#114

How socio-economics plays

into students learning
on their own: clues to
i n F o c u s COVID-19 learning losses
Programme for International Student Assessment
 How socio-economics plays into students learning
on their own: clues to COVID-19 learning losses

• An average of 84% of students in OECD countries reported in 2018 that they can usually navigate
through a difficult situation; 81% reported their goals are to learn as much as possible; 77% reported
they find satisfaction in working as hard as they can.
• Socio-economically advantaged students reported more self-efficacy in getting through a difficult
situation than disadvantaged students in all countries and economies that participated in PISA 2018
except Italy and the Netherlands.
• Socio-economically advantaged students have more mastery-approach goals when learning than
disadvantaged students in almost all countries and economies.
• Socio-economically advantaged students show more motivation to master tasks than disadvantaged
students in almost all countries and economies.
• In almost all countries and economies participating in PISA 2018, students who perceive more parental
support have more self-efficacy, mastery-approach goals and motivation compared to students and
schools with similar socio-economic profiles.

Most students have the beliefs
and dispositions to help them
cope and learn in challenging
situations
The current pandemic has been ongoing since early
2020. This has affected ways in which teaching and
learning are organised. Schools have had to provide
education in different ways from the past. A special
survey conducted as a collaborative effort between
the OECD, UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank
showed that upper-secondary schools were fully
closed for over 65 days in 2020 on average across
OECD countries with available data. But the extent
of closure varies across countries. The special survey
also showed that where school closures were needed
many countries made major efforts to mitigate their
impact on students, focusing especially on vulnerable
students by providing remedial measures to reduce
students’ learning gaps. Despite these efforts,
recently released studies1 have shown that learning
loss during the pandemic was most pronounced
among socio-economically disadvantaged students
and schools.
Learning loss is a product of many aspects, including
whether education systems have provided relevant
opportunities, resources and support and whether
students were ready for new challenges and could
adjust to new ways of learning. This policy brief
focuses on the extent to which students were ready
to learn in challenging situations, looking at data
collected before the Covid-19 pandemic.
PISA 2018 data provides opportunities to analyse
students’ sense of efficacy in difficult circumstances
and their approach to learning, i.e. mastery-approach
goals and motivation to master tasks.
In 2018, PISA asked students about their general
sense of efficacy; that is, the extent to which students
believe in their own ability to engage in certain
activities and perform specific tasks – especially
in adverse circumstances. An average of 84% of
students in OECD countries agreed or strongly agreed
with the statement “When I’m in a difficult situation,
I can usually find my way out of it” while 72% agreed
or strongly agreed with the statement “My belief in
myself gets me through hard times”.
When it comes to learning, in general, optimal
learners set mastery-approach goals, i.e., striving to
improve one’s learning and having the dispositional
desire to work hard to master tasks. Studies show
that students who adopt mastery-approach goals

2 © OECD 2021 PISA in Focus 2021/114 (September)

engage in deep learning, persist in spite of failure and
show high levels of intrinsic motivation2. Adopting
mastery-approach goals and motivation is even more
important in a pandemic situation where teaching
and learning have had to be adjusted and students
expected to take control of their learning more than
before. On average across OECD countries, 81% of
students responded that the statement “My goal is
to learn as much as possible” is “moderately true of
Student self-efficacy, learning goals and motivation
Percentage of students who reported to agree/strongly agree or who reported the following statements are
moderately/very/extremely true of them; OECD average
% Self-efficacy
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
When I’m in a My belief in myself
difficult situation, gets me through hard
I can usually find times
my way out of it
Notes: Students reported to “agree” or “strongly agree” with the statements related to self-efficacy and motivation to master tasks.
Students reported the statements related to learning goals are “moderately true of me”, “very true of me” or “extremely true of me”.
Source: OECD, PISA 2018 Database, https://webfs.oecd.org/pisa2018/PiF_114_Tables.xlsx
However, student readiness varies
according to socio-economic
backgrounds
While most students responded that they have
efficacy in getting through difficult situations, set
mastery-approach learning goals and are motivated to
master tasks, some socio-economic disparities were
observed with these indicators. Several questions
were summarised to measure each of these three
aspects (see Box 1 for detailed descriptions).
In all countries and economies participating in
PISA 2018 except Italy and the Netherlands,
socio-economically advantaged students reported
me”, “very true of me” or “extremely true of me” and
77% responded similarly to the statement “My goal
is to completely master the material presented in
my classes”. Regarding motivation to master tasks,
77% of students agreed or strongly agreed with the
statement “I find satisfaction in working as hard as
I can” and 71% reported so with the statement
“Once I start a task, I persist until it is finished”.
Learning goals Motivation to master tasks
My goal is to learn as My goal is to I find satisfaction Once I start a task,
much as possible completely master the in working as hard I persist until it is
material presented in as I can finished
my classes
that they have more self-efficacy to get through a
difficult situation than disadvantaged students.
In almost 80% of countries and economies,
socio-economically advantaged students reported
that they are more likely to have mastery-approach
goals when learning than disadvantaged students.
Only in Turkey was the opposite observed with
more socio-economically disadvantaged students
tending to adopt such goals than advantaged
students. In almost all countries and economies,
socio-economically advantaged students are more
motivated to master tasks than disadvantaged
students. Only in the Netherlands do
socio-economically disadvantaged students show
more motivation than advantaged students.
© OECD 2021 PISA in Focus 2021/114 (September) 3
Socio-economic differences in readiness to learn
Self-efficacy Learning goals Motivation to master tasks

Socio-economically Socio-economically
disadvantaged students Socio-economically advantaged disadvantaged students Socio-economically advantaged
more ready to learn students more ready to learn more ready to learn students more ready to learn

Finland Bosnia and Herzegovina

Korea Moldova
B-S-J-Z (China) Israel
Lebanon OECD average
Iceland Baku (Azerbaijan)
North Macedonia Russia
Saudi Arabia Kosovo
Ukraine Dominican Republic
Estonia Hong Kong (China)
Bulgaria Germany
Philippines Kazakhstan
Australia Argentina
Georgia United Kingdom
Sweden France
Romania Colombia
Canada Croatia
Luxembourg Turkey
Belarus Austria
Albania Malta
Poland Slovenia
Qatar Peru
New Zealand Chile
Hungary Slovak Republic
Denmark Costa Rica
Latvia Czech Republic
Panama Ireland
Jordan Switzerland
Macao (China) Malaysia
Spain United States
Thailand Portugal
Brunei Darussalam United Arab Emirates
Lithuania Brazil
Greece Singapore
Morocco Belgium¹
Serbia Indonesia
Japan Italy
Mexico Netherlands
Chinese Taipei Norway
Uruguay Viet Nam
Montenegro

-0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Index-point difference Index-point difference

1. Only the Flemish Community distributed the question on self-efficacy.

Note: Statistically significant values are shown in darker tones.
Countries and economies are ranked in descending order of the difference between advantaged and disadvantaged students in the index of
self-efficacy.
Source: OECD, PISA 2018 Database, https://webfs.oecd.org/pisa2018/PiF_114_Tables.xlsx

Students who are ready for
learning perform better
Students who have mastery-approach goals, the
motivation to master tasks and efficacy in difficult
situations obtained higher scores in the PISA 2018
reading test. These performance differences are not
a mere reflection of socio-economic differences in
student beliefs and dispositions. These findings on
performance differences held even when students
with similar socio-economic backgrounds were
compared in at least 80% of countries and economies
that participated in PISA 2018.
While there is no data yet on the relationship
between these beliefs and dispositions, and
student performance after the pandemic hit, they
are expected to have played a crucial role in how
students continued their own learning during
challenging school closures.

4 © OECD 2021 PISA in Focus 2021/114 (September)

Readiness to learn and reading performance
After accounting for students’ PISA index of economic, social and cultural status

Score-point difference in reading per unit-increased in the Index of:

Self-efficacy Learning goals Motivation to master tasks

Students who reported greater readiness Students who reported greater readiness
to learn scored lower in reading to learn scored lower in reading
Lebanon Ukraine
Jordan Hungary
Saudi Arabia Sweden
Philippines Poland
Morocco Spain¹
Bulgaria OECD average
Israel Denmark
Estonia Korea
North Macedonia Mexico
Thailand Moldova
Georgia Italy
Qatar Baku (Azerbaijan)
Brunei Darussalam Brazil
Finland Germany
Iceland Canada
Malta Argentina
Latvia Macao (China)
Greece Australia
Dominican Republic Kazakhstan
Luxembourg Uruguay
United Arab Emirates Czech Republic
Panama Croatia
Lithuania Students who Costa Rica Students who
Romania reported greater New Zealand reported greater
Bosnia and Herzegovina readiness to learn Belgium² readiness to learn
Serbia scored higher in Netherlands scored higher in
Peru reading Russia
reading
Chinese Taipei Portugal
Kosovo Ireland
Turkey Chile
Slovenia United States
Colombia United Kingdom
Malaysia Hong Kong (China)
Slovak Republic France
Montenegro Singapore
Switzerland Indonesia
Austria Japan
Albania B-S-J-Z (China)
Belarus Norway

-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Score-point difference Score-point difference

1. For the comparability of Spain’s data see PISA 2018 Results (Volume I): What Students Know and Can Do, Annex A9.
2. Only the Flemish Community distributed the question on self-efficacy.
Notes: Statistically significant values are shown in darker tones.
Results based on linear regression analysis after accounting for students’ PISA index of economic, social and cultural status.
Countries and economies are ranked in descending order of the association between the index of self-efficacy and reading performance.
Source: OECD, PISA 2018 Database, https://webfs.oecd.org/pisa2018/PiF_114_Tables.xlsx

Parents can play a crucial role
Student belief and dispositions are the result of a
lifetime of socialisation from parents, teachers, and
one’s cultural surroundings. PISA results suggest
that parents especially play a crucial role in students
developing mastery-approach goals, motivation for
learning and the efficacy required to get through
difficult situations. In almost all countries and
economies that participated in PISA 2018, students
who felt they had more parental support tended
to have self-efficacy, mastery-approach goals and
motivation even after accounting for student and
school socio-economic profile. These students
reported that their parents support their educational
efforts and achievements when they are facing
difficulties at school, and encourage them to be
confident.

© OECD 2021 PISA in Focus 2021/114 (September) 5

Parents’ emotional support perceived by students and readiness to
learn
After accounting for schools’ and students’ PISA index of economic, social and cultural status

Index-point increase in the following indices per unit-increase in the index of parents' emotional support perceived by students:
Self-efficacy Learning goals Motivation to master tasks

Students who reported greater parents' Students who reported greater parents'
emotional support were less ready to learn emotional support were less ready to learn
Lebanon Czech Republic
North Macedonia Peru
Dominican Republic Malta
Saudi Arabia Panama
Georgia Australia
Albania Greece
Jordan Italy
Bulgaria Uruguay
Baku (Azerbaijan) Denmark
Serbia OECD average
Kosovo Brazil
Korea Slovenia
Qatar Austria
Montenegro Hong Kong (China)
Bosnia and Herzegovina Belarus
United Arab Emirates Chinese Taipei
Moldova New Zealand
Morocco Ukraine
Philippines Poland
Romania Portugal
Sweden Spain
Thailand Japan
United States Ireland
Turkey United Kingdom Students who
Lithuania Netherlands reported greater
Kazakhstan Macao (China) parents' emotional
Iceland Switzerland support were more
Luxembourg Germany ready to learn
Chile Latvia
Hungary Indonesia
Argentina Slovak Republic
Costa Rica Students who Singapore
Mexico reported greater Malaysia
Estonia parents' emotional Brunei Darussalam
Colombia support were more Belgium¹
Russia ready to learn France
Finland Norway
B-S-J-Z (China) Viet Nam
Croatia

-0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Index-point difference Index-point difference

1. Only the Flemish Community distributed the question on self-efficacy.

Notes: All values are statistically significant.
Results based on linear regression analysis after accounting for schools’ and students’ PISA index of economic, social and cultural status.
Countries and economies are ranked in descending order of the association between the indices of parents’ emotional support and self-efficacy.
Source: OECD, PISA 2018 Database, https://webfs.oecd.org/pisa2018/PiF_114_Tables.xlsx

6 © OECD 2021 PISA in Focus 2021/114 (September)

Box 1. How PISA measured self-efficacy, learning goals, motivation to
master tasks and parental support
The index of self-efficacy summarises students’ responses (strongly disagree, disagree, agree and
strongly agree) to the following questions:
• I usually manage one way or another.
• I feel proud that I have accomplished things.
• I feel that I can handle many things at a time.
• My belief in myself gets me through hard times.
• When I’m in a difficult situation, I can usually find my way out of it.
The index of learning goals summarises students’ responses (not at all true of me, slightly true of
me, moderately true of me, very true of me, extremely true of me) to the following questions:
• My goal is to learn as much as possible.
• My goal is to completely master the material presented in my classes.
• My goal is to understand the content of my classes as thoroughly as possible.
The index of motivation to master tasks summarises students’ responses (strongly disagree,
disagree, agree and strongly agree) to the following questions:
• I find satisfaction in working as hard as I can.
• Once I start a task, I persist until it is finished.
• Part of the enjoyment I get from doing things is when I improve on my past performance.
The index of parents’ emotional support perceived by students summarises students’ responses
(strongly disagree, disagree, agree and strongly agree) to the following questions:
• My parents support my educational efforts and achievements.
• My parents support me when I am facing difficulties at school.
• My parents encourage me to be confident.
All these indices were standardised to have an OECD mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1.

The bottom line

When asked about this in 2018, most students responded that they believe in their ability to get through a
difficult situation and are motivated to learn as much as possible. But socio-economically disadvantaged
students exhibit less of these beliefs and dispositions. There is no data yet on the relationship between
these beliefs and dispositions, and student performance after the pandemic hit. The implication, however,
is that the socio-economic gap in student performance may have widened during the pandemic when
students – more than ever before – must learn, set goals and motivate themselves in complex and
ambiguous circumstances. For students to be prepared for uncertainties and have the resilience to
navigate through unforeseen challenges, teachers, communities and especially parents and carers
should help them develop confidence, self-efficacy, and mastery-approach goals that will see them
through.

© OECD 2021 PISA in Focus 2021/114 (September) 7

Notes

1. Some examples include those in England (Renaissance Learning, Education Policy, 2021), the Flemish community in
Belgium (Maldonado and DeWitte, 2020), and in the Netherlands (Engzell, Frey and Verhagen, 2021).

2. See more details in Chapter 7 of the PISA 2018 Assessment and Analytical framework (OECD, 2019).

For more information

Contact: Miyako Ikeda (miyako.ikeda@oecd.org) and Alfonso Echazarra

This paper is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and the arguments
employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries.

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