Spatial Ability Test for Upper-Elementary School Student: Confirmatory Factor and Normative Data Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop spatial ability test for elementary school children, to verify the construct validity, and to derive norms of the test. The sample consisted of 438 upper-elementary school students of Piboonbumpen Demonstration School, Burapha University. Students were randomly selected by multistage sampling. Descriptive statistics were obtained by means of SPSS. The construct validity was verified by means of a second-order confirmatory factor analysis using Mplus. The research finding the spatial ability test consisted of 3 components such as spatial visualization, spatial orientation, and spatial relations. The Kuder Richardson 20 Coefficient of reliability (KR-20) of the test is .82. The test has strong construct validity in view of the fit indexes RMSEA = .02, CFI = .98, TLI = .98 resulting from confirmatory factor analysis with categorical factor indicators. The norms for spatial ability test for elementary school children were constructed as follows: a student with a score range at 12 or lower was indicative of a low level of spatial ability, a score range from 13 to 20 indicated a moderate of spatial ability, and a score range at 21 or higher was deemed to have a high level of spatial ability.