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PISA 2025 Curiosity Perseverance Data: What Parents Should Know
PISA 2025 curiosity perseverance data: 57% don't find learning boring, down in 60 systems. Which traits track with scores and which are just correlated.
The PISA 2025 curiosity perseverance data is the part of the report almost nobody covered, and it may be the most useful section for a parent. The OECD asked 15-year-olds about curiosity, persistence, goal setting, help seeking, growth mindset, and whether school feels worth their time. Then it checked which of those track with actual science scores.
The headline, consistent with the OECD’s September 8 release: engagement fell almost everywhere. The share of students who say they do not find learning new things boring dropped in 60 education systems since 2022, by more than ten percentage points in 30 of them. Not one system moved the other way. And the systems where curiosity fell most are the systems where reading fell most.
Key Takeaways
- 57% of OECD students say they do not find learning new things boring. That share fell in 60 systems since 2022; no system improved.
- 60% say they put in extra effort when work gets challenging (down in 32 systems); 61% say they finish what they start (down in 40 systems); only 52% finish tasks that become boring.
- Curiosity is positively associated with science performance in every participating country with data, after controlling for student and school socio-economic profile.
- Growth mindset carries a 28-point science gap after controls, and the gap is largest for mid-performers, not for struggling students.
- Girls report higher curiosity, perseverance, help seeking, goal setting, and growth mindset; boys report higher cognitive adaptability.
What the PISA 2025 curiosity perseverance measures actually were
PISA 2025 treated student engagement as an outcome in its own right, not just a predictor of test scores. Volume I, released September 8, 2026, groups the measures into three families:
- Motivation: curiosity and perseverance.
- Agency: goal setting and help seeking.
- Learning-related attitudes: growth mindset, beliefs about the nature of science, and cognitive adaptability.
The assessment framework builds these from self-reported agreement statements. Curiosity includes “I am curious about many different things” and whether learning new things is boring. Perseverance asks whether students finish what they start, keep working until a task is done, apply extra effort when work becomes challenging, finish tasks that become boring, and give up easily on long homework assignments.
Self-report has real limits. A 15-year-old rating their own curiosity is not the same as an observed behavior, and cultural response styles differ across countries. The OECD flags this and warns that system-level averages “should be interpreted with caution, since they may mask substantial variation between groups of students.”
Trait by trait: what it is and what it predicts
Here is the summary from Table I.3.1 of Volume I, translated out of OECD shorthand. “After controls” means after accounting for gender and students’ and schools’ socio-economic profile.
| Trait | What PISA measured | Association with science performance | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curiosity | Interest in many things; learning new things not boring | Positive in all participating countries with data | Strength varies; highest-curiosity systems are not always where the link is strongest |
| Perseverance | Finishing, extra effort, not giving up | Positive in all countries except B-S-J-Z (China) and Chinese Taipei | Teacher support and agency strengthen the relationship |
| Growth mindset | Belief that ability can grow | 28 points higher in science after controls | Gap largest among mid-performers; often non-significant among low performers |
| Beliefs about the nature of science | Science is evidence-based, testable, open to scrutiny | Positive, consistent across all systems | One of the clearest links in the table |
| Cognitive adaptability | Adjusting thinking to new situations | Item-dependent | Boys report higher levels |
| Self-regulated help seeking | Asking for help effectively | Item-dependent | Frequent AI users “to help me learn” report more help seeking |
| Self-regulated goal setting | Setting and tracking goals | Mixed, item-dependent | Weakest pattern in the set |
| Sense of belonging | Feeling part of school | Item-dependent | Improved since 2022 in 39 systems |
Two things stand out. Curiosity and beliefs about science are the two measures with consistently positive associations everywhere. Goal setting, the one most likely to appear on a classroom poster, has the weakest pattern.
The connection between engagement and the score declines
This is where the section earns its place. The OECD found that the systems with the largest drops in engagement are also the systems with the largest drops in performance.
Specifically: changes in the share of students agreeing they are “curious about many different things” correlate with changes in reading performance across systems at r = 0.54. Changes in the share who say they finish what they start even when a task becomes boring correlate with reading trends at r = 0.33. And changes in the share who disagree that “school has been a waste of time” correlate with reading changes at r = 0.53.
These are system-level correlations, which are weaker evidence than individual-level analysis, and the OECD says explicitly that they are “not causal.” But the pattern is consistent enough that the report concludes: “Education systems with larger declines in reading performance also tend to show larger declines in engagement.”
There is a matching finding inside the reading test itself. Students’ self-reported effort on the PISA test declined in most countries compared with 2022 and 2018. Performance fell more in the later sections of the test than the early ones. And the share of “hasty readers,” who answer fast and wrong, rose from almost 7% in 2018 to 11% in 2025, a pattern the OECD connects to the broader reading trend. We break that down in our piece on the PISA 2025 reading decline.
The paradox nobody expected
Here is the finding I had to read twice. More students report finding learning new things boring, and more students report feeling more curious than most people they know.
The OECD’s interpretation is worth quoting: this “may point to a widening gap between students’ self-perceived orientation towards exploration and learning, and the extent to which their learning environments stimulate and sustain situational interest.” In plainer terms: kids still think of themselves as curious. Their classrooms are not activating it.
That reframes the problem. If curiosity were simply disappearing from a generation, there would be little a parent could do about a school day. If the disposition is intact but under-stimulated, the opening is in what happens outside instruction, which is where a family operates.
The perseverance data support that read. Among students in the top quarter of the perseverance index, 86% say they like learning new things. Among the bottom quarter, fewer than half do (47%). In Colombia, Guatemala, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Dushanbe (Tajikistan), virtually all highly perseverant students said they like learning new things. Liking and persisting travel together.
What to actually do at home
Make growth mindset language specific, and aim it at the middle
The 28-point growth-mindset gap is real but the nuance matters more than the headline. PISA’s earlier analysis found the gap largest among mid-performers and often non-significant among low performers. So generic “you can grow your brain” talk is least useful for the kid who is furthest behind. For a struggling student, skills first. For a student who is coasting at average, the framing genuinely appears to matter. We cover the mechanism in our piece on what happens in kids’ brains when they get genuinely curious.
Praise persistence on the boring parts, not the fun parts
Only 52% of OECD students finish tasks that have become boring, the lowest of the perseverance items. That is the specific gap. Notice and name it when your child finishes something tedious: “You kept going after it stopped being interesting.” That is the behavior the data say is eroding fastest.
Ask teachers to keep going until kids understand
One of the few teaching variables that correlated with performance change, consistent with TALIS 2024 data on class time: fewer students in 2025 than 2015 report that their science teachers “continue teaching until students understand,” and that change correlates with science performance change at r = 0.32. It is a reasonable thing to raise at a parent conference.
Encourage help seeking explicitly
Help seeking strengthens the link between perseverance and performance, and it is a skill most kids are never taught. Teach the script: name what you tried, name where you got stuck, ask a specific question. Three sentences.
What not to do
Do not treat a low engagement score as a character verdict. The trend appeared in 60 systems simultaneously, which points at environments, not at a generation of lazy children. And do not build a plan around goal setting alone. It has the weakest and most item-dependent association with performance in the entire table.
What to Watch For Over the Next 3 Months
- Week 4: Notice whether your child abandons tasks at the point they become boring rather than the point they become hard. Those are different failures with different fixes.
- Month 2 red flags: “Everything is boring” said about new things specifically. In the PISA data, that item fell in 60 systems and correlates with reading declines.
- Month 3 self-check: Has your child asked for help in a specific, well-formed way at least once? Help seeking is the agency skill that strengthens everything else in the table.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does curiosity actually predict test scores?
It is positively associated with science performance in every participating country with available data, after controlling for student and school socio-economic profile. That is one of the most consistent findings in the report. It is still an association: PISA cannot tell you whether curiosity raises scores or whether doing well makes school more interesting.
How much does growth mindset matter?
PISA 2025 finds students who report a growth mindset score 28 points higher in science after controls. But earlier PISA analysis shows the gap is largest among mid-performers and often not statistically significant among low performers, so it is not a substitute for skill instruction.
Are girls really more curious than boys?
Girls reported higher curiosity, perseverance, help seeking, goal setting, and growth mindset on average, while boys reported higher cognitive adaptability. In 19 systems there was no gender difference in curiosity, and in eight (including B-S-J-Z China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Chinese Taipei) boys reported more. These are self-reports, not observed behavior.
Did student engagement fall everywhere?
Nearly. The share who do not find learning new things boring fell in 60 systems since 2022, with no system improving. Perseverance items fell in 32 to 40 systems. Sense of belonging is the exception: it improved in 39 systems, and fewer students reported feeling lonely at school in 48.
Which trait should I focus on as a parent?
If you have to pick one, perseverance on boring tasks: only 52% of students finish tasks that have become boring, the weakest item in the set, and the perseverance-performance link is positive in nearly every country. Help seeking is the close second because it strengthens the other associations.
About the author
Ricky Flores is the founder of HiWave Makers and an electrical engineer with 15+ years of experience building consumer technology at Apple, Samsung, and Texas Instruments. He writes about how kids learn to build, think, and create in a tech-saturated world. Read more at hiwavemakers.com.
Sources
- OECD. (2026). “PISA 2025 Results (Volume I): Future-Ready Students,” Chapter 3 and Table I.3.1. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/pisa-2025-results-volume-i_73451bc5-en.html
- OECD. (2026). “PISA 2025: Students’ reading and mathematics performance declined sharply across the OECD.” OECD press release, September 8, 2026. https://www.oecd.org/en/about/news/press-releases/2026/09/pisa-2025-students-reading-and-mathematics-performance-declined-sharply-across-the-oecd.html
- OECD. (2026). “PISA 2025 Assessment and Analytical Framework.” OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/86c36975-en
- OECD. (2025). “TALIS 2024 Results.” OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/about/programmes/talis.html
- National Center for Education Statistics. (2026). “Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).” NCES. https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/
- Barnum, M., & Meltzer, E. (2026, September 8). “PISA results 2025 show U.S. gaining as other countries decline.” Chalkbeat. https://www.chalkbeat.org/2026/09/08/pisa-results-2025-show-us-gaining-as-other-countries-decline/
- OECD. (2021). “21st-Century Readers: Developing Literacy Skills in a Digital World.” PISA, OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/a83d84cb-en
