Assessment of Collaborative Problem Solving

• In Event: International Advancements in 21st-Century Skills Assessment

Abstract

Through the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) project, international teams under the direction of Executive Director, Professor Patrick Griffin and International Research Coordinator, Esther Care, have put into action definitions and descriptions of the skill of collaborative problem solving through online assessment tasks. The tasks provide an online space in which pairs of students are presented with different sets of stimuli and need to bring to bear their collaborative and cognitive skills to solve problems. This human to human interaction is captured dynamically and scored such that student skills on a developmental learning progression can be identified, and monitored through return attempts. The tasks are designed to generate information that can be used by teachers in their development of teaching strategies related to their discipline related teaching. The online tasks and the surrounding infrastructure and scoring system represent a major initiative in online assessment and reporting.
Dr. Patrick Griffin holds the Chair of Education (Assessment) at the University of Melbourne and is Director of the Assessment Research Centre. He has published widely on assessment and evaluation topics that include competency development, language proficiency, industrial literacy, school literacy and numeracy, professional standards and online assessment and calibration. His work focuses on the application of item response modelling in interpretive frameworks for criterion referenced performance and the development of standards for teachers and educational managers, and for the enhancement of student learning outcomes.
Dr. Esther Care is an academic with expertise in literacy research, psycho-educational measurement, test and scale development, psychology and education. In addition to ATC21S, she has recently engaged in research in the mapping of literacy intervention strategies to competence levels, assessment programs designed to differentiate between cognitive and literacy skills in the early years, and design for large scale literacy assessment for education systems. Esther publishes widely in psycho-educational journals and edited books on assessment, 21st century skills, and use of ICT in education.

Authors

• Patrick E. Griffin, University of Melbourne

• Esther Care, University of Melbourne