Although the development of critical thinking and chemical literacy is a major goal of science education, the adequate emphasis has not been given to the measurement of both skills. This study reports the development and validation of an integrated assessment instrument to measure students' critical thinking skill and chemical literacy together in…

Spatial ability tasks appear on many intelligence and aptitude tests. Although the construct validity of spatial ability tests has often been studied through traditional correlational methods, such as factor analysis, less is known about the cognitive processes involved in solving test items. This study examines the cognitive processes involved in…

In this study, the ability of test development staff to predict the difficulty of analogy items was explored. The nature of the item attributes that contributed to test writers' predictions of difficulty as well as actual item difficulty was also investigated. The two expert test writers studied were quite good at predicting item difficulty. Item…

An approach to test modeling is illustrated that encompasses both response consistency and response difficulty. This generative approach makes validation an ongoing process. An analysis of hidden figure items with 60 high school students supports the feasibility of the method. (SLD)

This report explores an approach to item development and psychometric modeling which explicitly incorporates knowledge about the mental models used by examinees in the solution of items into a psychometric model that characterize performances on a test, as well as incorporating that knowledge into the item development process. The paper focuses on…