Practical intelligence: An instrument for its assessment

Abstract

This report presents the steps for the construction of an instrument to asses practical intelligence -tacit knowledge- based on Sternberg´s theory (Sternberg et al., 2000). The process had different stages and different instruments were used. The first step was the detection of critical incidents starting from in depth-interviews to 25 cadets who were in a military training. The second consisted on the administration of the first version of the instrument (CTLM) to 150 freshman military officers. This version was designed taking into account the critical incidents identified in step one. In the third step 10 military officers (experts in military training) gathered in a focus group, assessed the quality of the tacit knowledge items. In the last stage, key answers were designed for optimal incident resolution, taking into account officers’ criteria and cadets’ answers to pilot version of the instrument.