Difficulty Of Questions Research Articles

How Effective are Matching Schemes in Enticing Low-Income Earners to Save More for Retirement? Evidence from a National Scheme

Concerns over the adequacy of low and middle-income earner contributions to retirement plans have led governments to introduce targeted matching schemes. In this study, we examine the effects of a simple and generous Australian scheme using administrative tax-filer data, exploiting longitudinal changes in eligibility and match rates. We find small increases in the proportion who contribute and bunching at the eligible maximum, but lower average contributions because the matching payment displaces contributions of high contributors. Contributions through unmatched channels are also crowded out. These findings highlight the difficulties of targeting matching schemes and question the merits of simplifying them.

Unique approach to continuing medical education in clinical pharmacology across Australia and New Zealand.

Advanced physician training in clinical pharmacology lacks a continuing education programme. There is a need for continuing medical education but how to introduce and develop education remains unclear. The primary aim was to develop and implement a peer-led, web-based multiple choice question approach to continuing education in clinical pharmacology training across Australia and New Zealand. Secondary aims included determining, quality, difficulty, utility, relevance, user-friendliness, sustainability and potential to form part of formal clinical pharmacology physician training. In February 2018, a survey of clinical pharmacology trainees identified topics for question development. Questions covering requested topics were developed and piloted in PeerWise between March and October 2018. Participants could rate quality and difficulty of questions using categorical rating scales and make free text comments. After questions were piloted, a survey using a 0-10-point Likert scale and yes/no responses assessed utility, relevance, user-friendliness, sustainability and formalisation potential. Twenty-four trainees were invited to participate. Nine (38%) of trainees completed the initial survey, 10 (42%) attempted questions and 7 (29%) completed the end survey. Median scores of 8.00 (IQR 6.50 - 9.00), 7.00 (IQR 6.50 - 7.50) and 8.00 (IQR 6.50 - 8.00) using a 0-10-point Likert scale indicated trainees found this approach useful, relevant and user-friendly. Five (71%) out of seven responding trainees felt this approach was sustainable and could be incorporated as part of formal clinical training. This study suggests that peer-led multiple choice questions could form an enduring education modality which could be incorporated into clinical pharmacology training.

Kaizen: Interactive Gaming for Diabetes Patient Education.

Objective: An estimated 100 million Americans have diabetes, undiagnosed diabetes, a high risk of being diagnosed with diabetes, or prediabetes. Many complications can arise if diabetes is poorly managed. Hence, the need for adequate knowledge, skills, and ability to care for oneself, known as diabetes self-care management, is needed to reduce complication rates. We used an interactive platform that incorporates principles of gamification to enhance user engagement to enhance diabetes knowledge. The purpose of this descriptive pilot study was to discover what adult patients with diabetes thought about this novel educational approach to diabetes education. Materials and Methods: We collected focus group data from participants at a diabetes clinic after they played an interactive diabetes trivia game, on our software platform (Kaizen Education). Transcripts were coded and common themes were identified. Results: We conducted 9 focus groups that included 33 adult (age >18) participants who had diabetes. An overarching theme of play/gaming as a form of learning was apparent, and after analyzing the coding several themes emerged, including preferences and desired environments (clinic and home) for learning, desired players (including family, significant others), and a good balance of question difficulty. Conclusions: Participants were overwhelmingly positive about gamified education and felt empowered to lead discussions with their health care providers about diabetes self-care education, in a sense "flipping" the traditional clinic patient education paradigm. These results suggested that a flipped clinic approach could be beneficial, empowering, and engaging for patients.

Mengungkap Pemahaman Konsep Listrik Dinamis di Sekolah Berbasis Kemaritiman

This study aims to describe the understanding of students' concepts on dynamic electric metrics in maritime-based schools in the city of Tegal. The study was conducted through a four-stage diagnostic test. The concept of dynamic electricity includes: Electric current strength, potential difference, series-parallel circuit, electric power, and Kirchoff's 1 law. The study was conducted at Tegal Nahdlatul Ulama High School as a sample of maritime-based schools in Tegal in the 2018/2019 school year. The sample used in the study was 29 students of class XII IPA Nahdlatul Ulama High School in Tegal city. The stages of research include (1) Reviewing references and journals related to understanding concept research; (2) Reviewing the syllabus to obtain misconceptions in the material of dynamic electric chapter physics; (3) Designing a question instrument in the form of a four tier test that can diagnose student misconceptions; (5) Validation by experts, namely with lecturers; (6) Test instruments to determine validity, reliability, degree of difficulty and differentiation of questions; (7) Test of student misconceptions carried out to students of class XII IPA at Nahdlatul Ulama High School. The results of data analysis obtained a description of students' understanding which could be categorized as understanding concepts, misconceptions, not understanding concepts and errors.

Opacity, obscurity, and the geometry of question-asking

Asking questions is a pervasive human activity, but little is understood about what makes them difficult to answer. An analysis of a pair of large databases, New York Times crosswords and questions from the quiz-show Jeopardy, establishes two orthogonal dimensions of question difficulty: obscurity (the rarity of the answer) and opacity (the indirectness of question cues, operationalized with word2vec). The importance of opacity, and the role of synergistic information in resolving it, suggests that accounts of difficulty in terms of prior expectations captures only a part of the question-asking process. A further regression analysis shows the presence of additional dimensions to question-asking: question complexity, the answer's local network density, cue intersection, and the presence of signal words. Our work shows how question-askers can help their interlocutors by using contextual cues, or, conversely, how a particular kind of unfamiliarity with the domain in question can make it harder for individuals to learn from others. Taken together, these results suggest how Bayesian models of question difficulty can be supplemented by process models and accounts of the heuristics individuals use to navigate conceptual spaces.

Final examination paper analysis of Surgery and Field Surgery in five-year students from comprehensive class of Grade 2014

Objective To analyze the quality of final exam papers of Surgery and Field Surgery for five-year medical students from comprehensive class of Grade 2014, so as to check the mastery of different students, perfect the construction of item banking, verify the quality of teaching and learning, and thus provide references to further teaching reform. Methods SPSS 21.0 was used for statistical analysis of 133 Surgery and Field Surgery papers of students from comprehensive class of Grade 2014. Results The highest score was 93.5, the lowest score was 52.0, and the average score was (70.60±9.00). Among those 133 students, six students were failed, occupying 4.51%. The overall difficulty coefficient of examination paper (P) was 0.71, and P value of multiple choice questions and blank-filling questions was 0.4-0.7. Difference degrees (D) of question types were more than 0.600 and the overall reliability was 0.764. Scores of examination paper were generally in normal distribution. The average scores of students form anesthesiology major were higher than those of students from navigation medicine major, but the average scores of students from above two majors were higher than those of students from psychology major, with statistically significant differences (P<0.05). Conclusion Question types of this paper are comprehensive and reasonable. The overall difficulty is not high, the difference degree is good, the reliability is good and the score distribution is reasonable. However, the question should be further improved, focusing on the reasonable distribution of difficulty of question. In addition, we should strengthen the teaching of the course in students from psychology major. Key words: Examination paper analysis; Surgery and Field Surgery; Teaching effect; Comprehensive class

Psychometric analysis of questions associated with radiological images in the competitive examination for access to residency programs in Spain

Background and objectivePsychometrics is a simple, intuitive approach used in educational research and in multiple-choice questionnaires. Since 2009, the competitive examination through which access to residency programs in Spain is determined (MIR) has included questions related to radiological images. The objective of this paper is to show the results of the psychometric analysis of these questions with the aim of comparing their degree of difficulty, discriminative capacity, and internal structure with respect to those of the other questions on the examination. Material and methodsWe analyzed all questions on the examination since 2009, classifying them as clinical cases with and without radiological images, clinical cases with and without non-radiological images, multiple choice questions, and negative questions. We used classical test theory and item response theory to assess the difficulty and degree of discrimination of the questions. ResultsOf 225 questions, between 11% and 15% of the questions included in the examinations were associated with images. The questions associated with radiological images were more difficult (corrected difficulty index, 0.51) and had worse discriminative capacity. The increased difficulty of radiological questions was associated with worse discriminative capacity, especially if the clinical information provided was inadequate or if the clinical information was contrary to the radiological concept or if there had never been any questions about the concept in previoous MIR examinations. ConclusionsTo equalize the standards of the MIR examination, it is necessary to maintain an appropriate structure in devising radiology questions, with terms from the clinical context, appropriate use of distracters, and a lower level of difficulty, which could be achieved by using radiological images with typical radiological findings.

Mitigating the effect of language in the assessment of science: A study of English‐language learners in primary classrooms in the United Kingdom

AbstractChildren coming from homes where English is not their first language constitute a significant and increasing proportion of classrooms worldwide. Providing these English‐language learners (ELLs) with equitable assessment opportunities is a challenge. We analyze the performance of 485 students, both English‐native‐speakers (ENSs) and ELLs, across five schools within the United Kingdom in the 7–11‐year age group on standardized summative Science assessment tasks. Logistic regression with random effects assesses the impact of English‐language proficiency, and its interactions with question traits, on performance. Traits investigated were: question focus; need for active language production; presence/absence of visuals; and question difficulty. Results demonstrated that, while ELLs persistently performed more poorly, the gap to their ENS peers depended significantly upon assessment traits. ELLs were particularly disadvantaged when responses required active language production and/or when assessed on specific scientific vocabulary. Presence of visual prompts did not help ELL performance. There was no evidence of an interaction between topic difficulty and language ability suggesting lower ELL performance is not related to capacity to understand advanced topics. We propose assessment should permit flexibility in language choice and production type for ELLs with low English language proficiency; while simultaneously recommend subject‐specific teaching of scientific language begins at lower stages of schooling.

ATP: Directed Graph Embedding with Asymmetric Transitivity Preservation

Directed graphs have been widely used in Community Question Answering services (CQAs) to model asymmetric relationships among different types of nodes in CQA graphs, e.g., question, answer, user. Asymmetric transitivity is an essential property of directed graphs, since it can play an important role in downstream graph inference and analysis. Question difficulty and user expertise follow the characteristic of asymmetric transitivity. Maintaining such properties, while reducing the graph to a lower dimensional vector embedding space, has been the focus of much recent research. In this paper, we tackle the challenge of directed graph embedding with asymmetric transitivity preservation and then leverage the proposed embedding method to solve a fundamental task in CQAs: how to appropriately route and assign newly posted questions to users with the suitable expertise and interest in CQAs. The technique incorporates graph hierarchy and reachability information naturally by relying on a nonlinear transformation that operates on the core reachability and implicit hierarchy within such graphs. Subsequently, the methodology levers a factorization-based approach to generate two embedding vectors for each node within the graph, to capture the asymmetric transitivity. Extensive experiments show that our framework consistently and significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art baselines on three diverse realworld tasks: link prediction, and question difficulty estimation and expert finding in online forums like Stack Exchange. Particularly, our framework can support inductive embedding learning for newly posted questions (unseen nodes during training), and therefore can properly route and assign these kinds of questions to experts in CQAs.

(Mis)Measuring Sensitive Attitudes with the List Experiment

Abstract List experiments (LEs) are an increasingly popular survey research tool for measuring sensitive attitudes and behaviors. However, there is evidence that list experiments sometimes produce unreasonable estimates. Why do list experiments “fail,” and how can the performance of the list experiment be improved? Using evidence from Kenya, we hypothesize that the length and complexity of the LE format make them costlier for respondents to complete and thus prone to comprehension and reporting errors. First, we show that list experiments encounter difficulties with simple, nonsensitive lists about food consumption and daily activities: over 40 percent of respondents provide inconsistent responses between list experiment and direct question formats. These errors are concentrated among less numerate and less educated respondents, offering evidence that the errors are driven by the complexity and difficulty of list experiments. Second, we examine list experiments measuring attitudes about political violence. The standard list experiment reveals lower rates of support for political violence compared to simply asking directly about this sensitive attitude, which we interpret as list experiment breakdown. We evaluate two modifications to the list experiment designed to reduce its complexity: private tabulation and cartoon visual aids. Both modifications greatly enhance list experiment performance, especially among respondent subgroups where the standard procedure is most problematic. The paper makes two key contributions: (1) showing that techniques such as the list experiment, which have promise for reducing response bias, can introduce different forms of error associated with question complexity and difficulty; and (2) demonstrating the effectiveness of easy-to-implement solutions to the problem.

Análisis psicométrico de las preguntas asociadas a imágenes radiológicas en el examen para médico interno residente en España

Background and objectivePsychometrics is a simple, intuitive approach used in educational research and in multiple-choice questionnaires. Since 2009, the competitive examination through which access to residency programs in Spain is determined (MIR) has included questions related to radiological images. The objective of this paper is to show the results of the psychometric analysis of these questions with the aim of comparing their degree of difficulty, discriminative capacity, and internal structure with respect to those of the other questions on the examination. Material and methodsWe analyzed all questions on the examination since 2009, classifying them as clinical cases with and without radiological images, clinical cases with and without non-radiological images, multiple choice questions, and negative questions. We used classical test theory and item response theory to assess the difficulty and degree of discrimination of the questions. ResultsOf 225 questions, between 11% and 15% of the questions included in the examinations were associated with images. The questions associated with radiological images were more difficult (corrected difficulty index, 0.51) and had worse discriminative capacity. The increased difficulty of radiological questions was associated with worse discriminative capacity, especially if the clinical information provided was inadequate or if the clinical information was contrary to the radiological concept or if there had never been any questions about the concept in previoous MIR examinations. ConclusionsTo equalize the standards of the MIR examination, it is necessary to maintain an appropriate structure in devising radiology questions, with terms from the clinical context, appropriate use of distracters, and a lower level of difficulty, which could be achieved by using radiological images with typical radiological findings.

Evaluation of auto-generated distractors in multiple choice questions from a semantic network

ABSTRACT Despite their drawback, multiple-choice questions are an enduring feature in instruction because they can be answered more rapidly than open response questions and they are easily scored. However, it can be difficult to generate good incorrect choices (called “distractors”). We designed an algorithm to generate distractors from a semantic network for four types of multiple choice questions in biology. By recruiting 200 participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk, the machine-generated distractors were compared to human-generated distractors in terms of question difficulty, question discrimination and distractor usefulness. The machine-generated and human-generated distractors performed very closely on all the three measures, suggesting that generating distractors from a semantic network for simple multiple choice questions is a viable method.

Hybrid Interactive and Didactic Teaching Format Improves Resident Retention and Attention Compared to Traditional Lectures

To compare the traditional lecture to a hybrid interactive and didactic teaching format with regards to radiology resident short- and long-term retention, as well as attention. The tested hybrid format consists of a 30-minute didactic lecture followed by 30 minutes of interactive cases based on material from the lecture portion. Faculty members were randomly selected to give a 60-minute lecture or a hybrid presentation. To assess short- and long-term retention, a test developed from the presenter's slides was sent to all residents approximately 15 minutes after each presentation, and again approximately 3 months later. The presenters were blinded to the survey questions. Attention was assessed by comparing the proportion of questions answered correctly from each quarter of the presentation. Equality in difficulty of questions was validated across teaching methods. For 6 hybrid presentations, 106 and 60 retention tests were submitted, answering 848 and 480 short- and long-term survey questions, respectively. For 6 lectures, 91 and 55 retention tests were submitted, answering 728 and 440 short- and long-term survey questions, respectively. Short-term retention was 75.7% (640/848) for hybrid presentations, versus 63.2% (460/728) for lectures (p < 0.0001). Long-term retention was 59.4% (285/480) for hybrid presentations, versus 49.3% (217/440) for lectures (p = 0.002). Regarding attention, 61.6% (554/600) of questions from the first 3 quarters of traditional lectures were answered correctly versus 49.3% (148/300) of final quarter questions (p = 0.0003). No significant drop-off was noted for hybrid presentations. A hybrid interactive and didactic teaching format for radiology residents demonstrates better short-term retention, long-term retention, and attention when compared to traditional lectures.

Glimpse into teaching and learning using rasch analyses of a teacher-made science achievement test

This study examined the quality of a teacher-made achievement test using Rasch analyses and provided useful assessment feedback information for improving teaching and testing. The participants were 8,936 seventh-grade students (4,617 boys and 4,319 girls) from the Kaohsiung area in Taiwan. Data were collected through a teacher-made biology achievement test and analyzed using the Rasch model. The results indicated that the test clearly discriminated students' abilities. Some questions, however, were found to have unfair content for girls. Additionally, some mismatches were identified between teachers' expectations and students' assessments of question difficulty. This paper also provides assessment feedback diagrams, including a person-item map and diagnostic map, and a method of identifying ＂the zone of fundamental learning development＂ and ＂the zone of proximal learning development＂ is proposed to enable teachers to plan students' learning progression.

Application of 3D Printing and Ultrasound in Anatomical Education

The incorporation of ultrasound in medical education is expanding, as it allows students to appreciate anatomy through an imaging modality while also becoming proficient in a technique utilized in many fields. However, students often express difficulty in applying 3D spatial comprehension from cadaveric dissections to 2D ultrasound images. 3D printing alongside ultrasound offers an innovative way to allow students to better process complex anatomical relationships. However, while studies show 3D models and ultrasound enhance anatomical education, the use of 3D printed models customized to specific ultrasound images, and their effect on anatomical understanding, has yet to be fully investigated. Here, we present preliminary results of ongoing research (IRB exempt) assessing the use of 3D printing for enhanced cardiac ultrasound and anatomical education in a Physician Assistant's (PA) Gross Anatomy Course.First, a digital heart model was downloaded from www.Thingiverse.com, imported into Geomagic Studio (v2014.2) and edited for anatomical accuracy and printing durability. The model was then digitally cut into a plane replicating parasternal long axis in ultrasound. Models were 3D printed on a Formlabs Form2 printer, using 0.1mm resolution and Grey V3 resin. The heart models were incorporated alongside ultrasound in the 2018 Summer PA Gross Anatomy Course.To determine whether the incorporation of ultrasound and 3D heart models enhanced students' understanding of the cardiac system, statistics for cardiac questions were pulled from previous exams and organized into three cohorts: No Ultrasound (Summer 2015); Ultrasound Only (Summers 2016 2017); Ultrasound + 3DModel (Summer 2018). Each course ranged from 49–52 students with 20–24 cardiac questions available for analysis. For each question the primary variable of interest was “percentage answered correctly”, but additional variables were obtained: question type (anatomical, embryological, imaging), exam type (practical, written), question difficulty (Blooming Anatomy Tool Level)., Non‐parametric statistics were used due to non‐normality of the data.Overall mean scores for cardiac questions increased with each cohort: No Ultrasound (83%), Ultrasound Only (87%), Ultrasound + 3Dmodel (88%). However, independent Kruskal‐Wallis tests indicate the distribution of scores is not significantly different among cohorts (test statistic=2.016; P=0.365). Additional analyses failed to find significant differences among cohorts, even when focusing on specific question type, exam type, or question difficulty (all P‐values &gt; 0.10).Although significant differences were not established, uprising trends in mean scores and anecdotal evidence of student excitement are encouraging. This preliminary study was limited in that additional factors (previous anatomy or ultrasound experience, student attitudes, demographics) were not analyzed. Additional studies with larger courses, other programs (osteopathic or allopathic medical students), and pre/post tests would provide more insight into how implementing 3D modeling may enhance student learning environments in a combined ultrasound‐anatomy curriculum.Support or Funding InformationnoneThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Course Delivery Format and Exam Performance Stratified by Question Difficulty

BackgroundWe previously reported the D/F/W rate in an undergraduate Human Physiology course to be significantly lower for students enrolled in a blended course delivery format (5%) compared with traditional large lecture (23%) or online formats (22%, P=0.007). Students in blended sections reviewed pre‐recorded lectures and met once per week for 75 min to complete guided collaborative learning activities. The large lecture format utilized didactic lecture to present the same content (twice‐weekly class sessions, 75 min each). Online students independently reviewed the same pre‐recorded lectures and engaged in asynchronous online discussions once per unit over four units. The purpose of this follow‐up investigation was to examine the influence of course delivery format upon exam performance stratified by question difficulty classified by Bloom's taxonomy. We also assessed performance on free response questions and aggregate performance from the Phys‐MAPS assessment.MethodsOf the 207 students initially enrolled in Human Physiology during the Fall 2017 semester, 181 (83%) provided consent for inclusion in this study. From this cohort we analyzed exam performance from 157 students who completed all four exams: N=50 blended, N=72 large lecture, N=35 online. Participants also completed pre‐ and post‐ course surveys regarding perceptions of course activities and motivation factors (self‐efficacy, intrinsic value, test anxiety). Multiple regression models were used to compare exam performance outcomes (% correct for multiple choice questions stratified by Bloom's level, free response scores, cumulative portion of the final exam) by course format after controlling for prior learning outcomes (i.e. Exam 1 performance). Additionally, given the correlation between students' performance across Bloom's levels, a mixed effects model was used to compare student performance overall across all levels.ResultsStudents in the blended sections scored higher on Bloom's Level 1 Knowledge‐based exam questions (77.5 ± 14.7% answered correctly) compared with large lecture section (72.6 ± 16.3%), b=−6.54, t(153)= −3.11, P=0.002. Free response performance was higher for blended sections compared with traditional lecture and online sections (both P=0.002). No significant differences by course delivery format were noted for Bloom's Level 2 Comprehension (P=0.08), combined Bloom's Levels 3/4 Application/Analysis (P=0.37), the cumulative portion of the final exam (20 multiple choice questions, P=0.83), or aggregate Phys‐MAPS performance (P =0.66). Lastly, end‐of‐semester self‐reported anxiety was lower in the blended compared to large lecture format (P=0.006).ConclusionsStudents enrolled in the blended sections of Human Physiology, which included peer interactions during each class session, performed higher on knowledge‐based multiple choice exam questions and free response questions requiring demonstration of integrative thinking and ability to communicate physiology‐related concepts.Support or Funding InformationFunding and instructional design support provided by the University of Iowa Office of Teaching, Learning, and TechnologyThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Development of a Tool for Food Literacy Assessment in Children (TFLAC)

ObjectiveFood literacy provides a framework for food-related knowledge, skills, and behaviors. The aim of this study was to develop a Tool for Food Literacy Assessment in Children (TFLAC), grades 4–5. MethodsDevelopment of the TFLAC consisted of 3 phases: (1) content validity using a 2-round modified Delphi panel (n = 16) and content validity ratios (CVR); (2) pilot-testing (n = 38); and (3) assessment of internal consistency and test-retest reliability (n = 706) using Cronbach α and intraclass correlation coefficients, respectively. Statistical significance was set at P < .05. ResultsRound 1 (CVR = 0.40) and 2 (CVR = 0.70) Delphi panel feedback and the pilot test informed modifications to the TFLAC question format, wording, and difficulty. Food literacy domain-specific Cronbach α values were acceptable (range, .80–.98) except for cooking knowledge (.63), and intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.64–0.70 (P < .001). Conclusions and ImplicationsThe TFLAC meets basic psychometric standards and may serve as a foundation for nutrition education intervention design and evaluation. Further testing with a broader geographic audience may be warranted.

English

This study had attempted to investigate assessment practices and factors for grade 8 students score disparity in Regional versus Teacher-made exams, from 2015 in Bench Maji Zone primary schools. In doing so, a descriptive survey method was employed. A sample of 185 stakeholders composed of 58 teachers, 101 students, 14 principals, 11 Woreda Education Department Officers, 12 school supervisors and the Zone Education Bureau Officer participated. Purposive sampling technique was employed to identify the participating individuals. As tools of data collection, questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and document review were employed. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively as well as employing percentage correlation in accordance to the thematic areas, primarily to substantiate the quantitative descriptions. The results with respect to assessment had shown that teachers were applying the traditional pyramid of assessment procedures whereby the proportion of assessment of learning (Summative Assessment) dominates assessment as learning and assessment for learning which are vital for better learning and performance. The correlation between students&#39; scores in Regional versus Teacher-made exams was found to be positive but very much lower than the absolute positive correlation coefficient value (ɤ=0.476**at p&lt;0.01 level of significance). The contributing factors for the existing score disparity were the traditional assessment practice itself, assessment feedback provision experiences, differences in invigilation room setting and degree of control, and large class size. Also included are commitment differences among students themselves, differences in the difficulty and quality standard of exam questions, poor study skills, support provision variations obtained from parents, supervisors, principals, Education office and Education department officers. Therefore, concerned stakeholders must cooperate fully and responsively to put in place proper assessment which contributes much for effective learning. &nbsp; Key words: Assessment practice, score disparity, time perspective of assessment, assessor.

Effects of Question Difficulty and Post-Question Wait-Time on Cognitive Engagement: A Psychophysiological Analysis

Educational research surrounding teaching methods and accepted practices is continually needed to improve teaching and teacher preparation programs. The revised Bloom’s Taxonomy is often used by teachers in question development. The effectiveness of these questions are often dependent, not on the question alone, but also in how the question is presented. One component of implementing effective questioning is the use of wait-time. Wait-time is the amount of time a teacher waits for a student response after having posed a question. Experts have recommended wait times ranging from three and five seconds in length. The purpose of this study was to utilize a psychophysiological measure of cognitive resource allocation (heart rate) to provide evidence of the magnitude and duration of cognitive engagement elicited after posing questions and to determine an appropriate amount of post-question wait-time needed by undergraduate agricultural education students. Study results suggest that students were cognitively engaged for two to three seconds during the wait-time that followed a question. Additionally, students re-engaged cognitively after eight seconds of wait-time. The results of this study provide unique evidence in assisting teachers with effectively employing wait-time strategies.

Analysis of the French national evaluation of radiology residents.

In France, a national evaluation is given annually to radiology residents. The aim of this study was to perform both a docimological analysis of the quality of the questionnaire and a statistical analysis of the results. This retrospective study, which included French radiology residents from Year 1 to Year 5 of residency, was performed from 2015 to 2017 across 25 medical universities in France. Both qualitative and quantitative docimological analyses were performed as assessed by the Cronbach alpha coefficient, the difficulty of question (PDI), and the coefficient of discrimination (Rir). Results to the questionnaire were compared between years of residency. The results of the analysis confirmed the quality of the questionnaire (Cronbach alpha coefficient=0.71, mean [PDI=0.40]) though the majority of questions could be answered by memory rather than cognitive ability. The mean Rir was 0.02, indicating that students could not be certified using only the questionnaire. The results measuring resident level of knowledge were moderate, with mean results ranging from 9.2/20 at the first year to 11.3/20 at the fifth year of residency (P<0.001). There were no significant differences in results obtained between the third, fourth, and fifth year of residency but results were significantly different among university hospitals. Even if close interactions exist between learning and pedagogic environment, our results suggest that it may be useful to further develop an evaluation process in relation with pedagogic instructions in order to provide more optimal training.