Accounting for Rater Effects With the Hierarchical Rater Model Framework When Scoring Simple Structured Constructed Response Tests

Many large‐scale assessments are designed to yield two or more scores for an individual by administering multiple sections measuring different but related skills. Multidimensional tests, or more specifically, simple structured tests, such as these rely on multiple multiple‐choice and/or constructed responses sections of items to generate multiple scores. In the current article, we propose an extension of the hierarchical rater model (HRM) to be applied with simple structured tests with constructed response items. In addition to modeling the appropriate trait structure, the multidimensional HRM (M‐HRM) presented here also accounts for rater severity bias and rater variability or inconsistency. We introduce the model formulation, test parameter recovery with a focus on latent traits, and compare the M‐HRM to other scoring approaches (unidimensional HRMs and a traditional multidimensional item response theory model) using simulated and empirical data. Results show more precise scores under the M‐HRM, with a major improvement in scores when incorporating rater effects versus ignoring them in the traditional multidimensional item response theory model.     

The state and higher education in Colombia

The development of higher education in Colombia is discussed in terms of its recent quantitative expansion and the accompanying qualitative differentiation. Beginning in 1980 with the University Reform of that year, the state sought to give shape to the system by policies intended (i) to improve its organization (ii) to expand it on more democratic lines and (iii) to improve its quality. The authors discuss the developments which marked attempts to implement these aims. Two critical policy areas emerged—the funding of the system and the administration of the public sector part of it. Current debates are analysed and the authors provide pointers to possible future developments including the development of a highly stratified system with little interaction between the top and the bottom.     

Everyday life and everyday learning: the ways in which pre-service teacher education curriculum can encourage personal dimensions of teacher identity

This article presents and discusses the findings of a research project, the main objective of which is to identify curriculum components that promote personal development as a nuclear part of teacher professional identity formation through pre-service teacher education. Curriculum is viewed as an ecological scenario with different subsystems and both as formal and informal. Identity formation is conceived as an ever-provisional result of a double transaction: the biographical one and the relational one. The curricula of four different historical periods of pre-service teacher education in Portugal and the professional identity of teachers trained within them were characterised through collection and analysis of documents and biographical narratives. Crossing results from the four periods, the quality of school climate emerges as an important variable to the quality of the teachers’ identity. The lifelong learning ethos seems to emerge when the training curriculum connects everyday learning with everyday life, namely by urging the students’ involvement in school life, peer learning activities and peer and teacher educators’ informal learning activities.     

Are teachers’ approaches to teaching responsive to individual student variation? A two-level structural equation modeling

In the framework of teacher’s approaches to teaching, this study investigates the relationship between student-related variables (i.e., study time, class absence, domain knowledge, and homework completion), students’ approaches to learning, and teachers’ approaches to teaching using structural equation modeling (SEM) with two independent data samples. The participants were 61 biology teachers and their corresponding 1,518 high school students (12th grade). The first sample was used to fit the model, and the second sample was used to analyze the consistency of the data derived from the first sample. Using a two-level SEM analysis, we established whether the effects found at the individual level varied significantly at class level. The students’ approaches to learning were related to the teachers’ approaches to teaching as a function of the hypotheses established in the model, although the effect size was smaller than expected. However, approximately 48 % of the variance of the surface approach and 46 % of the deep approach sat at class level. At the individual level, the results of this study suggest that students’ approaches to learning significantly explain their teachers’ approaches to teaching and, thus, constitute important contextual variables. At the class level, the way students learn appears to be closely associated with class-related variables. Our data stresses the importance of promoting educational opportunities (e.g., school-based courses) for teachers to reflect upon the teaching methodologies used in class.     

Could HPS Improve Problem-Solving?

It is generally accepted nowadays that History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) is useful in understanding scientific concepts, theories and even some experiments. Problem-solving strategies are a significant topic, since students’ careers depend on their skill to solve problems. These are the reasons for addressing the question of whether problem solving could be improved by means of HPS. Three typical problems in introductory courses of mechanics—the inclined plane, the simple pendulum and the Atwood machine—are taken as the object of the present study. The solving strategies of these problems in the eighteenth and nineteenth century constitute the historical component of the study. Its philosophical component stems from the foundations of mechanics research literature. The use of HPS leads us to see those problems in a different way. These different ways can be tested, for which experiments are proposed. The traditional solving strategies for the incline and pendulum problems are adequate for some situations but not in general. The recourse to apparent weights in the Atwood machine problem leads us to a new insight and a solving strategy for composed Atwood machines. Educational implications also concern the development of logical thinking by means of the variety of lines of thought provided by HPS.     

Maternal schooling and children’s relative inequalities in developmental outcomes: evidence from the 1947 school leaving age reform in Britain

This paper investigates whether mothers’ participation in post‐compulsory education impacts on children’s relative inequalities across four developmental outcomes. The empirical analysis uses information from children born in 1958 in Britain. Mothers of the 1958 British cohort were affected by the 1947 school leaving age reform, which increased the age of compulsory schooling from 14 to 15 years. We selected the first‐born cohort members whose mothers were born in 1933 and 1934 and whose mothers completed compulsory schooling only. We found that the additional year of maternal schooling was significantly associated with relative improvements in mathematics attainment for their children, but no significant differences for reading or behavioural outcomes. The impact on mathematics was mainly for boys. These results suggest wider dispersion in mathematics attainment between sons whose mothers benefited from the additional year of schooling in 1947 and those whose mothers did not.     

The Need for Change in Elementary‐school Teacher Training: the force concept as an example

Do students in preservice training programmes for elementary‐school teachers hold the correct scientific views which will eventually allow them to plan and implement instructional strategies which, in turn, will lead their future pupils to achieve a scientific concept of force? The results of a cross‐college age study dealing with this issue are discussed. The force conceptions of the students were analysed by means of a two‐part written questionnaire which was presented to them during the first week of the second semester. The most important findings of this study will be of interest to many elementary‐school teacher educators.