ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses a range of issues in testing, including: the purposes of tests (e.g. diagnostic, performance and achievement measurement, assessment of aptitude and potential, personality assessment); foci of tests (what is being tested); types of test (norm-, criterion- and domain-referenced); commercially produced and researcher-produced tests; ethical issues in testing; test construction and validation (e.g. item analysis, discriminability and difficulty, distractors, timing, scoring, reliability and validity, the form of the test, response modes, piloting); and computerized adaptive testing. The chapter sets out a planning and construction sequence for researcher-devised tests, and draws particular attention to validity and reliability in this.