Can Discrete-Choice Measures and Situational-Judgment Tests Address Ongoing Questions about How to Quantify Global Citizenship?

Global citizenship education (GCE), like many educational concepts that are now garnering attention as useful extensions to mainstay instructional targets such as literacy and numeracy, faces ongoing problems of how to define and measure it. After providing an overview of those problems, I offer discrete-choice measures (DCMs) and situational-judgment tests (SJTs) as potential solutions. DCMs—also known as forced-choice measures—are more commonly found in economic and market research than in education. They prompt respondents to select from a set of choices so researchers can quantify the relative value of different attributes that those choices represent. SJTs offer respondents a scenario with a list of possible responses so their chosen response enables researchers to analyze attributes underlying their choices. Overall, I intend for readers to think of DCMs and SJTs as encouraging possibilities, not silver bullets.