International large-scale assessments (ILSAs) such as TIMSS, ICCS, PIRLS, ICILS, PISA, and TALIS provide critical insights into educational outcomes and inequalities across diverse national contexts. They are widely used to monitor trends, enable international comparisons, and inform educational policy and practice (Johansson, 2016). At the same time, ILSAs function as laboratories for methodological innovation, supporting research that links individual outcomes to institutional and systemic conditions (Strietholt & Scherer, 2018). This symposium brings together recent research drawing on multiple ILSAs and is organized into five interrelated thematic sessions addressing digital transformation, civic education, educational inequality, student engagement and well-being, and methodological challenges in international assessment research.

The first thematic area focuses on digital competencies and emerging technologies in education. Drawing on ICILS, TALIS, and TIMSS, papers examine cross-national variation in technology and AI integration, the role of teacher characteristics and professional learning, and how digital provision and pedagogical use relate to achievement and inequality, including disparities linked to socioeconomic background and early tracking.

The second thematic area addresses civic attitudes, values, and engagement among young people. Using ICCS data, contributions explore students’ intentions to participate politically, their attitudes toward minorities, immigrants, and gender equality, and how school experiences relate to tolerant dispositions and engagement with social and environmental issues.

The third thematic area examines structural inequalities and contextual effects in education systems. Papers investigate how school composition, segregation, and socioeconomic context shape achievement and well-being across countries, including intersectional patterns by gender, immigrant background, and socioeconomic status. The session also addresses systemic resource inequalities through evidence on mathematics and science teacher shortages and their unequal distribution across schools.

The fourth thematic area focuses on students’ attitudes, motivation, and psychosocial factors. Contributions examine long-term gender gaps in reading behavior and achievement, the relationship between teacher gender and student outcomes, and trends in test-taking motivation relevant for interpreting achievement changes.

The fifth thematic area is explicitly methodological, with papers analyzing item-level features of achievement scales, participation and sampling standards, and the measurement of socioeconomic status, highlighting how technical choices shape conclusions about trends and inequality.

Overall, the symposium fosters dialogue among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners and advances rigorous, policy-relevant use of ILSAs to support more equitable and effective education systems.

Johansson, S. (2016). International large-scale assessments: what uses, what consequences? Educational Research, 58(2), 139–148. doi:10.1080/00131881.2016.116555 Strietholt, R., & Scherer, R. (2018). The contribution of international large-scale assessments to educational research: Combining individual and institutional data sources. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 62(3), 368-385.