FYI:PISA 2012 Results: Creative Problem Solving: Students’ skills in tackling real-life problems

[Arcadia]

Results released today and it is not an April Fools joke.  Haven't read the details as I am using library free Wi-Fi (but silly happy for my own country of "exam muggers").
 
1 page pdf of rankings of the 44 countries that participated.
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/PISA-2012-PS-snapshot-performance.pdf
 
The main page with lots more details (quoted below)
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-volume-v.htm
 
"Snapshot of student performance in problem solving (pdf)
PISA in Focus N°38: Are 15-year-olds creative problem-solvers? 
Also available: French, German, Spanish
Follow the press conference live (1 April at 11.30 CET) in English and Spanish
Explore the PISA 2012 database" "
 
"Country-specific overviews
•England
ʉۢGermany
ʉۢSingapore
ʉۢUnited States
•France (French)
ʉۢJapan (English, Japanese)
ʉۢSpain (English, Spanish)
Compare your country using the PISA 2012 results data visualization"
 
"Contents
Chapter 1 Assessing Problem-Solving Skills in PISA 2012
Chapter 2 Student Performance in Problem Solving
Chapter 3 Students' Strengths and Weaknesses in Problem Solving
Chapter 4 How Problem-Solving Performance varies within Countries
Chapter 5 Implications of the Problem-Solving Assessment for Policy and Practice
Annex A
Annex A1: Indices from the student, school and parent context questionnaires
Annex A2: The PISA target population, the PISA samples and the definition of schools
Annex A3: Technical notes on analyses in this volume
Annex A4: Quality assurance
Annex A5: The problem-solving assessment design
Annex A6: Technical note on Brazil
Annex B  PISA 2012 Data
Annex B1: Results for countries and economies
Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4 (Excel)
Annex B2: Results for regions within countries (Excel)
Annex B3: List of tables on line: included in Chapter 4 and Annex B2 (Excel)
Annex C The development and implementation of PISA - a collaborative effort"
 

ETA:
This part makes sense to me quoted from "Are 15 year olds creative problem solvers?".

"In modern societies, all of life is problem solving. With constant changes in
society, the environment, and in technology, what we should know in order for
us to live a full life is evolving rapidly too. Adapting, learning, daring to try out
new things and always being ready to learn from mistakes are essential for being
resilient and successful in an unpredictable world."

[Arcadia]

Below quoted is from the USA report
"Fifteen-year-olds in the United States perform strongest on interactive tasks, compared to students of similar overall performance in other countries. Interactive tasks require students to uncover some of the information needed to solve the problem themselves. This suggests that students in the United States are open to novelty, tolerate doubt and uncertainty, and dare to use intuition to initiate a solution. "
 
"The largest achievement gap in problem solving between the United States and the highest-performing Asian countries is found on tasks where students must select, organise and integrate the information and feedback received in order to represent and formulate their understanding of the problem. "
 
"PISA 2012 defines problem-solving competence as "…an individual’s capacity to engage in cognitive processing to understand and resolve problem situations where a method of solution is not immediately obvious. It includes the willingness to engage with such situations in order to achieve one’s potential as a constructive and reflective citizen"."
 
"In the United States, 1 273 students in 162 schools completed the assessment of problem solving. "