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Background: Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are a simulation-based assessment tool used extensively in medical education for evaluating clinical competence. OSCEs are widely regarded as more valid, reliable, and valuable compared to traditional assessment measures, and are now emerging within professional psychology training programs. While there is a lack of findings related to the quality of OSCEs in published psychology literature, psychometric properties can be inferred by investigating implementation. Accordingly, the current review assessed implementation of OSCEs within psychology programs against a set of Quality Assurance Guidelines (QAGs). Methods: A systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) recommendations. Electronic databases including ProQuest Psychology, PsycArticles, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, PsycInfo and key indexing databases such as Scopus, ProQuest, and Web of Science were used to identify relevant articles. Twelve full-text articles met all inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Results: There was considerable heterogeneity in the quality of studies and reporting of OSCE data. Implementation of OSCEs against QAGs revealed overall adherence to be "Fair." Conclusion: The current review consolidated what is known on psychometric quality of OSCEs within psychology programs. A further need for quantitative evidence on psychometric soundness of OSCEs within psychology training is highlighted. Furthermore, it is recommended that future training programs implement and report OSCEs in accordance with standardized guidelines.

This paper makes available to the broader educational community the instruments which have been originally designed and validated within the European project "CLIL for all: Attention to diversity in bilingual education" ("ADiBE") to determine how diversity is being catered to across a broad array of CLIL contexts in European Secondary Education (Austria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom). They include three sets of questionnaires, interviews, and observation protocols and are qualitative and quantitative instruments whose design has been based on the latest research and which have undergone a carefully controlled double-fold pilot process for their validation (external ratings approach and pilot phase with a representative sample of 264 subjects). The questions included in the three sets of instruments are initially characterized, together with their format and main categories. The paper then details the steps undertaken for their research-based design and the double-fold pilot process followed for their validation. The questionnaires and interview and observation protocols are then presented in a format which is directly applicable in any CLIL classroom in order to determine the accessibility of bilingual programs for all types of achievers and to identify the chief difficulties and best practices in promoting inclusion in bilingual education.

Research and scholarship into educational effectiveness research (EER) is comprehensively reviewed from the UK, The Netherlands, the US, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, and other societies, dating from the field's origins in the 1970s. Issues include its history, methodological and theoretical advances, scientific properties of school effects, processes at school and classroom level behind these effects, the somewhat limited translation of findings into policy and practice across the world, and future directions for research and practice in EER and for all of the discipline more generally. Future research needs are argued to be a further concentration upon teaching/teachers, more longitudinal studies, more work on possible context specificity, exploration of the cross-level transactions between schools and their teachers/classrooms, the adoption of "efficiency" as well as "effectiveness" as outcome measures, and a renewed focus upon the education of the disadvantaged, the original focus of our discipline when it began.

Criterion-referenced measures, such as those used in the assessment of crime and violence, prioritize predictive accuracy (discrimination) at the expense of construct validity. In this article, we compared the discrimination and incremental validity of three commonly used criterion-referenced measures for sex offenders (Rapid Risk Assessment for Sex Offence Recidivism [RRASOR], Static-99R, and Static-2002R). In a meta-analysis of 20 samples (n = 7,491), Static-99R and Static-2002R provided similar discrimination but outperformed the RRASOR in the prediction of sexual, violent, and any recidivism. Remarkably, despite large correlations between them (rs ranging from 0.70 to 0.92), these risk scales consistently added incremental validity to one another. The direction of the incremental effects, however, was not consistently positive. When controlling for the other measures, high scores on the RRASOR were associated with lower risk for violent and any recidivism. We also examined different methods of combining risk scales and found that the averaging approach produced better discrimination than choosing the highest score and produced better calibration than either choosing the lowest or highest risk score. The findings reinforce the importance of understanding the psychological content of criterion-referenced measures, even when the sole purpose is to predict a particular outcome and provide some direction concerning the best methods for combining risk scales. (Contains 1 note, 12 tables and 1 figure.)

Despite the current need for reliable and valid test instruments in different countries in order to monitor the sign language acquisition of deaf children, very few tests are commercially available that offer strong evidence for their psychometric properties. This mirrors the current state of affairs for many sign languages, where very little research is available. No previous empirical study has focused explicitly on the linguistic, methodological, and theoretical issues involved in the process of adapting a test from a source sign language to a target sign language. Problems during the adaptation process can arise from linguistic differences between the source and the target language and differences in the source and the target cultures. Both are important aspects that need to be considered in the adaptation of a sign language test from a source to a target language. This study proposes a model for sign language test adaptation, based on the adaptation of the British Sign Language Receptive Skills Test to German Sign Language. The model includes different methodological steps, with a particular focus on construct validation. (Contains 4 notes, 4 tables, and 4 figures.)

From June to November 2003 an exploratory survey was made of the assessment of written English in a small sample of English language degrees in Europe. All programmes had similar components, the study of English language and literature, cultural or area studies, and English language development. Some involved the study of another language. Theoretical perspectives on test validity informed the construction of a questionnaire to collect quantitative and qualitative data from the programmes in the sample in order to investigate expectations about attainment of proficiency in written English. Responses were obtained from 32 English language degree programmes in 14 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The sample was not large enough to be representative of such degrees throughout Europe, but this exploratory study revealed a wide variation between countries, within the same country and, in some cases, within the same department with regard to what was measured, the contexts sampled, and the assessment instrument adopted and measures taken to ensure the reliability of the assessment. The study revealed variable evidence to support the outcomes of the assessment across the sample, leading to the conclusion that there was wide variation in what is attained in proficiency in written English on these English language degree programmes, which is indicative of similar degrees across Europe. The framework used for data collection yielded themes, practices, and concerns that would inform the development of common guidelines for assessment. (Contains 10 footnotes, 6 tables, and 3 figures.)

The five-dimensional curiosity-scale revised (5DCR) by Kashdan et al. (2020) is the most comprehensive curiosity inventory available to date. 5DCR measures six facets of curiosity with four items each. Here, we present a German-language adaptation of the 5DCR and comprehensively validate this adaptation in a diverse sample of adults from Germany (N = 486). Moreover, we provide new evidence on the original English-language 5DCR in a parallel sample from the UK (N = 483). In both countries, we investigate the six facets' reliability, factorial validity, and convergent and discriminant validity with a large set of individual-differences constructs. In addition, we analyze the measurement invariance of the curiosity facets across the UK and Germany and across socio-demographic subgroups defined by age, sex, and education. Findings demonstrate that the new German-language adaptation of 5DCR and its English-language source version show psychometric properties similar to the original studies by Kashdan et al. (2020) in the United States. All six curiosity facets reach at least partial scalar invariance across cultures, sex, education, and mostly also across age groups. The findings support the six-faceted theory of curiosity and show that 5DCR allows for a valid assessment of curiosity across cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recap of atopic eczema (RECAP) is a patient‐reported outcome measure assessing eczema control. This instrument has been developed and validated in the UK. There are self‐reported and proxy‐reported versions in English, Dutch and German. However, it is unclear whether the self‐reported version shows adequate content validity when completed by young people (8–16 years) in these languages. Objectives: To assess the content validity (comprehensibility, relevance and comprehensiveness) of the English, German and Dutch versions of the self‐reported RECAP in young people with atopic eczema and to identify the most appropriate age cutoff for self‐completion. Methods: We conducted 23 semistructured cognitive interviews with young people aged 8–16 years, using the 'think‐aloud' method. In Germany and the Netherlands, participants were recruited in dermatology clinics and in the UK through social media and existing mailing lists. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed in the three languages, using a problem‐focused coding manual. Transcripts were coded by two independent reviewers in each country. Themes were translated into English and compared across the three countries. Results: Significant age‐related comprehensibility issues with the last three items of the questionnaire occurred with young people aged 8–11 years, causing difficulties completing RECAP without help. However, older children had only minor problems and were able to complete the questionnaire by themselves. The self‐reported version of RECAP has sufficient content validity for self‐completion in young people aged 12 years and above. However, the German version with some translational adaptations may be appropriate for children from the age of 8 years. There may be some situations where the proxy version is needed for older children too. Conclusions: The self‐reported version of RECAP is appropriate for use from the age of 12 years. The proxy version can be used in children younger than 12 years. Other measurement properties should be further investigated. What is already known about this topic?Recap of atopic eczema (RECAP) is an instrument recommended by the Harmonising Outcome Measures for Eczema initiative for the core outcome domain of long‐term control of atopic eczema.Content validity of RECAP for self‐completion by adults and of the proxy version has been assessed. What does this study add?In this study, content validity (comprehensibility, relevance and comprehensiveness) of the self‐reported version of RECAP among young people (aged 8–16 years) with atopic eczema across the UK, Germany and the Netherlands is assessed.Based on these findings, key recommendations on how to measure eczema control in young people with atopic eczema are formulated. What are the clinical implications of this work?The Dutch, English and German self‐completion versions of RECAP are recommended for use in adolescents from the age of 12 years.The proxy version could be used in children younger than 12 years or where children are cognitively or physically incapable of reporting their experience of eczema control.Caregivers should be encouraged to complete RECAP together with their child where possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To develop and validate a novel 14‐item self‐completed questionnaire (in English and German) enquiring about the presence of non‐motor symptoms (NMS) during the past month in patients with craniocervical dystonia in an international multicenter study. Methods: The Dystonia Non‐Motor Symptoms Questionnaire (DNMSQuest) covers seven domains including sleep, autonomic symptoms, fatigue, emotional well‐being, stigma, activities of daily living, sensory symptoms. The feasibility and clinimetric attributes were analyzed. Results: Data from 194 patients with CD (65.6% female, mean age 58.96 ± 12.17 years, duration of disease 11.95 ± 9.40 years) and 102 age‐ and sex‐matched healthy controls (66.7% female, mean age 55.67 ± 17.62 years) were collected from centres in Germany and the UK. The median total NMS score in CD patients was 5 (interquartile range 3–7), significantly higher than in healthy controls with 1 (interquartile range 0.75–2.25) (P < 0.001, Mann–Whitney U‐test). Evidence for intercorrelation and convergent validity is shown by moderate to high correlations of total DNMSQuest score with motor symptom severity (TWSTRS: rs = 0.61), clinical global impression (rs = 0.40), and health‐related quality of life measures: CDQ‐24 (rs = 0.74), EQ‐5D index (rs = −0.59), and scale (rs = −0.49) (all P < 0.001). Data quality and acceptability was very satisfactory. Interpretation: The DNMSQuest, a patient self‐completed questionnaire for NMS assessment in CD patients, appears robust, reproducible, and valid in clinical practice showing a tangible impact of NMS on quality of life in CD. As there is no specific, comprehensive, validated tool to assess the burden of NMS in dystonia, the DNMSQuest can bridge this gap and could easily be integrated into clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A questionnaire assessing awareness of positive and negative age-related changes (AARC gains and losses) was developed in the US and Germany. We validated the short form of the measure (AARC-10 SF) and the cognitive functioning subscale from the 50-item version of the AARC (AARC-50) questionnaire in the UK population aged 50 and over.Methods: Data from 9410 participants (Mean (SD) age = 65.9 (7.1)) in the PROTECT cohort were used to explore and confirm the psychometric properties of the AARC measures including: validity of the factor structure; reliability; measurement invariance across men and women, individuals with and without a university degree, and in middle age, early old age, and advanced old age; and convergent validity with measures of self-perception of aging and mental, physical, and cognitive health. We explored the relationship between demographic variables (age, sex, marital status, employment, and university education) and AARC.Results: We confirmed the two-factor structure (gains and losses) of the AARC-10 SF and the AARC-50 cognitive functioning subscale. Both scales showed good reliability and good convergent validity for AARC losses, but weak convergent validity for AARC gains. For both scales metric invariance was held for the two subgroups defined by education level and age. For the AARC-50 subscale, but not for the AARC-10 SF, strong invariance was also held for the two subgroups defined by sex. Age, sex, marital status, employment, and university education predicted AARC gains and losses.Conclusions: The AARC-10 SF and AARC-50 cognitive functioning subscale identify UK individuals who perceive age-related changes in their mental, physical, and cognitive health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]