PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving
The PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving assessment measures students’ capacity to effectively engage in a process whereby two or more agents attempt to solve a problem by sharing the understanding and effort required to come to a solution, and pooling their knowledge, skills and efforts to reach that solution.
- PISA 2015 Results (Volume V): Collaborative Problem Solving
- PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving Framework
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What is Collaborative Problem Solving?
The PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving assessment built on the PISA 2012 Creative Problem Solving assessment framework , incorporating additional concepts that focus on the collaborative aspects of problem solving. These aspects reflect the skills found in project-based learning and in collaboration in workplace and civic settings, namely communicating, managing conflict, organising a team, building consensus and managing progress.
Why is it important for students to develop collaborative problem solving?
Today’s workplaces demand people who can solve non-routine problems, and who can do so in concert with others by sharing ideas and efforts. Digitalisation is also increasing opportunities for collaboration in both the workforce and civic contexts, such as volunteering and social networking, through technologies such as e-mail and web conferencing. Students emerging from schools into the workforce and public life will therefore encounter collaborative situations and be expected to have the necessary collaborative problem-solving skills to thrive.
Collaborative problem solving is increasingly recognised as an important 21st century skill as it has several advantages over individual problem solving: labour can be divided equally, a variety of perspectives and experiences can be applied to try and find solutions, and team members can support and stimulate one another, in turn enhancing the creativity and quality of solutions. Yet collaboration, if managed poorly, can also quickly lead to communication issues, interpersonal conflict and inefficiencies. It is therefore important that students develop the skills needed to engage in successful collaborative problem solving.
What is innovative about the PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving assessment?
The PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving assessment was the first large-scale, international assessment to evaluate students’ competency in collaborative problem solving.
It required students to interact with simulated (computer) in order to solve problems. These dynamic, simulated agents were designed to represent different profiles of team members, and responded to students’ responses following a script in a virtual chat.
The assessment included several types of collaborative problem-solving tasks in order to elicit different types of problem-solving behaviours and interactions between the students and computer agents. There are three types of tasks:
- group decision-making tasks (requiring argumentation, debate, negotiation or consensus to arrive at a decision);
- group co-ordination tasks (including collaborative work or jigsaw hidden profile paradigms where unique information must be shared); and
- group-production tasks (where a product must be created by a team, including designs for new products or written reports). Explore the example assessment tasks .
Results and supporting documents
The PISA 2015 Results (Volume V): Collaborative problem solving examine students’ ability to work with two or more people to try to solve a problem, highlighting the relative strengths and weaknesses of each school system and exploring how they are related to individual student characteristics, such as gender, immigrant background and socio-economic status. This volume of results also explores the role of education in building young people’s skills in solving problems collaboratively.
- How does PISA measure students’ ability to collaborate?
- PISA in Focus: Collaborative problem-solving results
- Country notes: France ( French ) ( English ), Germany ( English ) ( German ), Japan ( English )
Assessment framework and instruments
- PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving released Field Trial cognitive items
- Description of the Released Unit (Xandar) from PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving Assessment and Scoring Guide
Additional resources
Articles and blog posts.
Are School Systems Ready to Develop Students' Social Skills? , Andreas Schleicher, OECD Education and Skills Today
Girls Better Than Boys at Working Together to Solve Problems, Finds New OECD PISA Global Education Survey, OECD Newsroom
Webinars, podcasts and presentations
Webinar on pisa 2015 collaborative problem solving: key findings (andreas schleicher).
What collaborative problem solving can tell us about students' social skills
Presentation on pisa 2015 collaborative problem solving - key findings (andreas schleicher).
For more information, reach out to the PISA innovative assessments team at edu.pisainnovation@oecd.org .
Related policy issues
- Student performance (PISA)
- Reading literacy
- Mathematics literacy
- Science literacy
- Student financial literacy
- Creative thinking
- PISA 2022 Creative Thinking
- Global competence
- PISA 2018 Global Competence
- Student problem solving skills
- PISA 2012 Creative Problem Solving
- learning-in-the-digital-world
- PISA 2025 Learning in the Digital World
- Foreign language learning
- PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment
- Learning time and disciplinary climate
- Students' well-being
- Student engagement and motivation
- Student assessment
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- OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
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Collaborative Problem Solving (2015)
The PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) assessment was the first large-scale, international assessment to evaluate students' competency in CPS at the end of compulsory education.
Collaborative Problem Solving competence is a person's ability to effectively participate in a process in which two or more parties attempt to solve a problem by sharing their understanding, knowledge, efforts, and skills to arrive at a solution.
Collaborative Problem Solving Measures in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
- In book: Innovative Assessment of Collaboration (pp.95-111)
- Educational Testing Service, Princeton, United States
- Boston College
- Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
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Education Counts
Site search, search the education counts website, find pages with, narrow results by:, pisa 2015: collaborative problem solving publications, publication details.
Over 4,500 New Zealand students took part in PISA 2015, which included an assessment of their collaborative solving abilities and attitudes towards cooperation. Collaborative problem solving is how an individual works together with others to solve a problem, through establishing and maintaining shared understanding and team organisation. This report summarises the results as they relate to New Zealand students.
Author(s): Steve May, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: November 2017
Key Findings
- New Zealand students performed very well in the collaborative problem solving assessment (with a mean score of 533, well above the OECD average of 500). Only Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong China had significantly higher average results.
- New Zealand had one of the largest proportions of students that scored at the highest level of collaborative problem solving proficiency (only Singapore had a higher proportion).
- New Zealand students perform better in collaborative problem solving than expected given their performance in science, reading, and mathematics in PISA 2015.
- Girls outperformed boys in collaborative problem solving across the OECD by 29 points, and in New Zealand this difference was particularly large (41 points).
- Within New Zealand, the average score for students who self-identified as Pākehā (549) or Asian (538) was well above the OECD average of 500. The average for students identifying as Māori (499) was around the OECD average, and for students identifying as Pasifika the average score (484) was below the OECD average.
- As with the other PISA subjects, there was a large difference in collaborative problem solving achievement between students of high versus low socio-economic status as measured by PISA. Students in the bottom quarter of the PISA socio-economic index scored, on average, 76 points lower in collaborative problem solving than those in the top quarter.
- Once performance in science, reading and mathematics was taken into account, there were no significant differences between the scores for students identifying as one ethnic grouping compared with those who do not identify with that group (e.g., Pākehā/non-Pākehā). In contrast, the difference between girls and boys remains large after accounting for performance in the three core subjects.
- Students were asked about the value they placed on teamwork and relationships. Across the OECD and within New Zealand once student ability in science, reading and mathematics is taken into account, positive attitudes to collaboration were found to be positively associated with collaborative problem solving achievement.
- Publication Series
- Full Report (PDF, 1.9 MB)
Where to find out more
- International Study: PISA
PISA If you have any questions about PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) please email: PISA Mailbox
PISA in Focus
Collaborative problem solving.
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- PISA 2015 Assessment and Analytical Framework
- PISA 2015 Science Framework
Science, Reading, Mathematic, Financial Literacy and Collaborative Problem Solving
What is important for citizens to know and be able to do? The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) seeks to answer that question through the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student knowledge and skills. The PISA 2015 Assessment and Analytical Framework presents the conceptual foundations of the sixth cycle of the triennial assessment. This revised edition includes the framework for collaborative problem solving, which was evaluated for the first time, in an optional assessment, in PISA 2015.
As in previous cycles, the 2015 assessment covers science, reading and mathematics, with the major focus in this cycle on scientific literacy. Financial literacy is an optional assessment, as it was in 2012. A questionnaire about students’ background is distributed to all participating students. Students may also choose to complete additional questionnaires: one about their future studies/career, a second about their familiarity with information and communication technologies. School principals complete a questionnaire about the learning environment in their schools, and parents of students who sit the PISA test can choose to complete a questionnaire about the home environment. Seventy-one countries and economies, including all 35 OECD countries, participated in the PISA 2015 assessment.
English Also available in: French
- https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264281820-en
- Click to access:
- Click to download PDF - 3.42MB PDF
Science is the main subject of assessment in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2015. This chapter defines “scientific literacy” as assessed in PISA. It describes the types of contexts, knowledge, competencies and attitudes towards science that are reflected in the assessment’s science problems and provides several sample items. The chapter also discusses how student performance in science is measured and reported.
- Click to download PDF - 1.24MB PDF
Cite this content as:
Author(s) OECD
31 Aug 2017
Pages: 19 - 48
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
The PISA 2015 Assessment and Analytical Framework presents the conceptual foundations of the sixth cycle of the triennial assessment. This revised edition includes the framework for collaborative problem solving, which was evaluated for the first time, in an optional assessment, in PISA 2015.
The PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving assessment measures students' capacity to effectively engage in a process whereby two or more agents attempt to solve a problem by sharing the understanding and effort required to come to a solution, and pooling their knowledge, skills and efforts to reach that solution.
Results from PISA show educators and policy makers the quality and equity of learning outcomes achieved elsewhere, and allow them to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. PISA 2015 Results (Volume V): Collaborative Problem Solving, is one of five volumes that present the results of the PISA 2015 survey, the sixth ...
For PISA 2015 the OECD combined existing theoretical frameworks (e.g., the ATC21S framework) in order to propose a definition of CPS as the skill " (…) to effectively engage in a process whereby two or more agents attempt to solve a problem by sharing the understanding and effort required to come to a solution and pooling their knowledge, skills, and efforts to reach that solution" (OECD ...
This chapter introduces the PISA 2015 assessment of collaborative problem solving. It provides the rationale for assessing collaborative problemsolving competence in PISA and introduces the innovative features of the 2015 assessment, particularly in contrast to the individual problem-solving assessment of PISA 2012. The framework for the assessment is discussed and sample items are presented.
This chapter describes the rationale behind measuring 15-year-olds' collaborative problem-solving skills for the first time in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). It explains the content and processes that are reflected in the collaborative problem-solving items used in the computer-based assessment, and describes how student proficiency in this domain is measured and ...
Results from PISA show educators and policy makers the quality and equity of learning outcomes achieved elsewhere, and allow them to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. PISA 2015 Results (Volume V): Collaborative Problem Solving, is one of five volumes that present the results of the PISA 2015 survey, the sixth ...
Results from PISA show educators and policy makers the quality and equity of learning outcomes achieved elsewhere, and allow them to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. PISA 2015 Results (Volume V): Collaborative Problem Solving, is one of five volumes that present the results of the PISA 2015 survey, the sixth ...
On the 21 st of November 2017, PISA releases its report on the first-ever international collaborative problem solving assessment. The report examines students' ability to work in groups to solve problems and explores the role of education in building young people's skills in solving problems collaboratively. This month's PISA in Focus ...
PISA 2015 defines collaborative problem-solving competency as: the capacity of an individual to effectively engage in a process whereby two or more agents attempt to solve a problem by sharing the understanding and effort required to come to a solution and pooling their knowledge, skills and efforts
The PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) assessment was the first large-scale, international assessment to evaluate students' competency in CPS at the end of compulsory education. Collaborative Problem Solving competence is a person's ability to effectively participate in a process in which two or more parties attempt to solve a ...
distinction between individual problem solving and collaborative problem solving is the social component in the context of a group task. This is composed of processes such as the need for communication, the exchange of ideas, and shared identification of the problem and its elements. The PISA 2015 framework defines CPS as follows:
Despite the relevance of collaborative problem solving (CPS), there are limited empirical results on the assessment of CPS. In 2015, the large-scale Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) first assessed CPS with virtual tasks requiring participants to collaborate with computer-simulated agents (human-to-agent; H-A).
Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is a critical and necessary skill in educational settings and the workforce. The assessment of CPS in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA ...
The PISA 2015 Assessment and Analytical Framework presents the conceptual foundations of the sixth cycle of the triennial assessment. This revised edition includes the framework for collaborative problem solving, which was evaluated for the first time, in an optional assessment, in PISA 2015. As in previous cycles, the 2015 assessment covers ...
PISA 2015 Results (Volume V): Collaborative Problem Solving, is one of five volumes that present the results of the PISA 2015 survey, the sixth round of the triennial assessment. It examines students' ability to work with two or more people to try to solve a problem.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is the world's most extensive assessment of student's scholastic and general abilities, featuring assessments in over 70 countries. In the program's 2015 cycle, the assessment included a computerized measure of collaborative problem-solving skills (CPS) using virtual agents. Studies on the validity of this approach are sparse, however.
Over 4,500 New Zealand students took part in PISA 2015, which included an assessment of their collaborative solving abilities and attitudes towards cooperation. Collaborative problem solving is how an individual works together with others to solve a problem, through establishing and maintaining shared understanding and team organisation.
On the 21st of November 2017, PISA releases its report on the first-ever international collaborative problem solving assessment. The report examines students' ability to work in groups to solve problems and explores the role of education in building young people's skills in solving problems collaboratively. This month's PISA in Focus provides an overview of the assessment's results and ...
Despite the relevance of collaborative problem solving (CPS), there are limited empirical results on the assessment of CPS. In 2015, the large-scale Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) first assessed CPS with virtual tasks requiring participants to collaborate with computer-simulated agents (human-to-agent; H-A). The approach created dynamic CPS situations while standardizing ...
Despite the relevance of collaborative problem solving (CPS), there are limited empirical results on the assessment of CPS. In 2015, the large-scale Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) first assessed CPS with virtual tasks requiring participants to collaborate with computer-simulated agents (human-to-agent; H-A). The approach created dynamic CPS situations while standardizing ...
Results from PISA show educators and policy makers the quality and equity of learning outcomes achieved elsewhere, and allow them to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. PISA 2015 Results (Volume V): Collaborative Problem Solving , is one of five volumes that present the results of the PISA 2015 survey, the sixth ...
The PISA 2015 Assessment and Analytical Framework presents the conceptual foundations of the sixth cycle of the triennial assessment. This revised edition includes the framework for collaborative problem solving, which was evaluated for the first time, in an optional assessment, in PISA 2015.