The study investigated parental background on student's academic performance in secondary schools in Abak local government, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. A survey design was adopted for the study. One thousand four hundred and forty (1440) senior secondary three (SS3) Physics students were drawn by simple random sampling from 12 Schools, six (6) each…

This report outlines the final recommendations of the review of external examining arrangements undertaken by UUK and GuildHE and chaired by Professor Dame Janet Finch, former Vice-Chancellor of Keele University. The review found that, on the whole, external examining arrangements in the UK are working well, but the report offers recommendations…

Effects of test administrator's gender on test takers' self-estimated verbal general knowledge and de facto verbal general knowledge were investigated. Based on three theories previously applied in research dealing with the effects of test administrator's ethnicity, it was expected male and female test takers to show higher scores under female…

Objective: Medical students' satisfaction with the psychiatry clerkship, sense of preparedness for an institutional Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE), expressed likelihood of choosing psychiatry as a specialty, and National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) psychiatry shelf-examination scores were compared after a curriculum based on…

The question of what a doctorate is has been looked at before. The author argues that the issue of "doctorateness" is a recurring debate which needs to kept alive and revisited regularly. The aim of this article is to suggest five different areas or arenas in which the question can be addressed, forming a framework which can perhaps be…

In response to the negative and inefficient treatment of rape victims by emergency room personnel, the first Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) programs began in the late 1970s. While SANEs, doctors, rape victim advocates, police officers and prosecutors work together to ensure the most comprehensive and sensitive care of rape victims, they all…

Traditionally, examiners' reports on theses at the doctoral and Master's level consist of two components: firstly, summative assessment where a judgement is made about whether the thesis has met the standards established by the discipline for the award of the degree, and, secondly, the developmental and formative component, where examiners provide…

A central issue in language testing is the choice of norms, and the need to reconcile notions of "standard" English with local language norms and features. Data from studies of international intelligibility indicate that some features of "standard" language descriptions, based on native-speaker language use, are not essential…

UK awarding bodies increasingly use technology to distribute digital copies of students' examination scripts to examiners for marking. This process allows senior examiners (team leaders) to remotely monitor and feedback on the marking quality of examiners under their supervision throughout the marking period. The objective of this study was to…

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the continuous improvement process of the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence (TNCP). Results of surveys conducted annually by the TNCPE from postapplicants provided data from the state award applicants. Their responses offered indicators of satisfaction among different industry sectors (education,…

Examiners' grading judgements are central to the maintenance of examination standards. This research investigated the judgement processes underpinning examination grading. Operating under a think aloud protocol, six examiners conducted a grading exercise for each of two geography A level examinations. They also "thought aloud" whilst…

Most research into research supervision practice focuses on functional, collegial or problematic power-related experiences. Work developing the supervisory role concentrates on new supervisors, and on taught development and support programmes. Most literature on academics' professional learning concentrates on learning to be a university teacher…

Assessment of practical clinical skills is essential in the health fields. Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCEs), where examiners assess students performing clinical procedures on simulated patients (actors), are central to the evaluation of practical skills. However, traditional OSCEs require considerable time-investment to administer, and…

Some methods of determining grade boundaries within examinations, such as awarding, paired comparisons, and rank ordering, entail expert judgements of script quality. We aimed to identify the features of examinees' scripts that most influence judgements in the three methods. For contrasting examinations in biology and English, a Latin square…

We use a natural experiment to show that the presence of an external examiner has both a direct and an indirect negative effect on the performance of monitored classes in standardized educational tests. The direct effect is the difference in the test performance between classes of the same school with and without external examiners. The indirect…