Below the average: Some results, strengths and weaknesses of differrent way of representing comparisons by country, exemplified by the IEA Civic Education study.

Abstract

This paper is aimed at the two following goals: First, an overview of the Swiss results of the IEA study on Civic Education, a comparative study across 28 countries, is presented. Regarding most major topics (civic knowledge; civic skills; civic concepts with respect to democracy and citizenship; civic attitudes, and participatory action) the Swiss students aged 14/15 years score below the mean, as compared to the 27 other countries. On the one hand, these results put politicians in the field of education under the pressure to change something. On the other hand, we are urged to raise, as the second goal, the question whether this type of international comparison studies (PISA as another example) is somehow politically incorrect or obsolete. This second question is treated under the heading «Intellectual Olympic Games».