Incorporation of continuous student assessment into lectures in engineering education

A continuous student assessment system was incorporated into an advanced microelectronic course. This study investigated the relationship between the continuous assessment system based on home exams and individual student achievement. The perspective was based on the learning frameworks of the social constructivist theory. Six fourth-year engineering students participated in the study, which covered 13 lectures and 5 home exams. Feedback sessions concerning the particular exam were held after every exam. Correlations between the exams, the feedback, and individual student achievement were computed. The results indicated a positive correlation between continuous assessment and student achievement. Rather than being improved a lot, student achievement stabilised statistically at a higher level. Additionally, student's absence was very low (5%) despite the voluntary participation in the course. Continuous assessment realised with home exams induced two-way discussions between the teacher and the students. Unprompted, the students learned additional material and discussed it in the exam essays, confirming the principles of social constructivist theory.     

Keyboarding compared with handwriting on a high-stakes writing assessment: Student choice of composing medium, raters’ perceptions, and text quality

This article examines the influence of keyboarding versus handwriting in a high-stakes writing assessment. Conclusions are based on data collected from a pilot project to move Old Dominion University's Exit Exam of Writing Proficiency from a handwritten format into a dual-option format (i.e., the students may choose to handwrite or keyboard the exam). This test case is used to demonstrate the complex implications for a writing assessment tool when universities aim to accommodate students’ various methods of physically creating a text. Discussion includes speculation about the format of the writing component on the SAT. It is argued that by analyzing the differences in high-stakes exams when students keyboard and when they handwrite, researchers can better understand how the material conditions for composing influence students and raters. It is concluded that if handwriting and keyboarding represent even slightly different composing skills and cognitive processes, then high-stakes writing assessments should aim to accommodate students by providing methods of textual production with which students are most comfortable, even as this accommodation produces new challenges for the creators and managers of large-scale writing assessments.     

Winter is Coming: Forecasting the Impact of edTPA on Black Teachers and Teachers of Color

This article traces how high-stakes teacher exams have shaped the career entry opportunities for Black teachers and makes recommendations for the emerging era of high-stakes performances exams brought about by the edTPA. We begin our analysis in the 1980s and the testing for competencies movement during which scholars critiqued the rising use of high-stakes standardized licensure exams as gatekeepers into teacher education programs. Although the most severe predictions from this crisis moment did not come to fruition, we ask what it can tell us today about exams like the edTPA and how it may impact Black teachers. We outline three findings from the emerging edTPA scholarship in response to this question: (1) mixed and alarming results from edTPA racial bias reviews, (2) institutional resources and unequal distribution, and (3) how the exam may constrain or permit justice. We make recommendations for teacher education programs and for scholars conducting research at the intersection of edTPA and racial bias.     

关于遏制高校学生考试作弊现象的研究

高校学生考试作弊的方式和原因较多,管理中应着重从加强对学生的教育引导,努力打造他们诚信、自立的人品;实施教考分离,建立合理的考试模式;加强考务管理,严抓考场纪律等方面入手,最大限度地遏制考试作弊现象,提高考试的信度和效度,让考试发挥应有的作用。     

Trust,distrust and their impact on assessment reform

This paper puts forward the case that one of the factors constraining principled learning‐oriented assessment practices is lack of trust. It examines a number of assessment dimensions in which trust or distrust plays a role. These issues are illustrated via a discussion of two different iterations of the same module taught in a teacher education institution. Through this example, the author analyses how accountability forces and distrust created an atmosphere which constrained the use of innovative assessment methods. The paper discusses how trust might be developed, some of the barriers arising, and the relationship between trust and good assessment practices. It concludes by sketching some possible avenues for further research into stakeholders’ perceptions of the interplay between trust and assessment.     

关于大学生考试作弊及其诚信教育的思考

大学生考试作弊是不讲诚信的表现.文章在紧密联系实际的基础上,分析了大学生考试作弊的危害及成因,并就考试作弊而引发的诚信教育进行了探讨.     

Personality, assessment methods and academic performance

This study examines the relationship between personality and two different academic performance (AP) assessment methods, namely exams and coursework. It aimed to examine whether the relationship between traits and AP was consistent across self-reported versus documented exam results, two different assessment techniques and across different faculties. There were 1,013 (622 female) university students from four British Universities in four faculties namely arts/humanities, social sciences, life/biological sciences and mathematical sciences. Participants completed a brief version of the Big Five inventory and a self-report measure of AP. Conscientiousness and Agreeableness were the strongest personality predictors of AP. Structural equation model showed that sex and personality effects on AP were invariant across different areas of study or degree types (humanities, social sciences, life sciences and hard sciences). Personality variables are stable, robust and predictable correlates and determinants of AP. Conscientiousness, Openness and Agreeableness were positive predictors as measured by good grades whilst Neuroticism and Extraversion were correlates of weaker performance. Implications of these results refer how teachers choose to examine their pupils and to what extent students choose courses because of their known examination procedures.     

对建立科学的素质教育考试制度的思考

实施素质教育是当前全社会所关注的学校教育问题之一，如何理解素质教育和应试教育之间的辩证统一关系，如何全面、科学地看待考试，是需要研究的重要课题。提倡减负，反对应试教育，并非不要考试和竞争，我们的目的是要建立科学的素质教育考试制度，提高中华民族的整体素质。     

Beneath the patchwork quilt: unravelling assessment

The role of assessment is constantly evolving and systematically scrutinised within the realm of higher education. It is often argued that students learn faster and more effectively when they have a clear sense of how they are doing and how they can improve through the use of consistent and timely feedback. This paper presents research with a group of second-year undergraduates, using an adapted patchwork text assessment method to explore wider issues of the ethical environment within which assessment takes place.     

Even after thirteen class exams,students are still overconfident: the role of memory for past exam performance in student predictions

Students often are overconfident when they predict their performance on classroom examinations, and their accuracy often does not improve across exams. One contributor to overconfidence may be that students did not have enough experience, and another is that students may under-use their knowledge of prior exam performance to predict performance on their upcoming exams. To evaluate the former, we examined student prediction accuracy across 13 exams in an introductory course on educational psychology. For the latter, we computed measures that estimate the extent to which students use the prior exam score when predicting performance and whether students should use the prior exam scores. Several outcomes are noteworthy. First, students were overconfident, and contrary to expectations, this overconfidence did not decline across exams. Second, students’ prior exam scores were not related to subsequent predictions, even though prior exam performance showed little bias with respect to predicting future performance. Thus, students appear to under-use prior performance despite its utility for improving prediction accuracy about future exam performance.     

制举在唐代科举制中的地位探析

唐代科举制度包括常举和制举两部分。我们通常所谈论的科举仅仅指代常举,往往对制举这一科举制中的重要内容有所忽视。现世学者近些年虽然对制举已有不少的研究建树,但仍有一些问题值得探讨。本文试图从唐代统治者对制举的定位和引导、制举自身的特点和发展、士人的功名意识以及制举在唐代的影响程度四个角度,对制举在唐代科举制中的地位再作一些探讨分析。     

Applying machine learning in science assessment: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Machine learning (ML) is an emergent computerised technology that relies on algorithms built by ‘learning’ from training data rather than ‘instruction’, which holds great potential to revolutionise science assessment. This study systematically reviewed 49 articles regarding ML-based science assessment through a triangle framework with technical, validity, and pedagogical features on three vertices. We found that a majority of the studies focused on the validity vertex, as compared to the other two vertices. The existing studies primarily involve text recognition, classification, and scoring with an emphasis on constructing scientific explanations, with a vast range of human-machine agreement measures. To achieve the agreement measures, most of the studies employed a cross-validation method, rather than self- or split-validation. ML allows complex assessments to be used by teachers without the burden of human scoring, saving both time and cost. Most studies used supervised ML, which relies on extraction of attributes from student work that was first coded by humans to achieve automaticity, rather than semi- or unsupervised ML. We found that 24 studies were explicitly embedded in science learning activities, such as scientific inquiry and argumentation, to provide feedback or learning guidance. This study identifies existing research gaps and suggests that all three vertices of the ML triangle should be addressed in future assessment studies, with an emphasis on the pedagogy and technology features.     

Effects of test anxiety on performance,worry, and emotionality in naturally occurring exams

Test performance and reported anxiety levels of high and low test-anxious subjects taking either a regular exam or an exam containing brief, written relaxation instructions were compared. A consistent main effect for test anxiety was found; high test-anxious subjects performed more poorly and reported greater worry and emotionality than did low test-anxious subjects. Effects for the relaxation manipulation were found only on the second of three exams where the high anxious subjects receiving the relaxation exam format reported less worry than the high anxiety-regular exam group. Results provide greater external validity for the Test Anxiety Scale (TAS).     

学分制下高等师范学校教育考试改革初探

考试是学校教学工作的一个重要环节。伴随着高等师范学校实施学分制,改革传统的考试模式势在必行。本文分析了高等师范学校教育考试的现状和存在的闯题．探究学分制模式下的考试制度改革问题．形成与学分制相适应的考试要求、考试方式、考试内容等,已成为我们急需研究和解决的课题。     

GCSE exam stress: student perceptions of the effects on wellbeing and performance

ABSTRACT

In the UK education system, an ‘audit culture’ has led to pressures being placed on students to achieve high grades in their GCSEs. It has been suggested that schools are required to achieve good academic results and look after their students’ wellbeing, causing a conflict in relation to public examinations, such as GCSEs. School staff support both performance and wellbeing by preparing students for exams. However, research suggests that there is a danger that many underperform, or are negatively affected (emotionally) by exam stress, or both. This paper describes a research project within the UK. The aims of which were to explore the views of students who had recently taken GCSE exams, to gain an understanding of how they felt their GCSE experiences affected their wellbeing and performance, to find out what factors contributed to or alleviated their levels of exam stress, and whether theories relating to exam stress such as Achievement Goal Theory could be used to explain the individual differences in levels of exam stress. Findings and conclusions provided ways to improve the support for students during their GCSEs, improving academic performance and wellbeing.     

This is the way to teach: insights from academics and students about assessment that supports learning

In this study, assessment and learning is reconceptualised as an integrated and dialogic process. Positioned in a sociocultural framework, the experiences of academics and students at an Australian university were examined to understand how they think about and participate in formative assessment to support learning. Semi-structured interviews and document analysis were used to investigate the lived experience, individual meanings and context of participants. The sociocultural issues that participants emphasised were highlighted through a power, risk and reconceptualisation analytical framework. Findings showed that academics and students give high value to dialogue as a device of trust and power for building learner capacity through assessment, and that academics’ familiarity with students’ individual learning reinforces student trust in the integrity and reliability of assessment. This study contributes to understandings of learning and assessment by offering their reconceptualisation as an integrated and dialogic whole when considered from sociocultural perspectives of the lived experience and context. Importantly, the study proposes that the design of intended learning experiences in assessment can also facilitate development of specific dispositions for thinking and being in students as learners and future citizens.     

An overview of a programme of research to support the assessment of Critical Thinking

Cambridge Assessment has more than 20 years experience in assessing Critical Thinking (CT) in a number of diverse tests and qualifications, unrivalled by any other body within the UK. In recent years, a number of research activities have been carried out in order to support these assessments, with a focus on the validity of measurement. This paper will describe the programme of work, related to four areas of research: (1) to derive a definition, taxonomy and glossary of CT and the importance of such work not just for test design but also for syllabus design and question setting; (2) to survey the practical issues surrounding teaching CT in schools, the experiences and perceptions of teachers; (3) to examine the impact of taking A/AS levels in CT on students’ performance in their other A-level subjects; and (4) to examine the predictive validity of HE admissions tests containing CT on subsequent university exams and degree performance. Finally, the paper will discuss how these research activities contribute to the validity of CT tests and qualifications.     

Category learning judgments in the classroom: Can students judge how well they know course topics?

A category learning judgment (CLJ) involves judging one’s learning or performance for a given topic or category. The present study was the first to investigate CLJs in a classroom, where students’ judgments of how well they have learned topics may be particularly relevant for guiding their study decisions. In an undergraduate statistics class, students predicted their performance on six different exam topics, as well as predicting their global exam performance, for each exam during the semester. Regarding the absolute accuracy of CLJs, we observed slight overestimation (bias), substantial deviation from accuracy (absolute bias), and little improvement across exams. Students’ CLJs varied among topics, but they were less variable than actual topic performance and were poor at discriminating well-learned from poorly-learned topics (i.e., low relative accuracy). We examined two factors predictive of CLJ accuracy: topic difficulty and student mastery of the topics. Regarding topic difficulty, a hard-easy effect was observed, such that more difficult topics produced greater overestimation and easier topics produced more underestimation. A hard-easy effect also extended to absolute bias: difficult topics produced larger deviations from accuracy than easy topics did. Regarding student mastery of topics, we found that lower mastery predicted CLJ overestimation and higher mastery predicted CLJ underestimation. Lower mastery was also associated with larger absolute bias. Compared to global judgments, CLJs were less accurate, although students were more confident in their CLJs. In sum, developing methods to improve the accuracy of CLJs in classrooms is an important direction for future research.     

Undergraduate Students’ Preferences for Constructed Versus Multiple-Choice Assessment of Learning

Students (N = 161) in seven sections of an undergraduate educational psychology course rated ten performance-assessment options in collegiate courses. They rated in-class essay exams as their most preferred assessment and multiple-choice exams (in-class and out-of-class) as their least preferred. Also, student ratings of multiple papers and a term paper did not differ significantly from the rating for in-class essay exams. Overall, students preferred constructed forms of assessment over more objective assessment. With minor exceptions, student ratings of assessment preferences were generally consistent across gender and academic levels. In the main, student ratings of assessment options did not significantly correlate with exam performance in the course.     

从日本法科大学院看我国司法考试与法学教育之关系

我国目前的法律职业与大学本科法学教育的关系成为法学教育改革的重点问题,如果本科教育与司法考试紧密结合,容易忽视法学基础教育。本文通过对日本的司法考试及法学教育改革之法科大学院的分析,提出就发展趋势而言,两者也不一定需要相适应,应当提高参加司法考试资格的门槛,不允许本科生参加司法考试,改革法学硕士教育体系,以使法律职业者素质得到提高并达到司法考试的特殊要求。