Example questions for PISA 2015 - National Foundation for ... · PDF fileOECD Programme for International Student Assessment 2015 Example questions for PISA 2015 PISA 2015 RELEASED

OECD Programme for

International Student Assessment 2015

Example questions for PISA 2015 PISA 2015 RELEASED FIELD TRIAL COGNITIVE ITEMS

Produced by ETS (Core 3 Contractor). Version edited by NFER National Foundation for Educational Research www.nfer.ac.uk/pisa

PISA 2015 Contractors

Example questions for PISA 2015 in Scotland

2 www.nfer.ac.uk/pisa

This document provides some examples of questions that were written for the PISA

2015 assessment. The questions included here are about science and problem-solving.

The other subjects assessed by PISA are reading and mathematics. Examples of

reading and mathematics questions can be found on the OECD PISA website:

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisa-test-questions.htm

The examples on the OECD website also cover Financial Literacy, but this is not being

assessed in Scotland in 2015.

Most of the available example questions for PISA are taken from paper-and-pen

assessments from earlier rounds of the survey. In 2015, the questions will be presented

on-screen to students and they will answer by clicking, dragging, or typing their

answers. The examples in this document show this type of computer-based assessment

questions.

The questions here were used in the field trial of the PISA assessment, and which,

following the field trial, were released to the public.

For more information about PISA 2015 in Scotland, please visit www.nfer.ac.uk/pisa

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisa-test-questions.htm

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/pisa



Example science question: Bee Colony Collapse Disorder These questions are from the PISA 2015 computer-based assessment. In most of the questions which assess science, reading and mathematics, the right had part of the screen shows a short text introducing a topic, a literary text, non-fiction text or a problem. In this set of science questions, the topic is Bee Colony Collapse Disorder. On this screen, information about the disorder is given and on the next screen there is a graph showing its relationship to an insecticide. The left hand side of the screen tells students to read the text on the right and then gives the first of five questions on this topic. For this question, students have to type their answer in the box. When they have finished they click the green triangle at the top-right to move onto the next question.

To correctly answer this question, students must explain that a flower cannot produce seeds without pollination.



For Question 2 the graph is shown on the right and, to answer the question, students choose options from the drop-down lists after the question. The options are:

collapse of bee colonies

concentration of imidacloprid (an insecticide) in food

bee immunity to imidacloprid

The response, that the researchers tested the effect of concentration of imidacloprid in food on collapse of bee colonies, correctly identifies the independent and dependent variables in the experiment.



Question 3 requires interpretation of the graph that presents data related to the relationship between concentrations of the insecticide and the rate of colony collapse over time. The correct response is the first option (Colonies exposed to a higher concentration of imidacloprid tend to collapse sooner) because the graph shows that the percentage of colonies that collapsed is higher when the hives were exposed to a concentration of 400 μg/kg of the insecticide as compared with 20 μg/kg during weeks 14-20 of the experiment.



Question 4 asks students to give possible causes for bee colony collapse based on the graph.

A correct response indicates either that there must be another natural cause of colony collapse for the studied colonies or that the hives in the control group were not properly protected from exposure.



Question 5 presents the final question without the text or graph and students have to choose an answer based on their scientific knowledge.

The correct response is the third option: Non-bee DNA was found inside the bees’ cells.



Example collaborative problem solving question: The visit All students will answer science questions. They will also answer questions on mathematics or reading or collaborative problem solving. There are no examples of computer-based questions assessing reading or mathematics from the PISA 2015 field trial. Below is an example of a collaborative problem solving task. Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) is related to these aspects of collaboration:

establishing and maintaining a shared understanding;

taking appropriate action to solve the problem;

establishing and maintaining team organisation; … and these aspects of problem solving abilities:

exploring and understanding;

representing and formulating;

planning and executing;

monitoring and reflecting. The questions which measure collaborative problem solving are based on online discussions (chats) where students are put in a situation where they are interacting with other people who are working to solve the same problem. Students are given chat options and they have to choose which one they think is appropriate. The chat space appears on the left of the screen. The right hand part of the screen (the task pane) gives information that helps to solve the problem.



The Visit The scenario for this question is based on a visit to the student’s school by a group of international students. The group solving the problem is made of the student, 3 other students and a teacher. The tasks are to plan the visit, match visiting students with guides and respond to a problem that happens during the visit. The example screens here give an overview of the way this question works.

This is the opening screen:

When students have finished reading this screen they click the green triangle at the top-right to move on.



In the next screen, instructions for the task are given on the left side. The task pane on the right includes a notepad and links to the three local sites under consideration. Clicking on a link displays a brief list of relevant information for each site (location, hours of operation, tour information and what visitors can see there).



This screen shows the start of the chat. ‘George’ asks what to do first. The responses to choose from are listed below. Students have to click on one and click Send. The most useful option to select is “Let’s discuss what’s necessary for a good visit.” The option, “We’ve got three choices. Let’s put it to a vote.” is not a good choice, because there is nothing to usefully vote on at this stage. And the other options, “Let’s ask Ms Cosmo what we should do.” and “Maybe we should think about this for a while and check back later?” are not good choices because they are not taking the chat forward towards a decision.



In the next screen, Brad mentions that the group is supposed to visit somewhere local.

The second response is given a mark because it is the only one of the four that helps advance the group’s shared understanding of what “local” might mean: “If it’s local it could show what life is like around here.”



Rachel adds a note to the notepad confirming that the site should “provide sense of life in our town.” Brad comments that, “Local means that the site is not far away.”

The most useful response to give from the options is, “So it shouldn’t take too long to get there and back.” After this, the chat goes on to look at the times the places can be visited and what makes each place a good or bad choice.



Following the discussions, a new screen appears. The task on this screen is to summarise what the team has learned about the sites and making a recommendation. The chat history is available to review as is the information about the museum, market and car factory.



Following this, there are two more problem solving situations to work through. The first one is about matching visiting students with guides. You can see here that there are guides and visitors on the right hand side and the same chat set-up on the left.

Looking at this opening screen, we can see that the best response is to try to find out what languages each person has studied so that they can be matched with speakers of those languages. Two options try to find this information, but not for all the guides, and one option does not try to work out a solution, and instead suggests that George should make some suggestions. The chat goes on and the students have to allocate visitors to guides following the criteria their teacher gave them. The third problem that needs to be solved involves one of the visitors needing to get home urgently. The team’s job is to find out the best way to get the visitor to the airport. The task involves finding where each student is, their distance from the bus station and rail station, and which mode of transport is the best to take. As the task progresses more information is included on the screen on the right. The chat continues until the problem is solved.

This edited version is produced by the National Foundation for Educational Research www.nfer.ac.uk/pisa

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/pisa

Documents

Example questions for PISA 2015 - National Foundation for ... · PDF fileOECD Programme for International Student Assessment 2015 Example questions for PISA 2015 PISA 2015 RELEASED