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Assessing key competences

European Schoolnet, (2014). Teacher Guide: Assessment of Key Competences in School Education, European Schoolnet, Brussels.

Griffin, P. (2014). Assessing Collaborative Problem Solving, Assessment Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

Lai, E.R. & Viering, M. (2012). Assessing 21st Century Skills: Integrating Research Findings. National Council on Measurement in Education, Vancouver, B.C.

Baker, E. (2003), “Multiple Measures: Toward Tiered Systems”, University of California, National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST), Los Angeles.

Looney, J. (2009). “Assessment and Innovation in Education”, OECD Education Working Papers No. 24, OECD Publishing, Paris.

Looney, J. 'Integrating Formative and Summative Assessment: Progress toward a Seamless System?" , OECD Education Working Papers No. 58, OECD Publishing, Paris.

Black, P. and D. Wiliam (1998). “Assessment and Classroom Learning”, Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, CARFAX, Oxfordshire, Vol. 5, pp. 7-74.

Wiliam, D. (2006). “Formative Assessment: Getting the Focus Right”, Educational Assessment, Vol. 11, pp. 283-289.

OECD (2005). Formative Assessment: Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms, OECD, Paris.

Williams, J. and J. Ryan (2000). “National Testing and the Improvement of Classroom Teaching: Can they Coexist?”, British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 26, pp. 49-73.

Black, P. and D. Wiliam (1998). “Assessment and Classroom Learning’’, Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, CARFAX, Oxfordshire, Vol. 5, pp. 7-74.

| The Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills Project

Griffin, P., Care, E., & McGaw, B. (2012). The changing role of education and schools. In Griffin, P., Care, E., & McGaw, B. Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills, Dordrecht, Springer.

Csapo, B., Ainley, J., Bennett, R., Latour, T., Law, N. (2012). Technological Issues for computer-based assessment. In P.Griffin, E.Care & McGaw, B. Assessment and Teaching for 21st Century Skills. Dordrecht, Springer.

ATC21S professional development module: Using a developmental model to assess student learning. Available here.

ATC21S professional development module: Defining and assessing 21st century skills. Available here.

ATC21S professional development module: ATC21S Collaborative Problem Solving Assessments. Available here.

ATC21S professional development module: Interpreting reports. Available here.

Griffin, P., McGaw, B. & Care, E., (Eds.) (2014), Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills: Volume 2, Dordrecht: Springer

Griffin, P., McGaw, B. & Care, E., (Eds.) (2012), Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills: Volume 1, Dordrecht: Springer

| Competence-based assessment of Mathematics in Ireland

Information on Project Maths. Available here.

State Examinations Commission. (2005) Chief Examiner’s Report Mathematics. Athlone: SEC. Available here.

NFER (2013) Research into the impact of Project Maths on student achievement, learning and motivation. Available here.

NCCA (2005) Review of Mathematics in Post-Primary Education: a discussion paper. Dublin: NCCA. Available here.

Conway, P. and Sloane, F. (2005) International trends in post-primary mathematics education. Dublin: NCCA. Available here.

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Module 3: The Irish Experience of Assessing Mathematics Using a Competence-Based Approach

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Module 3: The Irish Experience of Assessing Mathematics Using a Competence-Based Approach

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The Irish Experience of Assessing Mathematics Using a Competence-Based Approach

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This video conclude the course's Irish case study, by explaining the assessment approach taken in Project Maths. The video outlines the changes made to Mathematics assessment so that it would support the development of key competences in the classroom. Finally, the speaker explains the challenges and successes which arose along the way.

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Figure 3: Measurement Structure for Cognitive Domain Assessment Rubrics

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Figure 3: Measurement Structure for Cognitive Domain Assessment Rubrics

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Figure 2: Indicative behaviours or elements of social domain in collaborative problem solving.

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Figure 2: Indicative behaviours or elements of social domain in collaborative problem solving.

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Figure 1: Measurement structure for social skill assessment

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Figure 1: Measurement structure for social skill assessment

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Social components of collaborative problem-solving
For the purpose of assessment, these could be described using a rubric of social skill capabilities such as participation, perspective-taking, and social regulation. Within each capability we can define a series of elements and the evidence or indicative behaviour that would be needed in order to conclude that the student was exhibiting the capability. Finally, we explore the indicative behaviour and differentiate between students on the basis of how well they exhibit that behaviour in terms of a series of quality criteria.

Griffin and Robertson (2014) defined rubrics is the combination of performance indicator and a series of quality criteria. It is not necessary to have the same number of quality criteria for every indicator and Humphrey’s work (2014) shows that by varying the number and range of quality criteria within a rubric the validity of the measure can be enhanced. This is clearly demonstrated in application of rubrics to the assessment of students with learning difficulties (Woods and Griffin, 2013).

Participation skills

 Action – this is defined as the general level of participation of an individual, irrespective of whether this action is coordinated with the efforts of others. Problem solvers differ in the level of competence with which they act in a group. While some may be passive, others become active when provided with sufficient prompts and supports, and yet others will demonstrate an ability to act independently and from their own initiative.
 Interaction - this refers to the capacity to respond to or coordinate with others, ranging from answering an inquiry, to actively initiating and coordinating efforts, or prompting others to respond.
 Task completion skills - refer to the motivational aspects of participation, including a sense of responsibility for the outcomes of collaborative effort. This can also be described as persistence or perseverance or, in some cases, grit.

Perspective-taking skills
Perspective-taking encompasses the ability to see a state of affairs from the viewpoint of another person; to apply contextual knowledge to interpret information provided by others, and to adapt one’s statements or actions with sensitivity to the needs and presumed understanding of listeners/observers. Within and assessment framework of collaborative problem-solving, this can be viewed as two sub- elements – responding skills or responsiveness and audience awareness. Then we define and search for indicative behaviours that illustrate the presence or absence and the relative quality of each of those elements.
 Responsiveness – refers to a capacity to integrate contributions of
collaborators into one’s own thoughts and actions.
 Audience awareness skills - refer to the ability to tailor one’s contributions to the presumed or expressed needs of others, or to make actions visible and comprehensible to collaborators.
Social regulation skills
One potential benefit of collaboration is the diversity of knowledge and experience that group members bring to a problem-solving challenge. However, diversity best supports collaborative effort when participants know how to cope with different viewpoints and opinions or, in other words, where they have strong social regulation skills or elements. We can distinguish between four sub- elements related to social regulation:
 Metamemory indicative behaviours describe the capacity to evaluate one’s own knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. It is a reflective capacity that focuses on how the person operated and how they learned the skill they have demonstrated.
 Transactive memory indicative behaviours describe a person’s understanding of the knowledge, strengths and weaknesses of collaborative partners. This is also a reflective process where the person considers the behaviour and performances of their partner in terms of how successful or valuable their partner’s activity contributed to the solution.
 Negotiation skills become evident where differences between the partners are being resolved. In such an instance, successful collaborators need to find ways to reconcile different perspectives and opinions and/or accommodate differences.
 Responsibility initiative takes into account that problem solvers may differ in the way they take initiative within a collaborative context. Some focus mainly on their individual tasks, while others work on a shared problem representation, a strategic plan is offered to lead the group towards a solution, and regular monitoring of the group’s progress. It is possible to regard responsibility initiative skills as evidence of leadership.

Cognitive domain of collaborative problem-solving
The cognitive skills that are important for successful collaborative problem-solving are similar to those needed for individual problem-solving. They refer to the ways in which problem solvers manage a task at hand and the reasoning skills employed. To further explore the nature of this domain, we can identify capabilities that include elements such as task regulation and knowledge building. The overall structure of the measurement framework for cognitive domain skills is similar to that presented earlier for the social domain. The expectations of people demonstrating competence within the cognitive domain are the task regulation and knowledge building skills. The elements of each of these illustrate the specific capabilities that need to be demonstrated. Six elements of task regulation were identified by Hesse et al. Three elements of knowledge building were identified. Indicative behaviours for each of these elements then form the basis of the rubric.

Task Regulation Skills
Most collaborative problem-solving tasks can only be accomplished if available resources are identified and information elements about them are collated and shared. Therefore, an important flexibility and ambiguity aspect of planning is collation of data and the management of resources that are available to oneself and to one’s collaborators. To assess planning skills within the context of collaborative problem-solving it is useful to distinguish six sub-skills – problem analysis, goal setting, resource management, and planning complexity:
1. Problem analysis - refers to the ability to identify the elements of a task and the information available for each of the component parts. This also entails recognition of the interdependences that might arise between components of the problem space. It requires a student to be able to identify the need for pertinent pieces of information; to understand the relationships between them and patterns that might emerge; it further requires an understanding of how pieces of information are interdependent.
2. Goal-setting - refers to the formulation and sharing of specific sub-goals that will help to monitor the process of collaboration progress towards problem resolution. The collaborative problem solving group needs to formulate specific goals. These goals and take the form of rules “if I do A then B should occur and I will be able to make progress towards goal C.”
3. Resource management - reflects the ability to plan how collaborators can bring their resources, their knowledge, or their expertise to the problem-solving process and how they make decisions about the
process of conflating data.
4. Flexibility skills - Many collaborative problems can be somewhat ambiguous. Tolerance for ambiguity is a characteristic that can help overcome the barriers in problem-solving activities. Moreover, collaborative problem solvers need to be adept at changing plans in a flexible manner. We can think about the flexibility required for successful collaborative problem-solving as a range of sub-skills including tolerance for ambiguity, breadth of focus, and communication. Flexibility also involves the capacity to negotiate and to understand the perspective of other collaborative partners. Different levels of ambiguity tolerance lead to different collaborative problem-solving behaviours – some collaborators only become active in unambiguous situations, some react to ambiguity by further exploring the problem space, whereas some collaborators are likely to interpret ambiguous situations in a way that helps them in joint decision-making about the next solution step. Where there is an imbalance in these skills and capacities, the progress towards resolving issues associated with ambiguity may be more difficult. The symmetric nature of the collaborative teams may need to be taken into account in resolving differences in collaborative problem-solving skill.

 As to breadth, a low skill level is displayed if collaborative problem solvers follow only a single line of inquiry.
 A medium level entails trying multiple approaches being discussed and explored amongst the collaborators once an impasse is reached, or once new evidence is available via monitoring.
 A high level of breadth leads to a re-organization of problem representation by the group, or planning activities being identified by the collaborators once progress through the problem space is impeded.

5. Collecting data – In a collaborative problem-solving context, the actions of one partner may have a consequence for another and these need to be monitored and recorded. It is a design feature that, in a collaborative context, each of the partners lacks specific and crucial information, or alternatively each participant controls specific resources, information or has particular expertise unique. Also, in realizing that the each person lacks crucial information, there is a need to develop strategies to acquire this information, the collaborators are developing important monitoring activities. In collaborative problem-solving, this type of monitoring becomes essential, as different problem solvers typically have access to different types of information, or have different means to access needed information. The way in which the collaborators link this information and record cause and effect enables them to establish rules of operation which they can share in order to make progress towards the problem solution.

These skills refer to the ability to detect when and how missing information can be acquired and shared.
 Some collaborative problem solvers lack skills to recognize a need for information and may lack the skill of either providing or acquiring information from collaborative partners.
 At a medium skill level, information needs are recognized, but only with regard to the current activity or problem state.
 A high level of information acquisition skills entails adequately assessing the need for information with regard to current, alternative, and future problem space or states.

6. Systematicity - refers to the thoroughness and efficiency of the problem-solver’s approach.
 The most basic level of systematicity involves a trial and error process.
 Using forward search through a problem space bears witness to a medium level of systematicity,
 Whereas high systematicity can be inferred if forward and backward search are combined through means-ends analysis or similar techniques, and followed by reflective monitoring activities.

Knowledge Building Skills
The learning skills demonstrated by collaborative problem solvers involve many of the steps already explained in the cognitive and social aspects of collaborative problem-solving. Through their progress in a collaborative problem-solving task, individuals can learn about a content domain, learn strategies and how to deal with setbacks, or learn how to coordinate, collaborate, and negotiate with others. In another approach to solving complex problems a possible hierarchy for cognitive development related to problem-solving, an approach that can help us envisage ordered categories of response to problem-solving challenges:
1. Relationships within the data
Recognising relationships and patterns in the data is important when the collaborators are attempting to build an information base to define the problem space collaboratively and to identify links between actions and consequences, between observations and patterns, and to identify gaps in the knowledge required to make progress.
In the first category (beyond random guessing or individual trial and error), the students typically relied on identifying isolated elements of information. Trial and error is essentially an individual approach, and is indicative of a very low level of collaborative problem-solving skills.
In a collaborative setting, in which resources and information are unevenly distributed, these elements need to be shared.
Problem solvers at this skill level generally describe connections between elements of information (data) and form patterns of observations, which can be shared between collaborators.
2. Contingencies
At the this level of knowledge building, systematic observations of cause and effect enable players to formulate and discuss the potential of rules, either for the regulation of the task or the manner of collaboration. At a more sophisticated level, rules (If….then) are used to complete steps or parts of the problem solution. It entails planning that takes multiple pathways to a solution into account. Collaborators also need to discuss and evaluate the suggestions for progress toward the problem solution and consequences of each action or decision.
3. Hypotheses
At times this may mean that the partners need to propose generalisations about events within the problem-solving solution strategy and to be able to formulate and test hypotheses. This may be as simple as the collaborating partners proposing to one another with such suggestions as “what about we try this” or “whether that happens or not seems to depend upon ex-happening”. This equates to conjecture or hypothesis testing on the part of the partners collaborating in the problem-solving space. Hesse et al have defined these capabilities using three sub headings or elements. Griffin, (2014) described them as a hierarchy of problem solving.
For the more elaborate sub-tasks, more able students demonstrate an ability to generalise to a range of situations by setting and testing hypotheses, using a “what if…?” approach.

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In this interview, Professor Patrick Griffin of the University of Melbourne describes the social and cognitive skills teachers need to observe in their students while they carry out collaborative problem-solving tasks.

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Module 3: Good Practice in Assessing Key Competences

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Module 3: Good Practice in Assessing Key Competences

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Traditional summative assessments are ill suited to measuring key competences. This is because they tend to measure fragments of content knowledge rather than what students understand about interconnections or the reasoning processes they use to solve problems. They are often more focused on theory than on real world applications.

Innovative tools, such as portfolio assessments, ICT-based assessments and simulations may be more effective at capturing students’ reasoning processes or ability to solve complex problems.
A portfolio is a place to store data on student learning. It is compiled over time, and is intended to be representative of a learner’s progress. These entries can contain information about learners’ performances on tasks in real life contexts.

E-portfolios may include audio-visual files and Internet links. As an example, students may use the multimedia functions of ICT to show how they would perform a physics experiment or some other problem-solving task. Developing and reviewing e-portfolios can help learners to develop digital competence, social competence, learning to learn and problem-solving skills. Students may use ICT-based platforms for peer assessment and learning.

E-portfolio assessment has been used in a number of different countries, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Iceland, Portugal, Romania, Turkey, UK and the USA.

E-portfolios and other assessments that support interactivity and real-time feedback are also use for formative assessment. Formative assessment, is the kind of “real time” assessment teachers use to reveal how well students understand a new idea or are to apply a new skill – and provide the learner with feedback on what they still need to do to meet the learning objective.
“Low tech” approaches to formative assessment are also extremely effective. For example, through extended dialogues and series of questions, teachers may guide students toward deeper levels of understanding. Classroom dialogues may draw out thoughtful contributions and multiple points of view. Effective questions help to reveal students’ level of understanding and identify possible misconceptions (in contrast to questions that are designed to elicit a
“yes” or “no” response or that stress recall rather than reasoning processes provide little information on the student’s level of understanding and may hide errors in thinking).
Teachers may also gain insight into student thinking through observation, review of written work products and portfolios, student presentations, activities and projects, interviews, tests and quizzes. These different views on student work over time and in different contexts allow teachers to identify patterns in thinking and problem solving.
Feedback from teachers – as well as from other students – is also important. Feedback is most effective when it is provided in a timely manner – “on the fly” = that is, during the course of an interaction, or within a few days of an assignment. But it is also important not to give feedback too quickly. Students may need some time to work out problems before referring to teachers or peers.

Feedback is also more effective when it is focused on the task at hand, rather than the student’s ego – even in the form of praise. Task-based feedback includes specific suggestions for improvement. Good feedback is based upon clear criteria regarding expectations for performance. It also includes as much or as little information as the students may need to make progress (that is, teachers “scaffold” feedback).

Formative assessment may be challenging to implement and teachers often cite barriers such as too many students, or overloaded curriculum. But teachers may also be strategic in how they address these barriers. For example, with large classes, teachers may divide them in two, with some learners working with online learning programmes, and another smaller group working with the teacher and their peers. Teachers may also help students to develop their own skills for self-assessment. Many teachers across European countries note that they feel they must rush through lessons in order to cover all the curriculum content. But teachers may decide which curriculum requirements are the most important and priortise these for learning.
These low–tech approaches reinforce effective use of high-tech tools that also may be used for formative assessment, such as classroom polling devices, educational video games, or interactive white boards. Internet social networks can also facilitate dialogue among students focused on solving a common problem. Students may use the platform to collaborate and to assess and building on each other’s contributions.
Self-assessment is particularly relevant for transversal competences. The major focus is on tracking individual student development, and on focusing attention on the importance of these skills for learning. As of yet, however, only a few tools have been piloted.
Tracking tools will be most effective when the learner has an opportunity to reflect with teachers as to how different transversal competences such as initiative, creativity and the constructive management of feelings support their learning and personal development. It is also helpful for learners to reflect with teachers on the progress they have made.

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Good Practice in Assessing Key Competences

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Module 3: The Key Principles of Assessing Key Competences

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Module 3: The Key Principles of Assessing Key Competences

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There are three major approaches to student assessment. The first of these is “summative assessment”, also referred to as assessment of learning. Summative assessment refers to tests or examinations that are used to make summary judgments of student performance. These are the tests that students take at the end of a learning unit, at the end of a school year, or at the end of secondary school.

The second approach to assessment is known as “formative assessment”. This is sometimes referred to as assessment for learning. Formative assessment is the kind of “real time” assessment teachers use to understand how well learners understand a new concept or are to apply a new skill – and provide the learner with feedback on what they still need to do to meet the learning objective. The teacher may adjust teaching approaches to meet learning needs more effectively. An assessment is considered as formative once the gap has been closed and the student has met the objective.
Both summative and formative assessments are focused on whether students have achieved the learning objectives outlined in curriculum and standards. These assessments are typically criterion-referenced. In other words, there are specific criteria by which to gauge learning performance.

A third kind of assessment is student self-assessment, also known as ipsative assessment, which focuses on the student’s personal development. Progress is measured against the student’s prior performances – so it is a self-referential approach. This approach is particularly appropriate for key competences that do not have a pre-defined learning objective – such as transversal skills of creativity, initiative, or the constructive management of feelings.

Any assessment, whether summative, formative or self-assessment, needs to be valid, reliable and fair.
1. Validity means that the assessment effectively measures what it is intended to measure.
2. Reliability refers to the extent to which the assessment is consistent and accurate over time, or across a large number of students.
3. Fairness refers to the need to consider factors that could influence the assessment – such as a noisy environment that interrupts the student concentration, or assessments that systematically favour one group over another, such as girls vs. boys.

Assessments of key competences, whether formative, summative or self-assessments, need to capture the student’s:
- Reasoning processes
- Understanding of interconnections
- Ability to perform complex tasks
- Attitudes, such as curiosity, perseverance and motivation to learn.

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The Key Principles of Assessing Key Competences

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Module 3: Assessing Key CompetencesLearning Objectives

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Module 3: Assessing Key CompetencesLearning Objectives

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1. Become familiar with the three major approaches to student assessment (summative, formative and self-assessment) and understand that all types of assessment of key competences need to be valid, reliable and fair;

2. Understand that the assessment of key competences needs to measure students’ reasoning processes, understanding of interconnections, and problem-solving skills;

3. Become familiar with a range of innovative tools and approaches, both ‘low-tech’ and ‘high-tech’, which are effective at measuring students’ reasoning processes and ability to solve complex problems;

4. Understand the importance of classroom-based formative assessments for assessing key competences;

5. Become familiar with the evidence required for assessing collaborative problem-solving, and how teachers can use rubrics and developmental progressions to interpret their observations of learners’ skills and behaviour.

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Module 2: Examples of Project-Based Learning from Across Europe

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Module 2: Examples of Project-Based Learning from Across Europe

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Examples of Project-Based Learning from across Europe

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Project-based learning

Harper, A. (2014). Teacher Guide: Using Project Based Learning to Develop Students' Key Competences, European Schoolnet, Brussels.

Virtual Guide to Entrepreneurial Learning. Available here.

Patton, A. (2012) Work that matters: The teacher’s guide to project-based learning. Available here.

15 publications on various aspects of eTwinning including resources for project-based learning.

Buck Institute of Education website. Available here.

Eudtopia’s resources on project-based learning. Available here.

| Examples of prize-winning European eTwinning projects

Gilleran, A., Kearney, C. (2014). Developing Pupil Competences through eTwinning, European Schoolnet, Brussels.

eTwinning Project – Rainbow Village. Video and Twinspace.

eTwinning Project – Let Your Passions Shine. Video and Twinspace.

eTwinning Project – Pek, The Traveler Flea. Video and Twinspace.

eTwinning Project – Health 4 Life. Video and Twinspace.

| Collaborative learning

Griffin, P. & Care, E.. (2014). Developing learners’ collaborative problem-solving skills. Available here.

| Transversal key competences for lifelong learning: training teachers in competence based education – TRANSIt Training Framework

TRANSIt Training Framework. Available here.

TRANSIt Training Framework Design

TRANSIt Initial Trainees Guide

TRANSIt Adapatation of Technical Tools

Register here to access the TRANSIt 4 Training Modules and the Mahara ePortfolio

| Project Maths - Ireland

Project Maths video. Available here.

Project Maths website. Available here.

Information on new Mathematics syllabuses and rationale for the initiative. Available here.

National Centre for Excellence in Maths and Science Teaching and Learning. Available here.

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Module 2: A Teacher’s Experience of Using Project-Based Learning to Teach Mathematics

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Module 2: A Teacher’s Experience of Using Project-Based Learning to Teach Mathematics

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A teacher’s experience of focusing on skills and project-based learning to teach Mathematics

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In this video, Sandra Fay, a secondary Mathematics teacher from Ireland, explains the enablers and challenges she faced in implementing a skills and project-based approach in the classroom. She explains 5 effective strategies which her school used to ensure this new type of teaching, learning and assessment could successfully take place.

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Module 2: How to Develop Learners’ Collaborative Problem-Solving Skills

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Module 2: How to Develop Learners’ Collaborative Problem-Solving Skills

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Collaborative problem solving is a set of skills that we need to rely on when the capacities or resources of just one person are not sufficient to solve the problem. We need to learn how to combine different resources and skills when faced with complex problems.
The Nature of collaborative problem solving

The primary distinction between problem-solving by an individual and collaborative problem-solving is its social nature-the need for communication, exchange of ideas, shared identification of the problem and its elements, and negotiated agreement on connections between problem elements and relationships between actions and their effects. Collaborative problem-solving makes each of these steps observable, as they must be shared with a partner or other members of a group if a solution is to be

successfully identified. These steps can be describe d as follows:

1.A problem state must be jointly recognised, and collaborators must identify and agree on which elements of the problem each can control or monitor.

2. A representation of the problem must be shared.

3. Collaborators need to agree on a plan of action, including management of resources.

4. Plans must be executed, which may require a coordinated effort by collaborators acting together or in sequence.

5.Progress towards a solution must be monitored, different options evaluated, plans reformulated if necessary, and collaborators must decide on how to proceed in the face of positive or negative feedback.

STEPS:
1.The first step is where each of the individuals within the collaborative team explores the problem space and identifies the e

lements and aspects of it. They might record their observations individually at this stage.

2.The next step involves students collecting and sharing information about problem elements and how they link together. In this process the students are identifying and collating the total amount of information about the problem by sharing information about observations and collaborating and defining the

problem space.

3.Discussion then centres on whether there are patterns and links between elements of the problem, both within and across the areas of observation available to each of the participants.

4.Once the connections are identified, the discussion and collaboration begin to formulate rules or contingencies associated with actions and observations.These need to be shared across the participants’ observation space. The discussion follows the “if... then” paradigm.

5.By a process of observation and collecting data about the link between actions and observations, the collaborators then begin to formulate rules or contingencies. These lead to generalisations so that the collaborators can conclude that every time a particular action takes place a particular consequence is observed. At this point they move from inductive to deductive reasoning in the hierarchy of problem solving skills.

6.At the highest ATC21S level of performance, students reflect on the kind of conclusions that are drawn from the information about exceptions to the generalisations. At this point the students are testing hypotheses by challenging generalisations. They address the issue with such expressions as "what if...

Collaborative problem solving is therefore defined as a joint activity where two or more people work together to contribute knowledge, skills, materials and procedures and move through a series of cognitive states that involve collection and analysis of information and the formulation of hypotheses that they jointly set out to test

.

Ways of thinking were conceptualised to include creativity and innovation, critical thinking, problem-solving, and learning to learn and the development of metacognition.

Ways of working was conceptualised to include communication, collaboration and teamwork;

Tools for working involved information and ICT literacy;

Living in the world involved changing emphases on local and global citizenship, aspects of life and career development, and personal and social responsibility.

These were all grouped under the acronym KSAVE: knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and ethics. It also meant that the Ways of learning and ways of teaching need to be taken into account in the development of the assessment strategies that focus on these skills

Social skills: working together, the capacity and skills that enable students to work collaboratively and to share their knowledge, expertise and suggestions of strategy.

Cognitive skills that enable them to understand the problem and analyse its tasks and specific requirements, assemble information; build their expertise and understanding of the problem; link their shared understandings to particular procedures that will enable them to make progress in reaching the problem solution and to be able to identify patterns and strategies that can help understand

connections and contingencies that will eventually enable them to make generalizable suggestions to each other about problem solution and to test those generalisations in the form of hypothesis testing

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How to Develop Learners’ Collaborative Problem Solving Skills

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In this video we interview Professor Patrick Griffin from the University of Melbourne, about the nature of collaborative problem solving tasks, and the cognitive and social skills learners need to apply and teachers need to observe. The concrete steps teachers need to take to set-up collaborative problem solving tasks in the classroom are also explained.

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Module 2: How to Develop Learners’ Collaborative Problem-Solving Skills

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Module 2: How to Develop Learners’ Collaborative Problem-Solving Skills

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Collaborative problem solving is a set of skills that we need to rely on when the capacities or resources of just one person are not sufficient to solve the problem. We need to learn how to combine different resources and skills when faced with complex problems.
The Nature of collaborative problem solving

The primary distinction between problem-solving by an individual and collaborative problem-solving is its social nature-the need for communication, exchange of ideas, shared identification of the problem and its elements, and negotiated agreement on connections between problem elements and relationships between actions and their effects. Collaborative problem-solving makes each of these steps observable, as they must be shared with a partner or other members of a group if a solution is to be

successfully identified. These steps can be describe d as follows:

1.A problem state must be jointly recognised, and collaborators must identify and agree on which elements of the problem each can control or monitor.

2. A representation of the problem must be shared.

3. Collaborators need to agree on a plan of action, including management of resources.

4. Plans must be executed, which may require a coordinated effort by collaborators acting together or in sequence.

5.Progress towards a solution must be monitored, different options evaluated, plans reformulated if necessary, and collaborators must decide on how to proceed in the face of positive or negative feedback.

Ways of thinking were conceptualised to include creativity and innovation, critical thinking, problem-solving, and learning to learn and the development of metacognition.

Ways of working was conceptualised to include communication, collaboration and teamwork;

Tools for working involved information and ICT literacy;

Living in the world involved changing emphases on local and global citiz

enship, aspects of life and career development, and personal and social responsibility.

These were all grouped under the acronym KSAVE: knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and ethics. It also meant that the Ways of learning

and ways of teaching need to be

taken into account in the development of the assessment strategies that focus on these skills

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Module 2:  How to Design Project-Based Learning Activities

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Module 2:  How to Design Project-Based Learning Activities

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Project-based learning is an approach which uses methods such as inquiry-based learning and problem-based learning to develop students’ competences. Inquiry is "a seeking or request for truth, information or knowledge". Inquiry-based learning starts with questioning, continues with exploration and investigation and ends with finding a solution, drawing a reasonable conclusion, making a substantive decision or applying new knowledge or skills.

It is often used to explore deep questions such as; Are all humans born free? Is democracy the ideal way to organise society? Inquiry-based learning relies on questioning–you may say “but so does the

traditional approach to learning.” The difference is, however, that in the traditional classroom it is the teacher who asks questions to which answers can easily be found and which usually do not go beyond the immediately available information. In an inquiry-driven classroom, it is not only the teacher who asks open-ended questions,

but also students themselves. Students are encouraged to question arguments, information, ideas, opinions and viewpoints, to go deeper and generate new questions, which will lead them to new knowledge.

In a PBL environment, the project should investigate "non-Googleable Driving Questions".  In other words questions that cannot be

easily answered by just looking up Google, Bing, Wikipedia etc. Just like in preinternet days, students would look up an encyclopedia and slavishly copy the information to provide their answers.
Examples of Googleable questions are:

"Who were the first settlers in our city?"

"What does it mean to be a healthy eater?"

"How are airplanes wings constructed?"
On the other hand, non-Googleable questions would be:

"What was the most important cause of our city's growth?"

"How can we best convince teenagers to be healthy eaters?"

How can we design an airplane wing that is light and will support 25 pounds without breaking?

" Answers to these questions can't be found on Google without "digging" deeply.

The whole purpose of PBL is to encourage pupils to research and to find answers and solutions, to help them develop higher-order thinking skills: analyse the information they find, interpret it and compare their findings, synthesis the ideas, evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, peer and self-assess it, find solutions and create a new product.

The problem-based learning method, which is more practical. Students are given a real life problem to investigate, which can be

described as an authentic problem and have to come up with possible solutions. It may be widely applied to all kinds of real life problems. The solutions can then be discussed and tested to see which will work best in a given situation, for example. How to provide the best care for elderly people in their own homes, How to improve

access to public buildings. Both of these approaches focus on developing problem-solving, critical thinking and information processing skills. They also work best when students have to work in small teams or groups. The two methods are closely related

to each other and often overlap. In this approach, there are not n

ecessarily right or wrong answers. Each solution may have merits and demerits and the students have to analyse and judge.

A preliminary checklist:

What is your project idea?

What is the time frame proposed?

Is the project idea manageable?

Is it a project just between you and your class or will you collaborate with other teachers in your school or in other countries

If it involves partners from other countries, what is the language proposed?

What subjects could be integrated into this project?

What technical tools, if any, will you use?

How does your project fit with the school planning and calendar?

and 7 steps ................

Step 1. Involve your students from the very beginning. Start with a guided exploration of some topics you have in mind as a whole class; but also be prepared to change if better ideas are emerging from the class. It is important to establish certain ground rules regarding behavior with them in advance.

Step 2. Having defined the topic, in discussion with the class break it down into different tasks. Discuss which technologies to use and how they will be integrated

Step 3. Plan well, set goals, define outcomes. Above all be concrete, students need goals to work towards and responsibility of tasks in order to achieve them
Step 4. Proceed to put pupils into small groups with responsibilities for a particular task. Encourage pupils to ask personally relevant and socially significant questions regarding the topics chosen. Work to the strengths of each pupil.

Step 5. Create a tangible artifact that addresses the issue, answers questions, and makes learning visible and accountable.

Step 6. Arrive at a conclusion...take a stand...take action.

Step 7. Document, justify, and share conclusion with larger audience. (parents, school etc)

Build in presentation of the outcomes or artifact to different audiences as a key part of the project. Presentation of ideas

to others consolidates the learning for the students

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How to Design Project-Based Learning Activities

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Module 2: Teaching Key Competences through Project-Based Learning 

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Module 2: Teaching Key Competences through Project-Based Learning 

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Learning Objectives

1. Understand the principles behind project-based learning, including inquiry-based and problem-based methods;

2. Become familiar with the preliminary checklist, basic steps and strategies recommended to design a project-based learning activity;

3. Understand how to set up a collaborative problem-solving task;

4. Understand the cognitive and social skills learners need to apply and teachers need to observe during a collaborative problem-solving task;

5. Become familiar with a range of project-based learning examples developed by teachers and students from different countries, targeting various competences and age levels;

6. Design a project-based learning plan to effectively develop one or more of learners’ key competences or transversal skills

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The importance and definition of competences

Schleicher, A. (2009). The case for 21st-century learning, OECD, Paris.

Binkley, M., Erstad, O., Hermna, J., Raizen, S., Ripley, M., Miller-Ricci, M., & Rumble, M. (2012). Defining Twenty-First Century Skills. In Griffin, P., Care, E., & McGaw, B. Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills, Dordrecht, Springer.

Hoskins, B & Deakin Crick R., (2010) Competences for Learning to Learn and Active Citizenship: different currencies or two sides of the same coin? European Journal of Education, Vol. 45, Number 1, March.

Legendre, Marie-Françoise (2008). « La notion de compétence au coeur des réformes curriculaires : Effet de mode ou moteur de changements en profondeur ? ». In Audigier François & Tutiaux-Guillon Nicole (dir.). Compétences et contenus : les curriculums en questions. Brussels: De Boeck, p. 27-50.

Voogt and Pareja Roblin (2010). 21st century skills. Discussienota. Enschede: Universiteit Twente.

Competence Reference Frameworks

European Union’s Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. Available here.

UNESCO framework. Available here.

OECD DESECO framework. Available here.

Partnerships 21 framework. Available here.

ATC21S framework. Available here.

UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers. Available here.

Teaching key competences

Old school or new school? Teach future skills and traditional subjects together. Available here.

ATC21S professional development module: Teaching and learning 21st century skills. Available here.

ATC21S professional development module: ATC21S: Examples of teaching 21st century sub-skills in existing lessons. Available here.

| Competence-based education in Europe today

Eurydice (2012). Developing Key Competences at School in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities for Policy. Available here.

Kearney, C. (2013). European Mapping of Initiatives on the Development of Key Competences, European Schoolnet, Brussels.

KeyCoNet's 2014 Review of the Literature: A Summary, European Schoolnet, Brussels.

KeyCoNet 2013 Literature Review: Key competence development in school education in Europe, European Schoolnet, Brussels.

KeyCoNet 2013 Literature Review: Assessment for key competences, European Schoolnet, Brussels.

KeyCoNet's Catalogue of initiatives, European Schoolnet, Brussels.

KeyCoNet's Case Studies from Austria, Belgium (Flanders), England, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Europe, European Schoolnet, Brussels.

KeyCoNet's Peer Learning Visits to Seville, Dublin and Malta, European Schoolnet, Brussels.

KeyCoNet's Country Overviews of Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden, European Schoolnet, Brussels.

Wiśniewski J. (2009) Key competences in Europe: opening doors for life-long learners across the school curriculum and teacher education. CASE-Center for Social and Economic Research

| Key Skills in Ireland

Junior Cycle Key Skills Framework website information. Available here.

Junior Cycle Key Skills Framework PDF. Available here.

Senior Cycle Key Skills Framework website information. Available here.

Senior Cycle Key Skills Framework PDF. Available here.

| Project Maths in Ireland

Project Maths website. Available here.

Project Maths video. Available here.

National Council for Curriculum & Assessment website section on Project Maths. Available here.

| Websites

European KeyCoNet website: http://keyconet.eun.org

Spanish KeyCoNet website: http://www.keyconetspain.org/wordpress/

French KeyCoNet website: http://ife.ens-lyon.fr/KeyCoNet/web/app.php

| Videos

KeyCoNet case study videos from across Europe: http://keyconet.eun.org/videos

| Other relevant articles & publications

OECD (2010), Are the New Millennium Learners Making the Grade? Technology Use and Educational Performance in PISA 2006, OECD, Paris.

Selwyn, N. (2013), Discourses of digital ‘disruption’ in education: a critical analysis, Monash University, Australia

Wilson & Scalise (2012). Measuring collaborative digital literacy. Available here.

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Module 1:Irish Case Study: Key Skills in the Irish Curriculum & Project Maths

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Module 1:Irish Case Study: Key Skills in the Irish Curriculum & Project Maths

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The approach is an integrated approach with the competences embedded into the learning outcomes of the formal curriculum and assessment. Emphasis is placed on their role in the teaching and learning approaches employed in classrooms. While curriculum and assessment reforms are led from the centre, schools are encouraged to develop competences in ways that work best for them. NCCA has worked closely with schools and teachers in the development of the key skills frameworks.
Currently, the curriculum and its assessment for lower secondary education (or what we call in Ireland, junior cycle, which includes students aged between 12 and 15) is being reformed and as part of that reform literacy, numeracy and six key skills have been identified as being central to teaching and learning.
You can see here the six key skills of the Junior Cycle, and it is clear that the focus is on learning to learn, working with others and being reflective, creative and innovative.
At Senior Cycle (which includes students aged between 16 and 18) a framework sets out how Key Skills can be embedded in teaching and learning and the learning outcomes associated with each skill. You can see here the five key skills of Senior cycle education in Ireland.
Work has been underway on the embedding of these key skills in the curriculum for Senior Cycle over the last number of years, and the first subject to have its syllabuses completely revised has been mathematics. In modules 2 and 3 of this course we’ll be focusing in on the initiative called Project Maths which set out to reform the way maths was taught, learnt and assessed in all post-primary schools in Ireland. One of the main aims of the initiative was to improve skills such as reasoning, sense-making and problem-solving. The key skills of the Junior and senior cycle were embedded in the new syllabuses. We wanted our students to be able to think creatively and use maths to think critically, to develop a set of transferrable
skills which meant they could apply their knowledge beyond the classroom and to unfamiliar situations. We wanted them to learn collaboratively, to analyse each other’s strategies, problem-solve in groups and use technology to support their learning. In this way they would be more equipped with skills for living in the world and for further study in the area of maths. Internationally, the move has been towards an emphasis on problem-solving, modelling and maths in real life contexts, and this approach was largely absent in the previous mathematics curriculum in Ireland.

An overview of the Project Maths initiative:
http://player.vimeo.com/video/61273284?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0

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Irish case study: Key Skills in the Irish Curriculum & Project Maths

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This video introduces the Irish Key Skills reform in secondary education, targeting pupils aged between 12 and 18. It also introduces Ireland's Project Maths initiative which aimed at implementing the Key Skills reform in mathematics teaching, learning and assessment. Project Maths aimed to improve learners' skills in reasoning, sense-making and problem-solving.

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Module 1:Competence-Based Education in Europe

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Module 1:Competence-Based Education in Europe

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Several European countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, the Flemish Community of Belgium, Finland, France, Norway, Spain, Portugal and Poland, have introduced new legislation or amended existing legislation to set out goals and frameworks for integrating key competences into school education. Most European countries have also introduced key competences and related learning outcomes into their national curricula for compulsory education, during the last decade.
For example, France introduced competence-based education in 2005 through the ‘socle commun’, a common core curriculum, comprising 7 competences, largely in line with the European key competences. A new education act, which confirms a new common core for knowledge, competences and now also culture, was adopted in July 2013.
In 2006 Spain published its Organic Act on Education which specifically mentioned 8 basic competences as the building blocks of the Spanish school curriculum. This has been accompanied by a national programme introduced by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with 12 of Spain’s Autonomous Communities, which aims at consolidating the integration of key competences in the curriculum.
In countries, including Finland and Sweden, where a competence-based approach has in fact been in place since the mid-1990s, recent or current education reform is re-emphasizing the centrality of key competences in the new curricula to be introduced in the near future. Therefore key competences have been and still are the focus of educational reform.

However, the situation across Europe is rather varied, with only some countries and regions having launched overarching strategies fostering the development of all or most of the key competences, including Spain, Poland, Lithuania and Austria. In the absence of a national strategy, most other European countries have established centrally or regionally coordinated initiatives to promote specific key competences.
While no country has made a complete shift to competence-based education, several countries have made significant progress. In addition to introducing legal and curricular frameworks for key competences, countries have used various strategies to foster a competence-based approach in the classroom. These include innovative partnerships, pilot projects, the monitoring and evaluation of new initiatives, dedicated funding and capacity building.
Norway’s Cultural Rucksack Programme is a good example of a national initiative which has used an innovative partnership between the educational and cultural sectors as well as dedicated funding to ensure all young people in Norway have the opportunity to engage with high quality, professional arts and culture. Another example of a large-scale initiative which engages schools with the broader community, is the Global Enterprize project, which teams up students with professionals from the business sector.

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Competence-based education in Europe today

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Module 1: Key Points on Assessing Key Competences

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Module 1: Key Points on Assessing Key Competences

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As countries have introduced key competences to new curricula, they have also defined new learning objectives for different stages of their education. New curricula should cover the objectives identified, and assessments measure how well students have attained these objectives. All of these elements need to be aligned. If they are misaligned, it is impossible to draw a valid conclusion about how well students have learned or to adapt teaching to better meet learner needs. This means that teachers will need to develop new approaches to assessment.
These include:

1. Summative assessment – that is the tests and examinations they design in order to assign course grades, or at the end of the school year.

2. Formative assessment – the kind of interactive assessment that takes place in the course of learning, where the information gathered can be used to adjust teaching and learning and better meet student needs.

3. Student self-assessment of progress toward the transversal competences. These are competences that do not have a learning “standard” – such as creativity, initiative and constructive management of feelings - but where it may be important for each student to track his or her development.

An important think to keep in mind is that Assessments need to provide ways for students to demonstrate that they can use knowledge, skills and attitudes to reason, solve problems and so on. New tools such as portfolios and e-assessments will be very useful for teachers.

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Module 1: Key Points on Teaching Key Competences 

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Module 1: Key Points on Teaching Key Competences 

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The key competence approach, with its emphasis on the application of knowledge in real world situations represents a significant departure from traditional content-based approaches where subjects are taught and assessed discretely. The main recommended approach to teaching key competences is through the provision of interactive learning environments in which learners can engage in practical, inquiry-based tasks. These environments present open-ended problems and challenges to be solved through debate, experimentation, exploration and creativity. Educational research by Dewey and Vygotsky promoting a social and constructivist approach to learning emphasizes the importance of competence development within a social learning context, where learners are engaged in active learning in real life situations. Simulating real world contexts has three main purposes:.

it can motivate learners more than traditional approaches,

learners are more likely to remember concepts they discover on their own, and

it provides a meaningful context for problem-based learning.

Project-based learning is a particularly well suited method for the development of pupils’ competences, as several key competences can be addressed simultaneously in a cross-curricular manner.

In summary, teaching key competences involves:
1) a greater emphasis on interactive learning environments,
2) allowing students to work in teams on multidisciplinary topics,
3) benefit from technology enhanced learning, and 4) have the mental, physical, social and emotional space to collaborate on solving problems.

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Module 1: The Importance and Definition of Key Competences

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Module 1: The Importance and Definition of Key Competences

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Nowadays education systems are moving away from solely content-led approaches, and focusing more on helping learners develop a range of competences to cope in our complex world. Education today, just as in previous centuries, is intended to promote learners’ personal growth, citizenship and preparation for the world of work. However, the skills needed for this in today’s society, just as in the future society of the 22nd century, are and will continue to be very different from those that were needed in previous times. While some skills, such as numeracy and literacy, are just as important today as they were in the past, other more transversal and higher order skills, such as collaborative problem-solving are increasingly valuable for citizens to be able to effectively take part in life today, whether personally, socially or professionally.
The need for school students to develop competences, also known as ‘key competences’ or ‘21st century skills’, has increasingly gained importance, and has recently become prominent in education systems worldwide thanks to social and economic motivations, as well as developments in educational research. The need to improve the quality and relevance of the competences learners acquire before leaving formal education has been widely recognized, particularly in view of Europe’s current high youth unemployment. Knowledge and basic skills are necessary but no longer sufficient to meet the complex requirements of today’s social demands in an increasingly competitive global economy.

A 'competence’ can be defined as ‘a complex combination of knowledge, skills, understanding, values, attitudes and desire which lead to effective, embodied human action in the world in a particular domain’. In other words, being competent means being able to effectively apply a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes to successfully react to a situation or solve a problem in the real world.

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The importance and definition of competences

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This video looks at why transversal competences such as collaborative problem-solving are particularly important today. It also introduces some international competence frameworks, looking particularly at how the European Framework for Key Competences for Lifelong Learning defines the important 'learning to learn' competence.

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1. Understand what is meant by ‘key competences’, also often referred to as ‘21st century skills’, and why developing them in school is so important in today’s world;

2. Understand that the definitions of competences as well as national and international frameworks vary, but share common points;

3. Become familiar with the basic key principles for teaching and assessing key competences, self-assess your current practice, and identify areas for improvement;

4. Become familiar with how various countries across Europe have implemented a key competence approach in school education, particularly in Ireland, which is the case study used throughout the course

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Subjects that i teach based upon the National Curriculum of Greece. They include Literature, Maths, Art, Geography, History e.t.c. My school located in the north suburbs of Athens and usually classes consist of at least 22 students.

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My name is Tania Kolympari and i come from Greece. I grew up in Thessaloniki, a town in the north part of Greece, but now i live in Athens. I work as a Primary School Teacher in Athens and i hold a Bachelor of Arts (B.A) in Early Childhood Education from Aristotle Universtity and a Bachelor Degree in Primary Education from University of Athens. Also, i hold a M.Ed in Educational Assessment and a M.Ed. in Education and Disability. Since last year i have been a PhD Candidate in the field of Educational Policy-Making.