Validación de la prueba oral de inferencias en escolares de educación primaria

Background

Inferential ability is one of the most relevant skills that contribute to the complex process of reading comprehension. Therefore, it is important to have a test to evaluate it and assist students with low performance in this skill.

Objective

This study aimed to validate the Oral Inference Test (OIT), which considers 4 of the 5 types of pragmatic inferences with a didactic orientation.

Methods

The sample consisted of 213 students in 4 th, 5 th, and 6 th grade, 104 boys and 109 girls, from three schools in Lima and Piura, Peru. The test was administered collectively, and the items were read aloud by the examiner.

Results

The OIT showed adequate internal consistency, which was not altered by the removal of any item. Construct validity was assessed using exploratory factor analysis, suggesting a seven-factor model. The correlations of the POI with other reading comprehension tests were moderate, indicating good criterion validity.

Conclusions

The OIT proved to be a valid and reliable tool for assessing inferential comprehension in primary school students. The absence of decoding influence in this test facilitates its application. Further studies with larger and more diverse samples are recommended to confirm the applicability and optimization of this test in different educational contexts.