●In the past 10 years Korean students have maintained high scores in international scholastic performance on reading, mathematics and science in PISA(Programme for International Student Assessment) and TIMSS(Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study)1). On the other hand, there have not been opportunities to systematically analyze the changes in students' non-cognitive characteristics.
●A cross-section of middle and high school education is examined using the career aptitude test data collected over the past 10 years through the CareerNet(www.career.go.kr) operated by KRIVET and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. In addition, the Statistics Korea's Time Use Survey is analyzed to examine the background to changes in aptitude.
｜ CareerNet's Career Aptitude Test Data
●This study analyzed the data for 127,493 Year 9(Form 3) students and 47,675 Year 11(Form 5) students among those who participated in the aptitude test every March from year 2001 to 2010 through CareerNet.
●To note is that although the year 2001 data was systematically sampled, other years were based on the response results of students who participated in the test on CareerNet, and that aptitude was estimated using the self-rating (1 to 7 scale) method for each set of skills.
01
KRIVET Issue Brief
No.3 2012. 5 . 15
Publisher Young-bum Park｜Publication date 2012. 5. 15｜Published by KRIVET
Changes in secondary high school students ’ aptitude and learning time
Learning time has increased, mathematics and reasoning skills have improved, but non- cognitive skills have diminished
- Of the ten aptitude domains, the scores on ‘Nature-friendly skills’, ‘Creativity’, ‘Language skills’ and ‘Self-examination skills’ have dropped among both male and female students - Only the scores on the aptitude domain of ‘Mathematics and reasoning skills’ have improved - Male students have dropped in scores on ‘Physical and athletic skills’ ‘Spatial and visual skills’, ‘Hand
skills’, ‘Music skills’, and ‘Interpersonal skills’, while there was no change among female students Analytical Background
02 Changes in Middle & High School Students' Aptitude: 2001~2010
｜Notes｜
1) PISA(Programme for International Student Assessment)øÕ TIMSS(Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study)
<Table 1> CareerNet’s Career Aptitude Test and their domains
Domains Definition
Physical and athletic skills Physically agile; able to coordinate body and thinking
Hand skills Good eye-hand coordination; able to make or handle delicate things Spatial and visual skills Receive visual or spatial information and organize it in different ways Music skills Possess a sense of pitch, able to sing, play an instrument and appreciate music Creativity Able to solve problems in a creative manner and generate ideas
Language skills Able to express one’s thoughts and feelings in writing and verbally, and to understand well other people’s verbal and written expressions
Maths and reasoning skills Able to think logically and solve problems mathematically
Self-examination skills Well aware of one’s inner conditions, able to reflect on oneself, and to control emotions Interpersonal skills Able to communicate and work with others
Nature-friendly Able to understand the environmental mutual dependency, to study and protect nature based on genuine interest in nature
｜ Scores Have Fallen for Both Boys and Girls in a Number of Aptitude Domains
●Comparing 2001 and 2010, both boys and girls fell in their scores on ‘Nature-friendly skills’average scores fell by 0.4), ‘Creativity’(average scores fell by 0.1) and on ‘Self-examination skills’(average score dropped by 0.1 for boys and by 0.2 for girls).
●In particular, there was a clear drop of 0.4 in 'Nature-friendly skills'. 'Language skills' scores showed a general downward trend, although there was some deviations for different years; and the decline in the scores for 'Creativeness' and 'Self-examination Skills' was not large, but they have dropped steadily over the years.
｜ Greater Drops among Boys
●Male and female students showed differences in the patterns of changes in the 5 aptitude domains. In the case of boys, the average score for 'Physical and athletic skills' fell by 0.1, 'Hand skills' fell by 0.3, 'Spatial and visual skills' by 0.1, 'Music skills' by 0.1, and 'Interpersonal skills' by 0.1. Compared with boys whose scores fell by a greater degree, girls saw no change or only a slight drop.
KRIVET Issue Brief
[Graph 1] Change in Nature-friendly skills [Graph 2] Change in Creativity
[Graph 3] Change in Language skills [Graph 4] Change in Self-examination skills
[Graph 5] Change in Physical and athletic skills [Graph 6] Change in Hand skills
｜ The Only Increase Recorded in Mathematics and Reasoning Skills
●Scores came down in most domains except in 'Mathematics and reasoning skills which saw a slight increase (the average increase was 0.2 for boys and 0.1 for girls). In the case of Year 9 (Form 3) male students, the score rose from 4.4 to 4.7. High school students' scores fell until year 2004 before picking up thereafter.
｜ Data analyzed: Time Use Survey data
●For analysis of the backdrop against which the changes in aptitude too place, the Time Use Survey data was used. This Survey has been carried out every 5 years since 1999 and the third survey was conducted in 2009.
2012. 5. 15
03 Changes in Middle & High School Students' Learning Hours: 1999~2009
[Graph 7] Change in Spatial and visual skills [Graph 8] Change in Music skills
[Graph 9] Change in Interpersonal skills
[Graph 10] Change in Mathematics and reasoning skills
KRIVET Issue Brief
｜ Increase in Learning Time
●The middle and high school students' learning time, leisure time and sleeping time were analyzed and there was a noticeable change of increased learning time. The average daily learning time, inclusive of formal classroom time, self-study time, and other study/learning time outside school, increased by 36 minutes from 452 minutes in 1999 to 488 minutes in 2009 for middle school boys, while the respective figures for girls were 454 and 493, which is an increase of 27 minutes. The average daily learning time climbed up by 62 minutes for high school boys and 64 minutes for high school girls.
●There was no significant difference between male and female students in terms of the total number of learning time, but the number of private education time increased by a greater extent among girls.
｜ More efforts toward holistic development and raising creative talent
●Over the decade between 2001 and March 2010, the changes in aptitude indicate a decline in self-efficacy over the non-cognitive abilities including 'Self-examination skills', 'Creativity', 'Interpersonal skills', 'Nature- friendly skills', and 'Physical and athletic skills'. However, those changes are not so large in absolute terms and so caution needs to be taken in their interpretation. Meanwhile, considering the increase in the total number of learning time of the students' time use, more in-depth research should take place in analyzing its impact on the change in aptitude.
●As indicated by the outstanding results attained in international scholastic performance assessments, Korea’s education seems to have achieved a great deal on developing the core competencies oriented toward cognitive skills, but more efforts should be put into realizing holistic development inclusive of non- cognitive aspects. Recently, an emphasis has been placed on career education to stress the importance of personality and aptitude and such efforts toward holistic development and creative talent development should continue.
Eon Lim(Research Fellow, KRIVET)
04 Implications
[Graph 11] Change in learning hours among middle and high school students (Unit: Minute)
Samseong-ro 147-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea, 135-949｜Tel : +82-2-3485-5000/5100｜Fax : +82-2-3485-5200｜www.krivet.re.kr
