An Experimental Test of Student Verbal Reports and Teacher Evaluations as a Source of Validity Evidence for Test Development

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing indicate that test instructions, and by extension item objectives, presented to examinees should be sufficiently clear and detailed to help ensure that they respond as developers intend them to respond (Standard 3.20; AERA, APA, & NCME, 1999 American Educational Research Association (AERA), American Psychological Association (APA), National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME). 1999. Standards for educational and psychological testing, Washington, DC: Author.  [Google Scholar]). The present study investigates the use of verbal reports, one of many sources of evidence for validity arguments, as a way to evaluate the content clarity of 30 items from a large-scale science assessment. Student reports were used to edit items and create a student-modified test form. Evaluations from expert preservice teachers were used to edit the items and create an expert-modified test form. Both experimental forms, along with the original set of 30 items, were then randomly assigned to a sample of 264 examinees. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that examinee performance on the student-modified and expert-modified forms was similar relative to performance on the original test items. Item statistics indicated that student-modified test items were equally difficult and discriminating as expert-modified test items. The implications of using student and teacher evaluations are discussed for informing test development.     

“Acting as Freemen”: Rhetoric,Race, and Reform in the Debate over Colonization in Freedom's Journal, 1827–1828

This essay features a debate in Freedom's Journal, the first African-American newspaper, in 1827 and 1828, concerning the proposals of the American Colonization Society. Arguments favoring colonization illuminate the ways in which whiteness informs and constrains the discourse of white self-professed reformers about race, nation, and public rhetoric. As constitutive rhetoric, the anti-colonization arguments of contributors to Freedom's Journal construct African Americans as agents, citizens, and empowered public rhetors. The exchange reveals key, often hidden aspects of the discourses of whites and of people of color about race and reform in the antebellum period and in the contemporary public sphere.     

A Developmental Perspective on the Role of Motor Skill Competence in Physical Activity: An Emergent Relationship

Although significant attention has been paid to promoting the importance of physical activity in children, adolescents, and adults, we do not currently understand how to promote sustained physical activity levels throughout the lifespan. We contend that previous research has failed to consider the dynamic and synergistic role that motor skill competence plays in the initiation, maintenance, or decline of physical activity and how this role might change across developmental time. In this article, we present a conceptual model hypothesizing the relationships among physical activity, motor skill competence, perceived motor skill competence, health-related physical fitness, and obesity. We contend that the development of motor skill competence is a primary underlying mechanism that promotes engagement in physical activity.     

Indoor Golf Skill Test for Junior High School Boys

Abstract

To evaluate the effect of concurrent augmented feedback on isometric force output during familiar and unfamiliar muscle movements, 18 men and 21 women, 18 to 23 years of age, completed two isometric exercises: flexion of the thumb (a familiar muscle movement) and abduction of the fifth digit (an unfamiliar movement). The exercises consisted of 10 maximum voluntary isometric contractions lasting 10 s each and separated by 10-s intertrial rest intervals. Concurrent visual feedback was provided during alternate contractions. The order of exercises and trials for feedback was randomly assigned and balanced over subjects. Peak force output during abduction of the fifth digit was significantly (p ≤ .01) greater with (4.4 ± 0.29 kg) than without feedback (4.1 ± 0.26 kg). Feedback did not influence (p > .05) peak force output during thumb flexion (232 ±1.09 kg vs 22.5± 1.05 kg). Muscular fatigue was more pronounced during thumb flexion without feedback (18.4 ± 1.17%) than when feedback was provided (11.8 ±136%). These data suggest that fatigue may increase the effect of feedback on force generation during familiar muscular movements. To obtain maximal isometric force measures during strength testing, augmented feedback should be provided.     

Relationship between Modern-Dance Experience and Balancing Performance

Abstract

Nicholls's theory of achievement motivation (1989) assumes one's goal orientation in an achievement activity is consistent with one's views concerning what is acceptable behavior in that setting. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of a task and ego goal orientation (i.e., the tendency to focus on personal mastery or beating others, respectively) to sportsmanship attitudes and perceptions of the legitimacy of aggressive acts by testing this assumption in the context of interscholastic sport. Fifty-six male and 67 female high school basketball players completed a three-part questionnaire assessing (a) individual differences in goal orientation, (b) approval of “unsportsmanlike play/cheating,” “strategic play,” and “sportsmanship behaviors,” and (c) subjective ratings of the legitimacy of intentionally injurious behaviors. All measures were basketball-specific. Results indicated a low task orientation and high ego orientation corresponded to an endorsement of unsportsmanlike play/cheating. Ego orientation positively related to the rating of aggressive acts as more legitimate. Gender differences in goal orientation, sportsmanship attitudes, and legitimacy ratings were observed.     

Efficacy of Skinfold Training Clinics: A Comparison between Clinic Trained and Experienced Testers

Abstract

In an attempt to differentiate more adequately between the terms motor ability and athletic participation in their relationship to some measurable aspects of personality, a group of 167 Pomona College junior and senior male students were classified both as to level of motor ability and participation in athletics and were administered the CPI. Utilizing a total test response derived from the sum of ranks of median scores, low and middle motor ability groups ranked higher in the main effects and within the nonathlete and intramural participation groups, but athletic participation did not appear to have any effect upon the measures studied. The pattern of results suggested an expectation hypothesis wherein higher ratings in the personality inventory might be achieved by groups of subjects who participated at a level which would be “expected” in relation to their motor ability.     

The influence of club-head kinematics on early ball flight characteristics in the golf drive

Despite many coaching and biomechanical texts describing how the kinematics of the club-head at impact lead to distance and accuracy of the ball flight, there is limited quantitative evidence supporting these assertions. The purpose of this study was to quantify the relationships between club-head kinematics and subsequent early ball flight characteristics during the golf drive. An opto-reflective system operating at 400 Hz was used to capture the swings of 21 male golfers using their own drivers. The 3D displacement data permitted the calculation of club-head kinematics at impact, as well as subsequent early ball flight characteristics. Using regression analyses, club-head kinematics at impact (velocity, orientation, path, and centeredness) were used to explain the variability in five dependent variables of early ball flight characteristics (resultant velocity, launch angle, side angle, back spin, and side spin). The results of the study indicated that club-head kinematics at impact explained a significant proportion of early ball flight characteristics (adjusted r ² = 0.71–0.82), even when generalized across individual clubs.     

Business Planning for Higher Education Institutions

Business planning is now an essential discipline for universities, polytechnics and colleges. Those which do not already have a corporate strategy will find they have to develop one in order to succeed in the new funding competition. The skills and attitudes required for successful business planning will have to be acquired and exploited alongside traditional academic strengths. In this article two management consultants who know higher education well explain how institutions can develop and benefit from a structured approach to business planning.