PISA, the OECD's international program of assessment of reading, scientific and mathematical literacy (www.oecd.org/pisa), aims to assess the ability of 15 year olds to use the knowledge and skills that have acquired at school in real world tasks and challenges. It also uses questionnaires to gather data on students' attitudes to learning and the…

In this article, we examine the construct and criteria validity of student and teacher ratings as indicators of instructional features. As parsimonious measures, student and teacher reports are frequently used to assess aspects of the learning environment. From a methodological perspective, however, both approaches have been questioned. Whereas…