Apology to Tolstoy, “All low-PISA scored countries are alike, each high-PISA scored country differs in its own way.”
Bhanupong Nidhiprabha, Thammasat University: The authors classify 59 countries according to their education systems into eight groups, whose science PISA median scores are compared. Based on the median science scores, three groups are outstanding in their performances. The first group includes Australia, Canada, Taipei, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, United Kingdom, and the United States. The second group contains Austria, Finland, Germany, and Switzerland. The third outstanding group consists of Chile, Ireland, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macao, and Japan.
The authors argue that there is no “East-Asian model” because East Asian countries have different modes of education. Moreover, Vietnam, South Korea, Hong Kong, and BSJG-China performed well even though they do not belong to three clusters mentioned earlier.
The authors conclude that each country can improve its education system by emulating the practices of...