Construct validity of the College of Education Graduate School admission examination: Implications to entrance skills and competencies of the graduate school students

Abstract

This study looked into the constructs that underlie the admission examinations of the West Visayas State University College of Education Graduate School that may very well identify the entrance skills and competencies of the Graduate School students. Further, this study hopes to give a clear picture of the capabilities of entering graduate students both masters and doctoral. Results of factor analyses show that both the Master’s and Doctoral admission examinations are valid in terms of the critical thinking skills that are being assessed. The entrance skills and competencies of the graduate students, both master’s and doctoral, are quite low. However, verbal and analytical abilities of doctoral and master’s students are significantly different with doctoral students having better competencies. It is therefore imperative that graduate school faculty members have to initiate reforms and re-direct their teaching towards development of critical thinking skills if we have to do our share to properly place the higher education and the country’s overall Human Resource Development (HRD) landscape. The graduate school faculty need to re-examine the academic structure and contents of the courses they are teaching so that graduate credits (“units”) or completed degrees of the students contextually fit in either the Knowledge, Skills, Attitude and Values (KSAV) requirements of the workplace, particularly the specific required competencies in government offices.