Abstract
The reinforcement of global competence is vital for students to thrive in a rapidly changing world. This study explores the synergistic effects of both student and school factors on the classification of secondary students with high and low levels of global competence. Data are selected based on 208,556 secondary students from 6902 schools in 25 countries/regions and extracted from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 datasets. Different from previous research, in this study, data science techniques, i.e., decision trees (DTs) and random forests (RFs), are adopted. Classification models are built to discriminate high achievers from low achievers and to discover the optimal set of factors with the most powerful impact on the discrimination of these two groups of achievers. The results show that both models have satisfactory classification abilities. According to the factor importance rankings in terms of discriminating global competence disparities, student factors play a major role. They especially emphasize students’ capacities to examine global issues, students’ awareness of intercultural communication, and teachers’ attitudes toward different cultural groups.
Highlights
Based on the elaborate Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 global competence assessment, this study aims to construct classification models of secondary students’ global competence levels with factors from both school and student levels to test their combined effect and identify the optimal set of factors with the most powerful impact on discrimination
The questionnaire data were stored in a student questionnaire dataset and a school questionnaire dataset (URL: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/data/2018database/ accessed on 1 December 2020)
Noting that little research has been conducted regarding the classification of global competence levels, this study is the first to establish models that successfully discriminate high achievers from low achievers
Summary
As globalization has provided more opportunities for students to interact with foreign people and become exposed to different cultures, it has caused tension and anxiety with respect to international competitiveness [1]. To adapt and respond to this challenge, people are looking to education to cultivate students with the ability to better appreciate and benefit from cultural differences; this is called global competence [2]. According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), global competence is defined as ‘the capacity to examine local, global and intercultural issues, to understand and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others, to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with people from different cultures, and to act for collective well-being and sustainable development’ [4] According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), global competence is defined as ‘the capacity to examine local, global and intercultural issues, to understand and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others, to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with people from different cultures, and to act for collective well-being and sustainable development’ [4] (p. 7)
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