Recent studies suggest that testing on prior material enhances subsequent learning of new material. Although such forward testing effect has received extensive empirical support, it is not yet clear how testing facilitates subsequent learning. One possible explanation suggests that interim testing informs learners about the format of an upcoming…

This booklet is a conceptual introduction to item response theory (IRT), which many large-scale testing programs use for constructing and scoring their tests. Although IRT is essentially mathematical, the approach here is nonmathematical, in order to serve as an introduction on the topic for people who want to understand why IRT is used and what…

Computer-based and web-based testing have become increasingly popular in recent years. Their popularity has dramatically expanded the availability of response time data. Compared to the conventional item response data that are often dichotomous or polytomous, response time has the advantage of being continuous and can be collected in an…

Some impediments in language learning may have a detrimental impact on learners' actual performance on the test and lead to anxiety and demotivation. Language achievement is influenced by self-assessment (SA), academic resilience (AR), academic motivation (AM), and test-taking skills (T-TS) among other factors. Considering the relevance of these…

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is an important target of science teacher knowledge assessment. Most studies that have assessed the PCK across a large sample of science teachers used a text-based approach to elicit and assess the more declarative and static form of teachers' PCK. Recently, small-scale qualitative studies have adopted a novel…

This study used Latent Growth Curve Modeling (LGCM) to examine the overtime patterns of the score and test-taking strategy changes in an international high-stakes standardized proficiency test. To this end, the test records of 178 Iranian IELTS repeaters were analyzed, using close- and open-ended questionnaires to measure test scores as a function…

Although student academic support programs have dated back to Early Colleges in America, the way we service our students' populations has had to evolve. Various student support programs have been utilized over the years, and while at that current time may have indicated benefits, are now outdated. One service that is demonstrating success is…

How is it possible to create and continuously improve a quality learning environment for our students? We present our one-year course on engineering thermodynamics as a case study in which we investigate the learning environment based on a competency model from the students' perspective. Based on the analysis of our course structure and exam…

Written answers to open-ended questions can have a higher long-term effect on learning than multiple-choice questions. However, it is critical that teachers immediately review the answers, and ask to redo those that are incoherent. This can be a difficult task and can be time-consuming for teachers. A possible solution is to automate the detection…

Test-taking strategies are discussed in the literature as an important factor affecting test scores and are recommended to be taken into consideration regarding the validity of tests. Although studies have been conducted for more than a quarter century, no agreement has been reached on the dimensions of test-taking strategies. The purpose of this…

Background: In testing contexts that are predominately concerned with power, rapid guessing (RG) has the potential to undermine the validity of inferences made from educational assessments, as such responses are unreflective of the knowledge, skills, and abilities assessed. Given this concern, practitioners/researchers have utilized a multitude of…

Preservice elementary teachers (PSTs) prepare for various standardized assessments, such as the Praxis® licensure assessment. However, there is little research on test-taking behavior and test-taking strategies for this examinee population. A common belief and instruction given in some test preparation materials is that examinees should stick to…

Cognitive psychologists have found that taking practice tests improves students' learning, and some claim that tests that require recall are more effective than those that require recognition. This study examined whether recognition (i.e., multiple-choice) quizzes were as effective as cued-recall (i.e., fill-in-the-blank) quizzes for improving…

Studies have shown that test-takers tend to use keyword-matching strategies when taking listening tests. Keyword-matching involves matching content words in the written modality (test items) against those heard in the audio text. However, no research has investigated the effect of such keywords in listening tests, or the impact of gazing upon…

The prevalence of school-based healthcare has increased markedly over the past decade. We study a modern mode of school-based healthcare, telemedicine, that offers the potential to reach places and populations with historically low access to such care. School-based telemedicine clinics (SBTCs) provide students with access to healthcare during the…