School achievement and health development in the Nordic countries : Knowledge gaps and concerns about school-age children

School achievement has increasingly come into focus during the last decades. The overall aim of this report is to highlight the need for knowledge for promoting health and development among school-aged children in the Nordic countries. Learning in school and for life is a key element for future well-being and quality of life. The present analysis did not have the resources nor time to do a systematic review. Therefore, a more selective approach was taken based on previous reviews and partly working as a scoping review. The different sections of the report conclude with a list of knowledge gaps and concerns. The research methodology in the relevant disciplinary fields are diverse and is also affected by the paradigm war, that is, difference scientific approaches do not share basic assumptions, research procedures and analytical methods. Therefore, an introductory section deals with this challenge. What is needed in this field is scientific knowledge as well as practical knowledge and practical wisdom to guide the further development of the school system. The school systems in the Nordic countries are similar but also different. We can learn from each other both from successes and failures, which merits a brief overview of the Nordic school systems follows. The school for all has been a joint characteristic of the Nordic school system, but it has been challenges by the neo-liberal policies such as school choices and privatisation. School achievement is a major focus in this report. However, in order to do multi-country comparison, the development of the international large-scale assessments has been of crucial as a research infrastructure. The report gives some recent results from the 2018 PISA study. This study concerns mainly three different aspects of inequality in school achievements. (i) Gender differences in school achievement are a universal finding. (i) Gender differences in school achievement are a universal finding. Boys are falling behind girls. What do we
Positive Mental Health among School-aged Children in the Nordic Countries