Relationships Between Out-of-School-Time Lessons and Academic Performance Among Adolescents in Four High-Performing Education Systems

Introduction

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) focuses on students’ preparedness for life (OECD, 2010c). “PISA underlines, in particular, the need for many advanced countries to tackle educational underperformance so that as many members of their future workforces as possible are equipped with at least the baseline competencies that enable them to participate in social and economic development” OECD, p. 3). Shanghai-China and Singapore took part in PISA for the first time in 2009, while Hong Kong and Korea had begun to participate from 2000 (OECD, 2011a).

The exemplary performance of 15-year-olds from all these four countries on the 2009 PISA placed these education systems on the list of strong performers and successful reformers in education (OECD, 2010b). Moreover, Hong Kong, Korea, Shanghai-China, and Singapore have continuously served as nations with some of the highest-performing education systems in the world (OECD, 2010b; OECD, 2018; Jensen, 2012). According to the OECD (2010b), countries are high-performing educationally if almost all of their students are in high school at the appropriate age; average school performance is high; the top quarter of performers are among the best performers in the world (with respect to their mastery of the complex knowledge and skills needed in advanced economies as well their ability to apply that knowledge and those skills to problems with which they are not familiar); student performance is minimally related to socio-economic background; and spending per pupil is comparatively low. Thus, high-performing education systems place importance on high participation, high quality, high equity, and high efficiency (OECD, 2010b).

The average scores of 15-year-olds in Hong Kong, Korea, Shanghai-China, and Singapore on the PISA 2009 reading, mathematics, and science assessments showcase their excellent performance. The average scores of Shanghai-China’s adolescents in reading, mathematics, and science were 556, 600, and 575, respectively (OECD, 2010c), and they outscored their counterparts from more than 70 countries/economies in all three assessments (Walker, 2011). Korea ranked second in reading (fourth and fifth in mathematics and science, respectively), Singapore ranked second in mathematics (fourth and fifth in science and reading, respectively), and Hong Kong ranked third in mathematics and science and fourth in reading (OECD, 2010c). To contextualize literacy in science, a considerable percentage of students in these societies can identify the scientific components of many complex life situations, apply scientific concepts and knowledge to these situations, and reflect on the appropriate scientific evidence when responding to life situations (OECD, 2011a).

Given the continued superior performance of 15-year-olds in Hong Kong, Korea, Shanghai-China, and Singapore over the last decade on the PISA reading, mathematics, and science assessments, it is crucial to examine the factors that influence these adolescents’ academic performance. Although several such factors may influence the academic performance of adolescents (Winne & Nesbit, 2010), one of the sparsely explored elements influencing the academic performance of adolescents is out-of-school-time lessons; that is, school subject lessons and academic supports held outside of normal school hours (OECD, 2011a). Specifically, there is scarcity of research on the influence of out-of-school-time lessons in mathematics and science on adolescents’ mathematical and scientific literacy in the high-performing East Asian education systems of Hong Kong, Korea, Shanghai-China, and Singapore.