Working with 14 high school students and two teachers from the Bronx, New York, in 2006-2007, the author facilitated a year-long conversation about matters of deep concern to the students' lives and learning, both in and out of school. Their discussions resulted in a short book, which took the form of a standardized test they called "SAT…

Many thousands of students take standardized tests every year. In the current research, we asked whether answering standardized test questions affects students' later test performance. Prior research has shown both positive and negative effects of multiple-choice testing on later tests, with negative effects arising from students selecting…

This article deals with some of the problems that have hindered the application of Samejima's and Thissen and Steinberg's multiple-choice models: (a) parameter estimation difficulties owing to the large number of parameters involved, (b) parameter identifiability problems in the Thissen and Steinberg model, and (c) their treatment of omitted…

The use of elaboration as a memory strategy has been researched for decades and has been shown to be effective for preschool through adult ages (Pressley, 1982). However, the literature examining elaborative strategy use among students in college is lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the transfer of elaborative…

This article is based on a doctoral dissertation study, "Expanding Geographic Understanding in Grade 8 Social Studies Classes through Integration of Geography, Music, and History: A QuasiExperimental Study" that took place in a high-achieving, suburban middle school in Southern California. The study compared learning as a result of nine…

The audience response system--technology that allows immediate compilation and display of a group's multiple choice input--is being shown effective in the classroom both in engaging students and providing real time, formative assessment of comprehension. This paper looks at its further potential as an alternative for summative assessment,…

Assessment is central to any educational process. Number Right (NR) scoring method is a conventional scoring method for multiple choice items, where students need to pick one option as the correct answer. One point is awarded for the correct response and zero for any other responses. However, it has been heavily criticized for guessing and failure…

An understanding of mechanical waves is a pre-requisite for the study of many topics in advanced physics, and indeed in many other disciplines. There have been many research studies in mechanical waves, all of which have revealed that students have trouble with the basic concepts. Therefore, in order for teachers to prepare appropriate instruction…

Background: This study deals with the application of concept mapping to the teaching and learning of a science topic with secondary school students in Germany. Purpose: The main research questions were: (1) Do different teaching approaches affect concept map structure or students' learning success? (2) Is the structure of concept maps influenced…

A mastery quiz is a miniquiz given at the start and end of a lecture period used to signal key lecture concepts. It also provides an incentive for focused attention and regular and punctual attendance. Students earn points toward their final grades for submitting correct responses at either or both testings. Introductory psychology students showed…

Conceptual surveys have become increasingly popular at many levels to probe various aspects of science education research such as measuring student understanding of basic concepts and assessing the effectiveness of pedagogical material. The aim of this study was to construct a valid and reliable multiple-choice conceptual survey to investigate…

The problem. The purpose of this study is to investigate positive and negative cross-linguistic transfer on EFL learners' phraseological competence in collocations and its relationship to learners' linguistic proficiency. Method. A quantitative study was conducted. Two instruments, multiple choice test and grammaticality judgment test, were…

Most experts in the testing community have presumed that the $350 million promised by the U.S. Department of Education to support common assessments would promote those that made greater use of open-ended items capable of measuring higher-order critical-thinking skills. But as measurement experts consider the multitude of possibilities for an…

Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs), created using Mayer's Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, are a form of instructional technology that can deliver critical course content and be used by teacher educators to conserve limited face-to-face instructional time. In this study, the authors investigate whether the sequence of instruction for CAP…

While online systems are an essential component of distance learning, they can also play a critical role in improving the delivery of activities in a traditional laboratory setting. The quality and effectiveness of online course delivery is often compared to equivalent face-to-face alternatives. In our approach, we have harnessed what we feel to…