Using large-scale educational data to test motivation theories: a synthesis of findings from Swedish studies on test-taking motivation

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Eva Knekta ◽  
Hanna Eklöf
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Test Motivation

scholarly journals Test-takers’ perspectives on a global test of English: questions of fairness, justice and validity

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Obaidul Hamid ◽  
Ian Hardy ◽  
Vicente Reyes
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
English Language ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Language Testing ◽  
Global Test ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Global Tests ◽  
Test Taking Strategies

Abstract Although language test-takers have been the focus of much theoretical and empirical work in recent years, this work has been mainly concerned with their attitudes to test preparation and test-taking strategies, giving insufficient attention to their views on broader socio-political and ethical issues. This article examines test-takers’ perceptions and evaluations of the fairness, justice and validity of global tests of English, with a particular focus upon the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Based on relevant literature and theorizing into such tests, and on self-reported test experience data gathered from test-takers (N = 430) from 49 countries, we demonstrate how test-takers experienced fairness and justice in complex ways that problematized the purported technical excellence and validity of IELTS. Even as there was some evidence of support for the test as a fair measure of students’ English capacity, the extent to which it actually reflected their language capabilities was open to question. At the same time, the participants expressed concerns about whether IELTS was a vehicle for raising revenue and for justifying immigration policies, thus raising questions about the justness of the test. The research foregrounds the importance of focusing attention upon the socio-political and ethical circumstances that currently attend large-scale, standardized English language testing.

scholarly journals Learning to read does not compete with face and object recognition

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen van Paridon ◽  
Markus Ostarek ◽  
Mrudula Arunkumar ◽  
Falk Huettig
Keyword(s):  
Object Recognition ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Socioeconomic Background ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Visual Object Recognition ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Object Categories ◽  
General Object

Human cultural inventions, such as written language, are far too recent for dedicated neural infrastructure to have evolved in its service. Culturally newly acquired skills (e.g. reading) thus ‘recycle’ evolutionarily older circuits that originally evolved for different, but similar functions (e.g. visual object recognition). The destructive competition hypothesis predicts that this neuronal recycling has detrimental effects on the cognitive functions a cortical network originally evolved for. The converse possibility is that learning to read fine-tunes general object recognition mechanisms, resulting in improved recognition across categories. In a large-scale behavioral study with literate, low-literate, and illiterate participants from the same socioeconomic background we find that even after adjusting for cognitive ability and test-taking familiarity, literacy is associated with an increase, rather than a decrease, in object recognition abilities across object categories. These results are incompatible with the claim that neuronal recycling results in destructive competition.

scholarly journals The Need for Self-Control in Achievement Tests: Changes in Students’ State Self-Control Capacity and Effort Investment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Lindner ◽  
Gabriel Nagy ◽  
Jan Retelsdorf
Keyword(s):  
Process Model ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Achievement Test ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Large Scale Assessment ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Major Predictor ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Mathematics And Science

In the present research, we investigated the relation between changes in students’ state self-control capacity and their motivational test-taking effort over the course of an achievement test. Thereby, we considered trait self-control as a major predictor of achievement-related behavior as a covariate. N = 1,840 apprentices repeatedly rated their state self-control capacity and the test-taking effort they invested while working on a 140-minute achievement test in mathematics and science. Using growth curve analyses, our results revealed correlated decreases in state self-control capacity and the test-taking effort invested over the course of the test. Furthermore, we found that trait self-control helped to keep state self-control capacity and test-taking effort at a higher level over the course of the test. Our results support the assumption of the process model of self-control that waning self-control capacity is reflected in reduced motivational effort. Furthermore, our findings provide evidence that self-control might play a crucial role in students’ test-taking behavior in large-scale assessment studies. By modeling changes in state self-control capacity and effort investment while considering trait self-control, we provide an alternative approach for investigating self-control-dependent processes and the underlying mechanisms of self-control in achievement situations.

scholarly journals Measuring Motivation to Take Low-Stakes Large-Scale Test: New Model Based on Analyses of “Participant-Own-Defined” Missingness

2020 ◽  
Vol 80 (6) ◽  
pp. 1115-1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Liu ◽  
Kit-Tai Hau
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
International Student ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
Poisson Model ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
International Student Assessment ◽  
Information User ◽  
Psychometric Models ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Missing Item

In large-scale low-stake assessment such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), students may skip items (missingness) which are within their ability to complete. The detection and taking care of these noneffortful responses, as a measure of test-taking motivation, is an important issue in modern psychometric models. Traditional approaches based on questionnaires and item response theory may have different limitations. In the present research, we proposed a new way by directly using “participant-own-defined” missing item information (user missingness) in a zero-inflated Poisson model. An empirical study using the PISA 2015 data (eight representative economies in two cultures) and another simulation study were conducted to validate our new approach. Results indicated that our model could successfully capture test-taking motivation. We also found that the Confucian students had lower user missingness irrespective of item positions as compared with their Western counterparts.

How Representational Pictures Enhance Students’ Performance and Test-Taking Pleasure in Low-Stakes Assessment

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 376-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlit A. Lindner ◽  
Jan M. Ihme ◽  
Steffani Saß ◽  
Olaf Köller
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Item Difficulty ◽  
Large Scale Assessment ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Irt Model ◽  
Reading Abilities ◽  
Test Parameters ◽  
Potential Interactions ◽  
Representational Pictures

Abstract. Pictures are often used in standardized educational large-scale assessment (LSA), but their impact on test parameters has received little attention up until now. Even less is known about pictures’ affective effects on students in testing (i.e., test-taking pleasure and motivation). However, such knowledge is crucial for a focused application of multiple representations in LSA. Therefore, this study investigated how adding representational pictures (RPs) to text-based item stems affects (1) item difficulty and (2) students’ test-taking pleasure. An experimental study with N = 305 schoolchildren was conducted, using 48 manipulated parallel science items (text-only vs. text-picture) in a rotated multimatrix design to realize within-subject measures. Students’ general cognitive abilities, reading abilities, and background variables were assessed to consider potential interactions between RPs’ effects and students’ performance. Students also rated their item-solving pleasure for each item. Results from item-response theory (IRT) model comparisons showed that RPs only reduced item difficulty when pictures visualized information mandatory for solving the task, while RPs substantially enhanced students’ test-taking pleasure even when they visualized optional context information. Overall, our findings suggest that RPs have a positive cognitive and affective influence on students’ performance in LSA (i.e., multimedia effect in testing) and should be considered more frequently.

An Investigation of Examinee Test-Taking Effort on a Large-Scale Assessment

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Carl Setzer ◽  
Steven L. Wise ◽  
Jill R. van den Heuvel ◽  
Guangming Ling
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Large Scale Assessment ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Scale Assessment

scholarly journals The test-taking motivation of universitiy student: Validity and reliability studyÜniversite öğrencilerinin sınav motivasyonu: Öğrenci görüşü ölçeğinin geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışması

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 2099
Author(s):  
Namudar İzzet Kurbanoglu ◽  
Mithat Takunyacı
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Factor Structure ◽  
Internal Consistency ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Reliability Study ◽  
Student Opinion ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Test Motivation ◽  
Faculty Of Education

Tests are one of the most common evaluation methods used to assess student learning in the educational process. Therefore, it is important to examine the factors that can help students succeed in tests. The aim of this study is to examine the psychometric features of the Student Opinion Scale (SOS) developed by Wolf & Smith, revised by Sundre and Sundre & Finney in order to assess the universty student's the test-taking motivation on Turkish sample. The SOS consists of two subscales called “Importance” and “Effort” and 10 items. The Turkish form of the scale was applied to 300 students at the Faculty of Education. The studies of internal consistency, item and factor analysis and criterion cohesion validity were performed to examine the psychometric features of the scale. The values obtained from the internal consistency analyses of the scale were .72 for “Importance” subscale; .82 for “Effort” subscale and .74 in total, and it was shown that the scale has sufficient reliability levels. The results of analysis showed that the original two-factor structure of the scale is suitable for Turkish sample. So, it is thought that the scale is a valid and reliable tool to be used for determining the test motivation of the Turkish sample group.Extended English abstract is in the end of PDF (TURKISH) file. ÖzetSınavlar, eğitim sürecinde öğrenci öğrenmelerinin değerlendirilmesinde kullanılan en yaygın değerlendirme yöntemlerinden birisidir. Bu nedenle, öğrencilerin sınavlarda başarılı olmasına yardımcı olabilecek faktörlerin incelenmesi önemli bir durumdur. Bu çalışmanın amacı, üniversite öğrencilerinin sınav motivasyonlarını ölçmek amacıyla Wolf ve Smith tarafından geliştirilen, Sundre, Sundre ve Finney tarafından revize edilen Öğrenci Görüşü Ölçeğinin (ÖGÖ) Türk örneklem üzerinde psikometrik özelliklerini incelemektir. Orijinal adı “The Student Opinion Scale” (SOS) olan ölçek, Önem (Importance) ve Çaba (Effort) olarak adlandırılan iki alt boyuttan ve 10 maddeden oluşmaktadır. Ölçeğin Türkçe formu, Eğitim Fakültesinde öğrenim gören 300 öğrenciye uygulanmıştır. Ölçeğin psikometrik özelliklerini inceleyebilmek amacıyla iç tutarlılık, madde analizi ve açımlayıcı faktör analizi ile doğrulayıcı faktör analizi çalışmaları yapılmıştır. Açımlayıcı faktör analizi ve doğrulayıcı faktör analizleri sonucunda orijinal ölçekte olduğu gibi ölçeğin iki faktörlü yapıya sahip olduğu görülmüştür. Ölçeğin Türkçe formu için Cronbach alfa iç tutarlık katsayısı birinci alt boyut (Önem) için .72, ikinci alt boyut (Çaba) için .82 olarak bulunmuştur. Ölçeğin tamamı için Cronbach alfa iç tutarlık katsayısı ise .74 olarak bulunmuştur. Yapılan analiz sonuçları, ölçeğin orijinal iki faktörlü yapısının Türk örneklem için uygun olduğunu göstermiştir. Bu durumda ölçeğin Türk örneklem grubunun sınav motivasyonlarının belirlenmesinde kullanılabilecek, geçerli ve güvenilir bir araç olduğu söylenebilir.

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