The Challenges and Advances of Performance Assessment of Students' Critical Thinking Across Countries

• In Event: Fostering Students' 21st Century Skills Through Education: Perspectives on National and Cross-National Obstacles and Advances From the International Academy of Education

Abstract

In the International Performance Assessment of Learning (iPAL) project, experts from multiple countries conduct cutting-edge, fundamental research and related practical implementations of performance assessments (PA) and corresponding teaching-and-learning tools with a focus on 21st century skills (for details, see Shavelson et al., 2019). These are competencies (e.g., quantitative reasoning, critical thinking (CT), communication) that students are expected to develop to be com-petent and engaged citizens of the world.
The PAs used to measure these skills go well beyond established task formats, employing high fidelity ‘real-life’ judgmental and decision-making contexts and challenges. Once their reliability and validity are established, these measures can be used by education institutions nationally and cross-nationally to comparatively benchmark their performance, to provide formative feedback to students, and to provide teaching tools (Braun, 2019; Shavelson et al., 2019).

Authors

• Richard J. Shavelson, Stanford University

• Natalia Ronderos, Institute for Education