For the first time, the OECD's influential Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) has assessed how students work in teams.

Australian 15-year-olds ranked 10th out of 56 countries, beating the UK and the US and closely following Canada, Finland and New Zealand.

The report, released on Tuesday, found Australian students "perform much better in collaborative problem solving than would be expected based on their scores in science, reading and mathematics".

"It's a good result for Australia," said the Australian Council for Educational Research's deputy chief executive of research Dr Sue Thomson.

The 540,000 teenagers who took part in the 2015 assessment had to interact with a computer that simulated group project dynamics using fake students who held different information, had opposing views and sometimes dominated the discussion.

The best students solved complicated problems by monitoring progress, identifying obstacles and resolving conflicts.

Weaker students focused on their individual role in the group and could only complete simple tasks.

An ugly gender divide reared its head in the results. Boys trailed significantly behind girls in teamwork, a trend that was particularly pronounced in Australia.

A previous PISA assessment found boys were better than girls at individual problem solving.

While some experts say problem-solving is not a skill in itself because it requires previous knowledge, others say it's a vital skill for a globalised, automated workforce.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said Australian schools were giving students the skills that workforces were increasingly demanding.

"As workforces become more and more globalised, it's skills like collaboration that can deliver significant competitive advantages," he said.

Students who have stronger science, reading or mathematics skills tend to be better collaborative problem solvers, the report found.

It was no surprise then that top performers Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Korea also topped science, reading and maths in earlier results from the 2015 PISA released in December.

Australia bucked this trend – it placed 14th in science, 16th in reading and 25th in mathematics.

The report also found that students who played video games outside of school scored slightly lower, while those who used the internet, chat or social networks scored marginally higher.

Fitzroy High School students overhauled their electives as part of an initiative run by Victoria University's Mitchell Institute aimed at cultivating collaboration and entrepreneurial learning.

Students weren't finding classes as engaging as they could be but saw room for improvement.

They surveyed their peers about the types of electives they wanted and then worked with teachers to develop new subjects including forensics, textiles, current affairs, engineering and design.

"We wanted to make it more relevant to the rest of our education," said Year 11 student Roy Meuleman.

The popular forensics class lets students solve the mystery of a murdered mayor by poring over evidence and analysing synthetic blood samples.

"It's a bit morbid but scientifically interesting," Year 10 student Arabella Hope said.

Hannah Matus, a policy analyst at the Mitchell Institute said the project let students at 19 Australian schools identify and solve problems.

"We were really thrilled to see that so many participants found it rewarding, relevant and beneficial," she said.