Adolescent moral judgement: A study of UK secondary school pupils

Despite a recent world‐wide upsurge of academic interest in moral and character education, little is known about pupils’ character development in schools, especially in the UK context. The authors used a version of the Intermediate Concept Measure for Adolescents, involving dilemmas, to assess an important component of character—moral judgement—among 4053 pupils aged 14–15. Data were generated in 33 UK schools of varying types between February 2013 and June 2014. Results showed that compared with US samples, the pupils’ scores were, on average, low, suggestive of tendencies towards ‘self‐interest’, ‘not getting involved’ and ‘conformity/loyalty to friends’. Judgements varied by subscales assessing ‘action’ and ‘justification’ choices; pupils more successfully identified good actions than good justifications, but generally struggled more to successfully identify poor actions and poor justifications. Highest scores were for a dilemma emphasising ‘self‐discipline’ and lowest for ‘honesty’, with ‘courage’ in between. Overall average results were significantly and positively associated with being female, having (and practising) a religion and doing specific extra‐curricular activities. Differences in schools were also noted, although the kinds of school (e.g. public/private, religious/secular) were unrelated to student scores.     

Differential Testlet Functioning: Definitions and Detection

It is sometimes sensible to think of the fundamental unit of test construction as being larger than an individual item. This unit, dubbed the testlet, must pass muster in the same way that items do. One criterion of a good item is the absence of DIF–the item must function in the same way in all important subpopulations of examinees. In this article, we define what we mean by testlet DIF and provide a statistical methodology to detect it. This methodology parallels the IRT-based likelihood ratio procedures explored previously by Thissen, Steinberg, and Wainer (1988, in press). We illustrate this methodology with analyses of data from a testlet-based experimental version of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).     

Reappraising the Apparent Underachievement of Boys at School

This article challenges two widely-held beliefs about the differences in the performance of boys and girls at school. The 'gap' between the achievement of boys and girls is not growing, and may be shrinking. The gap is not predominantly a problem of low achievement, nor is it uniformly distributed across the range of attainments. The gap, in favour of girls, mainly appears at the higher levels in any assessment. The change in understanding of the nature of the gender gap described here comes from simple methodological advances in the analysis of gendered results in examination and statutory assessments. The implications for research and policy in this area are substantial, since unless the nature of the problem is well understood research may be directed at explicating, and policy directed at ameliorating, a gender gap of a form which simply does not exist. For example, while disaffection from the process of education may be a very real problem and certainly one that is worthy of research, there is little evidence here that it is primarily a gender-related problem.     

School violence in the Canadian context: An overview and model for intervention

School violence and the incidence of violent crimesamong Canadian youth is seen to be increasing. Whilemore research is being conducted in the area ofschool violence little has previously been done toexamine psychopathology as a possible factorinfluencing violent student behavior. A recent studyconducted by Carter (1998) using the BehaviorAssessment System for Children and a structuredinterview showed a high incidence of psychopathologyamong violent junior high male students. Acomprehensive model for intervention is described inwhich several factors are presented. Implications ofcurrent research includes the need to developintervention strategies that are consistent withdiagnostic findings and the need for earlyidentification and intervention before behaviorpatterns become fixed in adolescence.     

Reconfiguring and realigning the assessment feedback processes for an undergraduate criminology degree

A reconfigured and realigned system of assessment feedback was implemented with undergraduates taking criminology modules at Swansea University. The reformulated system integrated explicit engagement with assessment criteria in feedback given on an electronic template form with the use of a statement bank and the offer of follow‐up, feedback consolidation meetings with the tutor. Student module evaluation feedback questionnaires demonstrated a positive qualitative impact upon students' ratings of their awareness and understanding of module learning outcomes, assessment criteria and required levels of learning; moving the focus of assessment feedback from teaching to (higher‐order) learning. Substantive qualitative impact has also been evidenced by departmental adoption of the reconfigured assessment process as standard. Quantitative impact was evidenced in the form of improvements in assessment performance within‐modules and within students from 2004–2005 to 2005–2006. The educational implications of the study findings are discussed.