Education Commons^™

Displacement, Velocity, And Frames Of Reference: Phenomenographic Studies Of Students’ Understanding And Some Implications For Teaching And Assessment, John Bowden, Gloria Dall'alba, Elaine Martin, D Laurillard, Ference Marton, Geoff Masters, Paul Ramsden, Andrew Stephanou, E Walsh

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Student understanding of fundamental concepts in kinematics has been explored using the phenomenographic research method. University and high schoolphysics students were interviewed and their understandings of displacement, velocity, and frames of reference have been analyzed in particular problem contexts. Descriptions of the different ways students understand the concepts have been developed and relations between the different levels of understanding have been identified. The data highlight the contextual nature of learning and the need for teachers to focus on the nature of student understanding in specific contexts using questions that require qualitative explanation by students. In particular, it is demonstrated that …

Assessing Achievement In Australian Schools, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This paper considers the educational and technical feasibility of introducing a comprehensive system of student performance measures which will allow valid and reliable national and international comparisons. The conclusion reached is that a useful system of student performance measures can be established in this country, and some specific recommendations are made for the implementation of such a system. But the discussion that follows also contains important caveats and warnings. Difficulties in establishing valid and reliable measures of student achievement are not to be underestimated. Many education systems, particularly large systems in Europe and the United States which have had performance …

Competency Based Assessment In The Professions, Geoff Masters, D Mccurry

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Reforming The Assessment Of Student Achievement In The Senior Secondary School, Geoff Masters, P Hill

Prof Geoff Masters AO

The challenge that confronts agencies responsible for assessment and reporting in the senior secondary school is to extend systematic assessment procedures to broader range of learning outcomes than those currently assessed by public examination, to develop methods of reporting which are more descriptive of individual achievement and which provide a better basis for describing and maintaining standards, and to provide results which are sufficiently comparable across schools to enable fair comparisons of applicants for tertiary study. Some recent developments in assessment and reporting practice are considered with a view to identifying methods and approaches capable of satisfying this diverse set …

Anchor Tests, Score Equating And Sex Bias, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This paper discusses the use of anchor tests (scaling tests) to bring two or more sets of scores to a common scale. Particular attention is given to the rescaling of school based assessments against an external test or examination and to potential sources of bias in this procedure. The need for routine validity checks is emphasised, and a latent trait approach to constructing a statistical framework for tests and examination score equating is described and illustrated. Bias caused by rescaling school assessments against an inappropriate anchor test is illustrated using a 1984 attempt to rescale students assessments in English against …

The Analysis Of Partial Credit Scoring, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This article discusses a range of issues in the practical application of an item response theory (IRT) method for partial credit scoring. After a brief discussion of partial credit scoring as an alternative to right-wrong scoring in the measurment of educational achievement, an IRT model for partial credit analysis is developed and described. This model is presented as a straightforward and logical application of Rasch's dichotomous model to a sequence of ordered response alternatives. The distinctive nature of the item parameters in the model is described and these parameters are contrasted with two more familiar sets of parameters: Thurstone thresholds …

Item Discrimination: When More Is Worse, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

High item discrimination can be a symptom of a special kind of measurement disturbance introduced by an item that gives persons of high ability a special advantage over and above their higher abilities. This type of disturbance, which can be interpreted as a form of item bias, can be encouraged by methods that routinely interpret highly discriminating items as the best items on a test and may be compounded by procedures that weight items by their discrimination. The type of measurement disturbance described and illustrated in this paper occurs when an item is sensitive to individual differences on a second, …

Educational Measurement: Prospects For Research And Innovation, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

No abstract provided.

The Construction Of Tertiary Entrance Scores: Principles And Issues, D Beswick, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

No abstract provided.

A Sense Of Direction In Criterion-Referenced Assessment, Geoff Masters, John Evans

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This paper describes some experimental work undertaken by the authors with teachers in a number of Australian schools to provide criterion-referenced assessments of student achievement. In these investigations we work closely with individual teachers using assessment materials developed within each school. We analyze students' performances on these materials, provide teachers with computergenerated reports, and assist teachers to use these reports to monitor the progress of their students and to diagnose individual strengths and weaknesses.

Banking Non-Dichotomously Scored Items, Geoff Masters, John Evans

Prof Geoff Masters AO

A method for constructing a bank of items scored in two or more ordered response categories is described and illustrated. This method enables multistep problems, rating scale items, question 'clusters', and other items using partial credit scoring to be calibrated and incorporated into an item bank, and it provides a mechanism for computer adaptive testing with items of this type. Procedures are described for calibrating an initial set of items, for testing the fit of items to the underlying measurement model, and for linking new items to an existing item bank. The method is illustrated using items from the Watson-Glaser …

Common Person Equating With The Rasch Model, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Two procedures, one based on item difficulties, the other based on person abilities, were used to equate 14 forms of a reading comprehension test using the Rasch model. These forms had no items in common. For practical purposes, the two procedures produced equivalent results. An advantage of common person equating for testing the unidimensionality assumption is pointed out, and the need for caution in interpreting tests of common item invariance is stressed.

A Comparison Of Latent Trait And Latent Class Analyses Of Likert-Type Data, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This paper brings together and compares two developments in the analysis of Likert attitude scales. The first is the generalization of latent class models to ordered response categories. The second is the introduction of latent trait models with multiplicative parameter structures for the analysis of rating scales. Key similarities and differences between these two methods are described and illustrated by applying a latent trait model and a latent class model to the analysis of a set of 'life satisfaction' data. The way in which the latent trait model defines a unit of measurement, takes into account the order of the …

The Essential Process In A Family Of Measurement Models, Geoff Masters, Benjamin Wright

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Five members of the Rasch family of latent trait models which have appeared more or less independently in the literature are brought together and identified as one model. In addition to sharing the distinguishing characteristic of the dichotomous Rasch model separable person and item parameters and hence sufficient statistics all five models share a common algebraic form and have as their basic element the fundamental process defined by Rasch's simple logistic expression. In these models, the sufficient statistics for person and item parameters are counts of events constructed to be indicative of the variable being measured, and the measures they …

Measuring Attitude To School With A Latent Trait Model, Geoff Masters, N Hyde

Prof Geoff Masters AO

A latent trait model for rating scales is used to ana lyze responses to an attitude-to-school questionnaire as part of an evaluation of projects operating in 10 West ern Australian schools under the Australian Priority Schools Program. The invariance of item parameter estimates over the 10 schools is examined, and varia tions in item estimates from school to school are stud ied in the light of the different projects operating in these schools. Results show how the investigation of items that do not retain their difficulties from group to group can provide valuable insight into the ways in which calibration …

Dicot: Analysing Classroom Tests With The Rasch Model, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

A computer program (DICOT) for the Rasch analysis of classroom tests is described. Results are presented in a simple, self-explanatory form, and person ability and item difficulty estimates are expressed in a metric like the one with which teachers and parents are already familiar. Person and item fit statistics provide an opportunity to diagnose strengths and weaknesses of individual children and to identify items which are problematic.

Constructing An Item Bank Using Partial Credit Scoring, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

A method for banking test items scored in several ordered response categories is described. Each item is seen as an ordered sequence of steps, and test forms are equated using the estimated difficulties of the steps in their shared items. Procedures for analyzing the internal consistency of individual links and for analyzing the coherence of an entire linking structure are described. The methodology is used to link six forms of a mathematics problem solving test.

Defining A 'Fear-Of-Crime' Variable: A Comparison Of Two Rasch Models, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

No abstract provided.

Rating Scale Analysis, Benjamin Wright, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

No abstract provided.