An investigation of the construct validity of the personality trait of self-directed learning

Based on samples of 398 middle school students, 568 high school students, and 1159 college students, self-directed learning was found to be related to cumulative grade-point-average at all levels as well as to Big Five personality traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Extraversion), narrow personality traits (Optimism, Career-Decidedness, Work Drive, and Self-Actualization), vocational interests (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, and Conventional, as well as Science, Medicine, and Mathematics), cognitive aptitudes, and life as well as college satisfaction. Based on an additional sample of 4125 college students, a confirmatory factor analysis was used to verify a single factor structure for our 10-item measure of self-directed learning. Results were discussed in terms of personality characteristics of self-directed learners, the trans-situational validity of self-directed learning in academic settings, multiple forms of evidence of the construct validity of self-directed learning, and implications for future research and practice.     

Predictive and construct validity of the developing cognitive abilities test: Relations with the iowa tests of basic skills

This study investigated the predictive and construct validity of the Developing Cognitive Abilities Test in a heterogeneous sample of 863 sixth grade students. Level H of the DCAT was administered during the student's sixth grade year and selected subtests of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were administered eight months later during their seventh grade year. Results showed that correlations between the DCAT and Iowa Tests of Basic Skills ranged from .50 (DCAT Spatial‐ITBS Language Usage) to .74 (DCAT Total‐ITBS Mathematics Problem Solving) with a median r= .635. Correlations also supported the construct (convergent) validity of the DCAT when compared to the ITBS with the DCAT Verbal subtest correlating significantly higher with the ITBS Vocabulary, Reading, and Language Usage than either the DCAT Quantitative or Spatial subtests which are not as verbally oriented. The DCAT Quantitative subtest was associated with the ITBS Mathematics Problem Solving to a greater extent than either the DCAT Verbal or Spatial subtests. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

交际英语口语测试的结构效度

口语测试是交际测试的重要组成部分,其目的是为了测试出受试者的口语语用能力。交际英语口语测试的结构概念是受试者在真实语境下口语交际能力。根据有效的交际理论设计口语测试,并保证口语测试能体现结构效度是口语测试设计者要完成的首要课题。本文通过分析交际英语口语测试的理论基础,提出了一些基本的实现口语测试结构效度的途径。     

论地方高校科研特色的构建

地方高校科研实力、科研方式、科研队伍和科研方向,以及科研内容和科研目标的特点,表明它只有紧密结合地方经济和社会发展的实际,才能拓展自己的发展空间,创出自身的特色。因此,构建优势学科,促进成果转化,创新用人机制,强化学科建设十分必要。     

An analysis of cognitive tool use patterns in a hypermedia learning environment

In this study, we examined the use of cognitive tools provided in a problem-based hypermedia learning environment for sixth graders. Purposes were to understand how the built-in tools were used, and if tool use was associated with different problem-solving stages. Results showed that tools supporting cognitive processing and sharing cognitive load played a more central role early in the problem-solving process, whereas tools supporting cognitive activities that would be out of students' reach otherwise, and hypothesis generation and testing were used more in the later stages of problem-solving. The findings also indicated that students increasingly used multiple tools in the later stages of their problem-solving process. The various tools, performing different functions, appeared to enable students to coordinate multiple cognitive skills in a seamless way and, therefore, facilitated their information processing. Results also suggested that students with higher performance scores made more productive use of tools than students with lower performance scores. Findings of the study, are discussed.     

An empirical study of the construct validity of social creativity

Creativity can be broadly defined as a combination of interacting individual and environmental resources leading to the production of valuable solutions. This paper concentrates on the type of creativity that can be expressed in solving social problems. After reviewing the potentially relevant psychological and contextual variables intervening in social creativity, leading to individual differences in this capacity, we present results of a study testing the nomological validity of social creativity in a group of 70 pre-adolescents. The findings indicate that social creativity performance is linked with socially relevant variables such as social competencies, popularity, and parenting style. Finally, we discuss the relevance of a creativity approach in social domains such as violence prevention programs and education.     

Assessment of prior learning in higher education: a review from a validity perspective

The process of giving official acknowledgment to formal, informal and non‐formal prior learning is commonly labelled as assessment, accreditation or recognition of prior learning (APL), representing a practice that is expanding in higher education in many countries. This paper focuses specifically on the assessment part of APL, which undoubtedly is central to the whole process, through a review of research in this area and an analysis of the reviewed studies from a validity perspective. The research reviewed (published 1990–2007) is categorised into empirical as well as more theoretically oriented publications, with a quantitative dominance of the latter. According to the validity analysis, a majority of the studies conducted in this area relate to the evidential basis of test interpretation and use, primarily providing theoretical rationales and theories for a variety of practices. The consequential basis of test interpretation and use has not been studied to any larger extent, resulting in a lack of both theoretical and empirical studies dealing with this aspect of validity.     

Peer teaching and higher level cognitive learning outcomes in problem-based learning

Law education at the University of Limburg (Maastricht, The Netherlands) features small-group tutorials alternating with periods of independent study. Every group of 10 students was tutored by a staff member or an undergraduate student from the third or fourth year. Students guided by a staff member scored significantly higher on a test designed to measure higher order cognitive skills than students guided by a student tutor. Student tutors were rated no differently from staff tutors with respect to the way they stimulated learning processes, directed the discussion content and monitored the discussion process. It seems that in a quantitative way, staff tutors and student tutors behave more or less the same. Qualitatively, however, there may be differences in their behavior which the tutor functioning questionnaire is unable to tap. Interventions of staff tutors may be more to the point than those of student tutors due to the fact that they are experts in their fields.     

如何创建学习型高校档案室

科学技术的发展,知识的更新,计算机的普及,给高校档案室的发展带来前所未有的挑战.要创建学习型档案室,只有通过各种途径拓展学习,提高挡案管理员的综合素质,才能解决现实存在的档案员知识老化、能力结构和知识结构欠缺的问题.     

An empirical examination of the construct validity of goal commitment in the persistence process

This study represents the first published investigation into the construct validity of goal commitment as it affects the persistence process. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that goal commitment could be decomposed into multiple indicators of the same latent construct: a special factor called goal commitment that groups items related to goal importance, specificity of goals, and situational influence; a second factor represented by items indicating certainty of purpose; and a third factor consisting of items related to goals in general. The predictive validity of each subcomponent on different outcomes related to student persistence was established. While goal commitment was found to have a significant direct effect on both students' intents to persist and actual persistence behavior, neither of the other two factors were as equally predictive as measures of student retention.     

Seeking construct validity grounded in constructivist epistemology: development of the survey of contemporary learning environments

This study focused on the development of a new classroom environment instrument for late-elementary students. The development of the survey of contemporary learning environments (SoCLE) followed a content analysis of three similar instruments on constructivist learning environments and the literature on characteristics of contemporary learning environments. Through a bottom-up development process, grounded in the epistemological foundations of constructivism, we note the difficulty in operationalizing student perceptions of contemporary learning environments and point to challenges in developing well-grounded construct validity. In a field study of 453 fifth–sixth grade students, the SoCLE was defined with three subscales: Reflective Processes (α?=?0.68), Ownership (α?=?0.65), and Multiple Perspectives (α?=?0.53). The Ownership and Multiple Perspectives subscales indicated relationships with overall academic achievement assessed by a nation-wide testing program, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. In a multiple linear regression model, ownership predicted the overall composite achievement score, as well as reading comprehension, social studies, and science subscores. Multiple perspectives predicted the language subscore. These findings highlight that characteristics of contemporary learning environments that are epistemologically based may support achievement in late-elementary students.     

An assessment of the construct validity of the CCSEQ Quality of Effort scales

A substantial body of research indicates that the greater the effort and time expended by students in the opportunities afforded by their colleges, the greater the likelihood of academic and personal growth, satisfaction with the institution, and persistence within the educational system. The most extensive effort exerted in operationalizing the concepts of involvement and integration was that of C. Robert Pace in his development of theCollege Student Experiences Questionnaire, which was the basis for the development of theCommunity College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CCSEQ). This study examines the construct validity of the eight Quality of Effort scales resulting from the CCSEQ for students involved in all administrations of the instrument from 1990 through 1994. Results indicate that the Quality of Effort measures can be used to make valid and reliable inferences regarding students' efforts and involvement, and that the validity of the inferences is not conditional on whether the students are in vocational or transfer programs, attending full-time or part-time, or of majority or minority ethnic status.     

Differences in memory retrieval: a construct validity investigation

Long-term memory retrieval efficiency was investigated as a potential underlying source of individual and developmental differences in cognitive functioning. Fourth-grade, eighth-grade, and college-aged subjects participated in a task using the Posner letter-matching paradigm. Letter pairs were presented simultaneously under physical-match and name-match instruction conditions. Reaction times were used to estimate parameters of long-term memory retrieval efficiency, basic encoding, decision, and response time, and name and physical output interference. Psychometric tests of verbal and spatial ability were included to assess convergent and discriminant validity of hypothesized relationships between aptitude test performance and basic cognitive processes. Developmental differences were observed in most but not all of the processing variables. Individual difference analyses indicated that less confounded estimates of processing parameters were not systematically related to verbal ability at any age level. Basic encoding and response speed was the most consistent correlate of spatial ability. The results suggest difficulties in previous interpretations of NIPI-verbal ability relationships. The study of cognitive processes in interaction and embedded in meaningful tasks is discussed.     

An investigation of introductory physical science using the test of science process

The hypotheses tested were that there would be differentially, significant improvement in scores on the Test of Science Processes (TSP) for four homogeneous divisions of an eight grade class during the period they studied the first five chapters of Introductory Physical Science (IPS). Results indicated significant improvement in at least one process subscore for each division of the class. A hierarchy of processes was suggested as a topic for further study.     

Noncognitive predictors of achievement in introductory college chemistry

The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictive relationship between initial student attitudes, admissions test scores, years of high school math taken, and subsequent achievement in introductory college chemistry. Included in this study was a sample of 179 students who began as new freshmen during the same fall semester and took an introductory chemistry course during their first year of college. The results of this study indicated that noncognitive variables were significant predictors of student performance. These findings also indicated that, for some types of academic outcomes, noncognitive variables may be better predictors of achievement than traditional measures such as admissions test scores.     

高职基础英语测试反拨效应的分析研究

本文主要围绕高职英语,对英语测试的反拨效应进行简要的分析。并且对反拨效应的分类进行简要的介绍,然后对这些反拨效应进行分析与研究,再以高职院校的采访数据为依据,进一步的对英语测试的反拨效应进行分析。