The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) is a computer administered, open-ended (as opposed to multiple-choice) test of analytic reasoning, critical thinking, problem solving, and written communication skills. Because the CLA has been endorsed by several national higher education commissions, it has come under intense scrutiny by faculty members,…

A heuristic model designed to improve creative problem-solving by engineering students was studied. Ten students majoring in industrial engineering were pre-tested to establish the range and accuracy of their performance prior to training and to identify stereotyped thinking. The test was an adventure scenario with 50 embedded problems along with…

The relationship of aptitude, strategy, and cognitive task performance is explored through the use of mathematical models of performance time. Models of strategy and strategy-shifting on a spatial visualization task were tested individually for 30 male high school and college subjects. For each of three successive task steps (encoding,…

Different methods and instruments used to assess medical problem solving are discussed. Various features of the instruments are compared and suggestions for additional data are made, in order to ensure maximum efficiency in the choice of instruments. (Author/MH)

Six measurement strategies are suggested for assessing different kinds or aspects of competencies: (1) teaching tests; (2) behavior samples; (3) teaching exercises; (4) classroom interaction simulations; (5) projected problem exercises; and (6) paper-and-pencil exercises. (MJB)

Adoptive parents and their adoptive and natural children took IQ tests. Speed of solution correlated with verbal IQ and .51 with performance IQ among the parents. Mothers' speed correlated negligibly with scores of adoptive and natural children. Fathers' speed correlated more with their natural than adopted children's performance scores.…

A set of tests that might be reasonably used as provisional criterion measures in research on scientific thinking, particularly creative thinking, were developed and an assessment was made of the suitability of these tests as criterion variables from the standpoint of their psychometric properties. The Tests of Scientific Thinking are performance…

The paper describes social studies skills of students age 9-adult as assessed by the 1971-2 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Project. NAEP organized skill exercise items around two subthemes: (1) obtaining information, including raising questions, seeking answers, identifying sources of information, and using standard reference…