It focuses on the main factors linked to students’ creative thinking performance, including their proficiency in other academic subjects, their gender, socio-economic profile, views on creativity, attitudes, social-emotional characteristics and their school environment.

The upsurge in children’s screen time has sparked concerns about its impact on children’s learning, development, and well-being. Three-quarters of students in OECD countries spend more than one hour per weekday browsing social networks and nearly one in three students gets distracted by using digital devices in class. How to protect and equip students to navigate digital environments? This PISA in Focus explores why students rely on devices and how their digital device use relates to their mathematics performance, sense of belonging at school, and how much they become distracted. It highlights the role of education policies that improve students’ digital skills and behaviours and prepare teachers to teach with technology in protecting students from digital distractions at school and beyond, and building their ability to navigate digital environments.

This policy brief brings together key reflections from the Policy Dialogues in Focus: International Insights for Digital Education Reform in Brazil. This seminar series from the Education Policy Outlook offered federal and subnational policy makers, civil society actors and researchers in Brazil the opportunity to learn from the experiences of six peer education systems (New South Wales (Australia), Chile, Colombia, Ireland, Korea and Mexico). The seminars also provided insights into other relevant international comparative and empirical work from the OECD. The policy brief builds on the main reflections and insights shared by presenters and participants in the seminars, covering four key topics: digital education governance, infrastructure and resources, capacity building and digital learning resources. The brief proposes pointers for policy makers in Brazil to consider when pursuing the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of digital education reforms.

This Education Spotlight, the second in a series of three, presents key lessons and inspiring examples of policy and practice to inform how traditional higher education programmes, like bachelor’s degrees, can effectively cultivate competencies crucial for green and digital innovation. The Spotlight was prepared by the OECD Higher Education Policy Team as part of the Education and Innovation Practice Community (EIPC), an action of the European Union’s New European Innovation Agenda, flagship 4 on “Fostering, attracting and retaining deep tech talent”. EIPC seeks to bring together peers from policy and practice to advance understanding of the competencies that can trigger and shape innovation for the digital and green transitions, and the mechanisms through which higher education can contribute to their development in secondary education, higher education, and adult upskilling and reskilling.