Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on September 20, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 119-121)

Mental health professionals tend to have a clinical perspective that is dependent upon Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV-TR (DSM-IV) criteria for a differential diagnosis. School-based clinicians are bound by regulations governing special education placement established by Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). While both sets of clinicians generate diagnostic recommendations for students, the guidelines and criteria are not of parallel descriptors. AS is only a diagnosis provided for in DSM-IV. Non-verbal learning disability (NVLD) and high functioning autism (HFA) are addressed in both DSM-IV and IDEA. The dilemma presented to clinicians is intertwining the terminology of both fields in order to provide a more concise and meaningful diagnosis for the students who are being served. Although school-based and mental-health clinicians provide services for students, the criteria employed may differ. Essentially, the descriptors that are applied to Asperger's Syndrome (AS) and NVLD are similar and may only differ in the criteria used by different discipline affiliations. Upon review of the literature, there seems to be some question about the different clinical perspectives and diagnosis that may emerge. The criteria used for disability identification is often based upon discipline affiliation. Bashe and Kirby (2000) suggest that psychiatrists may identify students with AS while an education-based organization might suggest a learning disability and yet, a speech and language pathologist might refer to the same set of characteristics as a semantic-pragmatic disorder or an audiologist would refer to a central auditory processing disorder. Furthermore, Bashe and Kirby felt that the "specialist" generally sees and identifies the facet of AS that pertains to their area of expertise. While identification is a critical component of planning intervention, service delivery of both AS and NVLD students are relegated to educators and the school-based program. Therefore, the terminology employed to identify a disability must be applicable to the school setting. The literature often refers to AS in a hyphenated context with HFA. Rather than there being a consistent diagnostic category of AS, AS is often joined with HFA as a means of describing symptoms that transcend characteristics of autism but still have similarities with students classified as having autism. There is also a considerable amount of literature that differentiates the two terms and refers to AS and HFA as two distinct disabilities. Furthermore, there is a great deal of conjecture regarding AS as a type of learning disability. This study will ascertain whether there is agreement between disciplines in diagnosis of AS and NVLD, whether or not there is consistency between and among disciplines regarding the importance of specific characteristics of the two disabilities, and the application of these characteristics when rendering a diagnosis and intervention recommendations. While the results of this study did not demonstrate an interaction between diagnosis and professional discipline affiliation, it did demonstrate that the rate of correct diagnosis for AS was significantly higher than that of NVLD and autism. An alternative conclusion is that AS is overly diagnosed and impacting the rate of correct diagnosis for NVLD and autism. While there was an association between the elements used for clinical diagnosis of both autism and AS, there was a demonstrable correlation of service delivery models for both NVLD and AS and a departure of similarities in service delivery between AS and autism. Implications of these results are discussed in greater detail.

Book Summary: The new edition integrates thirteen critical themes that are foundational to the field today: the importance of children’s literacy development, teaching in increasingly diverse classrooms, applying developmentally appropriate practice, closing the achievement gaps between children in poverty and those that are more economically advantaged, integrating special education and early childhood education, teaching in an inclusive classroom, closing school readiness gaps, meeting the challenges of teacher accountability, integrating STEM subjects into the curriculum, providing for children’s mental health, using technology to support learners, developing as a professional, and guiding children’s behavior to promote personal responsibility. The new edition retains the engaging style that has made the book so popular and provides practical examples of authentic teaching practices used by master teachers around the country. Its strong coverage of development in the age-specific chapters and its emphasis on diversity make it the leading book in the field. The Enhanced Pearson eText features embedded video, video analysis exercises, and assessments.

Thesis (M.Tech. (Information Technology, Faculty of Applied and Computer Sciences))--Vaal University of Technology, 2006 / The sole purpose of a test is to make a measurement. Assessment is very much a process of measurement, whether the outcome is used for baseline, diagnostic, formative or summative purposes. When measurement is taken, in whatever form, a score is obtained. The score that is obtained forms the important part of assessment, because this score determines the outcome of the assessment, the decisions that are to be made regarding the student’s progress, curriculum changes and the evaluation of a course as a whole. Although a score is obtained from a test, the analysis thereof is frequently much neglected. The use of computers in education is not a new concept. The first computer application goes back a long way when computers were first used to do psychological testing. It then became clear that computers can be applied to more fields in education, especially in the field of testing. In the early days real progress was slow, since computers were expensive and were only used in large companies. However, the scenario has changed with the widespread availability of personal computers that has enabled educators to focus on the appropriate role of computerisation in the development, administration, scoring and interpretation of tests. The main objective of this study is to show the major advantage of using computers as a comprehensive assessment tool and to demonstrate the ability to construct and ‘bank’ test items to subsequently produce a standardised test. An added advantage was the computer’s ability to administer tests to students and manage student progress records. The research findings indicate that a Comprehensive Computer-Assisted Assessment Tool (CCAT) has the potential to contribute to the enhancement of assessment and that it can enable educators to prepare valid, reliable and fair test items which were more difficult and time-consuming without technology.

<p>The diversity embodying South Africa has emphasized the importance and influence of language in education and thus the additive bilingual programme is being implemented in the Eastern Cape by the ABLE project in order to realize the South African Language in education policy (LEiP). In accordance with this, the Woodcock Munoz Language Survey (which specializes in measuring cognitive academic language proficiency) was chosen as one of the instruments to evaluate the language outcomes of the programme and was adapted into South African English and isiXhosa. The current study was a subset of the ABLE project, and was located within the bigger project dealing with the translation of the WMLS into isiXhosa and the successive research on the equivalence of the two language versions. This study evaluated the structural equivalence of the English and isiXhosa versions of the WMLS on matched sample groups (n= 150 in each language group). Thus secondary data analysis (SDA) was conducted by analyzing the data in SPSS as well as CEFA (Comprehensive Exploratory Factor Analysis). The original data set was purposively sampled according to set selection criteria and consists of English and isiXhosa first language learners. The study sought to confirm previous research by cross-validating the results of structural equivalence on two subscales, namely the Verbal Analogies (VA) and Letter-Word Identification (LWI) subscale. The research design reflects psychometric test theory and is therefore located in a bias and equivalence theoretical framework. The results of the exploratory factor analysis found that one can only accept structural equivalence in the first factor identified in the VA subscale, while structural equivalence was found in the factor for the LWI subscale. The use of scatter-plots to validate the results of the exploratory factor analysis indicated that one can tentatively accept these results. The study thus contributed to the literature on the translation of the WMLS, and the adaptation of language tests into the indigenous languages of South Africa,as well as additive bilingual programmes.</p>

<p>The diversity embodying South Africa has emphasized the importance and influence of language in education and thus the additive bilingual programme is being implemented in the Eastern Cape by the ABLE project in order to realize the South African Language in education policy (LEiP). In accordance with this, the Woodcock Munoz Language Survey (which specializes in measuring cognitive academic language proficiency) was chosen as one of the instruments to evaluate the language outcomes of the programme and was adapted into South African English and isiXhosa. The current study was a subset of the ABLE project, and was located within the bigger project dealing with the translation of the WMLS into isiXhosa and the successive research on the equivalence of the two language versions. This study evaluated the structural equivalence of the English and isiXhosa versions of the WMLS on matched sample groups (n= 150 in each language group). Thus secondary data analysis (SDA) was conducted by analyzing the data in SPSS as well as CEFA (Comprehensive Exploratory Factor Analysis). The original data set was purposively sampled according to set selection criteria and consists of English and isiXhosa first language learners. The study sought to confirm previous research by cross-validating the results of structural equivalence on two subscales, namely the Verbal Analogies (VA) and Letter-Word Identification (LWI) subscale. The research design reflects psychometric test theory and is therefore located in a bias and equivalence theoretical framework. The results of the exploratory factor analysis found that one can only accept structural equivalence in the first factor identified in the VA subscale, while structural equivalence was found in the factor for the LWI subscale. The use of scatter-plots to validate the results of the exploratory factor analysis indicated that one can tentatively accept these results. The study thus contributed to the literature on the translation of the WMLS, and the adaptation of language tests into the indigenous languages of South Africa,as well as additive bilingual programmes.</p>

The main aim of this thesis is to analyse the extent of the acquired map skills of pupils in Slovak primary and secondary schools in three age categories (11, 15 and 18 years old); and then to compare the results with similar research conducted in the Czechia. The individual characteristics such as age, gender, and mark are taken into account whilst evaluating the results. These affected the overall performance of students in the test of their map skills. The thesis is firstly describing theoretical views of skills and then describes specific pupils' map skills. Then it characterizes curricular documents of Slovakia and compares them with curricular documents of the Czechia. Furthermore, it also concentrates on results of content analysis of map skills contained in the Slovak and Czech curricular documents, embodiments Hanus (2012). The following section specifies the didactic test of map skills and is dedicated to the analysis of respondents. The research part of the thesis has research sample which is evaluated from a number of indicators such as gender, age, grade, popularity of the subject of Geography, and the type of school attended. The practical part describes the use of a statistical model to verify the data collected. Moreover, it also interprets the results and compares the results from...

Der Test of Economic Literacy ist nach derzeitiger Quellenlage der wohl am häufigsten eingesetzte Test für die Identifikation von wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Kenntnissen und Fertigkeiten im englischsprachigen Raum. Das grundlegende Verständnis von Wirtschaftswissen wird mithilfe eines individuellen Messkonzeptes überprüft, welches mehrere Themenbereiche der Volkswirtschaften berührt. Zusätzlich erfolgt eine taxonomische Zuordnung der Lernziele auf den verschiedenen Inklusionsstufen nach Bloom. Im Laufe der Zeit haben sich ebenso in Deutschland eine Reihe weiterer Testverfahren und Studien zur Vermessung der Ökonomischen Bildung herausgebildet, welche jedoch größtenteils nicht die gewünschte Akzeptanz mit sich bringen. In diesem Beitrag sollen die Konzeption und die historische Entwicklung des Test of Economy Literacy betrachtet werden, um eine solide Grundlage für die Konzeption weiterer Tests zu gewinnen.:1 Versuche der Vermessung in der ökonomischen Bildung 2 Der Test of Economic Literacy im Überblick 2.1 Anliegen und Anwendungsbereich 2.2 Entstehung und Weiterentwicklung 2.3 Inhalt und Aufbau 2.4 Durchführung 3 Die Auflagen des Test of Economic Literacy im diachronen Vergleich 3.1 Formale Änderungen: Zahl der Multiple-Choice Fragen und der Ankeritems 3.2 Sprachliche Änderungen 3.3 Testkritische Änderungen 3.4 Inhaltliche Änderungen 4 Resümee und Ausblick Literaturverzeichnis