In this article, we report the findings of an exploratory empirical study that investigated the relationship between English Language Proficiency (ELP) on performance on the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities-Third Edition (WJ III) when administered in English to bilingual students of varying levels of ELP. Sixty-one second-grade…

Growing reliance on complex constructed response items has generated considerable interest in automated scoring solutions. Many of these solutions are described in the literature; however, relatively few studies have been published that "compare" automated scoring strategies. Here, comparisons are made among five strategies for…

A research-based understanding of how to develop and assess classroom presentation skills is vital for the effective development of pre-service teacher communication capabilities. This paper identifies and compares two different models of assessing pre-service teachers' presentation performance--one based on the Modes of Communication (voice,…

The purpose of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of the Physical Educators' Judgments about Inclusion (PEJI) survey for analysing the judgments of Japanese (361 male, 170 female) physical education teacher education majors. A secondary purpose was to examine group differences in judgments as a function of gender and past…

We evaluated the utility of a brief, seven-item, teacher-rated Peer Social Maturity Scale (PSMAT). In Study 1, teachers of 138 Australian children (ranging from 5 to 8?years and 5?months old) in kindergarten and Grades 1 and 2 rated their pupils' social maturity using the PSMAT and their classroom social skills via the Social Skills Rating System…

Language testers operate within two frames of reference: norm-referenced (NRT) and criterion-referenced testing (CRT). The former underpins the world of large-scale standardized testing that prioritizes variability and comparison. The latter supports substantive score meaning in formative and domain specific assessment. Some claim that the…

The current English section of the University Entrance Examination (PAU) has kept the same format for twenty years. The Bologna process has provided new reasons to vary its current format, since the majority of international reputed tests usually include oral sections with both listening and speaking tasks. Recently the Universidad de Alcalá…

This study's purpose was to determine whether or not the Literacy Coach Appraisal Instrument developed for use in evaluating literacy coaches had content validity. The study, a fully mixed concurrent equal status design conducted from a pragmatist philosophy, collected qualitative and quantitative data from literacy experts about the elements of…

The study investigates how Taiwanese pre-service teachers make meaning after reading positive or negative news coverage of educational events and how they construct meaning impact their pedagogical beliefs. An experiment with a two-group pre-test-post-test design, consisting of a positive and negative news group, is conducted. Multimedia news…

The aim of this study was to validate a questionnaire on mastery motivation (task and effort) for use with Chinese preschool children in Hong Kong. A parent version and a teacher version were developed and evaluated. Participants included 457 children (230 boys and 227 girls) aged four and five years old, their preschool teachers and their…

Psychometrically sound evaluation measures are vital for examining the contribution of professional training to organizational success in a reliable manner. As training evaluations tend to be both time-consuming and labor-intensive, there is an increasing demand for economic evaluation inventories. Simultaneously, evaluation measures have to meet…

Although holistic processing is thought to underlie normal face recognition ability, widely discrepant reports have recently emerged about this link in an individual differences context. Progress in this domain may have been impeded by the widespread use of subtraction scores, which lack validity due to their contamination with control condition…

Objective: To assess three of the better known screeners for Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and review the relationship between ADHD and cognitive ability. Method: The three ADHD screeners were administered to 111 college students enrolled in a college Introductory Psychology class, on whom ACT scores and total course performance…

Background: Longitudinal research studies have demonstrated that experienced clinicians using standardized assessment measures can make a reliable diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in children under age 3. Limited data are available regarding the sensitivity and specificity of these measures in community settings. The aims of this…

We examined the associations between language skills and concern and disregard for others in young children assessed longitudinally at ages 14, 20, 24, and 36 months, testing the hypothesis that language skills have a specific role (distinct from that of general cognitive ability) in the development of concern and disregard for others. We found…