Assessing Intelligence for Education in the 21st Century: The Benefits of Microworlds

Computer-based problem solving scenarios—so-called microworlds—are contemporary educational assessment instruments of intelligence that offer several benefits compared to traditional paper-pencil tests. This involves tracking of students’ mental representations of the problems as well as their problem solving strategies by means of behavioral data which provides key information for educational interventions. Moreover, microworlds realize game-like characteristics that may increase test motivation and reduce test anxiety. In the present study, the Genetics Lab, a newly developed microworld, was completed by a representative sample of more than 800 Luxembourgish students. Students chose among three different languages (German, French and English) in which the problem content of the Genetics Lab was presented. The present paper analyzes the psychometric properties of the various performance scores derived for the Genetics Lab with respect to their relations to school grades, and measurement invariance across gender, chosen test language, and migration background. Moreover, a direct comparison with traditional measures of intelligence demonstrated construct validity of the performance scores of the Genetics Lab. In sum, the results obtained for the Genetics Lab show the benefits of behavioral data obtained for computer-based problem-solving scenarios and support the notion of microworlds to be a valuable measure of intelligence.