Abstract:

The latest PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results show a worrying trend across Western Europe: a significant decline in test scores for students. Portugal has seen steeper falls than the OECD (Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development), both in Mathematics and Reading, which should sound the alarm in educational policy. Teaching times appear among the variables indicated as being able to have some weight in the different results found in international assessments. Despite its real role being contested by many and the limitations of empirical research that has largely been based on correlational studies, what is certain is that everything indicates that, in fact, we are dealing with a relevant factor. This seems particularly true if one takes into account consideration of “academic learning time” which, being aligned with what the student is capable of learning, corresponds to effective learning. This is a time that is located at the end of a continuum that begins with the total allocated and goes through what is dedicated to instruction and, within this, what is concentrated on teaching, discounting interruptions typical of a class, such as discipline management, and short breaks. It is within this framework that this work is placed. PISA assesses students' performance in reading, mathematics and science, providing valuable insights into the state of education in different countries. One of the factors that has been frequently discussed in relation to the results of the PISA is the weekly workload, that is, the time students spend at school and in activities related to the study. This workload varies significantly between different European educational systems, influenced by a series of factors, such as educational policies, cultural traditions and available resources. In this context, this work presents an investigation that analyzes the relationship between PISA results and weekly workload in European education systems. The research question of this study was: Is there evidence of the existence of a relationship binding between PISA results and the weekly workload of the different systems European educational institutions?.

The general objectives of this study were:
(1) to compare the results PISA with the weekly workload of the different European educational systems,
(2) analyze the relationship between PISA results and the weekly workload of the various European educational systems.

The specific objectives of this study are to identify European educational systems with a greater weekly workload, determine whether there is a possible relationship between the PISA results and the weekly workload of the different European education systems and evaluate the impact of PISA results on the weekly workload of the various European educational systems. The research, narrative review, was carried out using OECD documents with combinations of words "evaluation", "educational systems", "academic learning time", "class hours". This work presents the results obtained within the scope of the aforementioned project, thus constituting a starting point for deepening the study of school times in Portugal.

Keywords:

Programme for International Student Assessment, public policy decisions, academic learning time, school times.