Understanding Test and Exam Results Statistically
Understanding Test and Exam Results Statistically

Author: Kaycheng Soh

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-08-09

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 9811015813

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This book shares the goal of the classic text How to Lie with Statistics, namely, preventing and correcting statistical misconceptions that are common among practitioners, though its focus is on the educational context. It illustrates and discusses the essentials of educational statistics that will help educational practitioners to do this part of their job properly, i.e., without making conceptual mistakes. The examples are cast in the school/classroom contexts, based on realistic rather than theoretical examples. “The strongest aspect of the work or author’s view is that the author can put himself in the shoes of teachers and make the work a very practical guide for teachers and school leaders. As a very experienced educator and researcher, the author knows very well about the knowledge skills that are essential for the professional development of teachers. He is able to explain the statistical and measurement concepts in plain language and with examples that are highly relevant to the target audience. In addition, the author also conveyed an important message to the target audience throughout the work... by pointing out the mistakes and misunderstandings of the interpretation of test scores and measurement design. The author reminds the audience about the importance of proper use of tests and test scores when teachers and school leaders make any education decisions, which has much implication on the professional integrity of teachers and school leaders.” Dr. Joyce Kwan, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong “This book covers all the statistical tools for analyzing educational data and provides examples to explain the ideas. Chapters 10-17 are practical data analysis in educational data that helps readers have a better understanding of the procedure to analyze the data.” Dr. Alpha Ling, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong “It looks like a very interesting book with attractive topics and practical problems in educational statistics. Though the topics remind me of the classic book How to Lie with Statistics, this book aims at preventing and correcting statistical misconceptions in educational context.” Dr. Zhu Ying, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

World University Rankings: Statistical Issues And Possible Remedies
World University Rankings: Statistical Issues And Possible Remedies

Author: Kay Cheng Soh

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2017-03-08

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 9813200812

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World university ranking started one and a half decades ago for the purpose of understanding what makes an excellent institution of higher education. Subsequent to the appearance of the Academic Ranking of World Universities at the Shanghai Jiaotong University, there soon emerged the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. These three ranking systems are considered the classics as they are the fore-runners, although no less than ten new systems have come to the arena.The various ranking systems adopt a common approach of weight-and-sum to process the indicator data. Each system, somewhat arbitrarily, decides on a set of indicators and assigns different weights to these, presumably reflecting their relative importance. This simple (and simplistic) approach meets well common sense. And, in fact, much of the discussion on world university rankings is conducted at the commonsensical level.However, analyses conducted in the recent years uncovered several problems of the prevalent approach: spurious precision, mutual compensation, weight discrepancy, indicator redundancy, etc., which render the overall scores and ranking suspect in terms of validity. These are due to systems ignoring the fact that world university rankings are a form of social measurement and therefore need be seen from this perspective.Moreover, rankings encourage competition and, in the highly competitive world of today, it is natural that institutional attention is focused on the ranking results. By now, the original purpose of world university ranking seems to have been overshadowed, and world university rankings look more like international academic contests, as though they are annual sports meets.This monograph collects together many articles pertaining to the identified measurement and statistical issues of world university rankings and suggests remedies to make ranking results more trustworthy.

Understanding Statistical Concepts Using S-plus
Understanding Statistical Concepts Using S-plus

Author: Randall E. Schumacker

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2001-03-01

Total Pages: 407

ISBN-13: 1135657033

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Written as a supplemental text for an introductory or intermediate statistics course, this book is organized along the lines of many popular statistics texts. The chapters provide a good conceptual understanding of basic statistics and include exercises that use S-PLUS simulation programs. Each chapter lists a set of objectives and a summary. The book offers a rich insight into how probability has shaped statistical procedures in the behavioral sciences, as well as a brief history behind the creation of various statistics. Computational skills are kept to a minimum by including S-PLUS programs that run the exercises in the chapters. Students are not required to master the writing of S-PLUS programs, but explanations of how the programs work and program output are included in each chapter. S-PLUS is an advanced statistical package that has an extensive library of functions, which offer flexibility in writing customized routines. The S-PLUS functions provide the capability of programming object and dialog windows, which are commonly used in Windows software applications. The S-PLUS program also contains pull-down menus for the statistical analysis of data. A ZIP file containing programs that work in S-PLUS 6.2 for use with this book is available for download from http://www.psypress.com/resources/9780805836233.zip - please note that these scripts will only run in S-PLUS 6.2 and not later versions due to changes in the programming language syntax.

Portfolio Assessment for the Teaching and Learning of Writing
Portfolio Assessment for the Teaching and Learning of Writing

Author: Ricky Lam

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-06-26

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 9811311749

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This book provides teachers, instructors, scholars, and administrators with a practical guide to implement portfolio assessment of writing in their work contexts. Unlike most existing volumes, which underscore theory building, it describes and discusses several key issues concerning how portfolio assessment can be carried out in authentic classrooms with a focus on its processes, reflective components, task types and design, scoring methods and actionable recommendations.

Teaching and Testing Interpreting and Translating
Teaching and Testing Interpreting and Translating

Author: Valerie Pellatt

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 9783039118922

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The book presents a range of theoretical and practical approaches to the teaching of the twin professions of interpreting and translating, covering a variety of language pairs. All aspects of the training process are addressed - from detailed word-level processing to student concerns with their careers, and from the setting of examinations to the standardisation of marking. The articles show very clearly the strengths and needs, the potential and vision of interpreter and translator training as it exists in countries around the world. The experience of the authors, who are all actively engaged in training interpreters and translators, demonstrates the innovative, practical and reflective approaches which are proving invaluable in the formation of the next generation of professional translators and interpreters. While many of them are being trained in universities, they are being prepared for a life in the real world of business and politics through the use of authentic texts and tools and up-to-date methodology.

Statistics, Testing, and Defense Acquisition
Statistics, Testing, and Defense Acquisition

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1998-05-08

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0309174198

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For every weapons system being developed, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) must make a critical decision: Should the system go forward to full-scale production? The answer to that question may involve not only tens of billions of dollars but also the nation's security and military capabilities. In the milestone process used by DOD to answer the basic acquisition question, one component near the end of the process is operational testing, to determine if a system meets the requirements for effectiveness and suitability in realistic battlefield settings. Problems discovered at this stage can cause significant production delays and can necessitate costly system redesign. This book examines the milestone process, as well as the DOD's entire approach to testing and evaluating defense systems. It brings to the topic of defense acquisition the application of scientific statistical principles and practices.

Creativity Fostering Teacher Behavior: Measurement And Research
Creativity Fostering Teacher Behavior: Measurement And Research

Author: Kay Cheng Soh

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2018-02-12

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9813234172

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This book deals with teachers' behaviors that promote the creativity of students. It includes a rating scale for measuring a teacher's creativity fostering behavior — a scale known as the CFTIndex — and a series of conceptualization and research papers, including a lead article by Professor Authur Cropley, whose original ideas served as the basis of the CFTIndex. The other papers in this volume are by international authors who have used the scale in their research and who can now share their experiences using it in this volume.There is a dearth of measuring instruments that cover teacher behaviors where creativity is concerned, but the CFTIndex fills this vacuum, as evidenced by the many articles using this index in the international arena of creativity research.

Interpreting and Using Statistics in Psychological Research
Interpreting and Using Statistics in Psychological Research

Author: Andrew N. Christopher

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 2016-08-30

Total Pages: 585

ISBN-13: 150630415X

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This practical, conceptual introduction to statistical analysis by award-winning teacher Andrew N. Christopher uses published research with inherently interesting social sciences content to help students make clear connections between statistics and real life. Using a friendly, easy-to-understand presentation, Christopher walks students through the hand calculations of key statistical tools and provides step-by-step instructions on how to run the appropriate analyses for each type of statistic in SPSS and how to interpret the output. With the premise that a conceptual grasp of statistical techniques is critical for students to truly understand why they are doing what they are doing, the author avoids overly formulaic jargon and instead focuses on when and how to use statistical techniques appropriately.

An Introduction to Statistics
An Introduction to Statistics

Author: Kieth A. Carlson

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 2017-01-17

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 1483378756

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The Second Edition takes a unique, active approach to teaching and learning introductory statistics that allows students to discover and correct their misunderstandings as chapters progress rather than at their conclusion. Empirically-developed, self-correcting activities reinforce and expand on fundamental concepts, targeting and holding students’ attention. Based on contemporary memory research, this learner-centered approach leads to better long-term retention through active engagement while generating explanations. Along with carefully placed reading questions, this edition includes learning objectives, realistic research scenarios, practice problems, self-test questions, problem sets, and practice tests to help students become more confident in their ability to perform statistics.