This case study explores students' perceptions of seen examination questions about topics not covered by the formal curriculum of a final-year economics module and of the associated group support sessions. Eight semi-structured interviews with a total of 13 students were analysed. Contrary to expectations, learners taking a strategic approach to…

Malay is a consistent alphabetic orthography with complex syllable structures. The focus of this research was to investigate word recognition performance in order to inform reading interventions for low-progress early readers. Forty-six Grade 1 students were sampled and 11 were identified as low-progress readers. The results indicated that both…

This research investigated how the accuracy of person ability and item difficulty parameter estimation varied across five IRT models with respect to the presence of guessing, targeting, and varied combinations of sample sizes and test lengths. The data were simulated with 50 replications under each of the 18 combined conditions. Five IRT models…

Since the Spanish Educational system is changing and promoting the use of online tests, it was necessary to study the transformation of test items in the "Spanish University Entrance Examination" (IB P.A.U.) to diminish the effect of test delivery changes (through its computerization) in order to affect the least the current model. The…

This study illustrates the use of differential item functioning (DIF) and differential step functioning (DSF) analyses to detect differences in item difficulty that are related to experiences of examinees, such as their teachers' instructional practices, that are relevant to the knowledge, skill, or ability the test is intended to measure. This…

In this study, all the advantages of slope parameters, random weights, and latent regression are acknowledged when dealing with component and composite items by adding slope parameters and random weights into the standard item response model with internal restrictions on item difficulty and formulating this new model within a multilevel framework…

The aim of this study was to adapt and evaluate the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ) for use in Chinese-speaking countries. A total of 1082 parents completed the DCDQ and 35 parents repeated it after 2 weeks for test-retest reliability. Two items were deleted after examination of test consistency. Cronbach's [alpha] for the…

One measure commonly used to assess posttraumatic stress disorder is the PTSD Checklist (PCL). Lang and Stein (2005) extracted 4 subsets of PCL items, validating 2 of them for possible use in screening in primary care settings. The viability of the 4 item subsets was evaluated psychometrically in the present study with a sample of Hurricane…

Assembling equivalent test forms with minimal test overlap across forms is important in ensuring test security. Chen and Lei (2009) suggested a exposure control technique to control test overlap-ordered item pooling on the fly based on the essence that test overlap rate--ordered item pooling for the first t examinees is a function of test overlap…

This study investigated the effect of the interaction between test takers' background knowledge and language proficiency on their performance on the "TOEFL iBT"® reading section. Test takers with the target content background knowledge (the focal groups) and those without (the reference groups) were identified for each of the 5 selected…

This article examines the issue of cognates in frequency-based vocabulary size testing. Data from a pilot study for a cognate-controlled English vocabulary size test was used to assess whether a group of Japanese university English learners (n = 60) were more successful at responding to cognate items than noncognate ones in three 1000 word…

The purpose of this study is to develop a reliable and a valid scale to determine the attitudes of the primary students towards tablet PC. The items of the scale were determined by scanning the relevant literature and taking the opinions of the experts. The first draft of the scale including 49 items as a result of content reliability was applied…

This paper reports a feasibility study on developing computer model-based assessments of chemical reasoning at the high school level. Computer models are flash and NetLogo environments to make simultaneously available three domains in chemistry: macroscopic, submicroscopic, and symbolic. Students interact with computer models to answer assessment…

Glossary and reading aloud test items are commonly allowed in many states' accommodation policies for English language learner (ELL) students for large-scale mathematics assessments. However, little research is available regarding the effects of these accommodations on ELL students' performance. Further, no research exists that examines how…

Literature in the United States provides many examples of no difference in student achievement when measured against the mode of test administration i.e., paper-pencil and online versions of the test. However, most of these researches centre on "regular" students who do not require differential teaching methods or different evaluation…