Der BilWiss-2.0-Test: Ein revidierter Test zur Erfassung des bildungswissenschaftlichen Wissens von (angehenden) Lehrkräften

We describe the development of the revised BilWiss-2.0 Test, assessing generic educational knowledge and we present evidence for the reliability of the test and the validity of the test score interpretations. Educational knowledge covers knowledge domains that are directly related to instruction and other potentially relevant distant knowledge aspects such as educational theory and knowledge about the teaching profession. The short test version includes 65 items, whereas the long version contains 119 items from six knowledge domains. We applied 2-PL partial-credit item response theory (IRT) models to a data set collected from 788 teacher students from different German universities. With regard to the empirical structure of the test, structural equation models indicated a good fit of the model with six correlated latent factors. Small significant correlations between test performance and the number of relevant university courses attended and grades attained during university studies support the convergent and prognostic validity of test score interpretations. Moreover, students who repeated at least one examination showed significantly lower test performance than students who passed on the first try.