Mathematical Literacy and Collaborative Problem-Solving: Comparison between Korean and U.S. Students in PISA2015

We examined the relationships between mathematics achievement and collaborative problem solving, which has been emphasized as the 21st century skills. Focusing on moderating effects of attitude toward working with others, we analyzed the PISA 2015 data for binational comparison between Korean and the U.S. Random-intercept linear models - where the intercepts vary across schools while slopes are fixed across schools - were applied to the data including 5,545 students in Korea and 5,564 in the U.S. The findings showed the positive linear relationships between mathematics achievement and collaborative problem solving as expected, but the slope was remarkably higher in the Korean model. However, we found no significant moderating effects of attitude toward working with others on the relationship between mathematics achievement and collaborative problem solving. Particularly, students in Korea and the U.S. are likely to have similarly low scores in mathematics achievement when their collaborative problem solving scores are low. However, Korean students would have even higher mathematics achievement scores if students in Korea and the U.S. have similarly high collaborative problem solving scores. The findings suggest the necessity for further scrutinies on attitude toward working with others and research on teaching and learning the 21st century skills in an integrated way.