Exploring the Robustness of a Unidimensional Item Response Theory Model With Empirically Multidimensional Data     

Daniel Anderson  Joshua D. Kahn  Gerald Tindal 《教育实用测度》2017,30(3):163-177

Unidimensionality and local independence are two common assumptions of item response theory. The former implies that all items measure a common latent trait, while the latter implies that responses are independent, conditional on respondents’ location on the latent trait. Yet, few tests are truly unidimensional. Unmodeled dimensions may result in test items displaying dependencies, which can lead to misestimated parameters and inflated reliability estimates. In this article, we investigate the dimensionality of interim mathematics tests and evaluate the extent to which modeling minor dimensions in the data change model parameter estimates. We found evidence of minor dimensions, but parameter estimates across models were similar. Our results indicate that minor dimensions outside the primary trait have negligible consequences on parameter estimates. This finding was observed despite the ratio of multidimensional to unidimensional items being above previously recommended thresholds.  相似文献   

An Assessment of the Perception of Learning Gains of Freshmen Students in an Introductory Course in Nutrition and Food Science     

Alfred K. Anderson 《Journal of Food Science Education》2006,5(2):25-30

ABSTRACT: The assessment of learning gains of students in science and other disciplines is becoming a reality following the gradual shift from the traditional style of teaching to a curriculum-based assessment of learning outcomes. The degree to which students perceive to have obtained the outcomes of a course can be measured through an assessment of students' learning gains. This study evaluated the perceived learning gains of freshmen students in an introductory class FSC 110-Introduction to Human Nutrition and Food Science (FSC 110)-over a 4-semester period. Students used the Assessment of Learning Gains Survey Instrument, developed by the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, to assess the level of their perceived learning gains. The data collected indicated that, overall, students favorably perceived their learning gains in the course. Through the instrument, students identified areas of the course that they perceived to have contributed positively to their learning experiences and those they perceived to have not contributed in any meaningful way to their learning experiences. The students' perception of their learning gains could be useful to the instructor because it offers opportunities to revise the course with respect to delivery method, assessment methods and tools, and course resources, and to improve individual support given to students to enhance their learning experience. Such alterations in pedagogy could lead to significant improvements in course quality, which could be archived and transferred to subsequent classes.  相似文献   

Improving students' understanding of carbohydrate metabolism in first-year biochemistry at tertiary level     

DR Trevor Anderson  DR Diane Grayson 《Research in Science Education》1994,24(1):1-10

Many introductory biochemistry students have problems understanding metabolism and acquiring the skills necessary to study metabolic pathways. In this paper we suggest that this may be largely due to the use of a traditional teaching approach which emphasises memorisation rather than understanding. We present an alternative approach to teaching carbohydrate metabolism which is designed to promote understanding of pathways. The approach also enables regular monitoring of, and reflection on, student progress and the identification of student reasoning and conceptual difficulties through the use of specially designed problems. Preliminary results are presented giving examples of specific student difficulties and the extent to which they were addressed by the alternative instructional approach. A qualitative evaluation of the approach is also presented. Specializations: metal accumulating plants biochemical education. Specializations: physics education, conceptual development, instructional design, improvement of tertiary science education.  相似文献   

Riddles in Probability and Statistics     

Oliver Anderson 《Teaching Statistics》1991,13(2):63-64

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Chinese Children's Incidental Learning of Word Meanings     

Ku YM  Anderson RC 《Contemporary educational psychology》2001,26(2):249-266

We investigated the effects of metalinguistic awareness and the internal structure of Chinese characters on children's incidental learning of word meanings while reading. The participants were 241 Taiwanese children from six fourth-grade classes. They were randomly assigned to read one of two texts, and then their knowledge of unfamiliar characters from both texts was assessed. Two kinds of factors that might influence incidental learning of character meanings were examined: features of the unfamiliar characters (radical helpfulness, phonetic regularity, and contextual support) and child characteristics (radical awareness, phonetic awareness, general vocabulary, and prior knowledge of target characters). Results showed that children could incidentally learn characters during normal reading. Children who had more radical or phonetic awareness knew more characters, especially when the character contained a radical that gave a clue to meaning. However, contrary to expectation, radical helpfulness and phonetic regularity did not contribute to character learning. Characters were easier to learn when contextual support was strong. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.  相似文献   

Book reviews     

Renate Nestvogel  Harold J. Noah  Sixten Marklund  Richard Noonan  John Nisbet  Desmond J. Keegan  Jeremy Greenland  Robert G. Thomas  Douglas Thom  Mina J. Moore-Rinvolucri  Wolfgang Tietze  A. Harry Passow  Michael A. White  D. S. Anderson  Philip G. Altbach  R. Gardner  Bogdan Suchodolski  Malcolm Rosier  Ronald H. Wilson  David H. Partington 《International Review of Education/Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft/Revue internationale l'éducation》1983,29(4):493-521

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Emerging common problems in the world of universities   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

C. Arnold Anderson 《International Review of Education/Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft/Revue internationale l'éducation》1965,11(1):3-20

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Positional matters: school leaders engaging with national equity agendas     

Tebeje Molla  Trevor Gale 《教育政策杂志》2019,34(6):858-876

ABSTRACT

This paper claims a central role for school leaders (principals or head-teachers) in the enactment of social justice policy in schools, who act as key agents or ‘gate keepers’ for what counts as social justice in their contexts of practice. Social justice means different things in different contexts depending on where leaders – who use policy as an opportunity to advance what they think is achievable within the limits of available resources – are positioned in the field and how that defines their stances. Drawing on qualitative data generated through in-depth interviews with ten secondary school principals in two Australian cities, the paper analyses the engagement of school leaders with nationally prescribed equity-related policies. Our analysis shows that, depending on the institutional ethos and resources of schools and their own social justice dispositions, school leaders tend to take different stances towards nationally defined equity agendas. Their responses range from compliance to compromise to contest. The paper suggests that doing social justice in schools can never be unilateral, as policy documents suppose, but is characterised by context-informed policy translation, mediated by a range of interactive forces and interests.  相似文献   

The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science     

Michael Barnett  Heather Wagner  Anne Gatling  Janice Anderson  Meredith Houle  Alan Kafka 《Journal of Science Education and Technology》2006,15(2):179-191

Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture influences their students’ perception and understanding of science. Using naturalistic research methods in a diverse middle school we found that students who watched a popular science fiction film, The Core, had a number of misunderstandings of earth science concepts when compared to students who did not watch the movie. We found that a single viewing of a science fiction film can negatively impact student ideas regarding scientific phenomena. Specifically, we found that the film leveraged the scientific authority of the main character, coupled with scientifically correct explanations of some basic earth science, to create a series of plausible, albeit unscientific, ideas that made sense to students.  相似文献   

Latent Class Modeling with A Time-To-Event Distal Outcome: A Comparison of One,Two and Three-Step Approaches     

Daniel T. Lythgoe  Marta Garcia-Fiñana  Trevor F. Cox 《Structural equation modeling》2019,26(1):51-65

Latent class methods can be used to identify unobserved subgroups which differ in their observed data. Researchers are often interested in outcomes for the identified subgroups and in some disciplines time-to-event outcome measures are common, e.g., overall survival in oncology. In this study Monte Carlo simulation is used to evaluate the empirical properties of latent class effect estimates on a time-to-event distal outcome using one, two and three-step approaches. Both standard and inclusive bias-corrected three-step approaches are considered. One-step latent class effect estimates are shown to be superior to the evaluated alternatives. Both the two-step approach and a standard three-step approach, where subjects are partially assigned to latent classes, produced unbiased estimates with nominal confidence interval coverage when latent classes were well separated, but not otherwise.

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