For the first time, the triennial Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test, which measures the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students worldwide, will include an assessment of students’ global competence.
Mario Piacentini, lead OECD analyst on this initiative, said that “with this cognitive test, we are really trying to look at how 15-year-olds can process critically information on key sustainability issues that matter for the world at large and for their own life. We are asking them to use and connect multiple sources of evidence, identify biases and gaps in information, and manage conflicting arguments. A second important set of cognitive skills we are assessing in the test relate to the capacities to recognize the perspectives of other people and the factors that might influence them, including their access to information and their geographic and cultural context. These are crucial skills for young people to build an immunity to fake news and to challenge the cultural biases and stereotypes that erode social cohesion all around the world.”
The questionnaire will evaluate how familiar students are with global issues, how developed their linguistic and communication skills are, to what extent they respect people from different cultural backgrounds, and the opportunities they currently have in their schools to develop global competencies. The questionnaire will also inform about how teachers are being prepared to cultivate global competencies.
Source: Harvard Graduate School of Education