Article alert : On an Approach to Testing and Modeling Competence

PT J
AU Shavelson, RJ
AF Shavelson, Richard J.
TI On an Approach to Testing and Modeling Competence
SO EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST
AB E. L. Thorndike contributed significantly to the field of educational
and psychological testing as well as more broadly to psychological
studies in education. This article follows in his testing legacy. I
address the escalating demand, across societal sectors, to measure
individual and group competencies. In formulating an approach to
measuring competence, I draw on measurement research I have done over my
career; the Thorndike lecture is to be as much autobiographical as
substantive and/or methodological. I present an approach to defining,
measuring, and statistically modeling competency measurements. The
article unpacks Hartig etal.'s (2008) definition of competence as a
complex ability construct closely related to real-life-situated
performance. The intent is to make the construct, competence, amenable
to measurement. Once unpacked, criteria for building competence
measurements are set forth and exemplified by research from business,
military, and education sectors. Generalizability theory, a statistical
theory for modeling and evaluating the dependability of competence
scores, is applied to several of these examples. The article then pulls
together the threads into a general competency measurement model and
concludes by noting its limitations.
PD APR
PY 2013
VL 48
IS 2
BP 73
EP 86
ER