This paper presents the development and initial validation of new measures of critical thinking and noncognitive attributes that were designed to supplement existing standardized tests used in the admissions system for higher education in Chile. The importance of various facets of this process, including the establishment of technical rigor and…

Synthesizing the best current thinking about learning, course design, and promoting student achievement, this is a guide to developing college instruction that has clear purpose, is well integrated into the curriculum, and improves student learning in predictable and measurable ways. The process involves developing a transparent course blueprint,…

This study aimed to find out the brain hemisphericity and mathematics achievement of high school students. The respondents of the study were the 168 first year high school students of Colegio de San Jose, during school year 2010-2011 who were chosen through stratified random sampling. The descriptive and interview methods of research were used in…

Science literacy involves knowledge of both science content and science process skills. In this study, we describe the Assessment of Critical Thinking Ability survey and its preliminary application to assess the critical thinking skills of undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. This survey is based on a complex and…

The objective of this exploratory study is to characterize by means of drawings if the developmental patterns in the graphic representation of organ and organ systems progresses related to age of participants. Secondly, whether there is an integration of sex organs into the internal body image. The drawings representing the inside of the body in…

The primary users of the current college ranking systems do not seem to be high-school students and families, but college presidents, board members, and development officers. As structured, the commercial ranking systems imply a precision that is not corroborated by research on what matters in college, nor can college quality be accurately summed…

Mixed quantitative and qualitative methods were used to assess student attitudes toward the assessment criteria for higher-order critical and analytical thinking skills in writing-intensive curricula in first-year, general education courses. The courses varied in emphasis on critical thinking in the criteria used to assess writing. The analysis is…

Clay's work regarding how learners develop independent, strategic control over the process of constructing meaning from written texts indicates that all learners need a flexible repertoire of strategies as a network for: (a) "problem solving" or working on text on the run, (b) "self-monitoring" of the message for clarity and coherence, and (c)…

The mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs of preservice elementary teachers have been the subject of several studies. A widely used measure in these studies is the Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (MTEBI). The present study provides a detailed analysis of the psychometric properties of the MTEBI using Bayesian item response theory.…

Typical validation studies on standard setting models, most notably the Angoff and modified Angoff models, have ignored construct development, a critical aspect associated with all conceptualizations of measurement processes. Stone compared the Angoff and objective standard setting (OSS) models and found that Angoff failed to define a legitimate…

Categorizing organisms as living or nonliving things may seem to be intuitive by nature. Yet, it is regulated by scientific criteria. Students come to school with rules already in place. Their categorizing criteria have already been influenced by their personal experiences, also known as observations and inferences. They believe that all things…

Does learning to read influence one's visual skill? In Study 1, kindergartners from Hong Kong, Korea, Israel, and Spain were tested on word reading and a task of visual spatial skill. Chinese and Korean kindergartners significantly outperformed Israeli and Spanish readers on the visual task. Moreover, in all cultures except Korea, good readers…

This article describes a method for identifying test items as disability neutral for children with vision and motor disabilities. Graduate students rated 130 items of the Preschool Language Scale and obtained inter-rater correlation coefficients of 0.58 for ratings of items as disability neutral for children with vision disability, and 0.77 for…

This article provides 12 tips for teachers to help make online teaching successful. Included are suggestions with examples, a scoring rubric for assessing student responses in threaded discussions, and examples of student comments. (Contains 1 figure.)

This article reviews "Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Third Edition" (WIAT-III), which is designed to assess students' skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and mathematics. The test can identify an individual's strengths and weaknesses, assist professionals who are determining whether a student is eligible for special…