According to expectation violation theory, job applicants can be upgraded or downgraded during an interview when their accent does not match employers' speech expectations. Focusing on the employment of second language French job candidates in Québec, this study explored this issue dynamically in terms of how expectations may impact the trajectory…

The authors of this article suggest three features of a common approach to impact measurement: harness operational data, use constructs with bounded flexibility, and develop a cadre of analysts who are skilled at interpreting reports. The analysts are the most crucial of these. Evaluators are well suited to step into these roles, but it will…

In recent decades, a number of training environments have moved toward program approaches targeting the development of competencies. Because of their complexity, monitoring the development of those competencies is a considerable challenge. Our hypothesis is that a computerized system could help overcome this challenge if it is well accepted by its…

Canadian University Institutional Review Boards (IRB) assess action research proposals based on the ethical protection of participants, the methodology, and any potential implications for human participants involved in the qualitative study. There are more disadvantages than advantages through this ethical review process.This positional paper…

This paper aims to survey the current landscape of education policy evaluation across OECD countries and economies by examining recent trends and contextual factors that can promote more robust education policy evaluation, as well as identifying key challenges. It takes a view of policy evaluation as an activity that takes place throughout the…

Learner handover (LH), the process of sharing of information about learners between faculty supervisors, allows for longitudinal assessment fundamental in the competency-based education model. However, the potential to bias future assessments has been raised as a concern. The purpose of this study is to determine whether prior performance…

Efforts to monitor and improve responsive caregiving for young children, because of its importance for child development, are part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Two brief observational measures of responsive caregiving have been developed and validated (Responsive Interactions for Learning-parent [RIFL-P] and educator…

Academic reviews take on new directions in an ever-increasing fast-paced development. Unit reviewers should be provided different samples, with varied cultural contents also providing nuances, as related to the 'object' of the evaluation, as well as a final overall product, i.e. more of a synthesis, through which one will check the degree of…

This study examined the use of a popular Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Google Voice Typing (GVT), to automatically assess English as second language pronunciation. It aimed to answer the following question: What is the relationship between GVT-rated scores and human-rated scores? To answer this question, we compared audio recordings of 56…

The current study contrasted two different hypotheses about the relationship between sibling personality and sibling relationship quality: absolute value and dyadic similarity. The absolute value hypothesis suggests that the level of one sibling's personality will predict sibling relationship quality. The dyadic similarity hypothesis argues that…

The Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS) was first developed to establish a standard of practice in research ethics by the three federal agencies responsible for funding institutional research in Canada: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council…

Although the development of second language (L2) oral fluency has been widely investigated over the past several decades, there remains a paucity of research examining language instruction specifically aimed at improving this cognitive skill. In this study, the researchers investigate how instructional techniques adapted from drama can positively…

Independent confirmation that vocabulary in use unfolds across levels of performance as expected can contribute to a more complete understanding of validity in standardized English language tests. This study examined the relationship between Lexical Frequency Profiling (LFP) measures and rater judgements of test-takers' overall levels of…

The current study examined how two groups of native speakers--monolingual Canadians and multilingual Singaporeans--differentially perceive foreign accentedness in spontaneous second language (L2) speech. The Singaporean raters, who had exposure to various models of English and also spoke multiple L2s on a daily basis, demonstrated more lenient…

The Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) is a widely used method of assessment in medical education. Rater cognition has become an important area of inquiry in the medical education assessment literature generally, and in the OSCE literature specifically, because of concerns about potential compromises of validity. In this study, a novel…