Assessing Sub-competencies of Mathematical Modelling—Development of a New Test Instrument

Abstract

The distinction between different phases of a modelling process and thus of different sub-competencies for carrying out these processes is widespread in the modelling literature. In this chapter, we present our research on the assessment of these modelling sub-competencies. Based on a conceptual clarification of sub-competencies, we consider various ways of operationalising them into test items and present examples. With the help of psychometric models, we show that the sub-competencies of modelling, simplifying, mathematising, interpreting and validating, can be treated as separate dimensions, rather than being subsumed in a two-dimensional model, in which simplifying and mathematising, as well as interpreting and validating, have been combined.