The development and validation of a paper and pencil achievement test in automotive mechanics

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a paper and pencil automotive mechanics achievement test and determine the feasibility of measuring the competence of mechanics using this instrument rather than the traditional performance test. It involved: 1) the selection of a number of accepted performance task items agreed upon by a jury of experts as valid for testing automotive mechanics students; 2) the formulation of each accepted performance task into a paper and pencil test item; and 3) obtaining a correlation between the two like tests of at least .71 corrected for attenuation.

Following the construction of the 26 item performance test and construction of the like 26 item paper and pencil test a pilot study was conducted with a total of 25 Automotive Mechanics II students taking the paper and pencil test. These data were collected and subjected to item analysis for the purpose of ranking the test items from those items answered most easily to those answered with most difficulty. Both tests were then arranged in this order.