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The purpose of this study is to isolate sources of difficulty in standardized reading comprehension tests. Prior research has isolated at least two sources of difficulty: Passage Factors, and Question Factors (Katz & Lautenschlager, 2001). The current study seeks to extend the two conditions of the Katz & Lautenschlager (2001) study to further identify sources of reading comprehension complexity.
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We hypothesize that differences in item difficulty should be detected for identical items presented under various conditions of passage availability. The conditions include the following passage availabilities: 1) Passage presented alone and then removed when questions are presented (P – Q) 2) Passage presented alone and then questions are added (passage stays) (P – PQ) 3) Passage presented simultaneously with questions (PQ) 4) No passage is presented – Questions are presented alone (Q) |
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The purpose of this study is to identify strategies commonly used to solve text-based multiple choice reading comprehension items commonly found on standardized educational tests. Several strategies for solving these types of problems are presented in test preparation books, test preparation courses, and even test company web pages. Eye tracking data currently being collected provides collateral information about student selection and use of these strategies that may be useful in the development and validation of an item processing model. Further, subgroup differences will be examined to identify trends that may exist in expert-novice strategy selection.
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Eye tracking data can be used to replicate
the location and duration of subject gazes at the reading comprehension
problem. Three primary gaze zones are isolated, each corresponding to one
of the three item components: 1) Passage, 2) Question, 3) Response
options.
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The purpose of this study is twofold. First, this study aims to provide evidence for construct validity of the TIMSS-1999 mathematics test for Taiwanese eighth graders. This will involve verification of a set of cognitive attributes including component-processes, strategies, and knowledge structures students must possess to correctly solve items of the TIMSS-1999 mathematics test. Research with the TIMSS items for other countries has identified a set of attributes that appears to adequately describe student performance for several other countries (K. K. Tatsuoka, Corter & Guerrero, 2003) The study in this stage will validate the nature of the TIMSS-1999 mathematics test for the Taiwanese student population. Second, this study examines the knowledge states most populated by the Taiwanese students to determine which cognitive attributes Taiwanese students master or not master. A portion of this analysis will be devoted to comparing differences in knowledge states across genders and achievement levels within the Taiwanese population.
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The rule-space methodology is a diagnostic assessment data analysis program designed to provide accurate feedback to groups and individuals regarding skill mastery (Tatsuoka, 1985, 1995). Its approach begins with an evaluation of skills needed to correctly solve a problem, utilizing a Boolean procedure to provide all possible combinations of mastered skills. Based on the similarity of individuals response patterns and response patterns specified for a particular mastery states, the location of an individual within the problem space can be identified. Once an individual has been located in the knowledge/problem space, information regarding the mastered and non-mastered skill lists can provide useful information for feedback to the individual, classroom, school, or district. |
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Gorin, J. S. (2006). Using alternative data sources to inform item difficulty modeling. Paper presented in organized symposium at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the National Council on Educational Measurement, San Francisco, CA.
Chen, Y.-H., Gorin, J. S., Thompson, M. S., & Tatsuoka, K. (2006). Verification of cognitive attributes required to solve the TIMSS-1999 mathematics items for Taiwanese students. Paper presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.
Gorin, J. S., & Embretson, S. E. (in press) Item Difficulty Modeling of Paragraph Comprehension Items. To appear in Applied Psychological Measurement.
Gorin, J. S. (2005). Manipulation of processing difficulty on reading comprehension test questions: A step towards item generation. To appear in Winter 2005 Journal of Educational Measurement.
Gorin, J. S. (2004). Modeling Reading Comprehension-Test Questions: Onward Toward Item Generation. Presented at the 2004 Meeting of the International Congress in Psychology, Beijing China.
Gorin, J. S., & Chen, Y. (2004). Manipulation of processing difficulty on reading comprehension test questions: A step towards item generation. Presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.
Joanna S. Gorin (Director)
Angela Argo (Research Assistant)
Yi-Hsin Chen (Research Assistant)
Dubravka Svetina (Research Assistant)
