1,720,971 research outputs found
The omit phenomenon in high-stakes achievement testing using a short-response format
No full textTo questions about the who, what and why of item omission on tests in short-response format, very few answers have been provided from a combination of the discipline areas of psychology and educational measurement. In this research study, an empirical approach is taken subsequent to the proposal of a theoretical model. It posits that the three clusters constituting "presage" have effects, some direct, some indirect, some positive, some negative, on the "product"-short-response omit rate-and also influence the hidden (and therefore unable-to-be-measured) "process"-the interaction between item and person. Data were obtained on the 1997 QCS Test population (N = 29 273). A 120-item questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 1908 students, interviews were conducted with selected students, and information was extracted from the test construction matrix. The results are analysed in terms of background and psychological characteristics of the candidate and features of the testing process. It is concluded that the predeterminants of the propensity to omit short-response items include sex of candidate, type of school attended, test-irrelevant thinking, academic self-concept, test-taking strategies, and self-imposed difficulty. One of the subsidiary findings is concerned with attitudes to high-stakes testing, another with the consequences of the contextualization of test items for a certain type of student
Psychological predictors of the propensity to omit short-response items on a high-stakes achievement test
No full textThis article presents the findings of a study of the psychological variables that discriminate between high and low omitters on a high-stakes achievement test using a short-response format. Data were obtained from a questionnaire administered to a random sample (N = 1,908) of students prior to sitting the 1997 Queensland Core Skills (QCS) Test (N = 29,273). Fourteen psychological variables were measured including test anxiety (four subscales), emotional stability, achievement motivation, self-esteem, academic self-concept, self-estimate of ability, locus of control (three subscales), and approaches to learning (two subscales). The results were analyzed using descriptive discriminant analysis and suggested that the psychological predictors of the propensity to omit short-response items include test-irrelevant thinking and academic self-concept, with sex of candidate being a mediating variable
Multiple-choice versus short-response items: Differences in omit behavior
No full textThe overall rate of omission of items for 28,331 17 year old Australian students on a high stakes test of achievement in the common elements or cognitive skills of the senior school curriculum is reported for a subtest in multiple choice format and a subtest in short response format. For the former, the omit rates were minuscule and there was no significant difference by gender or by type of school attended. For the latter, where an item can be 'worth' up to five times that of a single multiple choice item, the omit rates were between 10 and 20 times that for multiple choice and the difference between male and female omit rate was significant as was the difference between students from government and non-government schools. For both formats, females from single sex schools omitted significantly fewer items than did females from co-educational schools. Some possible explanations of omit behaviour are alluded to
Assessing and reporting employability skills of senior secondary students
Full text linkThe author describes a study, undertaken with David Curtis, that has developed a new picture of how senior secondary students’ achievement of employability skills across Australia might be assessed and reported
New Zealand and Queensland teachers' conceptions of curriculum: Potential jurisdictional effects of curriculum policy and implementation
No full textUsing Data to Support Student Learning
Full text linkAlthough there has been an increase in the amount of information collected from and about Australian schools, this information is not always being used effectively to enhance learning writes Gabrielle Matters, author of the latest edition of the Australian Education Review
Beyond letters, numbers and screens: NB, technologies, numeracy and early childhood education: A report for teachers
No full textThis project investigates the combination of the NB (Luke et al., 2000; QSE -2010, nd), information technologies, and numeracy learning and teaching in the first three years of schooling. The development of pedagogies and curriculum that effectively integrate the NB, technologies and numeracy and which culminate in the production of more informed citizens goes some way towards addressing the important problem of designing new social futures (New London Group, 1996). New social and pedagogical futures are required for the 21st century and this project marks the beginning of this work in early childhood education
Good Data, Bad News, Good Policy Making ...
Full text linkThe New Basics Trial in Queensland (2000 –04) was about improving educational outcomes. At its heart was the idea that, to do this, there must be an orchestration of the message systems of curriculum, teaching and assessment – and that these changes must be in practices, not merely in statements of intention or expectation. This paper spans the trial period (2000 –04) and the immediate post-trial period (2005), showing how research evidence informed policy-making. The New Basics approach (which introduced three suites of Rich Tasks covering three 3-year spans from Year 1 to Year 9) to curriculum, teaching, assessment, reporting, and school organisation was developed and trialled because of a widespread recognition and acceptance in 1999 –2000 that major changes in education were absolutely essential, particularly in the compulsory years of schooling. Ultimately, there were three objects of learning from the New Basics trial: the New Basics per se (which was the aim of the exercise), the management of intervention, and the education system itself. In this paper, the author focuses on two of them: one, the strengths and weaknesses of the New Basics idea in practice; and two, the critical issues that have been identified as applying across the State beyond New Basics and beyond state schools. This paper spans the trial period (2000 –04) and the immediate post-trial period (2005), showing how research evidence informed policy-making
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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