An eye-movement study examined the processing of expressions requiring complement coercion (J. Pustejovsky, 1995), in which a noun phrase that does not denote an event (e.g., the book) appears as the complement of an event-selecting verb (e.g., began the book). Previous studies demonstrated that these expressions are more costly to process …

This investigation focuses on text recall in eight- and nine-year old children. The main focus was on whether two different sets of instructions had a differential influence: one set instructed students to focus on an orally presented text verbatim, and the other instructed students to focus on its content. A differential influence on verbatim and…

Progress testing provides data on the growth of students' knowledge over the course of the curriculum obtained from the results of all students in the curriculum on periodical similar tests pitched at end-of-curriculum level. Since 2001, three medical schools have jointly constructed and administered four progress tests annually. All students in…

There is anecdotal evidence that a significant number of students studying computing related courses at degree level have difficulty with sub-GCE mathematics. Testing of students' skills is often performed using diagnostic tests and a number of computer-based diagnostic tests exist, which work, essentially, by testing one specific diagnostic skill…

Null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) is the most widely accepted and frequently used approach to statistical inference in quantitative communication research. NHST, however, is highly controversial, and several serious problems with the approach have been identified. This paper reviews NHST and the controversy surrounding it. Commonly…

This article is an imaginary Socratic dialogue between J. S. Mill and Michel Foucault, principally concerning educational assessment.

Cognitive diagnosis (CD) plays an important role in intelligent tutoring system. Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is adaptive, fair, and efficient, which is suitable to large-scale examination. Traditional cognitive diagnostic test needs quite large number of items, the efficient and tailored CAT could be a remedy for it, so the CAT with…

Students with disabilities and special needs have faced challenges in accessing educational content, and in taking traditional pen-and-paper tests. How might technology improve the process, while making statewide tests truly accessible to all students? NimbleTools is the first computer-based test delivery system that incorporates principles of…

The use of computers to deliver course-related materials is rapidly expanding in most universities. Yet the effects of computer vs. printed delivery modes on students' performance and motivation are not yet fully known. We compared the impacts of Web vs. paper to deliver practice quizzes that require information search in lecture notes. Hundred…

This proposal advocates the position that the use of confidence wagering (CW) during testing can predict the accuracy of a student's test answer selection during between-subject assessments. Data revealed female students were more favorable to taking risks when making CW and less inclined toward risk aversion than their male counterparts. Student…

The study discussed the importance of test validity, often established when making decisions that may affect a student's future. The decisions made by policymakers and educators must not adversely affect any particular subgroups of students (i.e., year of administration, gender, ethnicity, level English proficiency, socioeconomic status, and…

Value-added measures of teacher quality may be sensitive to the quantitative properties of the testing instruments upon which they are based. This paper focuses on the sensitivity of value-added to test-score-ceiling effects. Test-score ceilings are increasingly common in testing instruments across the country as education policy continues to…

A simulation study was conducted to evaluate the performance of three tests of mediation: the bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap (Efron & Tibshirani, 1993), the asymmetric confidence limits test (MacKinnon, 2008), and a multiple regression approach described by Kenny, Kashy, and Bolger (1998). The evolution of these methods is reviewed and…

Learn everything you need to know to implement an integrated system of assessment and grading. The author details the specific benefits of formative assessment and explains how to design and interpret three different types of formative assessments, how to track student progress, and how to assign meaningful grades. Detailed examples bring each…

A main objective in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) is to enable students to communicate effectively in many situations and contexts. This involves being able to control a wide range of language functions, which are how speakers use language for requesting, congratulating, apologizing, complaining, consoling, and promising, among many…