Assessment of German and Austrian students' Educational Research Literacy: validation of a competency test based on cross-national comparisons

Educational Research Literacy (ERL) is the ability to access, comprehend, and consider scientific information and to apply the resulting conclusions to problems connected with educational decisions. It is crucial for the process of data-based decision making and–corresponding to the consecutive phases–defined as the conglomeration of different facets of competence, including information literacy, statistical literacy, and evidencebased reasoning. However, the engagement with research in educational contexts appears to have some difficulties. This is even more remarkable as the state of knowledge about actual teacher competency levels remains unsatisfactory, even though test instruments for assessing research literacy have been developed in recent years. This paper addresses the question of whether such a test developed in the specific context of German study programs in (teacher) education can be applied to other national contexts, in this case to Austrian teacher education. An investigation of the construct validity under consideration of the psychometric structure and group differences on item level is necessary for ensuring the fairness of cross-national comparisons. Based on multidimensional item response theory models, samples from Germany (n = 1360 students, 6 universities) and Austria (n = 295 students, 2 universities) are investigated in terms of measurement invariance between the two countries. A comparable psychometric structure and at least partial measurement invariance with no particular advantage for either sample could be demonstrated. This is an indication that the presented test instrument can be validly applied to assess the research literacy of teacher training students in both countries.