EDUCATIONAL AND CLINICAL ASSESSMENT WITHIN COMPETENCE-BASED KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURE THEORY

Competence-based knowledge structure theory (CbKST) allows for uncovering the attributes (skills, abilities, symptoms of a disorder) that an individual possesses based on their responses to each of the test items. As such, it represents a sharp departure from classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT), which aggregate information across items by forming a test score. Although relevant applications of CbKST can be found, CTT and IRT are currently much better known and utilized than CbKST, likely because the latter is more recent. This work aims to contribute to the dissemination of CbKST by illustrating the main characteristics of an assessment conducted within this framework. Two applications are presented that differ in terms of the area of assessment (educational or clinical), the type of test used (conjunctive or disjunctive), and the informativeness of the test regarding the possession of attributes (fully informative or nonfully informative). It is demonstrated how, within CbKST, it is possible to evaluate the confidence with which the attributes possessed by an individual are uncovered and to develop personalized interventions.