Linda Crocker

Systematic Study of Planned Variations: The Essential Focus of Teacher Education Reform

Systematic study of planned variations should be the focus in teacher education reform rather than development of a common model. A review of research comparing professional and academic education is presented to illustrate the lack of support for a specific teacher edu cation model.

Improving Multiple-Choice Test Performance for Examinees with Different Levels of Test Anxiety

The effectiveness of a strategy for improving per formance on multiple-choice items for examinees was assessed. An aptitude-treatment interaction model was used to test the possibility of different treatment effects for examinees with different levels of test anxiety. Un dergraduate measurement students responded to the Mandler-Sarason Test Anxiety Scale and to an objective test covering course content. For low-anxious exam inees, generation of an answer before selecting a multi ple-choice response led to higher test performance; for highly test anxious examinees, there was a slightly nega tive effect on performance.

The Effects of Item Format and Reading Ability on Objective Test Performance: a Question of Validity

As achievement in basic reading skills declines, the content validity of tests in special subjects (e.g., science or social studies) may be reduced because examinees cannot read the test items. This empirical study was designed to investigate the influence of reading ability and item format on objective test performance. Subjects were ninth- and tenth-grade students in a basic health science course, randomly assigned to a true-false, multiple choice, or matching testing condition. Results indicated that both reading ability and item format significantly influenced test performance. Examinees performed best on items presented in a matching format. Implications were drawn for evaluating content validity.

Achievement, Guessing, and Risk-Taking Behavior Under Norm Referenced and Criterion Referenced Testing Conditions

This experimental study was designed to determine whether the levels of guessing, risk-taking, or achievement could vary under norm referenced or criterion referenced testing conditions. Subjects were 156 students in an introductory measurement course, systematically assigned to a norm referenced or criterion referenced testing condition. Scores on guessing, risk-taking, achievement under penalty, and achievement without penalty-for-guessing were obtained using a multiple choice procedure suggested by Slakter (1967). Results of multivariate and univariate analysis of variance indicated that students tested under the norm referenced condition earned higher achievement scores than those tested under criterion referenced conditions. A significant relationship was observed between risk-taking and achievement only under the criterion referenced condition.