PISA 2025 Asks for the First Time: How Do You Learn in a Digital World?

Math scores. Reading scores. Science scores. For 25 years, PISA has been asking the same questions. But in 2025, PISA poses an entirely different kind of question for the first time.

"How do you learn in a digital world?"

Results from PISA 2025, which involved more than 90 countries, are expected on September 8, 2026. Here's why this assessment is special — and what it means for education.

Table of Contents

1. PISA 2025's New Challenge
2. What Is "Learning in the Digital World"?
3. What Gets Measured: Self-Regulated Learning and Metacognition
4. Why This Assessment Matters
5. Questions It Raises for Our Classrooms

PISA 2025's New Challenge

The OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) measures the math, reading, and science proficiency of 15-year-olds every three years. Starting with the 2025 cycle, however, an innovative domain has been added: Learning in the Digital World (LDW).

For the first time in PISA history, the assessment measures not just how much students know, but how they learn.

The focal domain for this cycle is science, with mathematics and reading as minor domains. And into this framework, an entirely new dimension — LDW — has been layered.

What Is "Learning in the Digital World"?

The OECD defines LDW as: "students' capacity to engage in an iterative process of knowledge building and problem solving using computational tools."

In plainer terms: students are placed in a digital learning environment and assessed on their ability to define problems for themselves, find and understand resources, devise strategies, and work through complex tasks — the entire process, not just the outcome.

This is structurally different from traditional PISA. Rather than solving fixed problems, students enter a modern digital learning environment stocked with tutorials, reference materials, and worked examples. Students must decide for themselves which resources to consult, how long to spend on different parts of the task, and in what order to approach the challenges.

In other words, choice and strategy are central to the assessment. It's not about knowing the right answer — it's about how you figure out what you don't yet know.

What Gets Measured: Self-Regulated Learning and Metacognition

The LDW assessment focuses on two core competencies.

The first is Self-Regulated Learning (SRL). Self-regulated learning is the ability to plan, monitor, and adjust your own learning process. It means asking yourself: "Did I understand that? Where did I get stuck? Should I change my approach?" — and actually acting on the answers.

In educational research, self-regulated learning consistently ranks among the strongest predictors of academic achievement. Studies using AI tutors also show that students with stronger SRL skills benefit more from AI-based learning tools.

The second is scientific inquiry competency using computational tools — measuring how independently students collect data, run simulations, and interpret results with digital tools.

The OECD argues that these two competencies go beyond knowledge memorization and represent the core capabilities that future learners must develop. Knowledge becomes outdated. But the ability to learn for yourself never does.

Why This Assessment Matters

The significance of PISA 2025's LDW results goes beyond ranking countries against each other.

It can redirect educational investment. PISA results directly influence national education policy decisions. If a given country's students show critically low self-regulated learning capacity in digital environments, it would provide evidence that the country should invest first in teaching students how to learn — rather than rushing to deploy AI learning tools.

It provides evidence for evaluating edtech effectiveness. In recent years, countries around the world have made enormous investments in AI tutors, digital textbooks, and adaptive learning platforms. Yet there has been no large-scale international data on whether these tools actually build learning capacity or merely provide convenient answers that bypass the learning process altogether. LDW results will be the first global dataset to address this question.

It sends a direct message to Korean education. Korean students have traditionally scored high on PISA in math and science. But where do they stand on self-regulated learning, learning motivation, and independent inquiry in digital environments? The answers will arrive in September 2026.

Questions It Raises for Our Classrooms

PISA 2025 LDW raises urgent questions for teachers and schools right now.

Are we teaching students how to learn? Many classrooms still focus primarily on what to learn — delivering content, assigning problems, confirming correct answers. But what LDW is trying to measure reaches beyond that: how students approach a problem they don't already know how to solve; what they do when they don't understand.

Is the digital tool a means of learning, or a replacement for it? AI tools are entering classrooms rapidly. But there is a profound difference between a student asking an AI for the answer and a student using AI as a tool for exploration. The OECD is explicit about this distinction.

"When students use general-purpose AI tools, they often produce higher-quality outputs. But when AI access is removed — in exams, for instance — those advantages tend to disappear. Sometimes they reverse." — OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026

PISA 2025 results will arrive in September 2026, but the full LDW results won't be published until December 2027. The world is waiting for those numbers. But before they arrive, it may be worth asking these questions of our own classrooms first.

Sources

• OECD. PISA 2025 Learning in the Digital World. Link
• OECD. PISA 2025 Learning in the Digital World Assessment Framework (Second Draft). Link
• OECD. OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026: Exploring Effective Uses of Generative AI in Education. Link
• K-12 Dive. "PISA to test student motivation, self-regulation in digital learning in 2025." Link
• EPALE. "The Future of Learning: Key Takeaways from the OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026." Link