ACER gets slice of PISA

ACER will lead the development and implementation of the 2025 PISA ‘Learning in the Digital World’ assessment, which will measure students’ abilities to engage in self-regulated learning while using digital tools.

The PISA 2025 Learning in the Digital World domain will examine the extent to which students can use digital resources to learn to solve problems computationally. This includes their ability to implement a set of cognitive practices that are relevant for learning with digital tools, and how they regulate their thinking and behaviours while learning with digital resources.

Assessment tasks will assess important skills in STEM and social science subjects. Interactive tools and resources, such as captioned videos, animated graphics, model-building and data analysis tools, block-based programming, simulated environments and hyperlinked text will be used to create open-ended tasks that provide learning opportunities for students, in the form of worked examples and automated feedback.

Several pilots of the assessment tasks will be conducted in 2022 ahead of the Field Trial in 2024. The Main Survey will be conducted over nine months in 2025.

ACER worked with the OECD to design, establish and implement PISA during its first five cycles (2000 to 2012), and is supporting the implementation of the first cycle of the OECD’s Study on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) and the International Early Learning and Child Well-Being Study (IELS).

ACER Deputy CEO (Assessment), Dr Catherine McClellan said, “Learning in the Digital World presents a unique forward-thinking development in international large-scale assessment. ACER welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with the OECD to successfully measure and report on the skills and attitudes that students need to develop to harness the potential of technology for learning autonomously.”

The PISA cycle due to take place in 2021 has been postponed until 2022 in light of COVID-19, and the triennial forward schedule adjusted.