The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assesses the extent to which 15‑year‑old students near the end of their compulsory education have acquired the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in modern societies. The assessment does not just ascertain whether students can reproduce knowledge; it also examines how well students can extrapolate from what they have learned and can apply that knowledge in unfamiliar settings, both in and outside of school. This approach reflects the fact that modern economies reward individuals not for what they know, but for what they can do with what they know.

This chapter introduces the PISA 2022 Assessment and Analytical Framework. It describes what makes PISA unique, the key features of the PISA 2022 test, an overview of what is assessed in each domain, the evolution of reporting student performance and the context questionnaires. Finally, it presents how PISA is the result of a collaborative effort.

Mathematics is the major domain of assessment of the 2022 cycle of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The mathematics framework presented in this chapter was considerably updated for the PISA 2022 assessment. The chapter outlines the “organisation of the domain”, in four aspects: a) mathematical reasoning and its three processes; b) the way mathematical content knowledge is organised in the PISA 2022 framework; c) the relationship between mathematical literacy and 21st Century skills; and d) contexts in which students face mathematical challenges. Moreover, the chapter outlines structural aspects of the assessment, including a test blueprint and other technical information. Various sample items from the mathematics assessment are included at the end of this chapter.

The PISA 2022 study offers an optional assessment of financial literacy for the fourth time. The revised framework proposed in this chapter takes into account changes in the socio-demographic and financial landscape that are relevant for students' financial literacy and decision making. It includes slight revisions to the PISA definition of financial literacy and to the description of the domain around the content, processes and contexts that are relevant for the assessment of 15-year-old students. As before, the framework discusses the relationship between financial literacy and non-cognitive skills, and between financial literacy and other domains of knowledge and skills.

Creative thinking refers to the cognitive processes required to engage in creative work. It is a key competence to assess in the context of PISA as it is a malleable individual capacity that can be developed through practice and that all students can demonstrate in everyday contexts. This section presents the framework for how the PISA 2022 assessment measures creative thinking, including how the construct is defined, the contexts in which it is assessed, and the approach to scoring student responses.

This chapter presents the framework for the background core questionnaires for students and schools and explains the goals and rationale for selecting specific questionnaire content for the eighth cycle of PISA. Like prior frameworks, it touches upon how measured constructs theoretically relate to one another and to student achievement. Additionally, the framework outlines a set of survey design principles and methodologies that are introduced to PISA 2022 with the aim of improving measurement, efficiency, and consistency of PISA in the mid to long term.  

This section presents the theoretical framework for the way in which PISA 2022 assesses the integration of information and communication technologies in teaching and learning (ICT). This framework provides a comprehensive strategy to document how students access and use ICT resources in and outside of school, and to identify how teachers, schools and education systems integrate ICT into pedagogical practices and learning environments. The framework allows for an exploration of how system-level factors influence schools’ and students’ experiences with ICT, how the availability and use of ICT interact with various teaching practices, and how these associations correlate with students’ performance in mathematics, reading and science, and with other outcomes, such as students’ ICT skills and well-being.