Educational Psychology Third Edition Kelvin Seifert and Rosemary ...

This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Table 34: Example of Table of Specifications: grade 3 basic geography literacy
Content Instructional objective
Identify geography tools and their uses
Geographic representations: e.g. maps,
globe, diagrams and photographs
Spatial information: sketch & thematic
maps
Identifies Uses or
locates
Total
number of
items
Per cent
of items
3 3 6 30%
1 1 2 10%
Mental maps 1 1 2 10%
Identify and locate places and regions
Physical features (e.g. lakes, continents) 1 2 3 15%
Human features (countries, states, cities) 3 2 5 25%
Regions with unifying geographic
characteristics e.g. river basins
1 1 2 10%
Number of items 10 10 20
Percentage of items 50% 50% 100%
Construct validity evidence is more complex than content validity evidence. Often we are interested in making
broader judgments about student’s performances than specific skills such as doing fractions. The focus may be on
constructs such as mathematical reasoning or reading comprehension. A construct is a characteristic of a person we
assume exists to help explain behavior. For example, we use the concept of test anxiety to explain why some
individuals when taking a test have difficulty concentrating, have physiological reactions such as sweating, and
perform poorly on tests but not in class assignments. Similarly mathematics reasoning and reading comprehension
are constructs as we use them to help explain performance on an assessment. Construct validation is the process of
determining the extent to which performance on an assessment can be interpreted in terms of the intended
constructs and is not influenced by factors irrelevant to the construct. For example, judgments about recent
immigrants’ performance on a mathematical reasoning test administered in English will have low construct validity
if the results are influenced by English language skills that are irrelevant to mathematical problem solving.
Similarly, construct validity of end-of-semester examinations is likely to be poor for those students who are highly
anxious when taking major tests but not during regular class periods or when doing assignments. Teachers can help
increase construct validity by trying to reduce factors that influence performance but are irrelevant to the construct
being assessed. These factors include anxiety, English language skills, and reading speed (Linn & Miller 2005).
Style Guidelines 237 A Global Text