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This book is designed to give policy makers, researchers, educational leaders, administrators and teachers a robust, non-specialist source to inform strategic thinking and stimulate reflection on the challenges facing education, whether in schools, universities or in programmes for older adults. It will also be of interest to students and the wider public, including parents.
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What does it mean for education that our societies are becoming more diverse? What does it mean that ICT is playing an ever larger role in our lives? Does it matter for higher education providers that the share of national wealth spent on research and development is increasing? This book is about major developments that are affecting the future of education and setting challenges for policy makers and education providers alike. It does not give conclusive answers: it is not an analytical report nor is it a statistical compendium, and it is certainly not a statement of OECD policy on these different developments. It is instead a stimulus for thinking about major trends with the potential to influence education. While the trends are robust, the questions raised for education in this book are illustrative and suggestive. We invite users to look further and to add to this basic coverage examples of trends from their own countries or regions.
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Our crowded planet: trends in and forecasts about global population levels, as well as the global trend of urbanisation. Populations on the move: brings together trends on migration to and from OECD countries and the resulting growing share of those born in another country. Global environmental challenges: examined through the long-term continuing rise in energy consumption and the accompanying emissions of carbon dioxide. International divides of affluence and poverty: the widening divides between the richer and poorer regions of the world, as well as the world regional differences in declining child mortality. Towards a global economy: the globalisation of economies as shown through growing trade and levels of foreign investment. New global economic powers: the emerging economic powers and the changing global landscape.
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Changing age structures: trends and forecast of changing age structures with smaller numbers of children and growing numbers of older people, and the ratios of working age to retirement-age populations. Changing patterns of social expenditure: compares the changing shares of national income devoted to health and educational expenditures in different countries. Inequality on the rise: presents OECD trends using Gini coefficients and the decomposition of general trends into the fortunes of the better and worse off. The persistence of poverty: focuses especially on numbers of those who are least well off in OECD societies. New forms of community engagement: this section examines international data on participation in voluntary organisations and in online communities. More satisfied with life: examining life satisfaction through the different lenses of subjective reports of happiness in different countries and trends in suicide rates.
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Changing life cycle patterns: changing number of years prior to being in the job market, out of employment, in employment and retirement for women and men. More flexibility in the labour market? Flexibility is examined through trends in the numbers in their current job for longer than 10 years and part-time working by men and women. Knowledge-intensive economies: the growing importance of R&D activities and the number of researchers employed in different countries. Massification and internationalisation of higher education: the rapid expansion of higher education as part of the knowledge-intensive economy comparing the percentage of graduates in younger and older generations, and the long-term growth of international students. Women in the labour market: trends in female employment and the rising qualification levels of women compared with men.
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Living in more diverse families: long-term trends in numbers of marriages and divorces, as well as the share of families headed by a single parent. Smaller families, older parents: the long-term trend to declining birth rates, as well as the older age of mothers when they have their first child. Children’s health: child health examined through obesity levels – growing rapidly in a number of countries – and prescriptions for behavioural disorders in children. Children’s inheritance of life chances: more children live in households defined as being below poverty levels, while the inter-generational bond in educational attainment levels may be loosening. Expecting more of children: the growing general expectations that children should work hard but also be imaginative.
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Towards universal access: the growing and often near-universal access to computers at home, and trend data on access to computers at school. Where do students use computers? Short-run trends based on PISA evidence on computer use by young people at home and at school. The evolving World Wide Web: the rapidly-expanded worldwide network, charted through millions of websites, as well as the growth of Wikipedia as an example of user-generated content. Rapidly growing participation online: trends in Internet use, including by young people. The world in your pocket: this section charts the soaring ownership of mobile phones and the rapidly-growing access to mobile broadband Internet.