There is a lively discussion on how to evaluate competence-based higher education in both evaluation and competence research. The instruments used are often limited to course evaluation or specific competences, taking a rather narrow perspective. Furthermore, the instruments often comprise predetermined competences that cannot be adapted to higher…

Cognitive interviewing (CI) is a method to identify sources of confusion in assessment items and to assess validity evidence on the basis of content and response processes. We introduce readers to CI and describe a process for conducting such interviews and analyzing the results. Recommendations for best practice are provided.

The ability to reason scientifically and communicate research appropriately is central to psychological literacy. Scientific research has little value unless scientists are able to convey results and their consequences clearly to others. In this study, we outline a method of assessing the development of psychological literacy in undergraduate…

This paper describes development and piloting of a self-report measure of teachers' readiness to implement evidence-based programs. Using mixed methods, this project proceeded in two phases. In the first phase, a program-independent self-report measure of readiness to implement was developed and piloted with N = 53 teachers. Results of…

Onwuegbuzie and colleagues proposed the Instrument Development and Construct Validation (IDCV) process as a mixed methods framework for creating and validating measures. Examples applying IDCV are lacking. We provide an illustrative case integrating the Rasch model and cognitive interviews applied to the development of the Transformative…

It is now well accepted that working in research teams that span universities, jurisdictions and countries can be rewarding and economically prudent. To this end, investigators collaborate in the pursuit of knowledge to address human and societal problems and translate results into local and global contexts. This implies that investigators need to…

Context: The cognitive process of making a clinical decision lies somewhere on a continuum between novices using hypothetico-deductive reasoning and experts relying more on case pattern recognition. Although several methods exist for measuring facets of clinical reasoning in specific situations, none have been experimentally applied, as of yet, to…

This study compares the language learner and test-taking strategies used by Chinese-speaking graduate students when confronted with familiar versus unfamiliar topics in an English multiple-choice format reading comprehension test. Thirty-six participants at a large mid-western university performed three tasks: A content knowledge vocabulary…

National content standards in PE address responsibility; however, learning outcomes and teacher effectiveness in this area remain poorly defined. This study employed the Social and Emotional Learning framework and a teaching personal and social responsibility (TPSR) model fidelity instrument to address this gap. Our purpose was to examine the…

A large study of classrooms in the Caribbean context necessitated the use of a validated classroom observation tool. In practice, the paper-version Stalling's instrument (Stallings & Kaskowitz 1974) presented specific challenges with respect to (a) facile data collection and (b) qualitative observations of classrooms. In response to these…

Geoscience education researchers have considerable need for criterion-referenced, easy-to-administer, easy-to-score, conceptual surveys for undergraduates taking introductory science survey courses in order for faculty to monitor the learning impacts of innovative teaching. In response, this study establishes the reliability and validity of a…

There is a need for a questionnaire designed specifically to evaluate taught postgraduate (TPg) awards for quality assurance or enhancement purposes. Comparison of undergraduate and TPg awards suggests that as the former have broadened their ambit to better nurture generic graduate attributes, TPg awards have concentrated on advanced specialised…

Graduate students play a critical role in undergraduate education at doctorate granting institutions; but generally have minimal opportunity to develop teaching expertise. Furthermore, little is known about how graduate students develop teaching expertise in this context. We investigated the development of topic-specific pedagogical content…

The General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry Knowledge Assessment (GOB-CKA) is a multiple-choice instrument designed to assess students' understanding of the chemistry topics deemed important to clinical nursing practice. This manuscript describes the development process of the individual items along with a psychometric evaluation of the…

The question of who is ready to serve as a help-giver reflects an unresolved question in the research on parents of children with disabilities. There is little consensus as to whether or not there are regular, predictable phases of adaptation to a child's disability. The purpose of this research was to develop a measure of readiness to be trained…