Seminar Abstract
The OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) has become a key source of evidence on adult skills and their social, educational, and economic correlates. More than a decade after the first PIAAC data became available, fundamental questions remain: What have we learned from the growing body of research, how robust is the evidence, and what can PIAAC reveal about the development of adult skills?
This presentation brings together findings from four complementary studies examining the PIAAC research landscape, the methodological quality of secondary analyses, the structure and coverage of the literature, and the determinants of cognitive skills across adulthood. Drawing on a systematic review of publications based on Cycle 1, it identifies key research trends, methodological challenges, and gaps in the literature. Analyses of PIAAC-Longitudinal data further show how the factors associated with cognitive skills vary across age cohorts in adulthood. Taken together, the studies provide an overview of the existing PIAAC research, highlight some limitations in the evidence base, and offer indications of areas for future research on adult skills.
About the Speaker
PD Dr. Débora B. Maehler is Head of the Research Data Center PIAAC at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and Senior Researcher in the Department Survey Design and Methodology. Her work focuses on large-scale assessments, survey methodology, migration and integration research, and the provision and documentation of complex research data. At CREATE, she will collaborate primarily with Ronny Scherer and colleagues on an evidence map and evidence gap analysis of predictors and outcomes of adult skills based on PIAAC.