Examining the cognitive validity of the intermedia¬te school-leaving exam tasks in History with the thinking-aloud method among secondary school students
Examining the cognitive validity of the intermedia¬te school-leaving exam tasks in History with the thinking-aloud method among secondary school students

Summary/Abstract: Previous research has shown the difficulty of creating tasks that measure complex thinking. With History, this means that tests do not assess historical thinking (or other high level cognitive processes), but declarative knowledge, reading comprehension or test-solving strategies, making the interpretation of test results problematic. The aim of this pilot study is to explore the extent to which the cognitive requirements stat¬ed in the content regulatory documents (e.g., differentiating what has been learned according to causes and consequences) are in line with students’ responses (cogni¬tive validity) and whether there are any construct relevant and irrelevant factors that influence task solving. According to hypotheses, the chosen task measures different cognitive processes than stated, and construct relevant, irrelevant factors decrease the validity of the task items as well. The study has been conducted among 12th grade secondary school students (n=37) with the thinking-aloud protocol. The research findings suggest that the task used has raised multiple validity concerns. While most students (83%) successfully completed the task with minimal errors, both construct relevant and irrelevant factors influenced task solving. The need for a comprehensive psychometric development of intermediate tasks in the History school leaving exam is indicated by these results.

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