The Centrality of Test Use and Consequences for Test Validity

What are the origins of consequential validity? What is the role of intended test use in validation? Is the study of unintended effects part of validation? What practical problems does this pose?     

Standards of Validity and the Validity of Standards in Performance Asessment

What are six distinct aspects of construct validation? How do these aspects apply to performance assessment? Are the consequences of performance assessment on teaching and learning relevant to construct validation?     

Legal and Psychometric Criteria for Evaluating Teacher Certification Tests

Will our teacher certification testing program stand up to a court challenge? What are the critical issues the courts consider in examining teacher certification testing? What do we need to do to strengthen our program legally and psychometrically?     

Adventures in Implementing a Testing Program

What are the ways in which a testing program can run aground? What are some suggestions for avoiding these problems?     

Unintended Consequences of External Testing in Elementary Schools

What is the impact of an external testing program on what teachers teach and the way they teach it? How does an external testing program affect a school's organization? Are these effects contrary to the general goal of improving schools?     

Online student orientation in higher education: a developmental study

Although orientation for online students is important to their success, little information about how to develop an online student orientation (OSO) has appeared in the literature; therefore, the purpose of this article was to describe the entire process of developing an OSO. This article describes the analysis, design, development, and evaluation phases of the OSO in higher education. The orientation consists of four modules titled as follows: (a) What is the nature of online learning? (b) How to learn in Blackboard (c) What are the technical requirements to take an online course? and (d) What learning skills and motivations are necessary for online learning? Formative evaluation was conducted to improve the initially developed OSO program. Summative evaluation showed the OSO program can be useful for future online students. Discussion and future direction of OSO program are provided.     

Applications of Educational Measurement: I s Optimum Optimal?

What would you do if you were asked to design an “optimal” school testing program, but had doubts about the criteria to apply? What strategies might help us make more use of performance assessment and computer-adaptive testing in district-level testing programs? Can an NCME President be whimsical when delivering her presidential address?     

Factors contributing to research excellence

What factors contribute to high-quality funded research activity in research universities? What do these institutions have in common? What management strategies do they employ to encourage funded research excellence and activity? In this period of decreased or level government spending, competition for grants among research universities becomes fierce. In order to stay competitive, it is important to know what works in research management. Preliminary research has allowed us to provide some answers and to clarify some key questions on what makes a successful research program.     

The Vemont Portfolio Assessment Program: Findings and Implications

How effective has the Vermont program been in meeting its goals? What goals appear to be in conflict in programsof this type? Why is there a need for “caution and moderate expectations”?     

Interpersonal communication and transactional relationships: Clarification and application

What model does one use to understand interpersonal communication and how does one apply such a model when teaching a course in interpersonal communication? The author presents and applies a self‐validation model and topology of transactional relationships to help select concepts, principles, and skills that are essential for the study of interpersonal communication.     

Current Challenges in Social Work Distance Education: Responses from the Elluminati

One of the first tasks of the Social Work Distance Education Network at the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary was to review the literature and address three research questions to inform policy making and planning relating to distance social work education programming. This paper is intended to disseminate responses to these questions from a small group of dedicated and experienced distance educators who have adopted the moniker Elluminati. (The Elluminati adapted their name from a popular online audio-conferencing program.) These questions include: (1) What is the optimal class size for a distance delivery offering? (2) What supports does an online course require for development and effective delivery? (3) What types of courses are suitable/unsuitable for online learning?     

Use of multitrait-multimethod modelling to validate actual and preferred forms of the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire

This article describes the validation of scores on actual and preferred forms of the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC). The WIHIC is a 56-item instrument that assesses seven classroom environment dimensions: Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Investigation, Task Orientation, Cooperation and Equity. A sample of 978 secondary school students from Australia responded to actual and preferred forms of the WIHIC. Separate confirmatory factor analyses for the actual and preferred forms supported the seven-scale a priori structure of the instrument. Fit statistics indicated a good fit of the models to the data. The use of multitrait-multimethod modelling with the seven scales as traits and the two forms of the instrument as methods supported the WIHIC’s construct validity. This research has provided strong evidence of the sound psychometric properties of the WIHIC.     

Assessment Competencies of Teachers: A National Survey

What are the “Standards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of Students”? In what domains do teachers have the greatest knowledge of measurement? Where are they least strong? Do teachers with measurement training show greater knowledge than teachers without such training?     

论民企与港企在新形势下的处境--面对CEPA和"泛珠三角"计划

2004年1月1日CEPA计划正式启动．为港澳与内地的大幅合作打开了通道。但这一通道是否就此畅通无阻?重新站在统一起跑线上的港企和民企会面临怎样的局面?港企是否就占尽优势将尽吞国内市场．民企是否就处于劣势拱手让出城池?政府又应当怎样做才能使这一计划真正落到实处,推动两岸三地共同发展?本文就从以上几点尝试加以分析论证。     

In Practice—Sailing through leadership theory

What do tacking, coming about, traffic control, and jib sheets have to do with leadership? At The University of Tampa, a program combining learning to sail with learning to lead is demonstrating that moving a group is very much like maneuvering a boat.     

Growing up in Taiwan: The impact of environmental influences on the math olympians

Thirty-six Math Olympians (34 males and 2 females) served as the subjects in a study that asked two questions: (1) What family and school factors contribute to the development of the math talent of the Olympians? (2) What impact did the Olympiad program have on these mathematically talented students? The data were collected by means of questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews. The major findings were as follows: (1) the Olympians were mostly the first-born child in small families and were “discovered” at an early age; (2) most Olympians ranked high in their class; (3) the SES of the Olympians' families were varied, though the majority were high; (4) the Olympians' family support and learning environment were strong and positive; (5) the Olympiad experiences were, in general, positive for the subjects, especially in learning, forming positive attitudes toward math and science, self-esteem, autonomous learning, and creative problem solving; (6) there were almost no special programs designed for the Olympians during their college years; (7) the degree of computer literacy was varied according to the subject's personal interest and the accessibility to the computer; and (8) most Olympians had not shown special achievement other than math.     

通识教育和大学生领导力教育——以美国大学为例

20世纪80年代以来,在美国大学通识教育兴起的同时,大学生领导力教育项目也纷纷涌现.二者的同时出现,是巧合?还是历史的必然?本文试图在国外有关研究成果的基础上,从培养目标、价值取向和实施过程三个方面来审视二者之间的关系,并简要归纳对当代高等教育改革的启示.     

Disasters of nature

Volcanoes There are thou-sands of volcanoes all over the world. What makes volcanoes? What happens? The inside of the earth is very hot. Be-cause it is very,very hot,the rock has melted like ice.It has become liquid,like water.It is always boiling, like water in a kettle. If you have seen a kettle boiling, you know that the steam and boiling water try to get out. The very hot melted rock inside the earth also tries to get out. Usually it cannot be-cause the outside of the earth is too thick and strong. But ...     

Science and its professionals: Views of Australian scientists on science education

Conclusions This study raises a great number of questions, many of which would be valuable for science curricula to reflect upon. Firstly, it would seem that the practising professionals do not believe methodology is easily taught, at least not without a strong factual knowledge base. Secondly, science courses have had little effect on carrer choice, with the possible slight exception of physical scientists working in the public sector. Thirdly, scientists would give strong support to the idea of teaching students to use ‘scientific attitudes’ in their everyday life. And fourthly, the social implications of science are felt to be deserving of close attention in schools-but perhaps not within the science classroom. What clearly remains to be done is the difficult and time-consuming work to follow up these hints. What do the scientists see asthe scientific attitudes? What facts, etc., should form the basis of the science curricula? How should the social implications of science be discussed, and what responses are appropriate to them? To answer these questions will take a national study of great scope and effort, yet it would seem to be an essential part of the process of determinng science education programmes of purpose and value.