Development and validation of an instrument to assess secondary school students’ perceptions of assessment tasks

Research aimed at developing and validating an instrument to assess secondary school students’ perceptions of assessment tasks was conducted. Following a review of literature, a five‐scale instrument of 40 items was trialled with a sample of 658 science students in 11 English secondary schools. Based on internal consistency reliability data and exploratory factor analysis, refinement decisions resulted in a five‐scale instrument called the Perceptions of assessment tasks inventory (PATI). The scales of the PATI are Congruence with planned learning, Authenticity, Student consultation, Transparency and Diversity.     

Understanding how a case-based assessment instrument influences student teachers’ learning approaches

In order to stimulate student teachers to thoroughly comprehend the main variables influencing their work, teaching and assessment strategies in teacher education have changed significantly. One of the changes in the assessment of student teachers in teacher education programs is the use of case-based assessment instruments. Such instruments evaluate the extent to which student teachers are able to handle authentic problems. It is expected that implementing this mode of assessment will stimulate student teachers to adopt a deep approach to learning. In this study we examine student teachers’ learning approaches in the context of case-based assessment. Hereto, we investigated the direct effects of the student teachers’ general beliefs on the cognitive demands of assessment on their learning approaches. Also the student teachers’ perceptions of the cognitive demands of the case-based assessment instrument were considered as a mediating variable. The present study is conducted in the Netherlands, in the third year of a 4-year initial teacher training program for primary education. A case-based assessment instrument, called the OverAll Test, was implemented as the major determinate of the third-year final examination grade of the student teachers.     

The validity and students’ experiences of peer assessment in a large introductory class of gene technology

Although studies have examined the validity of peer assessment, research including students’ own experiences of peer assessment is scarce. The present study aims to improve assessment practices in a context with a highly traditional assessment culture. The aim is first to examine the validity of peer assessment by analysing the compatibility of student and teacher evaluation and explore the differences between minor and major students’ evaluations. Second, the study examines students’ experiences of peer assessment. Peer assessment was implemented in a large bioscience course with 79 student participants. After the peer assessment, the students provided feedback. The results indicate that student subject understanding can be supported through a proper assessment practice. Peer assessment was successful in an introductory class with minor and major students, and most students experienced it as supportive of their learning.     

敏捷型学生评教:内涵、特征定位与设计策略

学生评教是支持教师专业发展的重要方式,提升学生评教的效果可以为教师提供精准的教学反思素材与改进方向。敏捷理念在教育领域中强调高效响应并满足课堂与学生个性化、差异化需求,能够有效优化传统学生评教的弊端。首先,采用文献分析法梳理了传统学生评教在内容设计与实施方面的问题;其次,从理论层面归纳了敏捷理念在教育领域的定义与应用场域,并基于此提出了敏捷型学生评教这一概念;再次,以学生评教的现实问题为基础,阐述了敏捷型学生评教的创新内涵和特征定位;然后,从特征定位出发提出设计敏捷型评教应遵循工具题项适变、学生视角设问、题项与教师能力要素高度映射以及题项极简四项原则,基于上述设计原则,从准备、设计与实施三个阶段出发提出了敏捷型学生评教的设计与实施步骤;最后,研究认为,学生评教水平、教师数据素养和传统师生关系理念制约了敏捷型学生评教与课堂的深度整合,并从实际问题出发提出了应对之策。     

Teachers’ and students’ perceptions of assessments: A review and a study into the ability and accuracy of estimating the difficulty levels of assessment items

In today's higher education, high quality assessments play an important role. Little is known, however, about the degree to which assessments are correctly aimed at the students’ levels of competence in relation to the defined learning goals. This article reviews previous research into teachers’ and students’ perceptions of item difficulty. It focuses on the item difficulty of assessments and students’ and teachers’ abilities to estimate item difficulty correctly. The review indicates that teachers tend to overestimate the difficulty of easy items and underestimate the difficulty of difficult items. Students seem to be better estimators of item difficulty. The accuracy of the estimates can be improved by: the information the estimators or teachers have about the target group and their earlier assessment results; defining the target group before the estimation process; the possibility of having discussions about the defined target group of students and their corresponding standards during the estimation process; and by the amount of training in item construction and estimating. In the subsequent study, the ability and accuracy of teachers and students to estimate the difficulty levels of assessment items was examined. In higher education, results show that teachers are able to estimate the difficulty levels correctly for only a small proportion of the assessment items. They overestimate the difficulty level of most of the assessment items. Students, on the other hand, underestimate their own performances. In addition, the relationships between the students’ perceptions of the difficulty levels of the assessment items and their performances on the assessments were investigated. Results provide evidence that the students who performed best on the assessments underestimated their performances the most. Several explanations are discussed and suggestions for additional research are offered.     

“Can you tell me more about this?”: Agentic written feedback,teacher expectations,and student learning

Teachers are not only tasked with communicating facts, figures, and skills to their students, but they are also responsible for equipping students to be self-sufficient learners who believe in their own capacity to learn and improve. In this paper, we propose that written feedback that offers students agency (what we call ‘agentic feedback’) can be a way for teachers to build more independent and self-efficacious learners, and to instill in students the trust that their teacher believes in them. In the first study, we develop a novel qualitative coding scheme to measure the degree of agency offered in teachers’ written feedback (N = 136) and produce a coherent ‘agentic feedback’ variable. In the second study, we find that middle and high school students (N = 1,260) are sensitive to the amount of agency provided in teachers’ feedback: they perceive that agentic feedback affords more choice and requires more effort for revision, encourages greater learning and improvement on writing, and that teachers who offer more agentic feedback have higher expectations. We discuss implications for future research and application in classrooms.     

Putting “mobile” into mathematics: Results of a randomised controlled trial

There is an increasing use of mobile technologies in the classroom, particularly its use in supporting contextual learning, but comparative research on the effects of mobile learning in mathematics are few. The aim of this research was to examine student perceptions of using mobile technologies and their effect on mathematics achievement in a randomised controlled trial. Seventy-four Grade 5 and 6 students and three teachers participated in the study. Both groups participated in six weeks of active and collaborative learning activities on math. The experimental group used tablets to support them in their activities while the control group had similarly designed activities without the tablets. The tablets were observed to have facilitated constructivist learning activities as students moved in and out of different learning contexts. Most of the experimental group had positive evaluations but their end activity ratings were not significantly different from the control group. Gender differences were found in terms of how students perceived the mobile learning activities. There was no difference found in the groups’ post-test achievement scores following an analysis of covariance with pre-test as covariate. For items relating to student misconception, students in the experimental group performed better. Overall, the study highlights that the success of a mobile learning intervention is dependent on various factors, such as student characteristics, stability of the technology and content compatibility. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Teachers’ interpersonal relationships and instructional expertise: How are they related?

This study explores new directions to study and combine measurements of instructional expertise and teachers’ interpersonal relationships with students. The sample comprises 34 in-service teachers. The My Teacher questionnaire (MTQ) was used to operationalize teachers’ instructional expertise. The Questionnaire of Teacher Interaction (QTI) was used to describe teachers’ interpersonal relationships with students. Hypotheses were tested using circular mixed-effects models. Results indicate that teachers’ interpersonal relationships differ at successive levels of instructional expertise. Results further indicated that increases in instructional expertise are associated with a sharp decrease in the within-class variance in interpersonal relationships. Specifically, the higher teachers’ instructional expertise, the more teachers' interpersonal relationships are described as “directing” and “helpful” by all students in the class.     

The continua of identities in postcolonial curricula: Kenyan students’ perceptions of gender in school textbooks

The roles of textbooks in postcolonial states is increasingly complicated, even more so when engaging a gendered analysis. This is in large part due the pressure national education ministries face considering the demands of the international aid community, particularly since implementation of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, nation-building, and cultural diversity. Using Kenya as a site of analysis, this article uses interviews conducted with Kenyan primary school students to determine how their perceptions of their textbooks relates to their lived realities. Focusing on images depicting labor in and out of the home, research shows that students’ perceptions of textbooks demonstrate that there exists a continuum of gender identities, particularly visible when images of transformative gendered roles for women that are incongruent with student realities.     

Obtaining secondary students’ perceptions of instructional quality: Two-level structure and measurement invariance

Students' perceptions of instructional quality have become an important information source for teachers' professional development. This requires knowledge of the structure of these perceptions, their validity, and generalizability. To this end, we conducted a study with 15,005 German 512 grade students from 690 classrooms in three different school types and three different grade levels. Assuming three basic dimensions of instructional quality with 7 facets, we investigated the factorial structure of students' perceptions with two-level confirmatory factor analyses as well as their generalizability with two-level measurement invariance analyses. Our results confirmed the postulated factorial structure and strict invariance across subject groups, school types, and grade levels. We confirmed the same structure in teachers' assessments of their instructional quality that were positively correlated with the students' assessments. As such, these findings shed light on the structure, validity, and generalizability of students’ perceptions of instructional quality.     

Preservice teachers’ perceptions of an ICT-rich learning environment: Development of an instrument

This article reports the development of an instrument to measure preservice teachers’ perceptions of the Study Landscape (SLS), which is an ICT-infused learning environment that encourages preservice teachers to direct their own learning to build a two-way relationship between theory and teaching practice. This study comprised a qualitative and quantitative part. Six factors derived from interviews with users formed the basis of the instrument: (1) Support of Learners’ Initiatives; (2) Support of Information Searches; (3) Support of Interaction; (4) Relationship with Fellow Students; (5) Relationship with Teacher Educators; and (6) Relationship with SLS Staff. Once developed, the questionnaire was responded to by 186 students. Analysis of the data supported five out of six factors.     

黄冈市重点中学和普通中学高一学生数学学习特征比较

本研究采用“国际学生能力评估计划（PISA）”的学生调查问卷,对黄冈市重点中学和普通中学的535名学生的数学学习特征进行调查与分析,旨在探讨重点中学和普通中学学生数学学习特征的差异性。结果发现：重点中学的学生与普通中学的学生相比具有更加浓厚的数学学习兴趣、更强烈的学习动机、更积极的自我概念和自我效能感以及低水平的焦虑体验,并且他们更擅长运用各种学习策略。黄冈市高中一年级学生的数学学习特征在性别上存在着显著差异。