At 07:42 AM 11/14/01 -0800, Carl Huberty wrote: >I, too, prefer closed-book tests in statistical methods courses. I also >like short-answer items, some of which may be multiple-choice >items. [Please don't gripe that all multiple-choice items assess only >memory recall; such items, if constructed well, may be very helpful in >assessing learning!] I think that a very important aspect of evaluation >of student performance and knowledge pertains to variability; variability >in the sense of class performance. If assessment of student learning does >not reflect some variability in student performance, there is a very >serious problem with the assessment process used!
good point ... and, EVEN if every student came in with the same identical ability (say math skill) ... there is no way that whatever happens in the course will equally impact all of the students so ... even then, course performance measures (tests, projects, etc.) should reflect some non trivial variation of course, if the above were true, then there would be LESS variation than when (as is typical) students have a fairly wide range (even in upper level courses) of ability AND added to that impacting on variation in course performance measures, will be the differential impact of the course itself ... in NO case that i can think of, no realistic case that is, would we have any expectation that there would be 0 variance in course performance measures now, some might say ... well, what if we were "mastery" oriented in the course .... could it not be true that at the end of the course ... everyone has mastered all the required skills? the simple answer to this is NO ... if you find that all the scores at the end are the same ... then your measures did NOT have adequate ceiling ... and, you are missing detecting the "more mastery" that some students had over others you might think they are equal but, clearly they are not _________________________________________________________ dennis roberts, educational psychology, penn state university 208 cedar, AC 8148632401, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://roberts.ed.psu.edu/users/droberts/drober~1.htm ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list and remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES are available at http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ =================================================================
