Educational goals and the PISA assessments: introduction to symposium

Abstract

At the European Conference on Educational Research in Budapest in September 2015, a joint symposium was hosted by two of the research networks of the European Educational Research Association (EERA): Network 9 ‘Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement’ and Network 13 ‘Philosophy of Education’. The three papers that follow this Introduction contain the Network 13 contributions to the Symposium, amended and expanded in the light of comments received during the Budapest conference. These contributions are by scholars whose research has been to the forefront in probing ethical and conceptual issues involved in the assessment of students’ achievements. The first paper is by Gert Biesta, Brunel University London and Artez, Institute of the Arts, Netherlands. The second is a joint paper by Andrew O’Shea and Francesca Lorenzi, Dublin City University. The third paper is by Andrew Davis, University of Durham, United Kingdom. A response from Network 9 was contributed by Eugenio Gonzalez, Director of the IEA-ETS Research Institute. This Introduction will outline the background to the symposium, illustrating the main reasons for hosting it as a joint initiative and identifying some of the key educational questions raised by the PISA assessments.