Instructional sensitivity of test items in pedagogic-psychological diagnostics (InSe)

Researchers as well as policy-makers regularly rely on students’ performance data to draw inferences on the effectiveness of schools and teaching, for example, as foundation for test data-based school and teaching development or for identifying school or teaching characteristics that foster or impair students’ learning. 

Yet, valid inferences on schools or teaching drawn from student test scores require instruments that are capable of capturing effects of classroom instruction. That is, instruments need to be instructionally sensitive. The InSe-Project investigates how the instructional sensitivity of tests and items can be measured empirically and how information on instructional sensitivity can be used in educational and psychological testing.