Assessing, documenting, and recognising social and emotional skills in upper secondary
education
An overview of practices, approaches, models, and strategies from OECD countries
This policy perspective was developed at the request of the Directorate for Education
Reform, Scotland (United Kingdom) to provide an overview of how countries across the
OECD assess social and emotional skills in upper secondary education. It is accompanied
by, and draws on material from, a Peer Learning Discussion on the same topic in March
2023 in Scotland. It aims to provide an overview of literature and country approaches
in an area where there is presently limited comparative information on national and
system-wide approaches. The policy perspective addresses two key questions about country
practices in assessing social and emotional skills (variously known among OECD countries
as social and emotional skills, non-cognitive capacities, 21st-century skills, transversal
competencies, and complex competencies): a) how do countries collect information on
social and emotional on a systemic level; i.e. outside formal upper secondary certification,
and b) how do countries assess social and emotional skills for the purposes of upper
secondary certification? To answer these questions, the policy perspective provides
an inventory and synthesis from 12 countries of approaches, models, and strategies
used at the national level to document, assess, and recognise similarly challenging
skills, and detailed cases of the model and strategy for assessment of social and
emotional skills in Canada (British Columbia), Finland, and New Zealand.
Published on November 24, 2023
In series:OECD Education Policy Perspectivesview more titles