Global Competencies and Sustainable Development: Slovenian Students in the PISA 2018 Study Klaudija Šterman Ivančič and Urška Štremfel
Summary: Slovenia examined global competencies of 15-year-olds in the framework of the PISA 2018 for the first time OECD (2020a). In this paper, we were interested how Slovenian students report perceived global competencies compared to their peers from the OECD countries and whether there are differences in perceived global competencies of students within different groups (gender, immigrant background and socio-economic status). For the purposes of the analysis, we included a representative sample of 6074 15-year-old Slovenian students from the PISA 2018 sample. Results of PISA 2018 (OECD 2020a) demonstrate that, compared to the OECD average, Slovenian 15-year-olds reported lower perceived global competencies and that in Slovenia there are significant differences in global competencies between different groups of students. Significantly lower global competencies were reported mainly from boys, and those who reported low socio-economic status. Significant differences were identified in the lower perceived self-efficacy in explaining global issues, lower awareness of global issues, intercultural communication skills and responsiveness to global issues, therefore skills to some extent related to knowledge that could be systematically developed in educational process. The results indicate, which are the groups of male and female students who would need special attention in strengthening their global competencies in schools.