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This volume is a collection of background papers and materials prepared for workshop participants engaged in empirical research on the topic of "informed consent with subjects of uncertain competence." The first three papers consider the minimum competence needed to consent to or refuse participation in research, including a philosophical overview, a legal overview, and a psychiatric overview. The fourth paper, a review of the literature for empirical studies on competence and consent, highlights questions which have not been addressed as well as findings which require replication and further investigation; a supplementary, expanded bibliography follows this paper. The final paper is a summary of the workshop discussion in which participants identified an agenda for future research, including the five major areas considered most deserving of attention and practical methodologic considerations for investigators planning research in these areas. The appendix contains a brief paper describing new implications for informed consent, a presentation of the regulations on consent, the original workshop agenda, and a list of workshop guests. (Author/NRB)

One significant challenge in the field of measuring ability is measuring the current ability of a learner while they are learning. Many forms of inference become computationally complex in the presence of time-dependent learner ability, and are not feasible to implement in an online context. In this paper, we demonstrate an approach which can estimate learner skill over time even in the presence of large data sets. We use a rating system derived from the Elo rating system and its relatives, which are commonly used in chess and sports tournaments. A learner's submission of a course assignment is interpreted as a single match. We apply this approach to Coursera's online learning platform, which includes millions of learners who have submitted assignments tens of millions of times in over 3000 courses. We demonstrate that this provides reliable estimates of item difficulty and learner ability. Finally, we address how this scoring framework may be used as a basis for various applications that account for a learner's ability, such as adaptive diagnostic tests and personalized recommendations. [For the full proceedings, see ED599096.]

Knowledge tracing allows Intelligent Tutoring Systems to infer which topics or skills a student has mastered, thus adjusting curriculum accordingly. Deep Knowledge Tracing (DKT) uses recurrent neural networks (RNNs) for knowledge tracing and has achieved significant improvements compared with models like Bayesian Knowledge Tracing (BKT) and Performance Factor Analysis (PFA). However, DKT is not as interpretable as other models because the decision-making process learned by recurrent neural networks is not wholly understood by the research community. In this paper, we critically examine the DKT model, visualizing and analyzing the behaviors of DKT in high dimensional space. We modify and explore the DKT model and discover that Deep Knowledge Tracing has some critical pitfalls: 1). instead of tracking each skill through time, DKT is more likely to learn an 'ability' model; 2) the recurrent nature of DKT reinforces irrelevant information that it uses during the tracking task; 3) an untrained recurrent network can achieve similar results to a trained DKT model, supporting a conclusion that recurrence relations are not properly learned and, instead, improvements are simply a benefit of projection into a high dimensional, sparse vector space. Based on these observations, we propose improvements and future directions for conducting knowledge tracing research using deep models. [For the full proceedings, see ED599096.]

This paper summarizes the results of the completed and defended dissertation on the topic of Categorization of pupil work with tablets in a special elementary school in the Czech Republic. This work was a two-phase research. Qualitative research - a four-year structured observation of pupils at a special elementary school, where categorization was subsequently proposed. Quantitative research - this categorization was verified in 361 special pupils throughout the Czech Republic. The process of personalizing pupils with pupils in selected pupils categories was described. We present the most important findings from this dissertation. [For the complete proceedings, see ED601100.]

These proceedings are a written record of the research presented at the 42nd annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME-NA) held in Mazatlán, Mexico, virtually beginning May 27, 2021 and in-person June 2-6, 2021. The conference was originally scheduled to take place October 14-18, 2020; it was postponed, due to the COVID pandemic. In accordance with the major goals of PME-NA that include promoting international contacts and stimulating interdisciplinary research, the theme was proposed as "Entre Culturas/Across Cultures". The goal of the theme was an academic exchange that would reflect the ample diversity of ways of teaching and learning of mathematics, and of the tools and communities involved in mathematics education; as well as an exploration of how the differences in cultures imply a need to consider how research results can be taken into account in varying contexts. The papers comprise 80 Research Reports, 190 Brief Reports, 147 Poster Presentations, 10 Working Groups, 2 Research Colloquia, and Plenary and special lectures. The program also includes a special tribute to Eugenio Filloy and a tribute to the PME-NA members who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. [These proceedings were produced with Cinvestav (Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN), México and AMIUTEM (Asociación Mexicana de Investigadores del Uso de Tecnología en Educación Matemática, A.C.), México. Individual papers are indexed in ERIC.]

The aim of the International Society for Technology, Education, and Science (iHSES) conference is to offer opportunities to share ideas, discuss theoretical and practical issues, and connect with the leaders in the fields of "humanities," "education" and "social sciences." It is organized for: (1) faculty members in all disciplines of humanities, education and social sciences; (2) graduate students; (3) K-12 administrators; (4) teachers; (5) principals; and (6) all interested in education and social sciences. [Individual papers are indexed in ERIC.]

This study was designed to initiate the process of building professional development learning communities for pre-service math teachers through revealing those teachers' conceptions/beliefs of students' learning and their own learning in China. It examines Chinese pre-service math teachers' conceptions of student learning and their related pedagogical beliefs with respect to the following four aspects: self-regulation, construction of knowledge, the social nature of learning, and a dynamic view of ability. A total of 129 middle-school and secondary pre-service math teachers from China participated in this study. The results indicated that the Chinese pre-service teachers' conceptions of student learning and their pedagogical beliefs are constructive, process-oriented, and progressive. In addition, the traditional Chinese socio-cultural values still have an impact on the pre-service teachers' conceptions of student learning. Implications and recommendations for designing meaningful and effective teacher professional development programs that not only incorporate teachers' beliefs of student learning but also are aligned with Chinese mathematics education reform are also discussed. [For the full proceedings, see ED581791.]

Determining how learners use MOOCs effectively is critical to providing feedback to instructors, schools, and policy-makers on this highly scalable technology. However, drawing inferences about student learning outcomes in MOOCs has proven to be quite difficult due to large amounts of missing data (of various kinds) and to the diverse population of MOOC participants. Thus significant methodological challenges must be addressed before seemingly straightforward substantive questions can be answered. The present study considers modeling final exam performance outcomes on early-stage ability estimates, discussion forum viewing frequency, and overall assessment-oriented engagement (AOE, seen as a proxy measure of motivation). These variables require careful operationalization, analysis of which is the principle contribution of this work. This study demonstrates that the effect sizes of discussion forum viewing activities on final exam outcomes are quite sensitive to these choices. [For complete proceedings, see ED560503.]

Recent theories that composition instruction should focus on the writing process rather than on the product have proven valid. A corollary, or a result, of this development has been the growing attacks on grades and grading. While evaluation provides effective instruction, grading is of limited relevance and may be misleading and harmful without modification. The first two grading steps, reading a paper and recording reactions, and identifying the inappropriate or incorrect (words, phrases) elements lead to the third step--summarizing the overall strengths and weaknesses of the paper. These steps may be the indirect basis for the final step--grading. But most importantly they furnish the writer with audience reaction and help to further his writing development. Grade symbols'alone' are inadequate for indicating quality of work and reflect only one instructor's opinion. A viable and preferable solution would be a written statement about the student's writing ability included with the assigned grade. (JM)

This volume presents four papers originally drafted for a symposium on sex differences and mathematics education held at the 1974 meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Subsequent to the AERA meeting the papers were revised. The paper by Fox reviews results of several contests to identify junior high school students who were precocious in mathematical ability, and subsequent instructional experiments aimed at improving the mathematical achievement of able girls. Aiken's paper presents factor analytic data concerning sex differences in attitudes toward mathematics and discusses several hypotheses to explain these differences. Armstrong's paper discusses results of factor analytic studies of sex differences in mathematics achievement and intelligence. Fennema's paper focuses on the role of spatial ability in learning mathematics and the relationship of this ability to sex differences in mathematics achievement. (SD)

Writers of mathematics test items, especially those who write for standardized tests, are often advised to arrange the answer options in logical order, usually ascending or descending numerical order. In this study, 32 mathematics items were selected for inclusion in four experimental pretest units, each consisting of 16 items. Two versions presented options in logically descending or ascending order, and two presented them randomly. Each test was administered as part of the American College Test (ACT) pretest procedures to approximately 300 examinees. A review of the speededness rate indicates that 99 percent of the examinees completed the test, leading to the conclusion that not only the difficulty, but the speededness was unaffected by the random ordering of the numerical options. Regarding the higher biserials in performance on the randomly ordered options, the higher-ability examinees (as determined by their performance on the ACT Assessment Mathematics Test) scored proportionately better than did the lower-ability group. It is evident that, while random ordering of numerical options is not an obstacle for upper-ability examinees, it may be one for lower-ability examinees. Given the difference in biserials, test writers might do well to avoid introducing confusion or an irrelevant source of error by continuing to arrange options in some logical sequence. Two tables present study findings. (SLD)

The concept of goals has emerged as a useful and important social-cognitive approach to understanding motivation, achievement, and learning. Recent work reveals that the environment of the classroom affect the types of goals which students adopt: students are likely to adopt ability-focused goals when they see their teachers emphasizing relative ability and competition while students who feel that their teachers value task-mastery, tend to adopt task-focused goals. This study uses hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to examine the effects of classroom-level practices on students' perceptions of how much their schools value relative ability and competition over task-mastery. The sample included 341 third through fifth grade students from 15 classrooms in 2 elementary schools. Results indicate that classroom-level practices heavily influence students' perceptions of what their schools value. When teachers foster a competitive classroom environment, then students are likely to feel that the entire school holds such values. On the other hand, when children feel that the school is task-focused, students are less likely to believe that the school values ability goals; however, this negative relationship disappears in classrooms where teachers encourage challenging tasks. This finding suggests that some children merely interpret "challenges" as another form of competition. (RJM)

This paper reviews literature-based giftedness definitions which have evolved as different manifestations of giftedness have been recognized. Various fields of giftedness are outlined, including mental, creative, specific academic, psychosocial (leadership), performing arts, kinesthetic (athletic), manipulative skills, and mechanical/technical/industrial. An emerging view of creativity is presented, and the relationship between intelligence and creativity is analyzed. The point is stressed that the gifted child should always be seen in terms of his/her totality (physical, social, emotional, mental) and not in terms of giftedness only. (JDD)

An application of the two-paramenter logistic (Rasch) model to tailored testing is presented. The model is discussed along with the maximum likelihood estimation of the ability parameters given the response pattern and easiness parameter estimates for the items. The technique has been programmed for use with an interactive computer terminal. Use of the procedure is described in a flexible achievement testing setting. Results are presented showing the number of items needed for good estimation. The independence of items used and ability estimation is shown. Applications of the system to intelligence testing are discussed. (Author)

The separation and comparison of sex and dominance as they relate to the ability to decode emotional meaning from nonverbal cues were investigated in a study conducted with 51 female and 55 male college students. The study was based on the assumption that submissiveness is positively related to skill in decoding nonverbal cues and was designed after consideration of previous studies (many of which are summarized) of the connections between decoding ability and personal characteristics, personality correlates, and other communicative skills. The research questions addressed the relationships between orientation toward control by powerful others, femininity, and the ability to decode nonverbal cues, and the ability of orientation toward control by powerful others, gender, and femininity to serve as predictors of decoding ability. Measurement instruments included the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity, the Bem Sex Role Inventory, and two scales that measured the degree of orientation toward control by powerful others. Analysis of the results indicated that females are better decoders than males, that dominance and decoding may not be meaningfully related, and that femininity and ability to decode nonverbal cues are negatively related. (GW)

Problems and procedures in assessing and obtaining fit of data to the Rasch model are treated and assumptions embodied in the Rasch model are made explicit. It is concluded that statistical tests are needed which are sensitive to deviations so that more than one item parameter would be needed for each item, and more than one person parameter would be needed for each person. Statistical goodness-of-fit tests--based on the conditional maximum likelihood estimates of the item parameters--which can detect these two kinds of deviation are presented. Common sources of deviation are also identified, as are the tests needed to detect them. Problems in the use of statistical tests to assess fit are discussed and some investigations of power are presented. In relation to a distinction between use of the Rasch model as a criterion and as an instrument, the treatment of the goodness-of-fit problem in different measurement contexts is discussed. Finally, it is concluded that items which can be identified as misfitting should not be routinely excluded to obtain fit to the model; instead other actions should often be taken--such as grouping of the items into homogeneous subsets. (Author/CP)

Academic psychology has long been composed of two disciplines, one experimental and one correlational. These two disciplines each developed their own method of studying structure in data: multidimensional scaling (MDS) and factor analysis. Both methods use similar kinds of input data, proximity measures on object pairs. Both represent the object structure in terms of spatial coordinates. When MDS and factor analysis are applied to the same test intercorrelation matrix, how do the results compare? In an analysis of ability data and an analysis of vocational interest data, two-dimensional, nonmetric MDS solutions were compared to three-factor, principal components solutions. In both analyses, the components solution contained a general factor with no counterpart among the scaling dimensions. Loadings along the remaining two components closely resembled scale values along the two dimensions. Results suggest that if one compares a K-dimensional MDS solution to a (KTI) components analysis, the components analysis will often contain a general factor with no counterpart among the scaling dimensions; after applying an appropriate rotation and multiplicative constant to the MDS scale values, some or all of the remaining components will correspond to a dimension in the scaling solution. (Author)

This symposium consists of five papers and presents some recent developments in adaptive testing which have applications to several military testing problems. The overview, by James R. McBride, defines adaptive testing and discusses some of its item selection and scoring strategies. Item response theory, or item characteristic curve theory, is also described. In the second paper, James B. Sympson explicates the role of latent trait theory in measurement for criterion prediction and in criterion referenced measurement. C. David Vale then discusses the use of adaptive testing procedures to make ability classification decisions (i.e., cutting score decisions). In the fourth paper Steven M. Pine argues that a major problem in current efforts to develop less biased tests is an over-reliance on classical test theory. Item characteristic curve theory is offered as a more appropriate measurement model. In the final paper by Isaac I. Bejar, two relatively recent developments in psychometric theory, the assessment of partial knowledge and research in adaptive testing, are reviewed. (RC)

The focus of this study is on the estimation procedures implemented in BILOG, a computer program. One purpose is to compare the item parameter estimates produced by various procedures available in BILOG. Four different models are used: the one, two, and three parameter model and a three parameter model with common guessing parameters. The results generally indicate that the various item parameter estimation procedures tend to yield similar results. The major exception concerned the Bayesian and maximum likelihood procedures (MLP) applied to the three parameter model. The MLP has a tendency to produce more extreme estimates than the Bayesian procedure. A second purpose is to compare the ability estimates produced by the available procedures: maximum likelihood, expected a'posteriori, and maximum a'posteriori. The results indicated that: (1) robustification is not a strong effect on the mean or standard deviation of the ability estimates; (2) the mean and variance of the ability estimates are not strongly effected by the type of item parameter estimates used in calculating ability estimates; and (3) the effect of ability estimation procedure is fairly strong on the ability estimates. (PN)

Studies of causal attributions among elementary school children and their mothers in Japan and in the United States indicate that the Japanese are more likely to cite effort as the primary cause of school achievement. In the United States, ability is more frequently selected as a key factor. The characteristics of Japanese mother-child interaction and of social relations within the elementary classroom illustrate that the cooperative social contexts of home and school shape causal attribution by mothers and children. Research from the United States on attribution within both cooperative and competitive reward structures illustrates how the cooperative nature of Japanese achievement settings is likely to foster attribution to effort rather than ability. Analysis indicates that attributional patterns must be evaluated in conjunction with the social context of achievement. Japanese achievement settings are described as being strongly supported by parents and peers, with both home and school settings reflecting the cooperative and interdependent nature of Japanese society. It is recommended that extrapolation to the United States should consider the context in which Japanese achievement occurs as well as the differences in societal context between the United States and Japan. A five-page reference list is included. (Author/MDE)

Concern has been expressed over the item response theory (IRT) assumption that a person's ability can be estimated in a unidimensional latent space. To examine whether or not the response to an item requires only a single latent ability, unidimensional ability estimates were compared for data generated from the multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) compensatory and noncompensatory models. It was hypothesized that as the correlation between the two dimensional abilities increased, the response data would essentially become unidimensional and thus the confounding of difficulty and dimensionality would have little effect in either model. This study examined the unidimensional estimates of matched compensatory and noncompensatory data in which difficulty was confounded with dimensionality for different levels of correlation between two dimensional abilities. Eight data sets, four compensatory, and four noncompensatory, were generated. Each set was calibrated using the IRT calibration programs LOGIST and BILOG. BILOG calibration of response vectors generated to the matched MIRT item parameters appeared to be more affected than LOGIST by the confounding of difficulty and dimensionality. As the correlation between the generated two dimensional abilities increased, the response data appeared to become more unidimensional. Six figures are included. (Author/MDE)

The general disposition and effects of prevailing manpower policies and programs for the elderly in the United States suggest that mandatory retirement will eventually be replaced by flexible retirement with no age limit. Inflationary trends may be possible causal factors which reduce post-retirement incomes, increase the age of the work force, and create public opposition to mandatory retirement. Research on the psychological/occupational capacities of older individuals, necessary because negative stereotypes regarding the abilities of older persons abound, suggests that the occupational capabilities of most workers should not be negatively affected by aging for many years past age 65. Specific personnel policies are needed to deal with an increased use of older workers, including career development programs and flexible work arrangements. Corporate planners should use any future movement to flexible retirement as a stimulus for increased utilization of important formal planning procedures. (Author)

The consideration of the priorities for education requires careful appraisal of what a community is in the largest sense, of what constitutes a just community, and of the boundaries of education. Achieving a just community will depend both on respect for the person in all his diversity and on recognition and reaffirmation that there is a general welfare, a common destiny, in which each person has a stake and to which, by membership in the community, each person owes an allegiance. Education is only a partial creator of society; it is also a creature of the society that supports it, and requires that parents, students, and the public more generally agree on the nature of its purpose. With this in mind, four priorities in education are seen: (1) we must insist that attainment of priorities not be viewed as a guaranteed result of opportunity alone, since opportunity cannot be equated with outcome; (2) we must explore more adventurously and tenaciously what works best in the classroom and devise better ways of predicting what will work best for particular individuals; (3) recognition that children and youth should be given equal opportunity to learn must take into account that there are unequal aptitudes; and (4) the unique and important American institution, the college or university as a center for intellectual freedom, must maintain its integrity as a community of scholars, free from exploitive interests and capricious economic currents. (Author/MSE)

Three passages of fifth-grade readability were read and recalled by 24 high- and low-ability fifth graders and college students. These passages were characterized as either narrative (high degree of temporal linkage), expository (logical linkage and abstract content), or mixed (logical linkage but with content suggestive of a narrative). The results were analyzed on the basis of qualitative and quantitative aspects of the subjects' recall. A significant, monotonic increase in recall was observed between groups, while no overall effects for texts or interactions were shown. However, post hoc analyses did show a very strong effect for texts within the fifth-grade/high-ability group. While low-ability fifth graders had equal difficulty with each of the texts (possibly reflecting decoding difficulties) and the college subjects recalled them with equal ease, the fifth-grade/high-ability group recalled the passage with the presumably more familiar narrative structure better than the expository ones, despite similarities in content. (Author/TJ)

Using Seligman's "learned helplessness" paradigm, androgynous and feminine women (as defined by the Bem Sex Role Inventory) either succeeded (contingent feedback) or failed (non-contingent feedback) at a concept formation task and were provided with internal (ability, effort), external (task difficulty, luck), or no causal attributions for their performance. Then a second (criterion) concept formation task was administered. The attribution manipulation was found to have no effect on any of the dependent measures and failed to interact with the other factors. For feminine subjects, failure increased the trials necessary to reach criterion on the second task ("learned helplessness"), whereas success had no effect. The performance of androgynous subjects, on the other hand, was unaffected by failure but facilitated by success ("learned competence"). Androgynous subjects responded to success by attributing it to their ability, whereas failure was attributed to task difficulty. Feminine subjects, on the other hand, attributed success and failure about equally to these two factors. Finally, whereas androgynous subjects attributed their successes in life to their ability and their failures to task difficulty, feminine subjects made the opposite attributions. The results suggest that the androgynous woman is likely to be more resistant to "learned helplessness" than is the feminine women. (Author)

The term measurement has been used in a number of different sub-areas of psychology without an explicit recognition of the commonalities and potential differences in measurement characteristics. Analysis of these measurement situations reveals that the one common factor is that a mechanism or discriminative process, that is a standard system of measurement, is invariably used to identify magnitudes. A standard system is any mechanism or discriminative process that can indicate magnitude or differences between magnitudes. Three types of standard systems can be identified in psychology: the human, or elementary; the devised; and a dual process type. In addition, measurement situations may be differentiated in terms of different identifying characteristics or through differences in the way the standard system denotes the attribute being measured. Measurement may be identified in seven categories. Explicit identification of these categories of measurement in psychology and the elements of the measurement process allows for systematic comparison between the categories. They may be shown to differ to some extent in terms of denotability of the characteristic under consideration, the operating features of the standard system, the way in which metric or numerical information is derived, and the type of procedures used to evaluate measurement accuracy. (Author/PN)

Although researchers suggest that games have a positive experience in a learning outcome, there is still a lack of investigation on the potential of game mechanics for better flow experience and learning outcome. According to the literature, the flow state in the game creates player engagement which leads to a positive learning outcome. Based on flow theory, challenge and abilities are two crucial game elements to achieve a flow state. This paper discusses the importance of conflict and competition in generating challenges. In gameplay, the players use their abilities demanded by the game to complete the challenge. This paper discusses the role of different skills required to play the game, and through these abilities, the players learn. This paper explains the correlation between challenge and various skills needed to play games. Conflict can be the better approach to generate the challenge because it is endogenous. Knowledge is a crucial ability to incorporate into educational games. This paper also explains the role of prior knowledge, and it is observed that the player achieves a better learning outcome if the game demands some level of prior knowledge to play the game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The university admission test comes after the high school graduation exam - the baccalaureate. The baccalaureate results of each candidate must be known by the university admissions committee. They provide information on the degree of intelligence, the skills acquired up to this date, but also the presence of inclinations and skills indispensable to the fulfillment of professional aspirations. The university entrance exam should not be focused only on quantity and quality of knowledge. Besides that, one of the objectives of this exam must be to test the interest in completing the studies through the university level for which he opts, but also the candidate's skills that "offer" him the productive and satisfying course of the entire cycle of higher education, even the perspective of future achievements. To realize that three psychological investigation tools of candidates (tests) can be used, necessary to highlight: - personality profile of the candidate; - interest profile, motivational; - aptitude profile. The paper proposes a new admission methodology: the data collected through the proposed tests and correlated with the high school graduation data can accept the candidates, as admitted to the profile they opted for, or can redirect them to choose the right path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encouraging to learn a sentence structure has got a great deal of basic consideration from educators. Sentence structure dominance is seen as a deciding angle to impart precisely in a composed structure, yet they frequently experience issues to procure it. Understudies may have essential information on principles or of sentence structures, yet a large portion of people despite everything commit errors just as blunders in their ensuing composition inspite of the fact that instructors have given satisfactory criticism. This idea pulls in the essayists to propose an elective model, called Create and Evaluate Model (CEM). Considerably, which involves five significant advances; forming sentences, examine audit, self-survey, educator's input and finishing up the idea. It is attested that CEM is one of the informative routes in constructing sentence structure that encourages to learn it adequately but additionally help them in building their own understanding, utilizing their insight in a worthy setting and building up their composing aptitude. The different language structure exercises utilizing CEM empowers them to have an option of people to coordinate the idea of punctuation into composing, become intuitive and community students, and hone high-request thinking abilities. This paper indicates that CEM properly applied in a language structure builds scores in punctuation tests and learning contribution. In such manner, the present article is planned to outline the idea and hypothetical system in constructing punctuation utilizing CEM, five significant strides to execute it, model, and its advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 27 papers in this collection (26 of which were presented at the conference) are organized according to the eight topical sessions: (1) Improving Ability Measurement Using Different Item Formats, (2) Alternative Models for Adaptive Testing, (3) Psychological and Subgroup Effects, (4) Performance Testing by Interactive Simulation, (5) Implementations of Adaptive Testing, (6) Achievement/Performance Testing Viewed as a Classification Problem, (7) Achievement Testing Viewed as a Trait Measurement Problem, and (8) Computer-Based Testing as an Alternative to Paper-and-Pencil Testing. The document also includes discussions of these papers by R. Darrell Bock, Frederic Lord, Nancy Cole, Ernst Rothkopf, Richard Ferguson, Hariharan Swaminathan, and David Weiss; as well as a panel discussion entitled "Future Directions for Computerized Adaptive Testing," with presentations by Frederic Lord, Mark Reckase, Fumiko Samejima, Vern Urry, and David Weiss. Abstracts are included for each paper. (RAO)

Adolescents' developing sense of competence is based on two domains, ability and intelligence. Intelligence testing generally presumes a conception of ability as current capacity that limits the extent to which effort can improve performance. Conceptions of intelligence, and other skills, involve implications about the nature of different forms of abilities. The products of acculturation are involved in the conception of intelligence. To assess conceptions of ability, students were asked to interpret a performance situation in which two people applying differing amounts of effort earned the same score. Results indicated the attainment of an adult-like conception of ability is accomplished during early adolescence, whereas adult-like conceptions of intelligence are established toward the end of adolescence. Impaired performance is likely in early adolescence when students feel likely to fail, feel incompetent, and believe ability is the same as capacity. When older adolescents and undergraduates were interviewed, three levels of intelligence affecting performance were recognized: (1) difficulty of the skills; (2) effortful acquisition of information; and (3) problem solving or creative ability. Verbal ability corresponded with crystallized intelligence and nonverbal ability with fluid intelligence. The value placed on these abilities and students' perceptions of their competence affects self-esteem. A two-page list of references is included. (GDC)

Gamification is the application of game design elements in non-gaming contexts to reach some purposes. It has been proposed as a solution in several domains, such as teaching, corporate training and healthy living. This paper presents the design and evaluation of the skill tree method which is a part of a gamified approach to motivate and support NEETyouth (Not in Education, Employment or Training) to leave their isolation and take steps towards better inclusion in society. The overall approach is based on two principles: 1) it targets adolescents with an interest in games 2); it utilizes their interest in games as the starting point for the intervention. Part of the intervention is based on a skill tree which maps in-game skills to out-of-game skills and visualizes the output so that the participant can become better aware of how their interest can drive personal development towards societal participation. The paper presents an evaluation of the skill tree method from the project staff perspective. The findings are positive but some need for improvements in the method as well as the tool were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The principal objectives of this conference were to exchange information, discuss theoretical and empirical developments, and to coordinate research efforts. The papers and their authors are: "The Graded Response Model of Latent Trait Theory and Tailored Testing" by Fumiko Samejima; (Incomplete Orders and Computerized Testing" by Norman Cliff; "Adaptive Testing Research at Minnesota: Overview, Recent Results, and Future Directions" by David J. Weiss; "Adaptive Testing Research at Minnesota: Some Properties of a Bayesian Sequential Adaptive Mental Testing Strategy" by James R. McBride; "An Empirical Investigation of Weiss' Stradaptive Testing Model" by Brian K. Waters; "Using Computerized Tests to Add New Dimensions to the Measurement of Abilities Which Are Important for On-Job Performance: An Exploratory Study" by Charles H. Cory; "A Broad-Range Tailored Test of Verbal Ability" and "Some Likelihood Functions found in Tailored Testing" by Frederic M. Lord; "Bayesian Tailored Testing and the Influence of Item Bank Characteristics" by Carl J. Jensema; "Reflections on Adaptive Testing" by Duncan N. Hansen; "Computer-Assisted Testing: An Orderly Transition from Theory to Practice" by Richard H. McKillip and Vern W. Urry; "Five Years of Research: Is Computer-Assisted Testing Feasibility?" by Vern W. Urry; "Effectiveness of the Ancillary Estimation Procedure" by John F. Gugel, Frank L. Schmidt, and Vern W. Urry; and "Item Parameterization Procedures for the Future" by Frank L. Schmidt and Urry. (Author/DEP)

The environment of 21st century encourages many people to face the "digital entrepreneurship" and for the successful business development it is important they to have adequate skills. The aim of this paper is to discuss some of the outcomes from a comparative study about gender expectations on the required key digital entrepreneurship skills. The research tasks are: (1) to outline the essence of the digital entrepreneurship and the required / necessary skills through which the entrepreneurs would have been successful in the digital age; (2) to design a research methodology to study the attitudes of males and females regarding the skills of young entrepreneurs in the digital world; (3) to summarize the findings from a survey conducted in Bulgaria in 2020 among 774 people and analyse the differences in the opinions of the two gender populations; (4) to present some of the key conclusions and formulate a few proposals about further studies and practical applications. The analyses in this paper could be useful to other researchers, interested in digital entrepreneurship skills on gender approach, as well as to digital entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the possibility of development and testing a special methodology for the formation of a dynamic competence space. The main object of study is a student. The proposed methodology can take into account the risks of an erroneous assessment of the competences of an object, and it is also quickly adaptable and scalable. This paper presents a synthesis of methodology. Seven hypothetical ways of assessing and constructing skills space are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The T-Shaped designer has previously been identified as a design engineer with the desirable set of skills for a successful career. Twelve design engineers ranging from novice to expert, were interviewed to gain an understanding of their skill set, how it has evolved and how it needs to evolve in order to be futureproofed. With the use of qualitative, quantitative data and the development of a novel engineering skills profiling method, this paper found that 75% of design engineers did not exhibit a T-shaped skill profile, but a skill shape that has been termed 'M-shaped' or 'Comb-shaped'. The majority of participants exhibited a great depth of specialist skills in multiple disciplines, not limited to their immediate field of work. All participants exhibited a wide knowledge of skills that allowed them to work across different disciplines, which included electronics, management or manufacturing, and so the wide vertical bar of the T-Shape design predicted by previous literature has been supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the ability of educational frameworks focused on developing the entrepreneurial mindset to be used to develop students' abilities to approach convergent problems. While there is not a single widely accepted definition of convergence, there are some general aspects noted by the NSF including: socially relevant, multidisciplinary, complex, and not being adequately addressed by current methods and practices. Convergent problems require existing disciplines to collaborate to create new knowledge, skills, and approaches in order to be appropriately addressed. We believe that there are aspects of the entrepreneurial mindset and the learning of it that can support the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes to approach convergent problems. This is relevant because most work on convergent problems happens at the graduate level and beyond and our interest is to create experiences for undergraduates that prepare them to embark on this work after graduation. This study maps entrepreneurial mindset learning (EML) onto a framework based on prior work on convergence to identify the aspects of EML that directly support convergence work or preparation for convergence work. The existing dataset of KEEN cards is used as a proxy for existing work in this space, as well. If existing work in EML can address some or all of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for convergent problem solving then engineering educators have a set of tools and practices that can contribute towards creating engineers who are better prepared to work on the hard problems of tomorrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From its foundation, the field of biomedical engineering (BME) has strived to solve interdisciplinary problems involving engineering, biology, and healthcare, which has resulted in a field that is diverse in both subject matter and career opportunities. However, the wide range of subjects under the umbrella of BME has led to criticism of BME curricula for being too broad without providing enough depth in content to prepare students to be competitive against other engineering students in the job market. Furthermore, BME graduates receive lower starting salaries and have fewer discipline-specific job opportunities than other engineering discipline degree holders [1]. Thus, there have been many efforts to identify and understand skills and experiences that are of value to BME recruiters. This work in progress study seeks to explore what recruiters in industry, healthcare, and academia are looking for in BME graduates. The work is guided by the following research questions: What qualities, skills, and experiences are recruiters looking for in potential BME hires? How can they be represented on resumes of BME undergraduates? We will explore these questions by analyzing resumes designed to reflect the specific qualities desired by BME recruiters in different fields (i.e., healthcare, academia, industry). The creation of these designed resumes (DRs) was based on content in resumes collected from fourth year BME students at a large R1, public university. Thus, the DRs reflected the experiences and skills of typical undergraduate BME graduates. DRs were also based on previously published rubrics used to evaluate the strength of resumes based on three distinct career pathways in BME: academia, industry, healthcare [2]. Using these rubrics as a guide, the DRs vary in strength and alignment with the three different career pathways. DRs are currently being distributed to recruiters along with a survey, which asks respondents to rank four DRs according to strength and identify the applicants that they would offer an interview to. This survey also seeks to capture qualitative data about what is important to recruiters, including the skills and experiences that the evaluators deem most impactful and the reasoning for their resume rankings and interview offer decisions. The work presented in this paper will discuss the process of creating the DRs based on the rubrics, and the current response rates of the survey at the time of paper submission. In our future work, we plan to perform a comparison of our expected rankings of the resumes from the recruiters based on the rubrics from [2] to the collected survey responses. By comparing recruiters' evaluation of the student resumes, both quantitatively and qualitatively, to the scores and strength of the resumes according to the previously established rubrics [2], we seek to understand whether our current understandings of BME skillsets align with the qualities that recruiters deem to be valuable in student resumes. The results from this study can help undergraduate BME programs and students understand what BME recruiters value for employment in healthcare, industry, and academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Next Generation Science Standards [1] recognized evidence-based argumentation as one of the essential skills for students to develop throughout their science and engineering education. Argumentation focuses students on the need for quality evidence, which helps to develop their deep understanding of content [2]. Argumentation has been studied extensively, both in mathematics and science education but also to some extent in engineering education (see for example [3], [4], [5], [6]). After a thorough search of the literature, we found few studies that have considered how teachers support collective argumentation during engineering learning activities. The purpose of this program of research was to support teachers in viewing argumentation as an important way to promote critical thinking and to provide teachers with tools to implement argumentation in their lessons integrating coding into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (which we refer to as integrative STEM). We applied a framework developed for secondary mathematics [7] to understand how teachers support collective argumentation in integrative STEM lessons. This framework used Toulmin's [8] conceptualization of argumentation, which includes three core components of arguments: a claim (or hypothesis) that is based on data (or evidence) accompanied by a warrant (or reasoning) that relates the data to the claim [9], [8]. To adapt the framework, video data were coded using previously established methods for analyzing argumentation [7]. In this paper, we consider how the framework can be applied to an elementary school teacher's classroom interactions and present examples of how the teacher implements various questioning strategies to facilitate more productive argumentation and deeper student engagement. We aim to understand the nature of the teacher's support for argumentation--contributions and actions from the teacher that prompt or respond to parts of arguments. In particular, we look at examples of how the teacher supports students to move beyond unstructured tinkering (e.g., trial-and-error) to think logically about coding and develop reasoning for the choices that they make in programming. We also look at the components of arguments that students provide, with and without teacher support. Through the use of the framework, we are able to articulate important aspects of collective argumentation that would otherwise be in the background. The framework gives both eyes to see and language to describe how teachers support collective argumentation in integrative STEM classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the presented paper, the authors discuss the formation of professional skills of a future Physics teacher, the characteristics of the system of professional competencies and key competences in the third millennium based on the required competencies that teachers will have to pass on to their pupils defined in ISCED standards and the shift in the understanding of key competences of the Physics teacher in the rest of the period. The specific area on which the authors focus in the paper is the technical communication of the teacher of Physics and the means for its realization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our paper we describe possibilities for development of mathematical thinking through playing selected video games. In detail these games are Warcraft III, Machinarium, Divinity: Original Sin 2, and Cyberpunk 2077. The aim of our paper is to analyse the opportunities for development of mathematical thinking that these commercial games offer. A part of the paper concerns the theoretical background of this problem and the analysis of selected games from the point of mathematical thinking elements. For this analysis we use a qualitative approach - content analysis. In conclusion, we identified that selected games could help in the development of logical, strategical, combinatorial, and probability thinking, spatial ability, and quantitative thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The main aim of this research is to explore the issue of the role of foreign language abilities in the hospitality industry, focusing on the perspective of employees and students. The differences between theoretical and practical knowledge that lead to incompetence in using foreign languages in the real sector are usually the main problem of employees and students preparing for their quality service. Therefore, in this paper, a review of recent research is made to analyze the possible changes that need to be made in order to become aware of the need for foreign languages as an essential element in a quality service at all levels of the hospitality industry. Methodology -- Foreign language proficiency in the hospitality industry involves the use of the specific hospitality language, which is the broad field of language for professional purposes. The research of this paper was conducted in the context of (1) investigating and comparing the attitudes towards the role of foreign language ability role of two different groups of respondents: Tourism employees and students attending the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management; (2) exploring the role of formal education on the quality of service performance. It included a questionnaire that explored how and why the role of foreign language ability in the hospitality industry is important from the perspective of employees and students. After collecting primary data from the survey results, the authors analysed them statistically using descriptive analysis to describe the socio-demographic profile of the respondents and the variables, and Independent Sample t-test to determine the statistically significant differences in the means between the two groups of respondents and selected variables. Findings -- This case study examined two groups' attitudes toward the role of foreign language proficiency in the hospitality industry and the role of formal education on service quality. Examining the perspectives of two groups reveals that both groups are very aware of the importance of foreign language skills in their personal and professional lives. In addition, both groups perceived that the ability to communicate in a foreign language is important in achieving career advancement and a higher professional position. Contribution -- This research confirms the importance of foreign language ability in the process of offering quality service. Due to the ever-increasing competition, tourism employees and students of the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management must be aware of the constant need to train their foreign language skills according to the requirements of the workplace. The advantage of foreign language learning will lead to quality service in the hospitality industry and tourism in general, increase competitiveness and increase profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will be discussed critically according on the need of employers on graduates employability skills. The emerging of new digital technologies tremendously leads a new way to doing a job. To cope with a need of client almost all jobs in all sectors looking for a new skills to retrain and reskilling their employees. Employers also seeking a fresh graduates whose are meets with their requirement. In current issues, almost all higher education providers doing a research and still explored a particular skills are need to provide to their students, which is meets with employers need. This paper will explain specifically about what are employers needed on graduate employability skills. This is preliminary research to looking a specific skill are very crucial and needed by the employers currently. Sixteen related to employers' perception toward trait of employability skills in digital era being analysis. According to this analysis, have four main skills are need by an employers, there are basic academic skills, high order thinking skills, technical skills and, employability skills. Through literature review analysis from this study, it's found 29 attributes must be concentrates to gains employability skills among graduates at higher education institutions. Communication skills is a first priority are concern by employers when they looking at new workers. The second employability skill preferred by employers is problem solving skills and the third priority is critical thinking skills. By validating the construct of employability skills, this study is aimed at providing a general guide to researchers and scholars who would like to embark on similar employability skills studies. The findings also aim provides the holistic view of current trend of global employability skills needed by the graduates which match with the requirement of the industries. Thus, it will minimize the gap between employability skills offered by graduates and the required skills expected by employers in industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In line with the exponential rate of advancement in information technologies within industries globally, the construction industry has stepped out of the conventional technologies to embrace smart technologies. Internet of Things (IoT) is one such technological advancement in construction although the improvement is taking place at a glacial pace. Internet of Things (IoT) allows stakeholders in construction to collect real-time data from a construction site and transform them into useful information for better insights. It enables construction industry to become smarter, safer and more efficient. Moreover, for a construction industry increasingly looking at boosting productivity, maximizing efficiencies and making the most whole-life value through added intelligence, it's not too difficult to see the demanding potential of IoT technologies to offer the latter expectations. However, lack of skills and knowledge to match this digital demand has been a prominent issue in construction. Although this skill gap is often dominated by the diminishing supply of manual labour, the lack of digital and non-digital skills is an equally pressing concern. Upskilling existing workforce is a simple yet effective way to combat this skills gap. This paper therefore investigates the Skills and Knowledge Requirements to implement IOT in Construction. An empirical investigation conducted in construction industry, United Kingdom enabled the envisaging of the skill-knowledge requirement not only present but also for future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing a course curricula is a complex and difficult task since it must reflect the fundamental technical competencies and skills, but also the soft skills that students must develop to practice a specific profession. In this sense, Higher Education Institutions have been struggling to find strategies and incorporate methodologies into their course curricula that will promote the balanced development of these technical and transversal competencies and skills. Therefore, this paper describes an exploratory study on how the competencies and skills dynamic is featured in the description of the learning outcomes of a 3-year Bachelor in Hospitality Management degree in Portugal. It analysed the forty learning outcomes of the different subjects of the degree and framed in the Reference Framework by The Council of the European Union. Moreover, it also analysed the application of the taxonomy of Bloom in describing the learning outcomes. The preliminary results show that there are some explicit learning outcomes outlined in the reference framework of the European Union but they still lack those related to soft skills development. Furthermore, the application of the taxonomy of Bloom is adequate and fully present in the learning outcomes. These results highlight the need of reviewing the description of the learning outcomes, mainly its alignment with the content and teaching and assessment methodologies adopted by the different subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic turbulence of the 21st century is changing the engineering career landscape. Large firms face great challenge in boosting the economy and creating more jobs amidst uncertain economical forecast. Engineers today need innovation, leadership and business skills more than ever. Engineering schools are aware of the rising demand of engineers to learn about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship programs for engineers are becoming a trending topic. This paper explores the different ecosystems of entrepreneurship offered at faculties of engineering across Canada. We explore two research questions in this paper: a) What is the growth, in demand and availability, of entrepreneurship courses in engineering schools, and b) What are the different components of an entrepreneurship ecosystem in engineering faculties today. The intent of this research is not to compare which program is better; rather, it is to explores the different ways of how entrepreneurship is taught in engineering schools. By providing a systematic map of the current entrepreneurial landscape in engineering faculties, this research can benefit professors and program directors who are building entrepreneurship courses and programs for engineering students, and to researchers who are studying the impact of academic entrepreneurship on engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work in progress paper will describe a new program that was implemented in the summer of 2016 to aid students who have completed their first year of engineering and are transitioning into their introductory, discipline-specific sophomore classes. At University of Notre Dame, all students complete a common first-year engineering program before entering their choice of engineering departments in the fall semester of their sophomore year. In all engineering departments, students are expected to have common college-level proficiency, knowledge, and skills in chemistry, physics, math, and have completed the first-year engineering classes. However, many students struggle with some of these concepts, making their transition into sophomore year much more difficult. In order to help better prepare these students, faculty members at Notre Dame developed a set of videos covering topics that students may need additional guidance and practice. These videos were released to students before the start of the fall semester and were completely voluntary. This paper will review initial findings from that release and detail some future directions for expanding this project as a first-year to sophomore bridge. In starting this video site, faculty members from a number of first-semester sophomore courses. were asked to provide guidance on what pre-requisite concepts students would need to be successful in their classes. In each case, the instructors have an expectation that students have had an appropriate background for certain basic concepts and dedicate minimal, if any, classroom time to them. A sample of responses are: (1) All Disciplines: Setting up and solving systems of linear equations through various techniques, including using MATLAB shortcuts or matrix manipulations such as Gaussian elimination or use of Cramer's rule. (2) Disciplines with additional computer resource needs: Familiarization with university computer resources, specifically logging into and using Linux based machines (3) Statics/Mechanics Course: Proficiency in calculating and manipulating 3 dimensional vectors (4) Introduction to Electrical Engineering Course: Understanding of some basic physical laws such as Kirchhoff laws and application of mathematical tools (including first-order linear differential equations) to perform circuit analysis. The video site was released to students 2 weeks before classes started and material has remained available to them throughout the fall semester. In this preliminary study, we focused on whether or not students would visit the site when available. A total of 504 site users were given access to the videos as determined by student enrollment in the sophomore engineering courses. As of the end of January 2017, a total of 402 students have visited the site (79.8% of all possible student users) with a total of 1821 visits. Student usage in this first implementation encourages the expansion and continuation of the project. Future work on this project will include: (1) Expanding the video offerings to meet the needs of more students and additional courses that are not yet covered (2) Collecting data on which resources were viewed most and at what point they were used (3) Creating practice problems to enhance skill development in key areas (4) Surveying and interviewing students and faculty to better understand impacts of the video on sophomore course readiness and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project-based course experiences enhance the student learning atmosphere through the application of lesson content and may prove as an advantageous educational technique in developing engineering students into trusted professionals, better prepared to serve the profession immediately after graduation. Applied action in Project-Based Learning (PBL) coursework extends lessons beyond the technical content of the course and creates professional skills development, ideally offering a more holistic training platform for junior engineers. Projects often require students to collaborate with one or more peers, therefore introducing applications of teamwork, leadership, project management, and communications components. Personal development in time management also tends to be introduced in project-based course assignments because of the duration and process of work required to satisfy the comprehensive series of tasks. The opportunity for professional skills development cannot come at the expense of technical skills development. Ideally, not only will the project enhance technical competency, but students completing project-based work should be more capable of solving ill-defined problems and complex problems. Considering project-based learning as an opportunity for the wholesome development of engineering students as trusted professionals, this study collects student perceptions of enhanced learning in professional and technical skills through PBL coursework. Students were surveyed across two distinctly different institutions so comparisons could be drawn between the unique populations. The U.S. West Point Academy was selected to include populations of students seeking professional military careers and supported by curriculum experiences formalizing learning in many professional skills such as teamwork and leadership. The University of Tennessee Knoxville population includes students pursuing civil engineering careers and experiencing fewer structured learning experiences in typical professional skills topics. The data collected shows positive student perceptions towards project-based learning courses which supports this pedagogy as applicable in training trusted professionals. Some variations were observed between the two populations, but general trends showed agreed positive value to professional skills and technical skills development through PBL experiences. This paper includes a brief contextual definition for PBL, a summary of student populations and course structures captured in this study, and a summary of survey responses. Conclusions identifying trends in student perceptions of their learning, competency, and confidence as influenced by PBL are shared and comparisons across the two institutions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undergraduate research experiences are cited to improve soft skills that include oral and written communication skills, leadership, problem solving, and teamwork. Additionally, literature cites increases in critical thinking skills and retention in the field of discipline, with the latter aspect attributed to the rigorous and ongoing mentoring that occurs between student and faculty in the context of these experiences. The objective of this study is to assess the degree to which this summer undergraduate research program contributes to the development and enhancement of students' metacognitive skills. Our summer undergraduate research program integrates the faculty/student mentoring component with a specific assessment practice that occurs at the onset, mid-point, and the final phase of the experience. This assessment, called the EvaluateUR, requires both the faculty and the student to assess the student's metacognitive skills (i.e., critical thinking and problem solving; Intellectual development; ability to deal with obstacles; content knowledge and methods; nature of disciplinary knowledge; and practice and process of inquiry) and integrates required discussions of those assessments between the faculty and student. It was found that on average, students rate themselves higher in their abilities at the onset of the experience compared to how faculty rate them. However, by the end of the program the student and faculty responses were more equivalent. For all aspects scored, both the faculty and the students perceived students improved from initial to post assessment, with the greatest gains in areas related to research abilities, knowledge/content within their respective discipline, critical thinking, and flexibility. This paper discusses the summer undergraduate research experience program, the scope of the student projects, how student participants and faculty mentors assess the development of student metacognitive skills over the course of the program, the results, and analyses of the students' growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]