Cognitive preferences: A validation study

In 1964 Health introduced the cognitive preference construct and used it to evaluate a new science curriculum. Since then the construct, adapted from research on cognitive styles, has been used in many research and evaluation studies. More recently, however, a number of questions have been raised concerning the validity of findings and analytical techniques employed in these studies. Ultimately the validity of the cognitive preference construct itself is being questioned.In this article a framework for examining validity evidence for the cognitive preference construct is developed; the literature on cognitive preferences in the context of this framework is reviewed, and the validity evidence developed in one recent study is presented and discussed.     

The effects of virtual human gesture frequency and reduced video speed on satisfaction and learning outcomes

Educational technology research and development - Educators use various strategies to increase listening comprehension for nonnative English speakers in the classroom and multimedia environments....     

Learners’ perspectives on Life Orientation sexuality education in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article examines the views of male and female learners regarding how Life Orientation (LO) sexuality education is taught at their schools. Learners in the study were selected from five former ‘Black’ schools in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa. Focus groups were used to identify what learners could recall about their LO sexuality education classes. The strong trend in the data speaks to how LO sexuality education implies a gendered, heteronormative and moralistic approach to youth sexuality which silences and negates same sex relationships and girls’ accounts of sexuality. Although LO sexuality curricula are, as crafted on paper, often sophisticated learning programmes, participants point to a disjuncture between the official LO sexuality education curriculum and how LO sexuality education is taught in the studied schools. The paper concludes with some specific recommendations for teachers to promote a non-judgemental approach to sexuality education that challenges heteronormativity and other gendered injustices as part of the teaching of LO sexuality education.     

Developing national attainment measures: A study of irish experience

Recent experience of test development in Ireland, a country which had no tradition of formal standardised testing, is drawn on, in order to highlight a number of practical and measurement problems that future test developers in other countries may experience. The paper focuses on a number of issues that have received relatively little attention in the literature. The practical problems which are examined include the identification of the objectives of the school curriculum, the production of test materials and the selection of appropriate samples of schools for standardisation purposes. The measurement or psychometric problems relate to curricular and statistical characteristics of individual test items, a test ceiling effect caused by some pupils answering all or almost all of the test items correctly and the lack of test sophistication among pupils and teachers. It is pointed out that a number of conventional procedures for developing norm-referenced measures of pupil attainment may prove somewhat less than successful in countries or educational systems with common curricula.

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Zusammenfassung Aufgrund neuerer Erfahrungen in Irland, einem Lande, das keine Tradition formalen standardisierten Testens besitzt, stellt der Verfasser eine Anzahl praktischer und psychometrischer Probleme heraus, denen wahrscheinlich auch zukünftige Testentwickler in anderen Ländern begegnen werden. Im Vordergrund steht eine Reihe von Fragen, die in der einschlägigen Literatur bisher wenig Beachtung gefunden haben. Zu den untersuchten praktischen Problemen gehören die Identifizierung der Schulcurriculumsziele, die Herstellung von Testmaterialien und die Auswahl geeigneter Samples von Schulen zum Zwecke der Standardisierung. Die Messungsoder psychometrischen Probleme betreffen curriculare und statistische Merkmale der einzelnen Testfragen, eine Art Höchstgrenze der Tests, die erreicht wird, wenn mehrere Schüler alle oder fast alle Fragen richtig beantworten, sowie mangelnde Gewandtheit von Schülern und Lehrern im Umgang mit Testfragen. Ferner wird darauf hingewiesen, dass sich verschiedene gebräuchliche Verfahren zur Entwicklung von normbezogenen Massstäben für Schülerleistungen in Ländern oder Bildungssystemen mit einheitlichen Curricula als wenig erfolgreich erweisen dürften.

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Résumé Une expérience a été menée récemment sur le développement des tests en Irlande — un pays qui n'a aucune tradition de standardisation formelle en ce domaine — pour mettre en évidence un certain nombre de problèmes d'ordre pratique et d'évaluation que pourraient rencontrer les futurs utilisateurs de tests dans d'autres pays. L'article est centré sur un certain nombre de questions auxquelles, jusqu'à présent, la littérature spécialisée n'a accordé que peu d'attention. Les problèmes pratiques examinés comprennent l'identification des objectifs du curriculum scolaire, la production des matériels de test et la sélection des échantillons appropriés d'écoles en vue d'une standardisation. L'évaluation ou les problèmes psychométriques se rapportent aux caractéristiques curriculaires et statistiques des questions du test individuel, à un test à effet plafonnant causé par le fait que presque tous les élèves répondent correctement à tous, ou presque tous les items du test, et à un manque d'habitude aux tests tant chez les élèves que chez les enseignants. L'auteur de l'article souligne qu'un grand nombre de procédés conventionnels pour développer les mesures normatives des acquisitions de l'élève peuvent se révéler quelque peu décevants dans des pays, ou dans des systèmes d'éducation, ayant des curricula communs.