A questionnaire concerning attitudes toward the importance of communication skills and toward different modes of communication was administered to 290 incoming freshmen at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Students responded to one of two types of a 38-item questionnaire: a multiple choice, or Likert-type (strongly agree...strongly…

The Southern Illinois University School of Medicine applies mastery learning concepts to an objectives-based curriculum and uses the Nedelsky method to assess mastery of core objectives. Provisions are made for remediating deficiences. The Nedelsky technique is used for determining an acceptable level of performance in multiple choice examinations…

Twenty multiple-choice vocabulary items and 20 free-response vocabulary items were administered to 660 college students. The free-response items consisted of the stem words of the multiple-choice items. Testees were asked to respond to the free-response items with synonyms. A computer algorithm was developed to transform the numerous…

Two papers on teaching methods are presented. The first concerns an experiment that tested the relative effectiveness of three teaching methods: an uninterrupted lecture, a tape-recording, and reading a prescribed text. The three-way research design used the three teaching methods, three groups of six student teachers of physical medicine between…

This study developed and field tested instructional units designed to help young adult farmers use farm management principles in decision making. Relationships were also sought between farmers' personal characteristics and their posttest scores. Ten teachers of vocational agriculture (Group A) received inservice training in using the instructional…

Problems in the application and misapplication of test scores are discussed. Tests have been used to achieve optimum use of resources rather than optimum development of the individual. Or, they have been used to predict a child's achievement rather than to identify his learning difficulties. This latter use would indicate when and where…

This study investigated the validity of various approaches to the measurement of English composition skills. Over 600 11th and 12th-grade students were asked to write five 20-minute essays on different topics, to take six objective tests of writing ability, and to do two interlinear exercises. Twenty-five experienced readers assigned scores of…

The report proposes to complete the validation and refinement of a new domain referenced testing technology designed to assess literal comprehension ability in students in grades 1-12. The domain referenced measures in this technology, along with other more traditional measures of reading comprehension, literal and non-literal, are subsequently…

English writing ability of Hispanic college candidates taking the College Board's English Composition Test (ECT) was studied. The performance of three groups on essay and multiple choice portions of the ECT were compared with each other and with performance on the same measures by ECT test takers as a whole. (Author/DWH)

The purpose of this literature review and Ex Post Facto descriptive study was to determine which type of benchmark assessment, multiple-choice or project-based, provides the best indication of general success on the history portion of the CST (California Standards Tests). The result of the study indicates that although the project-based benchmark…

The development of templates for computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is discussed, based on experiences with primarily linear multimedia tutorial programs. Design of templates for multiple-choice questions and interactive tasks in a prototype module is described. Possibilities of enhancing interactivity by introducing problem-oriented…

Outlines the benefits and limitations of automated assessment and offers practical advice for individuals and departments considering a move in that direction. Maintains that using optical mark readers (OMRs) in conjunction with objective tests can result in significant time savings. Briefly discusses using OMRs for student evaluations. (MJP)

Three student feedback instruments--a group associative inventory and semantic differential and Likert-type rating scales--assessed 229 sixth-grade and 174 junior high school Israeli students' perspectives concerning classroom testing. The instruments assessed salient meaning components of tests, group differences via evaluation of semantic…

Figural response items (FRIs) in science were administered to 347 fourth graders, 365 eighth graders, and 322 twelfth graders. Item and test statistics from parallel FRIs and multiple-choice questions illustrate FRIs' more difficult and more discriminating nature. Relevance of guessing to FRIs and diagnostic value of the item type are highlighted.…

The performance of 254 Israeli twelfth graders on multiple-choice tests with positive or negative item stems was studied. For items requiring low cognitive reasoning, performance does not differ, but, for items requiring high cognitive reasoning, the negative mode is more difficult. Implications for test construction are discussed. (SLD)