En hel del av skoldebatten, såväl i Sverige som i andra länder, fokuserar på PISA-resultaten, som anger hur väl 15-åringar behärskar läsning, matematik och naturvetenskap. I denna figur illustreras skillnaderna mellan länder:

En viktig fråga rör hur dessa skillnader i skolprestationer mellan länder kan förklaras. En ny studie, ”Culture and Student Achievement: The Intertwined Roles of Patience and Risk-Taking”, undersöker kulturella faktorers roll – närmare bestämt om ett lands tids- och riskpreferenser bidrar till att förklara skillnaderna. Det verkar de i hög grad göra:

Our baseline analysis finds a strong and competing relationship between the two intertemporal cultural traits and students’ educational achievement. Patience has a strong positive and risk-taking a strong negative association with test scores. The substantial positive correlation between the two implies that looking at these cultural values individually gives very misleading results and that it is important to condition on the one when interested in the effect of the other. Together, the two aggregate intertemporal cultural components account for two-thirds of the variation in country average scores. Thus, a significant portion of the cross-country variation in student achievement may be closely related to fundamental cultural differences that play out in human capital investment decisions.

Kulturella skillnader länder emellan avseende tålamod och risktagande har alltså ett stort förklaringsvärde när det gäller prestationer i skolan. Genom vilka mekanismer? Forskarna skriver:

Patience is significantly positively correlated with aggregate indicators
of family inputs, school inputs, and residual achievement differences (which likely combine productivity differences with unobserved inputs) across countries. Risk-taking is negatively correlated with family and residual inputs. Results are consistent with culture working through
various input channels, with a particularly important role for family and residual inputs.

Intressanta resultat som jag hoppas finner sin väg in i svensk skoldebatt. Finns här något att lära om hur man kan stärka de kulturella drag som verkar generera högpresterande elever?