The Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test: Development, Use, and Research

How are entrance examinations for college used in Sweden? What is measured by these examinations? What kinds of research have been conducted? Have gender differences been found on the tests?     

Content Validity Studies of Licensing Examinations

Can measurement specialists’current ideas about content validation be implemented with licensure examinations? Does pressure of litigation facilitate or inhibit conducting validity studies?     

Special Needs and the GCSE

What provisions are to be made in the new GCSE examinations for candidates who need special consideration because of their special educational needs? Don Ramsden, Secretary, East Midland Regional Examinations Board, and Mary Thompson, Secretary, East Anglian Examinations Board, describe the background to the new examinations and the proposed guidelines relating to 'handicapped' candidates to be issued shortly.     

Anatomy "steeplechase" online: necessity sometimes is the catalyst for innovation

In most medical schools, summative practical examination in Anatomy usually takes the format of a “steeplechase” (“spotters” or “bell ringers”) conducted in the gross anatomy laboratory using cadaveric material and prosected specimens. Recently, we have started to administer similar examinations online using the quiz facility in WebCT? and Moodle?. This article chronicles how we conceived and developed this method within the peculiar nature of our medical school setting. Over a five year period, practical summative examinations were organized as “steeplechase” online. The online examinations were administered using WebCT? and later Moodle? learning management software. Assessment “objects” were created from the materials available for anatomy teaching. These were digital images of cadaveric materials, radiological, and prosected specimens. In addition, short video clips of 30 seconds duration demonstrating muscle action were produced. These objects were optimized for online viewing and then uploaded onto the learning management software. A bank of questions (multiple choice or short answer type) was then created and linked to the assessment objects. These were used in place of the steeplechase in the computer laboratory. This method serves a crucial purpose in places like ours where continuous availability of human cadavers is impossible. Although time consuming initially, once questions are setup online, future retrieval, and administration becomes convenient especially where there are large batches of students. In addition, the online environment offers distinct advantages with regards to image quality, psychometric analysis of the examination and reduction of staff preparation time compared to traditional “steeplechase.” Anat Sci Educ 4: 115–118, 2011. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.     

Reviews

Civilized life at LSE The Trouble at LSE, 1966–67. HARRY KIDD. Oxford University Press. 25s. Basic salaries at universities World study of examinations Studying educational administrators How are teachers educated? A crisis of maladjustment AUT story The aspirations of sixth-form applicants     

考试之多维审视——再论考试应该体现谁的意志

考试究竟应该体现谁的意志,对这一问题审视的角度不同,认识不同,答案自然各异。对这一问题的回答应该是“实然的考试”与“应然的考试”相统一。而在考试实践中,这种统一就是要坚持考试的科学性与公平性的统一。     

Teaching French Literature at a distance at university level

How does one teach literary analysis and sensitivity at a distance? Examples of the approach of the French National Centre for Distance Education are given for the French Literature examinations at the two‐year degree level (Diplôme d'Etudes Universitaires Generates).     

Coursework versus examinations in end-of-module assessment: a literature review

In the UK and other countries, the use of end-of-module assessment by coursework in higher education has increased over the last 40?years. This has been justified by various pedagogical arguments. In addition, students themselves prefer to be assessed either by coursework alone or by a mixture of coursework and examinations than by examinations alone. Assessment by coursework alone or by a mixture of coursework and examinations tends to yield higher marks than assessment by examinations alone. The increased adoption of assessment by coursework has contributed to an increase over time in the marks on individual modules and in the proportion of good degrees across entire programmes. Assessment by coursework appears to attenuate the negative effect of class size on student attainment. The difference between coursework marks and examination marks tends to be greater in some disciplines than others, but it appears to be similar in men and women and in students from different ethnic groups. Collusion, plagiarism and personation (especially ‘contract cheating’ through the use of bespoke essays) are potential problems with coursework assessment. Nevertheless, the increased use of assessment by coursework has generally been seen as uncontentious, with only isolated voices expressing concerns regarding possible risks to academic standards.     

孤愤悲戚的心灵呐喊——吴敬梓《儒林外史》的审美追求

《儒林外史》是我国一部批判现实的杰出讽刺小说,它通过众多的儒林人物形象与事件的刻画和描写,揭露了封建科举制的腐朽与颓败,同时对美好事物给予了颂扬。要了解作品的精神实质,必要从作家的思想根源与“狂、戚、谐、隐”四个方面,即从其起因、发生、发展过程去深究审美思想和审美追求的内涵。去探索其孤愤、悲威的内心世界。     

Make Your Own Engineers

Can ability and exceptional experience be accepted as substitutes for formal education in engineering? This article tells how one company developed a program of qualifications and examinations through which its more talented technicians can achieve full engineer status. The program gives the aspiring technician a continuing incentive for work towards an advanced status that is accepted without reservation by every degree engineer in the company.     

艺术教育:视觉艺术评核趋势与社会发展

本文从香港中学会考及高级程度会考美术科考试及评核模式演变为主干,探讨中学毕业美术公开考试及评核模式演变与社会发展的影响。论文亦从近年西方学校艺术教育理念与发展,探究后现代社会学校视觉艺术教育的演变,以及如何影响关术考试及评核的模式。近年香港学校课程的改革,显然受西方国家学校课程改革理念的影响。考试及评核作为课程的重要部分,课程的改革必然会促使考试及评核的相应改革。考试及评核形式的改变,正反映我们社会期望的改变,学校教育培育的学生是否有自信?是否愉快学习?是否具备新世纪时代的共通能力?是否能够在新时代具有竞争力?学生是否具备改进社会的态度和适应新时代的生活技能?这些都是值得我们反省和探究的。     

Gadobutrol at different injection rates for dynamic supra-aortic imaging by contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography

The aim of this study was to compare differences in imaging quality at different injection rates of gadobutrol(Gadovist? 1.0M) for dynamic supra-aortic imaging by contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography(CEM RA). In 6 healthy volunteers,dynamic CEM RA examinations were performed twice at a 7 d interval with a gadobutrol dose of 0.1 mmol given to 1 kg body mass. For the two examinations,the contrast medium was injected at rates of 1.5 mL/s and 2.0 mL/s,followed by 20 mL normal saline injected at the same rate. Using a GE Signa 3.0T M R apparatus and the time-resolved imaging of contrast kinetics(TRICKS) technique,scanning was performed continuously for 15 phases at a time resolution of about 2.4 s. Vascular reconstruction was undertaken by multiplane reconstruction and maximum intensity projection techniques. Two radiologists experienced in CEM RA diagnosis subjectively evaluated the contrast effect,vascular detail,and pseudo-shadow of all images,and graded them via a 5-point scale. With the two drug injection rates,the image quality,peak signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio(CNR) were compared for imaging of the infra-aortic arch,brachiocephalic trunk,subclavian artery(left/right),common carotid artery(left/right),internal carotid artery(left/right),and external carotid artery(left/right). Characteristics of the time-signal-intensity(T-S-I) curves were also analyzed at the two injection rates. All studies were performed successfully,without any complications. There was good image quality with both gadobutrol injection rates of 1.5 mL/s and 2.0 mL/s,and subjective scores for image quality,SNR and CNR were not significantly different between the two rates(P 0.05). The time-to-peak(TTP) from the hand dorsal vein injection site to the carotid artery ranged from 16.0 s to 27.1 s(mean 21.7 s ±3.4 s) in the 6 subjects,and was also not significantly different between the two drug injection rates(P 0.05). We conclude that dynamic CEM RA examination of the supra-aortic arch with gadobutrol injection at a rate of 1.5 mL/s was feasible,and satisfactorily reflected vascular shape and dynamic blood flow information.     

The Impact of Self-assessment on Achievement: The effects of self-assessment training on performance in external examinations

Can the quality of students' work be improved through training in self- assessment practices? This paper considers the impact of training high school students on their performance in external examinations. Teachers were selected from a sample of high schools and trained in how to develop students' self-assessment skills. Ten high schools representative of the top, middle and bottom levels of academic achievement in national examinations were chosen and students trained in self-assessment by their normal class teachers as part of their final year curriculum. An experimental group comprising 256 participants received formal training in self-assessment skills for the entire three terms of the academic year. A control group was selected from matched classes not receiving such training. A significant difference favouring those trained in self-assessment was found overall and in each curriculum area. While it is demonstrated that self-assessment training can have an impact on student performance the paper considers the circumstances of the study and whether similar outcomes might be possible in less favourable conditions.     

On-demand testing and maintaining standards for general qualifications in the UK using item response theory: possibilities and challenges

Background:?Although on-demand testing is being increasingly used in many areas of assessment, it has not been adopted in high stakes examinations like the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and General Certificate of Education Advanced level (GCE A level) offered by awarding organisations (AOs) in the UK. One of the major issues with on-demand testing is that some of the methods used for maintaining the comparability of standards over time in conventional testing are no longer available and the development of new methods is required.

Purpose:?This paper proposes an item response theory (IRT) framework for implementing on-demand testing and maintaining the comparability of standards over time for general qualifications, including GCSEs and GCE A levels, in the UK and discusses procedures for its practical implementation.

Sources of evidence:?Sources of evidence include literature from the fields of on-demand testing, the design of computer-based assessment, the development of IRT, and the application of IRT in educational measurement.

Main argument:?On-demand testing presents many advantages over conventional testing. In view of the nature of general qualifications, including the use of multiple components and multiple question types, the advances made in item response modelling over the past 30 years, and the availability of complex IRT analysis software systems, coupled with increasing IRT expertise in awarding organisations, IRT models could be used to implement on-demand testing in high stakes examinations in the UK. The proposed framework represents a coherent and complete approach to maintaining standards in on-demand testing. The procedures for implementing the framework discussed in the paper could be adapted by people to suit their own needs and circumstances.

Conclusions:?The use of IRT to implement on-demand testing could prove to be one of the viable approaches to maintaining standards over time or between test sessions for UK general qualifications.     

Assessment and examination stress in Key Stage 4

Survey research has identified, using questionnaire approaches, that important assessments are a significant source of stress and worry for students in secondary school. In particular, failing important examinations and the consequences of failing these examinations are rated as more important than a range of other personal and social worries. Qualitative approaches have gone further in exploring the meaning of these stressful events for students concerned, highlighting themes such as an over‐identification with academic success and the perception of GCSE examinations as constituting a crucial moment in determining the future life trajectory of a student. However, this area has been neglected by researchers working on the education–psychology disciplinary boundaries, and a number of important features have yet to be specified regarding the development, antecedents and educational consequences of assessment/examination stress in Key Stage 4 (KS4). The aim of this article is to build on previous work to explore some basic questions surrounding KS4 assessments from a student‐centred perspective: (a) what factors lead to the development of assessments in KS4 to be perceived as stressful; and (b) what are the effects for the students concerned? Thirty‐four students were interviewed from six secondary schools in the North of England, identified as being likely to experience examinations as anxiety‐provoking events and analysed using the principles of grounded theory. Twelve themes emerge structured around a central narrative of ‘stress, achievement and esteem’, which highlighted three key findings. First, stress was linked to the motivation to achieve and the fear of failure through esteem judgements and conditions of acceptance from important others. Second, the experience of stress was linked to a wider educational context including practices and policies pursued by teachers and schools. Third, a more specific state, examination anxiety, was associated with facilitating effects prior to examinations and debilitating effects during examinations. These findings have furthered insights into the developmental antecedents and effects of assessment/examination stress in KS4, and highlighted the need to investigate school/teacher practices and policies and to ascertain the mechanism by which examination anxiety might produce debilitating effects.     

交际英语教学理念探讨

目前英语教与学,在考试的指挥棒的影响下,将英语的学习无形中引向了教给学生学习有关语言知识,以及如何在各类考试中取得较好成绩为目标,而脱离了语言学习的本质,在英语教、学和考试中真正的目标应是确保培养学生的语言运用能力。能够用英语进行有效的交际,这才是语言学习的真正目的。如何达到这一真实的目的?这就应在教与学的过程中采用各种教与学的策略,培养学生自主学习能力和在整个学习过程中以交际为教学的主要方向,以达到语言学习的目的,并不是单纯为了考试,而是确保学生运用语言能力的提高。     

Outstanding Students Should Be Encouraged to Apply for the Entrance Examinations to Key Schools

Mustering strength to run key schools successfully is one of the major tasks on the educational front. Many ordinary schools regard it as an unshirkable duty to supply key middle schools with junior high graduates who do well in their studies. Nevertheless, there are now some ordinary schools that, proceeding from selfish departmentalism, do not encourage their junior high graduates with better scholastic attainments to sign up for the entrance examination to senior grades of key middle schools. Instead, they caution the students, "If next semester you will continue to study at our school in senior grade one, we'll put you in the key class. If you apply for the entrance examination to a key school and return to our school when rejected, then it would be impossible for us to assign you to the key class." Some even warn, "You will not be accepted if you come back." In this way, a batch of students who do well in their studies are pressured not to sign up for the entrance examinations to key schools. They are afraid that they may have no opportunity to study at all if they fail in the entrance examinations. This practice is obviously wrong. If every school does things this way and every student with better scholastic aptitude does not apply for the key school, how can the key school recruit the better qualified? Where can the "better qualified" come from?     

Mentor support and academic achievement

How does the support of mentors based in Study Centres affect the performance of distance education students, both in their course assignments and in their final examinations? Helmut Fritsch and Gerhard Ströhlein ‐ from the Central Institute for Distance Education Research (ZIFF) in the FemUniversitat in West Germany ‐ address this question through an analysis of some of the data collected at the University. In their discussion, they also shed light on some of the methodological problems raised by this kind of analysis, while stressing the system‐specific nature of their findings.     

台湾爱国诗人许南英不赴任原因新论

许南英是台湾近代著名爱国诗人。他考上进士后被授予官职,但没有赴任就回乡了。关于此中原因,一般认为是由于他志向不在当官,但通过分析可以发现,更为深层次的真正原因应是贫穷。弄清这个原因,对于解读他的诗作和更好地了解后来他在不得已的情况下走进官场的痛苦心境均有帮助作用。     

香港高中学生的社会资本对高等教育需求的影响分析

本文从社会资本理论的视角,以香港高中生作为实证研究对象,将学生家庭的社会资本区分为学生个人和父母两个独立的分析单位,探讨学生如何运用其个人及父母的社会资本创造人力资本。研究发现香港高中生的公开考试成绩和其个人的社会资本是影响其升学、择校和择业的显著影响因素,高中生的家庭背景变量对这三类选择行为的影响则不显著。