Innovative Combinations' Test: A Tool for Measuring the Melioration Skill

Earlier publications (Passig 2000; 2001; 2007) traced the basic nature of future society and proposed a relevant taxonomy of future cognitive skills that would provide our students with appropriate tools to succeed in the future. We have used Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy as a working ground and expanded his categories to reflect the needs of the future. We have also suggested an additional cognitive category named melioration, which we believe, is not addressed in today’s curriculum.

Purpose

Since there was no testing tool with which one could measure the melioration skill, we engaged in developing such a tool. This paper delineates the rationale behind it, its structure, and reliability.

Research design

The tool, which we named The Innovative Combinations' Test (ICT), aimed at examining the student’s ability to meliorate ideas. The training program which we developed for the purpose of validating this tool was named Thinking-Different. This training program was developed with an online interface named WebQuest. The training program’s goal was to engage the participants in creating combinations of a variety of pieces of information and to generate new ideas in solving ill-defined problems.

In order to validate the test, we built two parallel versions. Both versions were shown to three experts who affirmed that the test indeed examines the ability to make combinations of disparate ideas, i.e., melioration.

The reliability of the test was examined via the parallel forms method. First, we sampled 54 sixth graders in a pilot study where they received two mixed versions of the test with a rotated order of the items. In the pilot study, a t test was applied to the data and no statistically significant differences were found between the two versions.

In order to determine the internal consistency of each version, Cronbach’s á was calculated. We found a reliability of á=.81 and á= .77 for versions A and B, respectively.

In our study, version A was administered before the training program and version B after the training program. The internal consistency test was administered to 60 other students. In version A, we found a reliability of Cronbach's á=.81. In version B, we found a reliability of Cronbach’s á=.79.

Conclusion

The Innovative Combinations' Test (ICT) could provide the teacher with a tool with which one could examine progress in the students' ability to meliorate information. The importance of this measuring tool stems from the need to prepare students for tomorrow’s world.