Critical consciousness represents the analysis and critique of structural inequalities, the motivation and perceived capacity to effect change, and social action to redress inequity. A wave of recent instruments measuring critical consciousness has been rigorously validated. Yet, whether these measures efficiently assess different levels of…

Tests, especially high-stakes ones, occupy a prominent role in education and impact on students' personal and professional trajectory. Therefore, it is crucial that they are well understood. Enhancing understanding of the workings of tests requires a multidisciplinary approach, one that treats tests not only as assessment instruments, but also as…

Over the past 40 years, numerous instruments have been developed to assess the learning environment for a variety of purposes. Despite this plethora of available surveys, there are few that have been developed for use at the primary school level, and even fewer that have been comprehensively validated. This article describes the development of a…

As the primary interface between test developers and multiple educational stakeholders, score reports are a critical component to the success (or failure) of any assessment program. The purpose of this review is to document recent research on individual-level score reporting to advance the research and practice of score reporting. We conducted a…

One of the questions with the longest history in educational assessment is whether it is possible to increase the reliability of a test simply by altering the way in which scores on individual test items are combined to make the overall test score. Most usually, the score available on each item is communicated to the candidate within a question…

This research is motivated by the perspective that when empirical studies and assessment frameworks inform each other, assessments can enrich science education and strengthen its connections to modern science. The research proposes a bioenergy competency assessment for science education. It uses an argument-based approach to validation. Multiple…

Metamemory can be defined as the knowledge about one's memory capabilities and about strategies that can aid memory. In this paper, we describe the development and validation of the Eyewitness Metamemory Scale (EMS), tailored specifically for use in face memory and eyewitness identification settings. Participants (N = 800) completed the EMS and…

The Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) taxonomy of cognitive abilities married John Horn and Raymond Cattell's Extended Gf-Gc theory with John Carroll's Three-Stratum Theory. While there are some similarities in arrangements or classifications of tasks (observed variables) within similar broad or narrow dimensions, other salient theoretical features and…

Taking a test improves memory for that tested information, a finding referred to as the testing effect. Multiple-choice tests tend to produce smaller testing effects than do cued-recall tests, and this result is largely attributed to the different processing that the two formats are assumed to induce. Specifically, it is generally assumed that the…

In educational contexts, questioning performs a number of functions. These include facilitating learning in the classroom and the recognition of achievement through examinations and other assessments. Good quality questions are important to ensuring that these functions are achieved. This research focused on educational exams and used views from…

The aim of this paper is on the one hand to discuss from an APOS (Action-Process-Object-Schema) theory perspective the mental constructions involved in the learning of linear algebra, through examples concerning the linear transformation concept and related notions. On the other hand, methodological issues related to the design of research…

Research has provided several scales for valid assessments of singing skills. Singing voice development and singing accuracy (tunefulness) are frequent objectives targeted by teachers in music classrooms. Teachers and directors may find established scoring systems useful for implementing formative or summative assessments. This…

The ACRL "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education" has provided academic librarians a guiding document to facilitate the development of information literacy skills in students. Despite widespread adoption of the "Framework" in academic libraries, a lack of valid and reliable "Framework"-based scales…

In response to research demonstrating that Tennessee Extension agents desired a performance appraisal system that better reflected their jobs and provided for appraisers' professional development, a committee of University of Tennessee and Tennessee State University personnel undertook a 2-year initiative to revise the performance appraisal…

This study investigates the effect of several design and administration choices on item exposure and person/item parameter recovery under a multistage test (MST) design. In a simulation study, we examine whether number-correct (NC) or item response theory (IRT) methods are differentially effective at routing students to the correct next stage(s)…