International Comparative Analysis regarding Educational Outcomes : Empirical Evidence from PISA and PIAAC

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze educational outcomes by countries, and to draw policy tasks improving youth and adults’ learning competency. For these objectives, this study comparatively analyzed youth and adults’ learning competency across countries participated in PISA 2012 and PIAAC. As a result, this study identified Korean adults’ learning deficit compared to Korean youth ages, and tried to hypothetically investigate the factors leading to the deficit in the perspective of Korean higher education expansion. Furthermore, this study found that the efficiency level of Korean youth and adult education is relatively low among countries participated in PISA and PIAAC. Those findings provide useful policy implications for improving Korean youth and adults’ learning competency. Firstly, it is necessary to investigate the factors leading to the deficit of adults’ learning competency compared to youths’ outcomes, and to draw useful policy alternatives for those problems. Secondly, it is recommended to maintain Korean youths’ high performance level and reinforce those competencies. Lastly, it is needed to focus the educational efficiency and design new educational system considering not only educational outcome level but efficiency perspective.