2025 Theses Doctoral
Considering Multidimensionality: A Solution for Noncognitive Assessment Application in Education
Advancements in education and the perceived necessary educational outcomes require advanced psychometric approaches. This is particularly true when we consider noncognitive assessments – assessments that aim to measure soft skills, otherwise untested in classrooms today. Noncognitive skills have gained traction in recent years due to the increased interest in 21st century skills and the realization that these skills impact success as much as technical skills and content knowledge.
Despite the growing interest, the appropriate psychometric methods have yet to be applied to such assessments. Because it is difficult to distill noncognitive assessments down to one particular skill, they are inherently multidimensional; however, literature regarding multidimensional applications of psychometric models is lacking.
This study aims to address these concerns, using Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs) to assess the feasibility of improving noncognitive assessment adoption across education. This study assesses multiple psychometric models, both uni- and multidimensional, to best understand the internal structure of SJTs as well as explore the interpretability of model results.
The results indicate that SJTs are, in fact, multidimensional and are best measured with polytomous Cognitive Diagnostic Models (CDMs). Implications of these results include future opportunities for noncognitive assessments to be utilized in classroom settings, increased feedback and reporting to students, teachers, and parents regarding strengths and weaknesses of students, and pedagogical improvements to noncognitive skill development.
Subjects
Files
- Lieber_columbia_0054D_18890.pdf application/pdf 1.28 MB Download File
More About This Work
- Academic Units
- Measurement and Evaluation
- Thesis Advisors
- Lee, Young-Sun
- Degree
- Ph.D., Columbia University
- Published Here
- November 6, 2024