Design and Validation of a Test for the Types of Mathematical Problems Associated with Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Being able to understand a written text is an essential life skill, as is solving a problem, which configures a bidirectional relationship between both skills. With regard to reading comprehension, at least three specific levels are required to achieve a full understanding of a text: literal, inferential, and critical. For its part, mathematics has changed substantially in recent decades, prioritizing problem-solving as the central axis of the teaching process as it constitutes a resource for learning. This study connects both skills and aims to design and validate a mathematical problem-solving test contextualized to the quadratic function, to assess the level of reading comprehension of secondary school students. The study is nonexperimental, cross-sectional, and focused on psychometric aspects since it aims to validate a measurement instrument. It was applied on a pilot basis to three municipal secondary education courses in Chile. The content, construct, discrimination, and reliability validation tests carried out allowed us to demonstrate that the problem-solving test contextualized to the quadratic function is a reliable instrument to produce knowledge in educational research.