Assisted assessment: a taxonomy of approaches and an outline of strengths and weaknesses

Traditional approaches to both the assessment of student abilities and the design of instructional programs have recently come under strong attack. Of particular concern to many is the nature of the link between assessment and instruction. Some of the criticisms are reviewed, and a set of alternative approaches designed to overcome the difficulties is presented. The major focus is on dynamic, as opposed to static, assessment. A major feature of these approaches is the provision, to the student, of some form of assistance designed to influence performance and hence reveal students' potential for change. Within this general approach, specific applications differ along three dimensions. The first, focus, refers to the goal of evaluating change itself or the processes presumed to underlie change. The second, intervention, refers to the fact that the assistance included in the assessment can be given in either a standardized or clinical fashion. And the third, target, reflects the fact that assessment can be aimed at either domain-general or domain-specific skills. The distinct approaches that have been developed are categorized, and their respective strengths and weaknesses discussed. Suggestions for future research are made.     

浅析新民主主义共和国政权的性质

新民主主义共和国政权在不同的时期有不同的名称和表现形式，它们具有前后一贯的同质性，都具有新民主主义的性质。具体表现在：代表最广大人民的民主联盟，坚持共产主义的发展前途，坚持中国共产党的领导。这种前后一贯的同质性是由中国的国情和中国共产党的性质决定的。     

The effect of video-feedback on the learning of the tennis service by intermediate players

Effects of video-feedback on improvement of the tennis service were investigated in subjects having at least 2 years of playing experience in tennis. The experiment was carried out in an indoor tennis hall under normal training conditions. Subjects were randomly divided into three groups: a video-feedback training (VFT) group, a traditional training (TT) group and a control group, each consisting of 22 subjects. While the subjects of the control group received no training at all, subjects in both the VFT and TT groups were trained twice weekly during 5 consecutive weeks. Each training session lasted 40 min, of which 30 min was spent on actual practice in training of the service. The remaining 10 min was spent on watching, analysing and discussing video recordings of either their own service performed during the training session (VFT group), or ground strokes and volleys of top level players (TT group). Both the VFT and TT group showed significantly greater improvements in both achievement scores and form (technique) scores than did the control group. No differences, however, could be demonstrated between the VFT and TT group, indicating that the subjects of the former group did not benefit from the video-feedback they received. While form scores correlated significantly (P less than 0.001) with the velocity of the served ball, no such relation between form scores and spatial accuracy was apparent.