Using Questioning to Guide Student Thinking

This case study analyzes ways in which an experienced physics teacher uses questioning to guide student thinking during a benchmark discussion about measurement. Interactional issues involve ways of speaking: Why the teacher decided to ask what he did, when he did, of whom, in what way, and for what purpose. Conceptual issues involves ways of thinking: How students seemed to understand measurement concepts such as calculating an average value. We define a particular kind of question, a reflective toss, that the teacher uses to try to give students responsibility for thinking. A reflective toss sequence typically consists of a student statement, teacher question, and additional student statements. This unit of analysis directs attention to ways in which a teacher question influences student thinking. We analyze reflective tosses in terms of the immediate action plans they instantiated, the emergent goals they served, anal underlying beliefs they embodied during an episode that involved the public refinement of a student's ideas. We propose that teachers may shift toward more reflective discourse by asking questions that help students to make their meanings clear, to consider various points of view in a neutral manner, and to monitor the discussion and their own thinking.     

Numbers defy the law of large numbers

As the number of independent tosses of a fair coin grows, the rates of heads and tails tend to equality. This is misinterpreted by many students as being true also for the absolute numbers of the two outcomes, which, conversely, depart unboundedly from each other in the process. Eradicating that misconception, as by coin‐tossing experiments, should be incorporated early on into learning the law of large numbers.     

对高空抛掷物致人损害的思考

近年来,高空抛掷物致人损害已经成为一个日益严重的社会问题。《侵权责任法》中第87条针对高空抛掷物致人损害的侵权责任做出了明确规定。但是,此规定是否合理、是否符合法理引发了法学界激烈的讨论。针对高空抛掷物致人损害是否符合民事责任构成要件要求进行分析后发现：高空抛掷物致人损害并不满足违法行为、因果关系和过错这三项构成要件要求,不属于侵权责任。     

论高校女生公体排球课的教学改革

要提高普通高校女生排球运动水平，增强其体能、技能，改进排球课教学效果，关键在于抓好发球和接发球及垫球技术，将有形的物化教学训练同身心健康、人训练相结合，提高体育素质。     

Weighting Constructed-Response Items in IRT-Based Exams

Weighting responses to Constructed-Response (CR) items has been proposed as a way to increase the contribution these items make to the test score when there is insufficient testing time to administer additional CR items. The effect of various types of weighting items of an IRT-based mixed-format writing examination was investigated. Constructed-response items were weighted by increasing their representation according to the test blueprint, by increasing their contribution to the test characteristic curve, by summing the ratings of multiple raters, and by applying optimal weights utilized in IRT pattern scoring. Total score and standard errors of the weighted composite forms of CR and Multiple-Choice (MC) items were compared against each other and against a form containing additional rather than weighted items. Weighting resulted in a slight reduction of test reliability but reduced standard error in portions of the ability scale.     

立足三个自信开创宏伟前程

"三个自信"源于中国共产党90多年历练的总结,辨证统一于中国特色社会主义伟大事业中。在全面建设小康社会的历史阶段,中国人民只有在中国共产党的坚强领导下,不折腾,不动摇,不后退,才能实现中华民族的伟大复兴。     

振兴台湾经济需要两岸军事互信

长期黩武已将台湾经济消耗殆尽,数额庞大的军费开支加速台湾财政状况恶化,对外巨额军购导致经济发展严重受阻,台湾当局应充分认识到台湾经济再经不起黩武折腾,及时调整策略,与祖国大陆达成军事安全互信,这样才能使台湾经济在美国金融海啸肆虐全球之际尽快恢复与振兴起来。     

Relationships of Measurement Error and Prediction Error in Observed‐Score Regression

The focus of this paper is assessing the impact of measurement errors on the prediction error of an observed‐score regression. Measures are presented and described for decomposing the linear regression's prediction error variance into parts attributable to the true score variance and the error variances of the dependent variable and the predictor variable(s). These measures are demonstrated for regression situations reflecting a range of true score correlations and reliabilities and using one and two predictors. Simulation results also are presented which show that the measures of prediction error variance and its parts are generally well estimated for the considered ranges of true score correlations and reliabilities and for homoscedastic and heteroscedastic data. The final discussion considers how the decomposition might be useful for addressing additional questions about regression functions’ prediction error variances.     

The bottlenosed dolphin’s (Tursiops truncatus) understanding of gestures as symbolic representations of its body parts

We assigned gestural symbols to nine body parts of a bottlenosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). The dolphin was first trained to touch any floating object it chose with the body part indicated by a gestural symbol. In Experiment 1, we tested the dolphin’s ability to now touchspecific gesturally referenced objects using specific gesturally referenced body parts. In Experiment 2, we tested its ability to either touch or toss gesturally referenced objects with gesturally referenced body parts or to simply display those body parts or shake them back and forth. The acts of touching, tossing, displaying, and shaking were each associated with specific gestures and appeared in random sequences within test sessions. The results demonstrated highly significant levels of performance throughout these tasks, including many successes on the first occasions of new body-part uses. These findings provided strong evidence that the gestural symbols we used for body parts were semantically processed and understood by the dolphin as representing those body parts.     

Asymptotic Standard Errors of Observed‐Score Equating With Polytomous IRT Models

In observed‐score equipercentile equating, the goal is to make scores on two scales or tests measuring the same construct comparable by matching the percentiles of the respective score distributions. If the tests consist of different items with multiple categories for each item, a suitable model for the responses is a polytomous item response theory (IRT) model. The parameters from such a model can be utilized to derive the score probabilities for the tests and these score probabilities may then be used in observed‐score equating. In this study, the asymptotic standard errors of observed‐score equating using score probability vectors from polytomous IRT models are derived using the delta method. The results are applied to the equivalent groups design and the nonequivalent groups design with either chain equating or poststratification equating within the framework of kernel equating. The derivations are presented in a general form and specific formulas for the graded response model and the generalized partial credit model are provided. The asymptotic standard errors are accurate under several simulation conditions relating to sample size, distributional misspecification and, for the nonequivalent groups design, anchor test length.     

TAKING A “SIMPLE VIEW” OF THE DYNAMIC INDICATORS OF BASIC EARLY LITERACY SKILLS AS A PREDICTOR OF MULTIPLE MEASURES OF THIRD‐GRADE READING COMPREHENSION

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity evidence of first‐grade Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) scores for predicting third‐grade reading comprehension scores. We used the “simple view” of reading as the theoretical foundation for examining the extent to which DIBELS subtest scores predict comprehension through both word recognition and language comprehension. Scores from the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) subtest, a measure of word recognition speed and accuracy, strongly and significantly predicted multiple measures of reading comprehension. No other DIBELS subtest score explained additional variance beyond DIBELS ORF. Although experimental DIBELS Word Use Fluency (WUF) was significantly correlated with a language comprehension measure and measures of reading comprehension, WUF scores did not predict reading comprehension beyond ORF scores. Alternatively, first‐grade Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test scores did predict additional, significant variance in reading comprehension, beyond DIBELS ORF.     

Interpretation of Score Reports by Diverse Subgroups of Parents

The degree to which diverse score users can understand and consume information presented in score reports dictates whether they are able to draw reasonable conclusions. The goal of this study was to understand how parents (a particularly understudied and heterogeneous stakeholder population) make interpretations from a hypothetical interactive score report. We used cognitive laboratories to evaluate how 35 parents from diverse educational and language proficiency backgrounds make sense of the information presented in hypothetical K-12 score reports. Results from this study demonstrate the diversity in the levels of comprehension across the assessed subgroups of parents, and highlight the need for and importance of additional support materials that can help parents understand and make sense of the information presented in score reports. Nevertheless, due to the hypothetical nature of the score report mockup evaluated and the small sample sizes, these results should be substantiated with additional research.     

On Attempting to Do What Lord Said Was Impossible: Commentary on van der Linden's “Some Conceptual Issues in Observed‐Score Equating”

van der Linden (this issue) uses words differently than Holland and Dorans. This difference in language usage is a source of some confusion in van der Linden's critique of what he calls equipercentile equating. I address these differences in language. van der Linden maintains that there are only two requirements for score equating. I maintain that the requirements he discards have practical utility and are testable. The score equity requirement proposed by Lord suggests that observed score equating was either unnecessary or impossible. Strong equity serves as the fulcrum for van der Linden's thesis. His proposed solution to the equity problem takes inequitable measures and aligns conditional error score distributions, resulting in a family of linking functions, one for each level of θ. In reality, θ is never known. Use of an anchor test as a proxy poses many practical problems, including defensibility.     

Using Retest Data to Evaluate and Improve Effort‐Moderated Scoring

There has been a growing research interest in the identification and management of disengaged test taking, which poses a validity threat that is particularly prevalent with low‐stakes tests. This study investigated effort‐moderated (E‐M) scoring, in which item responses classified as rapid guesses are identified and excluded from scoring. Using achievement test data composed of test takers who were quickly retested and showed differential degrees of disengagement, three basic findings emerged. First, standard E‐M scoring accounted for roughly one‐third of the score distortion due to differential disengagement. Second, a modified E‐M scoring method that used more liberal time thresholds performed better—accounting for two‐thirds or more of the distortion. Finally, the inability of E‐M scoring to account for all of the score distortion suggests the additional presence of nonrapid item responses that reflect less‐than‐full engagement by some test takers.     

Validating Student Score Inferences With Person‐Fit Statistic and Verbal Reports: A Person‐Fit Study for Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment

The goal of this study was to investigate the usefulness of person‐fit analysis in validating student score inferences in a cognitive diagnostic assessment. In this study, a two‐stage procedure was used to evaluate person fit for a diagnostic test in the domain of statistical hypothesis testing. In the first stage, the person‐fit statistic, the hierarchy consistency index (HCI; Cui, 2007 ; Cui & Leighton, 2009 ), was used to identify the misfitting student item‐score vectors. In the second stage, students’ verbal reports were collected to provide additional information about students’ response processes so as to reveal the actual causes of misfits. This two‐stage procedure helped to identify the misfits of item‐score vectors to the cognitive model used in the design and analysis of the diagnostic test, and to discover the reasons of misfits so that students’ problem‐solving strategies were better understood and their performances were interpreted in a more meaningful way.     

气排球垫球的创新技术及其训练方法

由于气排球规则和自身的特性,决定了气排球的垫球技术与传统硬式排球的垫球技术不同,且有所创新。着重就气排球垫球的创新技术动作挡搬球、捞球、捧球、抓球、单手托球等进行细致地分析,并提出相应的训练方法,为广大气排球教练员、运动员和爱好者提供借鉴。     

Analysis of an instructional unit for level of cognitive demand

A section of the secondary chemistry curriculum was analyzed to determine the level of cognitive demand of the various aspects of the selected topic. Piagetian levels of thinking of 71 pupils were initially assessed by two group tests, a unit on the mole was taught, and guidelines were used to estimate the level of cognitive operations required by each concept and problem type in the unit. Results of a 23-item test were used to compare the estimated level of cognitive demand of each test item with the Piagetian cognitive level of pupils who were able to answer the item correctly. It was found that pupil cognitive level was positively associated with overall unit test score and with percent success on all test items. Predicted levels of cognitive demand were confirmed for eight items and were within one level for nine additional items.     

Quality Assessment with National Institutional Rankings and Performance Funding: The Australian Experiment, 1993–1995

This paper provides a case-study of the Australian quality assurance or quality assessment program which ran for three years from 1993 to 1995. The program was somewhat unusual among recent experiments with quality assurance in OECD countries in that, while it was based on annual academic audits of participating institutions, it also included publication of detailed annual reports on each institution, national rankings of institutions, and performance funding with additional funds coming from a special additional government allocation. In each of the first two years of the program, the most highly rated universities received an amount of additional funding equal to three per cent of their annual government operating grant.     

Innovative Online Assessment Using Confidence Measurement

This research investigates and evaluates an innovative approach to a web based formative assessment system. This self assessment tool is based on the traditional Multiple Choice Questions with additional facilitation of registering the level of confidence of the student's response to each of the options available. The student's generated score is designed to reflect their understanding of the topic under review.A series of experiments involving 93 participating students and 8 instructors were conducted producing some interesting qualitative and quantitative data. Our results show that it appears that this tool has promise as a positive contributor to the instructor and student as they journey along their learning path. In addition this research recommends directions for further studies.