Defining critical thinking as a conscious process means that teachers can make students aware of the process and can affect the process. In addition, teachers can help students to evaluate their use of the process. The goal in any course is to involve students in the practice of critical thinking, and the oral exam reflects the students'…

A group's average test score is often used to evaluate different educational approaches, curricula, teachers, and schools. Studies of group test scores over time often try to measure "value-added" by holding constant certain student characteristics such as race, parents' education, or socioeconomic status; however, the important…

Instruments and methods are considered by many the nuts and bolts of school testing programs, for both individuals and groups. Too often, the individual is lost in the machinery of such a school program, and data collected becomes the end product of appraisal and assessment. Programs of student appraisal procedures should be developed around eight…

Presents examples of how regular classroom-based assessment can be incorporated into foreign language classroom activities, without compromising teaching and learning time, through methods involving student self-assessment, improved assessment tools, small-group practice and testing, and multiple use of standard forms and materials. (CB)

Because of an increasing quality concern for higher education, additional attention is being paid to new educational principles with a more student- and competence-centred vision. Project-based education is one of the learning environments congruent with these principles. Ideally, the students in this learning environment are assessed by suitable…

This study attempted to determine whether sufficiently strong relationships existed between listening comprehension level and intelligence (as measured by individual tests) for the former to be used as a predictor of the latter. Ten boys and 10 girls randomly selected from each of grades 1, 3, and 5 were given the individually-administered…

The research project presented in this article was set in the Swedish school context and carried out on a set of compulsory national tests for English, Swedish, and mathematics used at the end of compulsory school. The aims were: (a) to gain a deeper knowledge of the internal structure of the tests and (b) to separate individual performance from…

A study demonstrated the feasibility, reliability and validity of a computer-administered intelligence test. The computer-based test (Slosson Intelligence Test) was compared with a conventional examiner-administered test given to the same college students within the same week. In addition it was evaluated as a predictor of college grade point…

This paper looks at using collective critical thinking about issues as an assessment technique instead of or in addition to written tests. A substantial literature review examines the role of assessment and alternative strategies such as group oral exams in classes where cooperative activities and learning have been emphasized. The review reveals…

The present experiment was designed to vary observation and evaluation independently of each other in an orthogonal design. (Author)

Examined how well three measures, representing points on a traditional-alternative mathematics assessment continuum, discriminated fourth graders achieving above, at, and below grade level, and how cooperative testing affected performance assessment. Found strong discriminative validity for the more traditional measures but not for performance…

Selective Testing provides students with equivalent test options that control the sequence and quantification of individual items. Essay and objective test construction is modified to allow the student to combine units and create an individualized test. An example of a test on the American Revolution is presented. (FG)