Table Of ContentOECD Skills Studies
The Assessment Frameworks
for Cycle 2 of the Programme
for the International
Assessment of Adult
Competencies
OECD Skills Studies
The Assessment
Frameworks for
Cycle 2 of the Programme
for the International
Assessment of Adult
Competencies
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Please cite this publication as:
OECD (2021), The Assessment Frameworks for Cycle 2 of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult
Competencies, OECD Skills Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/4bc2342d-en.
ISBN 978-92-64-64927-9 (print)
ISBN 978-92-64-94606-4 (pdf)
OECD Skills Studies
ISSN 2307-8723 (print)
ISSN 2307-8731 (online)
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Foreword
The Programme of the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) is an international
assessment of the literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills of adults. The first cycle of the study
involved three rounds of data collection involving a total of 39 countries and regions. Preparations for
Cycle 2 of PIAAC started in 2018. As part of this process, the assessments of literacy, numeracy and
problem solving have been redeveloped to reflect contemporary understandings of these skills and to make
use of the opportunities offered by advances in testing technologies since Cycle 1 of the study. This
document contains the frameworks that define and describe the skills assessed in Cycle 2 of PIAAC.
PIAAC is a collaboration between the countries participating in the study, the international contractor (a
consortium led by Education Testing Service) responsible for the development of the study instruments,
survey procedures, quality control and data preparation and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) responsible for the management of the project on behalf of participating
countries.
The project is steered by the PIAAC Board of Participating Countries. Over the course of the development
of Cycle 2 of PIAAC, the Board has been chaired by Ted Reininga (the Netherlands), together with
Aviana Bulgarelli of Italy (until September 2020) and, from October 2020, Katalin Zoltán (Hungary).
THE ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORKS FOR CYCLE 2 OF PIAAC © OECD 2021
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Acknowledgements
This document is the fruit of a collective effort involving the international contractor for Cycle 2 of PIAAC,
the members of the expert groups guiding the development of the assessment in the domains of literacy,
numeracy and adaptive problem solving and the OECD.
The literacy framework was developed by the PIAAC Cycle 2 literacy expert group (LEG) under the
leadership of Jean-François Rouet (Centre national de la recherche scientifique [CNRS], University of
Poitiers, France). The members of the expert group contributing to the development of the literacy
framework were Mary Anne Britt (Northern Illinois University, USA), Egil Gabrielsen (University of
Stavanger, Norway), Johanna Kaakinen (University of Turku, Finland) and Tobias Richter (University of
Würzburg, Germany).
The numeracy framework was developed by the PIAAC Cycle 2 numeracy expert group (NEG), chaired
by Dave Tout (Australian Council for Educational Research, Australia). The members of the expert group
contributing to the development of the numeracy framework were Isabelle Demonty (University of Liège,
Belgium), Javier Díez-Palomar (University of Barcelona, Spain), Kees Hoogland (HU University of Applied
Sciences Utrecht, the Netherlands), Terry Maguire (National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and
Learning, Ireland) and Vince Geiger (Australian Catholic University, Australia).
The adaptive problem-solving framework was developed by the PIAAC Cycle 2 adaptive problem solving
expert group, chaired by Samuel Greiff (University of Luxembourg). The members of the expert group
contributing to the development of the adaptive problem solving framework were Art Graesser (University
of Memphis, United States), Dragos Iliescu (University of Bucharest, Romania), Jean-François Rouet
(CNRS, University of Poitiers, France), Katharina Scheiter (University of Tübingen, Germany) and
Ronny Scherer (University of Oslo, Norway), with assistance from Juliana Gottschling (University of
Luxembourg) and Jan Dörendahl (University of Luxembourg).
William Thorn (OECD) wrote the introduction.
Marylou Lennon, Laura Halderman and Irwin Kirsch (Education Testing Service) supported the work of the
expert groups and preparation of the individual framework documents.
Sabrina Leonarduzzi (OECD) prepared the document for publication.
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Table of contents
Foreword 3
Acknowledgements 5
Executive summary 11
1 The assessment frameworks for Cycle 2 of PIAAC: An introduction and overview 13
Introduction 14
The PIAAC assessment 14
Assessment frameworks 19
The evolution of assessment frameworks in international adult assessments 21
Relationship of the PIAAC and PISA assessments 27
The framework documents 28
References 29
Annex 1.A. Summary of the evolution of assessment frameworks – from IALS to PIAAC Cycle 2 32
Notes 37
2 PIAAC Cycle 2 assessment framework: Literacy 39
Introduction 40
Definition of literacy 42
Core dimensions of the literacy domain 45
Assessing literacy 53
Recommended distribution of items 54
The role of fluent reading, engagement and metacognition 55
Factors driving task difficulty 56
References 58
Note 64
3 PIAAC Cycle 2 assessment framework: Numeracy 65
Introduction 66
The assessment of numeracy in PIAAC 67
Conceptual and theoretical foundations 71
Numeracy assessment construct in PIAAC Cycle 2 91
Operationalisation of the PIAAC numeracy assessment 110
Relationship between PIAAC and PISA 124
Numeracy components 127
References 139
Notes 153
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4 PIAAC Cycle 2 assessment framework: Adaptive problem solving 155
Introduction 156
Definition of adaptive problem solving 158
Core dimensions of the APS domain 166
Assessing adaptive problem solving 188
Adaptive problem solving in the nexus of related constructs and implications for PIAAC Cycle 2 194
References 197
Annex 4.A. Description of difficulty drivers 201
FIGURES
Figure 1.1. Assessment design: PIAAC Cycle 2 17
Figure 1.2. Sample PIAAC test item (Numeracy) 18
Figure 2.1. Three core cognitive processes supporting literacy 45
Figure 3.1. Use of the term numeracy versus other terms in the books published between 1950 and 2008,
included in Google Books 73
Figure 3.2. The PISA 2012 model of mathematical literacy in practice 84
Figure 3.3. The PISA 2021 model of mathematical literacy: the relationship between mathematical reasoning
and the problem solving (modelling) cycle 85
Figure 3.4. Model for numeracy in the twenty-first century 86
Figure 3.5. Components of number sense 134
Figure 4.1. The nexus of task dimensions, metacognitive and cognitive processes, and proficiency levels 167
Figure 4.2. Adaptive problem solving 170
TABLES
Table 1.1. Countries and regions participating in PIAAC 15
Table 1.2. Key features of the PIAAC study design 16
Table 1.3. Main features of the assessment frameworks for PIAAC Cycle 2 19
Table 1.4. Domains assessed in IALS, ALL and PIAAC 22
Table 2.1. Correspondence between the processes in PIAAC Cycle 2, PIAAC Cycle 1 and PISA 2018 45
Table 2.2. Summary of different types of evaluation processes 49
Table 2.3. Main dimensions of texts considered in the PIAAC literacy framework 52
Table 2.4. Recommended distribution of items as a function of text size and cognitive task demands 55
Table 2.5. Text, task, and text-by-task factors driving difficulty as a function of cognitive task demands 57
Table 3.1. Four categories of numeracy use and their connections with technology 83
Table 3.2. Cognitive processes labels in PIAAC and PISA 100
Table 3.3. Mathematical content labels in PIAAC and PISA 104
Table 3.4. Context labels in PIAAC and PISA 107
Table 3.5. Representation of cognitive processes in PIAAC and PISA 122
Table 3.6. Representation of content areas in PIAAC and PISA 122
Table 3.7. The representation classifications in PIAAC 122
Table 3.8. Representation of context in PIAAC and PISA 123
Table 4.1. Descriptions of the three APS proficiency levels proposed 186
Table 4.2. Proposed distribution of the information environments and problem contexts 188
Table 4.3. Proposed distribution of the three main cognitive and metacognitive processes 189
Table 4.4. PIAAC Cycle 2 APS and literacy assessments 194
Table 4.5. PIAAC Cycle 2 APS and digital competence 195
Table 4.6. PIAAC Cycle 2 APS and PIAAC Cycle 1 PS-TRE 197
Annex Table 1.A.1. Literacy (Reading) 32
Annex Table 1.A.2. Managing numerical and mathematical information 34
Annex Table 1.A.3. Problem solving 36
Annex Table 4.A.1. Description of difficulty drivers 201
THE ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORKS FOR CYCLE 2 OF PIAAC © OECD 2021
