과학영재 판별도구의 개발 및 타당화 연구 - 과학적 사고기능검사를 중심으로 - = Construction and Validation of Instruments for Identifying the Scientifically Gifted

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study aimed to develop and standardize testing instruments to be used for the identification of scientifically gifted students of Grade 5 and 6 in school fields. The instruments will be used as a base for providing appropriate instruction and educational materials for the identified scientifically gifted strudents. I. Theoretical background The scientifically gifted are defined as those who are, compared to his / her age group, at the upper 85% ile in all and above 98% ile in any one of the following psychological traits : mathematical reasoning and verbal reasoning ability, creativity, and task commitment. In addition, they should show strong interest and positive attitude toward science and scientific activities. Multi-stage identification procedure model was adopted, where indentification proceeds from the first stage of parents and teacher recommendation, to the second stage of group testing with various psychological testing, and to the third stage of individual performance test by professionals. Test developed in this study is a group test to be used at the second stage : Scientific Thinking and Research Skills Test(STRST). The test is developed in such a way that they could function as a norm-referenced test and criterion-referenced test at the same time. II. Procedures used to develop identification instruments Scientific Thinking and Research Skills Test is composed of two subtests : Science process skills test and logical thinking test. Based on the results of reliability and validity estimated through pilot testing, the two subtests were revised and their reliabilities and validities were reestimated from 1988 to 1989. In addition, mean, median, standard deviation, range by grade, and skewness were also examined. For norm interpretation, grade equivalents, and percentile ranks by grade for the gifted and the randomsampled groups were also produced separately. Revised version of two subtests were administered to 278 gifted students who participated in 1988, 240 newly sampled gifted students in G5 and G6, and 4,829 random sampled students in G5 to G9 in 1989. III. Results The revised subtests of science process skills test and logical thinking test have 40 and 21 items respectively. Several major findings observed in the process of analyzing reliabilities and validities of the STRST by norm-referenced and criterion-referenced approaches were as follows : First, internal consistency coefficients for each subtest estimated by Cronbach α and Kuder-Richardson 21 formula ranged from .71 to .78 and .61 to .66 respectively ; Second, generalizability coefficients estimated by norm-reference approach ranged from .71 to .78. By criterion-referenced approach, the estimated generalizability coefficients ranged from .65 to .70 ; Third, test-retest coefficients ranged from .71 to .79 ; Fourth, reliability coefficients calculated by Swaminathan-Hambleton-Algina`s method ranged from .47 to .68 ; Fifth, predictive validity, and concurrent validity and inter correlations between the two subtests were estimated. STRST explained 8% to 23% of the variance of academic achievement measured one year after the STRST was first implemented. Concurrent validity estimated by Pearson`s correlation with science aptitude test(1985) ranged from 0.06 to 0.26 and another by Novick`s P ranged from .59 to .85. Intercorrelations between the two subtests ranged from .38 to .61 and showed that the two subtests are somewhat independent from each other and at the same time measure some common traits. IV. Conclusion and suggestions for use Most of the reliability and validity coefficients were evaluated to be high enough for the test to be used for identifying scientifically gifted students in Grade 5 and Grade 6. Considering the homogeneity of the students participated in the study, the validity and reliability are high enough to be utilized in the process of identifying scientifically gifted students. For better usage, STRST should be u