scholarly journals Cloze testing for comprehension assessment: The HyTeC-cloze

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Kleijn ◽  
Henk Pander Maat ◽  
Ted Sanders
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
School Students ◽  
Cloze Procedure ◽  
Testing Center

Although there are many methods available for assessing text comprehension, the cloze test is not widely acknowledged as one of them. Critiques on cloze testing center on its supposedly limited ability to measure comprehension beyond the sentence. However, these critiques do not hold for all types of cloze tests; the particular configuration of a cloze determines its validity. We review various cloze configurations and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. We propose a new cloze procedure specifically designed to gauge text comprehension: the Hybrid Text Comprehension cloze (HyTeC-cloze). It employs a hybrid mechanical-rational deletion strategy and semantic scoring of answers. The procedure was tested in a large-scale study, involving 2926 Dutch secondary school students with 120 unique cloze tests. Our results show that, in terms of reliability and validity, the HyTeC-cloze matches and sometimes outperforms standardized tests of reading ability.

scholarly journals Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Disposition Levels of Computational Thinking Instrument Among Secondary School Students

2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 639-652
Author(s):  
Saralah Sovey ◽  
Kamisah Osman ◽  
Mohd Effendi
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Internal Consistency Reliability ◽  
Residual Variance ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
School Students ◽  
Instrument Validity ◽  
Confirmatory Factor

<p style="text-align: justify;">Computational thinking (CT) is a method for solving complex problems, but also gives people an inventive inspiration to adapt to our smart and changing society. Globally it has been considered as vital abilities for solving genuine issues successfully and efficiently in the 21st century. Recent studies have revealed that the nurture of CT mainly centered on measuring the technical skill. There is a lack of conceptualization and instruments that cogitate on CT disposition and attitudes. This study attends to these limitations by developing an instrument to measure CT concerning dispositions and attitudes. The instruments' validity and reliability testing were performed with the participation from secondary school students in Malaysia. The internal consistency reliability, standardized residual variance, construct validity and composite reliability were examined. The result revealed that the instrument validity was confirmed after removing items. The reliability and validity of the instrument have been verified. The findings established that all constructs are useful for assessing the disposition of computer science students. The implications for psychometric assessment were evident in terms of giving empirical evidence to corroborate theory-based constructs and also validating items' quality to appropriately represent the measurement.</p>

scholarly journals Reliability and Validity of a Chinese Version of the STEM Attitude Scale for Primary and Secondary School Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12661
Author(s):  
Yanjun Zhang ◽  
Qianqian Xu ◽  
Jinghua Lao ◽  
Yan Shen
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Chinese Version ◽  
School Students ◽  
Stem Attitudes ◽  
Stem Career ◽  
Primary And Secondary School

In recent years, STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education has received widespread attention from all over the world, and there are not many studies on STEM attitudes in China. One of the reasons is the lack of measurement tools that have been tested for reliability and validity. The Chinese version STEM attitudes scale for primary and secondary schools is a multidimensional scale that measures the STEM attitudes of primary and secondary school students. It consists of three subscales: STEM interest, 21st-century skills confidence, and STEM career interest. In order to test the reliability and validity of the scale application, as well as understand and improve the STEM attitudes of primary and secondary school students, the research team surveyed and collected 566 responses from primary and secondary school students in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Shandong, Liaoning, and other places. After exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and a reliability and validity test, the scale finally retained 48 items. The scale supports a hypothetical five-factor model with good reliability and validity and can be used to assess STEM attitudes in Chinese primary and secondary schools. This research also shows that students’ STEM interests and STEM career interests showed clear variation among different genders, grades, and parental education levels.

Vocabulary Size of Malaysian Secondary School Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Alice Su Chu Wong ◽  
Jocelyn Yee Vun Lee ◽  
Marianne Fung ◽  
Octavia Willibrord
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
School Level ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
School Students

Vocabulary plays a vital role in second language acquisition and is crucial in comprehension of various texts. Without a threshold level of vocabulary proficiency, English Language Learners (ELLs) will have difficulties in processing texts. Indeed, it is well conceded that vocabulary is a good predictor of second language proficiency. While sizable studies have examined ELLs reading skills, little is known about the vocabulary size of Malaysian secondary school students. The current work is part of a larger study that examines the relationship between vocabulary size and critical reading ability. It aims to investigate ELL secondary school students’ vocabulary level and determine whether they are equipped with sufficient vocabulary proficiency for tertiary level education. Eighty-five (85) participants from a public school in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah were involved in the study. A set of receptive vocabulary test was administered during a two-period lesson. Results showed that most of the participants have not mastered vocabulary proficiency beyond the 2000-word level. The findings have pedagogical implications for the teaching of vocabulary at the secondary school level.

How to stay in the loop. A think-aloud study on dictionary use by excellent secondary-school students of Ancient Greek.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniël Bartelds
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Loop Model ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
School Students ◽  
Dictionary Use

Abstract Dictionary use in secondary-school classics education in the Netherlands is problematic and an important cause of poor translations and text comprehension. Research on the topic is scarce and dictionary training plays a marginal role in the classics teaching practice. This explorative, qualitative think-aloud study examines which dictionary activities lead to success. We observed excellent secondary-school students while they were translating an Ancient Greek text. A feedback loop model, characterised as a slow process of constant verification, is used to analyse their dictionary behaviour. The findings show that successful dictionary activities depend on moving back and forth between text and dictionary, while the students reduce the cognitive load by activating schemata. Performing informed searches and using their fingers or the ribbon bookmark facilitate this process. In addition, closely monitoring the process with a critical mind, and linguistic reflection using appropriate metalanguage seem crucial.

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