The purposes of this study were to develop and to conduct an initial psychometric evaluation of the Interactive Whiteboard Acceptance Scale (IWBAS). The process of item-generation for the IWBAS was carried out through the sequential mixed-method approach. A total of 149 student teachers from a teacher-education institution in Australia…

The present study aims to sensitize SLA researchers to the importance of documenting and controlling for their participants' proficiency in the target language, with the goal of establishing more robust proficiency assessment standards in experimental research. First, this article presents a survey of recent (2000-2008) foreign and second-language…

Two studies describe the development of the Audiovisual Test of Emotional Intelligence (AVEI), aimed at candidate selection in educational settings. Study I depicts the construction of the test and the preliminary examination of its psychometric properties in a sample of 92 college students. Item analysis allowed the modification of problem items,…

Experiential avoidance (EA) has been conceptualized as the tendency to avoid negative internal experiences and is an important concept in numerous conceptualizations of psychopathology as well as theories of psychotherapy. Existing measures of EA have either been narrowly defined or demonstrated unsatisfactory internal consistency and/or evidence…

In behavioural sciences, local dependence and DIF are common, and purification procedures that eliminate items with these weaknesses often result in short scales with poor reliability. Graphical loglinear Rasch models (Kreiner & Christensen, in "Statistical Methods for Quality of Life Studies," ed. by M. Mesbah, F.C. Cole & M.T.…

This paper aims to tell how the Russian national examination in mathematics (the Uniform State Examination or USE) has been conducted most recently. The author must say at once that the history of the system of secondary school graduation examinations or even the history of the USE will be covered only to the small degree that is necessary for…

Notwithstanding broad utility of COPs (classroom observation protocols), there has been limited documentation of the psychometric properties of even the most popular COPs. This study attempted to fill this void by closely examining the item and domain-level IRR (inter-rater reliability) of a COP that was used in a federally funded striving readers…

In this article, we discuss the importance of measurement literacy and some issues encountered in teaching introductory measurement courses. We present results from a survey of introductory measurement instructors, including information about the topics included in such courses and the amount of time spent on each. Topics that were included by the…

L1-L2 translation of separate sentences is one kind of task format used by mainstream EFL teachers to assess their learners' grammatical accuracy. Aimed at improving teacher-written translation items, this study analyses linguistic features potentially causing such decontextualized cues (and their target responses) to sound odd or untypical of…

Multidimensional computer adaptive testing (MCAT) can provide higher precision and reliability or reduce test length when compared with unidimensional CAT or with the paper-and-pencil test. This study compared five item selection procedures in the MCAT framework for both domain scores and overall scores through simulation by varying the structure…

The uptake of technology and specifically, GeoGebra software, in teaching mathematics has had mixed success in spite of its documented benefits. This study investigated teachers' perspective towards training and eventual use of GeoGebra as a tool to enhance learning of mathematics. In this article we share findings from a larger study that was…

Social-emotional development, psychosocial functioning, and relational experiences have been shown to impact academic achievement and psychological well-being. Social skills have been identified as being particularly critical in promoting mental health and life-long success. Children with well-developed social skills (e.g., sharing, being…

This article is focused on the different Home Language Surveys (HLS) used across U.S. states as a means of identifying students who, with further assessment, may prove eligible for language-support services. The majority of states mandate some form of HLS, be it state- or district-created. However, there is great variation in the number and the…

The main purpose of this descriptive research study is to investigate the conceptual and psychometric properties of a self-efficacy perception scale developed for determining self-efficacy perception of 3rd and 4th grade Turkish pre-service teachers, who took Turkish as a Foreign Language (TFL) course theoretically in undergraduate level, towards…

The Epistemic Beliefs Inventory (EBI), as a theory-based and empirically validated instrument, was originally developed and widely used in the North American context. Through a strict translation procedure the authors translated the EBI into Chinese, and then administered it to 451 students in 7 universities in mainland China. The construct…