Assessing Measurement Invariance in the Creative Thinking Assessment of PISA 2022: An Alignment Method Approach

Creative thinking (CRT) was assessed as an innovative domain for the first time in PISA 2022. A key challenge in international large-scale assessments is ensuring measurement invariance. The alignment method (AM) was applied to assess measurement invariance at the item level. This study included 16 OECD countries with a total sample of 3,884 15-year-old students. Based on PISA’s competency model for creative thinking, the sub-domain "Generate Creative Ideas" was examined. The analysis focused on six items: Science Fair Poster, Space Comic, Illustration Titles and Save the Bees. According to the MG-CFA results, metric invariance was achieved across countries. The findings indicated that CRT items had comparable factor loadings, although factor means differed between countries. AM analyses were performed following MG-CFA. When examining the Fit Function Contribution (FFC)—which assesses each item's contribution to intercepts, factor loadings, and invariance parameters—the Space Comic item had the lowest contribution to the intercept. The Illustration Titles 1 item exhibited the most noninvariance in intercept parameters. Meanwhile, Illustration Titles 2 had the lowest contribution to the fit function for factor loadings, whereas Illustration Titles 1 showed the highest level of noninvariance. Notably, Illustration Titles 1 contributed the most to the total function. However, the intercepts of Illustration Titles 1, Illustration Titles 2, and Save the Bees 1 were noninvariant in Canada (124), Chile (152), and Spain (724). Scalar invariance was not established across these countries for the items Illustration Titles 1, Illustration Titles 2, and Save the Bees 1. This research ultimately seeks to enhance the equity and fairness of evaluation practices within large-scale international assessments.