Abstract
Beginning with a procedure that bypasses the linear-dependency problem with alternative-answer scoring, this chapter proposes a way to use large-scale testing for both summative (administrative) and formative (diagnostic) purposes. It builds a model for the dynamics of learning using an adaptation of the multinomial procedure to obtain estimates of the proportion of variability explained. This alternative to current test scoring is based on cross-tabulating all answers. It trebles the information available from large-scale testing. Interview-based interpretations and actual student responses are used to provide examples of learning patterns derived from response evaluation interpretation. Illustrations of how RSE scoring can inform teaching are presented.
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Notes
- 1.
A program for this analysis is available from Better Schooling and Information Systems (P.O. Box 12833, Pittsburgh, PA 15241). A book, Making Peasants into Kings. (Powell, 2009), which describes this discovery anecdotally with classroom application illustrations is also available from this source.
- 2.
Children younger than 10 years of age found this survey too difficult to answer.
- 3.
Notice the D to D stability continues vertically all the way to the top of the chart in Figure 3.4.
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Acknowledgments
A previous version of this chapter was presented at the IADIS International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2008), Freiburg, Germany.
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Powell, J. (2010). Testing as Feedback to Inform Teaching. In: Spector, J., Ifenthaler, D., Isaias, P., Kinshuk, Sampson, D. (eds) Learning and Instruction in the Digital Age. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1551-1_3
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