Innovating Assessments To Measure And Support Complex Skills

Policy makers around the world recognise the importance of developing young people’s 21st century skills like problem solving, creative thinking, self-regulation and collaboration. Many countries also include these skills as part of the intended learning outcomes of their education systems.

Policy makers around the world recognise the importance of developing young people's 21st century skills like problem solving, creative thinking, self-regulation and collaboration. Many countries also include these skills as part of the intended learning outcomes of their education systems. To shift intention into practice, educational assessments need to better measure what matters. Innovative assessments are needed that combine conceptual, technological and methodological advances in educational measurement. This report explores new approaches to measuring complex skills through a practical and applied assessment design lens, bringing together perspectives from leading experts to consider what we can learn from the learning sciences to define more authentic assessment experiences and expand the range of skills we are able to measure in both disciplinary and cross-disciplinary contexts of practice. The report also examines how technology can expand our possibilities for innovation, including the creation of more interactive and immersive problems and the generation of meaningful sources of potential evidence about students' proficiency. Finally, the report explores how we can make sense of the rich data captured in interactive digital environments using new analytical approaches, and how we can ensure the valid interpretation and use of results from innovative assessments.

Policy makers around the world recognise the importance of developing young people's 21st century skills like problem solving, creative thinking, self-regulation and collaboration. Many countries also include these skills as part of the intended learning outcomes of their education systems. To shift intention into practice, educational assessments need to better measure what matters. Innovative assessments are needed that combine conceptual, technological and methodological advances in educational measurement. This report explores new approaches to measuring complex skills through a practical and applied assessment design lens, bringing together perspectives from leading experts to consider what we can learn from the learning sciences to define more authentic assessment experiences and expand the range of skills we are able to measure in both disciplinary and cross-disciplinary contexts of practice. The report also examines how technology can expand our possibilities for innovation, including the creation of more interactive and immersive problems and the generation of meaningful sources of potential evidence about students' proficiency. Finally, the report explores how we can make sense of the rich data captured in interactive digital environments using new analytical approaches, and how we can ensure the valid interpretation and use of results from innovative assessments.

In today’s rapidly changing and information-rich world, students are not acquiring adequate knowledge and skills to prepare them for careers in mathematics, science, and technology with the traditional approach to assessment and instruction. New competencies (e.g., information communication and technology skills) are needed to deal successfully with the deluge of data. In order to accomplish this, new "educationally valuable" skills must be acknowledged and assessed. Toward this end, the skills we value and support for a society producing knowledge workers, not simply service workers, must be identified, together with methods for their measurement. Innovative Assessment for the 21st Century explores the faces of future assessment—and ask hard questions, such as: What would an assessment that captures all of the above attributes look like? Should it be standardized? What is the role of the professional teacher?

This book provides a detailed description of research and application outcomes from the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills project, which explored a framework for understanding the nature of these skills. The major element of this new volume is the presentation of research information from the global assessment of two 21st century skills that are amenable to teaching and learning: collaborative problem solving, and learning in digital networks. The outcomes presented include evidence to support the validity of assessment of 21st century skills and descriptions of consequent pedagogical approaches which can be used both to teach the skills and to use them to enhance key learning goals in secondary education systems. The sections of the volume are connected through a focus on the degree to which innovative assessment tasks measure the constructs of interest. This focus is informed by conceptual and methodological issues associated with affordances of 21st century computer-based assessment. How understanding of the nature of the skills, as derived from these assessments, can guide approaches to the integration of 21st century skills in the classroom, is informed by initiatives adopted by participating countries. The guiding questions in this volume are: "Do the assessment tasks measure the constructs?" and "What are the implications for assessment and teaching in the classroom?" It is the third volume of papers from this project published by Springer.

Digital Education Outlook 2023 provides a comparative, thematic analysis of how countries shape or could shape their digital ecosystem.

In today’s rapidly changing and information-rich world, students are not acquiring adequate knowledge and skills to prepare them for careers in mathematics, science, and technology with the traditional approach to assessment and instruction. New competencies (e.g., information communication and technology skills) are needed to deal successfully with the deluge of data. In order to accomplish this, new "educationally valuable" skills must be acknowledged and assessed. Toward this end, the skills we value and support for a society producing knowledge workers, not simply service workers, must be identified, together with methods for their measurement. Innovative Assessment for the 21st Century explores the faces of future assessment—and ask hard questions, such as: What would an assessment that captures all of the above attributes look like? Should it be standardized? What is the role of the professional teacher?

OECD’s Innovation Strategy calls upon all sectors in the economy and society to innovate in order to foster productivity, growth and well-being. Education systems are critically important for innovation through the development of skills that nurture new ideas and technologies.