Abstracts of Research Publications

Research Abstracts: summaries and abstracts

Abstracts 1983 - 87

Cresswell, MJ (1987) A More Generally Useful Measure of the Weight of Examination Components British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, Vol. 40, 61-79

A variety of measures of the weight of examination components are discussed in the measurement literature. The appropriateness of such measures to examinations which are not norm-referenced is questioned and a new measure is proposed which is appropriate to both norm- and criterion-referenced examinations.

Cresswell, MJ (1987) Describing Examination Performance: Grade Criteria in Public Examinations Educational Studies, Vol. 13, No. 3, 247-265

At the time this paper was published, it was proposed to introduce grade criteria into GCSE examinations. One purpose of this move was to make more explicit the likely levels of competence and knowledge that might be expected from candidates obtaining particular grades. Grade criteria were also intended to provide realistic targets for teachers and pupils to aim at and a consequential improvement in achievement was hoped for. This paper considers grade criteria with reference to these aims.

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Cresswell, MJ (1986) A Review of Borderline Reviewing Educational Studies, Vol. 12, No. 2, 175-190

It is argued in this paper that the procedures generally adopted for improving the reliability of borderline candidates’ grades suffered from considerable theoretical and practical defects. Alternative procedures are proposed which are shown to be more likely to lead to the desired improvement.

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Cresswell, MJ (1986) Examination Grades: How many should there be? British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, 37-54

There are two schools of thought for deciding the number of grades which should be used to report examination results. This paper considers the various factors which determine their relative merits in relation to the different functions which examinations fulfil.

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Forrest, GM and Shoesmith, DJ (1985) A Second Review of GCE Comparability Studies Manchester: Joint Matriculation Board

This review comprises five sections. Section 1 summarises the earlier review that covered comparability studies between 1964 and 1977. Section 2 provides the background of the boards operating in 1985 and describes the differences between them. Section 3 describes the educational changes occurring at that time which had an affect on the boards. Section 4 categorises the studies carried out since 1975 and reviews them. Section 5 covers the design of cross-moderation exercises.

Bardell, G, Fearnley, AJ and Fowles, DE (1984) The contribution of graded objectives schemes in Mathematics and French Joint Matriculation Board and the Schools Council

This project was part of a JMB/Schools Council joint research investigation into criterion referencing of grades at 16+, which had been requested by the then Secretary of State for Education and Science in 1980 as a feature of the new examination which was to replace the GCE O Level and CSE examinations.
* See also Forrest and Orr (1984) and Orr and Forrest (1984).

Cresswell, MJ (1984) Estimating the Effects of Reducing the Number of Papers in an Examination Educational Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1-5

There are occasions when the removal of one paper from a multi-paper examination isunder consideration but a change in the nature of the construct assessed by the examination as a whole is not desired. In these circumstances, reference is usually made to the achieved weight of the paper (that is, the extent to which it contributes to the final results of the examination) in an attempt to gauge its importance. It is pointed out that the usual measure of achieved weight gives an exaggerated impression of the impact which the removal of a paper from an examination will have on the measurements obtained. It is argued that a more accurate, upper bound, indicator of the influence of a paper in these circumstances is given by expressing its observed score variance as a proportion of the variance of the total scores.

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Forrest, GM and Orr, L (1984) Grade characteristics in English and Physics Joint Matriculation Board and the Schools Council

This project was part of a JMB/Schools Council joint research investigation into criterion referencing of grades at 16+, which had been requested by the then Secretary of State for Education and Science in 1980 as a feature of the new examination which was to replace the GCE O Level and CSE examinations in English and Physics.

Orr, L and Forrest, GM (1984) Investigation into the relationship between grades and assessment objectives in History and English examinations Joint Matriculation Board and the Schools Council

This project was part of a JMB/Schools Council joint research investigation into criterion referencing of grades at 16+, which had been requested by the then Secretary of State for Education and Science in 1980 as a feature of the new examination which was to replace the GCE O Level and CSE examinations in History and English.

Forrest, GM and Williams, CA (1983) Report of the Inter-Board Cross-moderation Study in GCE Physics (Ordinary), 1980 Manchester: Joint Matriculation Board

The report describes the conduct and main findings of the 1980 Inter-Board Comparability Study of Ordinary level Physics examinations.