Cognitive interviews play an important role in articulating the intended construct of educational assessments. This paper describes the iterative development of protocols for cognitive interviews with kindergarten through second-grade children to understand how their spatial reasoning skill development aligns with intended constructs. We describe the procedures used to gather evidence of construct relevance and improved alignment to task-based interview items through multiple pilot rounds before conducting cognitive interviews. We found improved alignment and reduced construct irrelevant variance after protocol revisions.
Thomas, E. R., Pinilla, R. K., Ketterlin-Geller, L. R., & Hatfield, C. (2023). Iterative cognitive interview design to uncover children’s spatial reasoning. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 28(1), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.7275/pare.1918