Trends Spotlight # 16: Writing in a Changing World

Written communication has been thousands of years in the making, but in recent decades the way we write, the skills we use and the role writing plays in the world have all changed. This has important implications for education and skills.

Blog: How technology is enabling new ways of writing

Trends Spotlight # 15: A brave New World: Technology and Education

Rapid technological advances can have an impact on personal, social and professional development. Implications for education include changes in the demand for knowledge and skills as well as expanding possibilities for teaching and learning.

Blog: How can technology support teaching and learning more effectively?

Trends Spotlight # 14: Good vibrations: Students’ well-being

Over the past century, technological development and better access to services has resulted in significant improvements to quality of life. Despite this, however, levels of stress, anxiety and depression are rising. Education has a direct role in shaping individuals’ well-being.

Blog: Why schools should pay more attention to students' mental health  and well-being

Trends Spotlight # 13: Citizens with a say

A well-functioning democracy relies on the knowledge, skills and engagement of its citizens as well as good institutional design. Empowering citizens to understand their rights and fully participate in their societies is part of the mission of schools in all OECD countries.

Blog: Citizenship and education in a digital world

Trends Spotlight # 12: Neurodiversity

Diversity in the classroom includes differences in the way students’ brains learn, or neurodiversity. Neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) affect increasingly large numbers of students. Education systems must work to meet the needs of these students and ensure that all types of learners thrive at school and beyond.

Blog: Different, not disabled: Neurodiversity in education

Trends Spotlight # 11: People on the Move

International mobility is on the rise, and the growing number of people coming and going across borders leads to increasingly diverse communities. Education has an important role to play in developing the competencies required for our increasingly global world.

Trends Spotlight # 10: Globalisation of Risk

Our world is becoming increasingly interconnected. Global risks such as financial crises, cyber risks, pandemics and climate change all require a coordinated international response. Education can play a role in preventing and mitigating these risks by building resilience and developing the responsible and sustainable behaviours needed for a secure, global future.

Trends Spotlight # 9: Country Roads

Quality rural education is important for individual growth and social cohesion as well as regional economic productivity and innovation.

Trends Spotlight # 8: Mind the Gap

As inequality both impacts education and is impacted by it, it is important to better understand how best to help ensure that all students, irrespective of social background, succeed in school and beyond.   

Blog: Mind the Gap: Inequality in education

Trends Spotlight  #7: Gender Equality

Education plays an important role in ensuring that women and men have the same opportunities in their personal and professional lives, through formal schooling, shaping attitudes and transforming behaviours. Yet old stereotypes die hard, and gender still plays a role in a number of ways. This Spotlight takes a look at the issues both in society and in the educational field itself.

Blog: Gender equality in education

Trends Spotlight #6: Modern Families

Families in the OECD are changing. The nuclear family – mother and father, married with children – is becoming less common. The number of reconstituted and single-parent households is rising, families are becoming smaller and individuals are deciding to have children later in life, or not at all.

Blog: Education and the modern family

Trends Spotlight #5: Infinite Connections

ICT has influenced almost all aspects of our lives and has changed the way we communicate, work and socialize. Education plays a key role in ensuring that everyone can reap the benefits of our technology-rich world, as well as help mitigate some of the risks.

Blog: Infinite Connections: The digital divide

Trends Spotlight #4: Think Green

Education plays a crucial role in raising awareness of environmental challenges and shaping the attitudes and behaviours that can make a difference. For basic education as well as vocational education and training, policy measures such as work-based learning and the provision of better career guidance can be powerful tools to strengthen the link between skills development and the green-growth agenda of countries.

Blog: Think Green: education and environmental awareness

Trends Spotlight #3: Urban Life

The rise of urbanisation poses both opportunities and challenges for education – most notably, in developing policies that will ensure that education thrives in tandem with increasing urbanisation.

Blog: The urban paradox

Trends Spotlight #2: Body and Society

The growing rate of obesity is one of the most significant health trends in OECD countries and increasingly, in Brazil, Russia, India and China, the “BRIC” countries.  Perhaps surprisingly, this health trend is also strongly linked to lower educational attainment – both as a cause and as an effect.

Blog: Sweet smarts: fighting the child obesity epidemic

Trends Spotlight #1: Ageing Societies

Countries across the OECD are in the midst of a rapid demographic transformation. Average life expectancy across OECD countries has risen from 69 years in 1970 to an average of 79.7 years in 2010. Countries where life expectancy was once low, such as Turkey, are rapidly reaching the OECD average. Indeed, by 2100, the median age across all OECD and BRIC (Brazil, Russian Federation, India and China) countries is forecasted to reach 45 years. As the average age increases, so too does the proportion of the elderly (> 80 years).

Blog: Our ageing societies