BilWiss-UV

Returns and development of educational knowledge—Validation of a competence test for teacher students

Abstract

The joint project of the Goethe University Frankfurt, the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Technische Universität München aims to optimize and validate a test that has been developed during the previous research projects “BilWiss” and “Bilwiss-Beruf” for the assessment of teacher students’ educational knowledge. The optimized and validated instrument should allow for a formative assessment during university studies on the one hand, and for the investigation of the impact of educational knowledge on teachers’ professional practices on the other hand. We plan to investigate several strands of validity evidence. First, we investigate how the test content matches the curricula of courses on educational foundations at university. Second, we analyze response processes of testees while working on the test. Third, we analyze the internal structure of the test and the relationship between test scores and other variables, such as the reflection on experiences at school and professional behavior. Forth, we investigate how learning opportunities at university can contribute to the development of educational knowledge. Therefore, we plan to conduct a multi-cohort longitudinal study with teacher students to assess changes in educational knowledge throughout university studies.

Aims and Research Questions

The aim is to provide an instrument for the assessment of teacher students’ and teacher candidates’ educational knowledge in two applicable test versions which both have specific advantages. The long version of the test should provide a high curricular validity in order to address questions on the population level, such as evaluation studies and formative assessment. The short version of the test should allow for an efficient assessment of educational knowledge in order to address questions on the individual level, such as studies that assess changes in knowledge or focus on other aspects of professional competence and need to control for educational knowledge.

Project Data