Measuring the Academic Skills of University Students: Evaluation of a Diagnostic Procedure

Autor/inn/en	Erling, Elizabeth J.; Richardson, John T. E.
Titel	Measuring the Academic Skills of University Students: Evaluation of a Diagnostic Procedure
Quelle	In: Assessing Writing, 15 (2010) 3, S.177-193 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1075-2935
DOI	10.1016/j.asw.2010.08.002
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Writing Evaluation; Assignments; Psychometrics; Writing Skills; Measurement Techniques; Test Reliability; Validity; Distance Education; Interrater Reliability; Educational Diagnosis; College Students; Academic Discourse; Developmental Studies Programs; Australia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Assignment; Auftrag; Zuweisung; Psychometry; Psychometrie; Writing skill; Schreibfertigkeit; Messtechnik; Testreliabilität; Gültigkeit; Distance study; Distance learning; Fernunterricht; Interrater-Reliabilität; Pedagogical diagnostics; Pädagogische Diagnostik; Collegestudent; Discourse; Diskurs; Developmental studies; Developmental psychology; Study; Studies; Entwicklungspsychologie; Studium; Australien
Abstract	Measuring the Academic Skills of University Students is a procedure developed in the 1990s at the University of Sydney's Language Centre to identify students in need of academic writing development by assessing examples of their written work against five criteria. This paper reviews the literature relating to the development of the procedure with a focus on studies exploring its reliability and validity. It then describes a study in which teams of language experts and subject experts used the procedure to rate assignments produced by students taking three distance-learning courses. This study provides further insight into the psychometric properties of the procedure: the overall ratings had satisfactory internal consistency and test-retest reliability and were highly correlated with the marks awarded to the assignments analyzed. However, the ratings were also highly correlated with each other and yielded just one principal component, suggesting that even skilled assessors were unable to differentiate between different aspects of academic writing. We therefore conclude that the procedure is a reliable and valid means of identifying students who need writing skills development but that it should not be relied on to identify their particular areas of weakness. (Contains 5 tables.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10