Collage of Islamic Sciences Magazine

Abstract

The literature concerned with measuring various mental aspects like intelligence and thinking refer to devising tools to measure these aspects that have received considerable attention from psychologists and researchers. However, the measurement of (Understanding) did not receive equal importance in the measurement of mental abilities on the Iraqi environment level, resulting in the neglect of an important mental aspect which is (understanding) which requires scientific effort in the designing and preparation of a test for its measurement. The research aims to build a test for (understanding) for intermediate school level studies in the center of the province of Nineveh, for the academic year (2011-2012). The test is built according to the (Mctighe and Wiggins, 1998) theory for the six aspects of understanding .The researchers followed the scientific steps in the procedures of building the test and the items were collected and designed according to the approved theoretical fields. The items in their preliminary form were (163) items, distributed among (6) manifestations and (30) fields and were applied to (530) female students from secondary schools in Nineveh province, for the academic year (2011-2012). To achieve the objective of this research the psychometric characteristics were extracted from the (validity and reliability) of the test. In order to verify (the truth and validity test) of the test, it was submitted to a number of arbitrators ( professionals) in the field of Educational and Psychological Sciences. The coefficients of ease, difficulty, and internal consistency were extracted bringing the number of items of the test to the final number of (142) items, while the ratability of the test which reached (0.82), was determined by retest. A number of statistical tools were used for data processing and analysis through the programs of (Excel) and (spss).
The research concluded a number of recommendations and proposals that advocate the use of the most of the (Understanding) test to measure the development of understanding in view of the importance of this aspect of mental development in the academic and personal future of the students.