Since the beginning of the 2000s, the discussion on skills and knowledge has focused on not only cognitive knowledge such as literacy and numeracy but non-cognitive abilities such as communication ability and attitudes toward society.

In 1997, the OECD launched the DeSeCo (Definition and Selection of Competencies) project aimed at organizing not only student abilities but also adult abilities. The project presented three elements as “key competencies:” “ability to interact in heterogeneous groups,” “ability to act autonomously,” and “ability to use tools interactively.” The term “competency,” according to DeSeCo, is more than just knowledge and skills. It involves the ability to meet complex demands by drawing on and mobilizing psychosocial resources (including skills and attitudes) in a particular context. For example, the ability to communicate effectively is a competency that may draw on an individual’s knowledge of a language, practical IT skills, and attitudes towards those with whom he or she is communicating (Rychen and Salganik, 2003). In 2002, the US Department of Education, ICT-related companies, and educational groups established a nonprofit organization called “21st Century Skill Partnership” (P21) to organize the required skills in the workplace.

In addition, since there is a need for effective educational assessment to consistently measure the required skills in society and education, Australia, Finland, Portugal, Singapore, United Kingdom, the United States, Cisco Systems, Intel, and Microsoft jointly cooperated and launched The 21st Century Skills Learning and Evaluation (ATC21S) project. The ATC21s divides the 21st Century skills into ten areas of Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, Values, and Ethics known as the KSAVE model.

The reason to propose the various abilities mentioned above is that the idea of required abilities has shifted from abilities belonging to the individual such as numeracy and literacy to abilities to cooperate with other people in the society (Griffin and Care 2015). From the trend of emphasizing cooperation with other people, The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 implemented the collaborative problem-solving ability test. According to the OECD, “cooperative problem-solving ability” is the ability of two or more people to engage in the process of effectively sharing knowledge, skills, and effort toward problem-solving (OECD 2017). This collaborative problem-solving ability is measured and evaluated using ICT by chatting with a computer partner in order to visualize the problem-solving process.

There are numerous studies to investigate the use of ICT for educational assessment. On the one hand, it is reported that the accumulation of learning data by using e-portfolio can contribute to the assessment of the required abilities for career development (Morimoto, 2008). On the other hand, Ebina et al. (2017) point out that a systematic method utilizing e-portfolio has not been fully established yet. In measuring diverse abilities, skills assessment with ICT is still in the development stage and requires further attention to comprehensively measure diversified skills.

Reference

Griffin, P. and Care, E. (2015) Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills: Methods and approach, New York: Springer.
OECD (2017) PISA 2015 Assessment and Analytical Framework Science, Reading, Mathematic, Financial Literacy and Collaborative Problem Solving. PISA, OECD publishing, Paris.
Rychen D.S. and Salganik, L.H. (Eds.). (2003). Key Competencies for a Successful Life and a WellFunctioning Society. Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber.
蛯名哲也, 宮澤芳光, 森本康彦（2017）項目反応理論に基づいた学習評価支援システムにおける能力可視化機能の検証, 教育システム情報学会第42回全国大会資料, 2017. 08. 23- 08. 25.
森本康彦（2008）e ポートフォリオの理論と実際, 『教育システム情報学会誌』Vol. 25 NO. 2, pp. 245-263.