Hundreds of thousands high school pupils are tested every three years by the OECD in maths, science and reading comprehension. The leading benchmark for international education comparisons is OECD’s Programme for International Assessment (PISA). This is used to teach policymakers what the best-performing school systems are and what can be improved.
More than half a million students in 72 countries were assessed in a study conducted in 2015. This latest PISA test was the first to question the recipients about their emotional and social wellbeing, which includes asking about their peers, relationships, parents and teachers.
It was found that the relationship between family circumstances and psychological well-being are just as important as their schooling life; both equally play a part in the eventual result. An evident conclusion that was found from the study was the students’ motivation for success regardless of their natural aptitude.
The two types of motivation are distinguished as external motivation (pressure produced by others) and intrinsic motivation (interest or enjoyment in the task itself). It was found that students who believed they were ambitious – those with intrinsic motivation – said they felt less anxious than those who didn’t. Pupils who wanted to be the best in their class – those with external motivation – had more anxiety than the less competitive classmates.
It was found that even though anxiety can reduce academic performance, a handful of places such as Singapore performed very well despite the high level of anxiety and competitiveness. However, most countries started to perform badly once the competitiveness and anxiety levels were high, such as in the Dominican Republic and Columbia. In contrast, countries such as Netherlands and Czech Republic displayed a low level of competitiveness and anxiety but had strong results.
OECD put it best by saying “motivation driven primarily by outsiders can lead to disabling perfectionism”.
