An Approach to Assessment of Collaborative Problem Solving

The Assessment and Teaching of 21 Century Skills (ATC21S) project had a research and development plan that reflected a traditional approach to conceptualisation of constructs, and then establishment of test blueprints followed by test construction. The test construction process included several stages – of drafting task ideas, panelling these with teachers, then piloting revised tasks, and trialling these with students. Within the conceptualisation phase, the project focused on the definition of 21 century skills. This paper outlines the process of moving from the definition to the assessment of one such set of skills – collaborative problem solving. It describes how this led to the development of hypothesised learning progressions which portray how the skills might vary across more and less adept individuals. In the process of development of collaborative problem solving assessments, the tasks were reviewed in terms of how they might reflect the construct and how they might engage students such that their thinking processes could be captured, coded, scored and interpreted. The overall method of this process together with its rationale is described.