Multidimensional IRT models for the assessment of competencies

Multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) provides an ideal foundation for modeling performance in complex domains, taking into account multiple basic abilities simultaneously, and representing different mixtures of the abilities required for different test items. This article provides a brief overview of different MIRT models, and the substantive implications of their differences for educational assessment. To illustrate the flexibility and benefits of MIRT, three application scenarios are described: to account for unintended multidimensionality when measuring a unidimensional construct, to model latent covariance structures between ability dimensions, and to model interactions of multiple abilities required for solving specific test items. All of these scenarios are illustrated by empirical examples. Finally, the implications of using MIRT models on educational processes are discussed.     

Validity issues in standard-setting studies

Standard-setting procedures are a key component within many large-scale educational assessment systems. They are consensual approaches in which committees of experts set cut-scores on continuous proficiency scales, which facilitate communication of proficiency distributions of students to a wide variety of stakeholders. This communicative function makes standard-setting studies a key gateway for validity concerns at the intersection of evidentiary and consequential aspects of score interpretations. This short review paper describes the conceptual and empirical basis of validity arguments for standard-setting procedures in light of recent research on validity theory. It specifically demonstrates how procedural and internal evidence for the validity of standard-setting procedures can be collected to form part of the consequential basis of validity evidence for test use.     

Classifying Amharic webnews

We present work aimed at compiling an Amharic corpus from the Web and automatically categorizing the texts. Amharic is the second most spoken Semitic language in the World (after Arabic) and used for countrywide communication in Ethiopia. It is highly inflectional and quite dialectally diversified. We discuss the issues of compiling and annotating a corpus of Amharic news articles from the Web. This corpus was then used in three sets of text classification experiments. Working with a less-researched language highlights a number of practical issues that might otherwise receive less attention or go unnoticed. The purpose of the experiments has not primarily been to develop a cutting-edge text classification system for Amharic, but rather to put the spotlight on some of these issues. The first two sets of experiments investigated the use of Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) for document classification. Testing on small datasets, we first looked at classifying unseen data into 10 predefined categories of news items, and then at clustering it around query content, when taking 16 queries as class labels. The second set of experiments investigated the effect of operations such as stemming and part-of-speech tagging on text classification performance. We compared three representations while constructing classification models based on bagging of decision trees for the 10 predefined news categories. The best accuracy was achieved using the full text as representation. A representation using only the nouns performed almost equally well, confirming the assumption that most of the information required for distinguishing between various categories actually is contained in the nouns, while stemming did not have much effect on the performance of the classifier.

Methode zur Aktivenraten-Prognose in der Sportentwicklungsplanung

The quantitative sports development planning needed as a basis a forecast of sports practice on the quantitative extent and location. To support this it would be helpful to have cohort data, but their preparation needed at least a generation time, but then they would already be out of date. It is therefore appropriate to go back to resorted longitudinal data in lower age subdivisions which are, in a suitable manner with modified cross-sectional data are linked. Which is common practice, for example in the preparation of forecasting mortality tables for demographic prognosis. In the previous practice were predominantly empirical data on sport activity are kept constant and only linked to the future population. The survey results have only been published for age classes, which is unsuitable for a prognosis. The paper shows alternative how such class values in single year of age data can be transmitted when the results of an empirical study have been published only grouped. Then we made a suggestion as to how the development of cohorts in longitudinal section and the age specific sports activity can be linked to a forecast. For this, the sports activity is expressed as active rate (physically active inhabitants/1000 residents) defined and consistently over all ages from 0 to 99 years and more developed. From this it can be a measure of the active sporting years under the conditions of study year developed. These are the combined active rates, as can be expressed as years active in sports per inhabitant, when the ratios of the survey year would apply to the entire population. The new code is similar to the “combined birth rate” in the demography, where they give good services in analysis and forecasting. The forecast latitude per year of age is limited by external circumstances, so that it never reached 1000 active per 1000 inhabitants. These are the “obstacle rates” to determine inhabitants who are hindered to active sports at that age in that year. As the difference between the unattainable maximum of 1000 minus the obstacle rate to the current active rate results in the age specific prognosis latitude, called “potential rate”. From present periodic surveys of the extent of sporting engagements by age and sex and its projection on the entire forecast period results in “years with sport” expressible annual change. Oriented to the also changing annual potential rates may apply to the change volume sports years are divided annually to the individual age years. This is a data forecast oriented on longitudinal and cross-sectional data of the degree of physical activity in the form of an age-specific active rate.     

Promoting the Understanding of Photosynthesis Among Elementary School Student Teachers Through Text Design

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary school pre-service teachers’ understanding of photosynthesis and to examine if a refutational text can support understanding of photosynthesis better than a non-refutational text. A total of 91 elementary school pre-service teachers read either a refutational or a non-refutational text concerning photosynthesis and then answered open-ended questions. Our results indicate that there are critical problems associated with student teachers learning about the process of photosynthesis, even after it has been systematically taught in teacher education. However, the results positively indicate that refutational science texts seem to foster effective conceptual change among student teachers. The results interestingly showed that students who read a refutational text improved their systemic and factual understanding of photosynthesis more than did those who read a non-refutational text. Especially students who had naïve prior understanding regarding photosynthesis benefitted more from a refutational text. Thus, a refutational text may act as an effective facilitator of conceptual change. These results have implications for teacher education, where conceptual mastery of the most important science phenomena, such as photosynthesis, should be achieved. A refutational text is an easy and effective way to support conceptual change in higher education. Thus, this study highlights the importance of domain-specific science education in teacher programmes.     

Evaluation of the educational catchment area and decision-making support at the University of Szeged,Hungary

The restructuring of Hungarian higher education according to European expectations has resulted in fundamental changes. Due to the intensifying market and the decreasing number of applicants, institutions are interested in ensuring the necessary number of students. The objective of the study is to identify those schools where the greatest interest in the courses offered by the University of Szeged can be expected. The selection was based on spatial and temporal analysis of submitted applications using geographical information system methods. The results can contribute to attracting the necessary number of students and to developing a sound basis for future educational planning.     

Powerful teaching in preschool – a study of goal-oriented activities for conceptual learning

This article reports on a small-scale investigation of how teachers organise goal-oriented learning in Swedish preschools. The revised Swedish curriculum (National Agency for Education 2011) highlights the need for children to develop their mathematics skills through activities that integrate play and learning. This study investigates how different types of activities contribute to children developing their understanding of the concepts ‘half’ and ‘double’. Three preschool teachers participated in a developmental project in which they conduct teaching in accordance with the Variation Theory of Learning. The pedagogical contexts they bring into being reveal important insights for early childhood education. The pedagogical context that can be realised in the planned activities limits or favours the learning process and the success of the theoretical aspirations for the session. This article discusses the idea of ‘teaching’ and how to facilitate conceptual development in a goal-oriented but child-centred practice. The main results show that play is central in early childhood education, and that problem-solving as a means for mathematics education needs to be problematised and used with sensitivity to the children's intentions and perspectives.