Educational Measurement
Year:2013 | Volume:3 | Issue:10|Papers Count:8

Validity and reliability are especially important in the process of test development. The English Language Test of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (MSRT) is an English proficiency test that is conducted every two months by the Student Affairs Department of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology for the purpose of sending students to overseas. The aim of this research, which is correlational and experimental, is to assess the validity and reliability of the MSRT Test. Construct validity (internal consistency) was used to assess the validity, and Cronbach's Alpha was used to assess the internal reliability of the Test. All the calculations were performed by SPSS. The research questions were: 1. What is the validity and reliability of MSRT Test? 2. Is TOEFL proficiency test suitable for assessing the language ability of language learners? The results of the research were: 1. The MSRT Test has satisfactory reliability and validity at general level but does not have adequate validity at detailed level. In other words, the correlation coefficient between listening-structural and listening-reading components is less than structural-reading components. 2. The TOEFL proficiency test is not suitable for assessing the language abilities of language learners since it does not test oral proficiency and assesses grammar and vocabulary separately.

Background: Outcome expectations refer to an important point according to which behavior is a result of people’s expectations about achieving a specific outcome and the value they attach to that outcome. Therefore, it is an important factor in education. Introducing appropriate tools to assess these variables and to demonstrate their critical role in the field of education is essential.Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to examine the factor structure, reliability, and validity of students’ outcome expectancy scale.Methods: To achieve this end, 414 undergraduate students (248 girls and 166 boys) of State, Azad, and Payame Noor Universities of Yazd were selected by multistage cluster sampling and measured by the Outcome Expectancy Scale.Findings: The results of exploratory factor analysis and principal component analysis confirmed four factors (future orientation, job satisfaction, personal expectations, and self-confidence) in addition to the general factor of students’ outcome expectations. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to assess the reliability and confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the factorial validity of the scale. The results showed that the scale had an acceptable internal consistency. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for its subscale ranged from 0.65 to 0.79. Moreover, the results of the confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the structure of the scale had an acceptable fit to the data and all the goodness-of-fit indices confirmed the model.Discussion and Conclusion: The results of the factor analysis and the reliability and validity coefficients were almost similar to the previous researches conducted in the main culture. Considering its good psychometric properties, the scale is a useful tool for determining student' s outcome expectancy.

Background: Researches on memory have had useful findings in helping the learners to successfully retrieve materials during examination.Objectives: The present paper aimed to examine the effect of question type, the level of processing and the conceptual context of the question on students' memory performance.Methods: Using clustered random sampling, 128 subjects were selected from among Boukan Payame Noor University students in the fall semester of the educational year 1390 (2011). They were divided into 8 groups; each including 16 students. There was no significant difference in the results of Wechsler's Clinical Memory test among the 8 groups. The factorial design involved 3 factors, each at 2 levels. The research instrument was 8 researcher-made tests extracted from educational texts on quantum physics (which is a subject unfamiliar to the students). Validity and reliability of the text as well as the test was confirmed.Results: The results showed that the effect of processing level was significant (P<0.05 & f=5.567). However, question type (P>0.05 & f=0.105) and conceptual context of the question (P>0.05 & f=1.191) were not independently significant. Moreover, the interaction between conceptual context and type of the question (P<0.05 & f=4.635) as well as the interaction between the conceptual context and the level of processing (P<0.01 & f=7.362).Conclusion: Research findings confirmed that it is better to use questions with internal conceptual context in recognition tests and to use questions with external conceptual context in review tests. However, a deeper level of processing is always preferred.

Background: In recent years, the number of researches in the field of positive psychology has increased. Therefore, studying psychometric properties of the most widely used tools in this field, like happiness, is of a great importance.Objective: The present study aimed at exploring the psychometric properties of Persian version of the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire among college students. Method: Using multi-stage random sampling, 428 subjects were selected among college students and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Life Satisfaction Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory were distributed among them.Results: Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest coefficient for the whole sample were respectively 90% and 79%. The results of exploratory factor analysis showed that the questionnaire was involving six factors: life satisfaction, efficacy, happiness, self-esteem, sociability and well-being. The results of the confirmative factor analysis indicated that the factorial structure of the questionnaire was one-dimensional. Moreover, the coefficient of convergence and divergence validity for questionnaire was high and acceptable. There was no significant difference between males and females in happiness.Conclusion: The findings attested to the fact that the Persian version of the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire had acceptable psychometric properties and could be used as reliable and valid instrument in psychological researches.

Objectives: The present study aimed at examining the gender invariance of factorial structure of the Academic Expectations Stress Inventory (AESI, Ang and Huan, 2006).Methods: A sample of 327 male and 353 female high school students were administered the AESI. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the cross-gender validity and invariance of factorial structure of AESI. The results of single-group confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the two-factor model of AESI, consisting of academic stress arising from self-expectations and academic stress arising from other expectations across gender groups, fit to the data well.Results: The results of multi-group confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the cross-gender invariance of factorial structure, factor loadings, and factor variances and covariances of the AESI across both samples. Multivariate analysis of variance results indicated that no significant gender differences were found on academic stress arising from self-expectations and academic stress arising from other-expectations.Conclusion: The findings confirmed the gender invariance of factorial structure of AESI across gender groups and indicated that AESI is a promising tool for evaluating academic stress arising from self and others’ expectations in gender subgroups.

Two important objectives for measuring the variables in behavioral and cognitive sciences are: 1) measurement and 2) complex causal relationships between variables. Measurement asks about, what is measured by observed variables? And how we can determine the validity and reliability of variables. The latter, responds to this question: since the variables are not directly observable and measurable and only reflected in observed variables with measurement error, how complex causal relationships between these variables can be inferred? How the relationships between latent variables can be measured? In response to these kinds of questions, structural equation models, composed of the “measurement model” and the “structural function model”, are used. The answers to the first question are evaluated by the measurement model and that of the second one are evaluated by the structural function model. The structural equation models, emerging two models of Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Function Analysis, eradicates many of difficulties in measuring latent variables and inference of the complex casual relationships among them. The present paper introduced the assumptions of structural equation models, presenting an example in the field of psychological test validation. It also explained the logic and structure of structural equations.CAARS–S: SV, a set of criteria for ADHD identification in adults, is used for explaining the confirmatory factor analysis.

Background: The Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II) is a revision of the Depression Questionnaire and a widely used self-report measure of depressive symptoms in clinical and non-clinical populations.Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II-Persian) among students of Shahid Chamran University and Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences (Gundeshapur).Methods: Using random multi-stage sampling method, 468 subjects were selected among the students of the mentioned universities in the educational year 1389-90 (2010- 2011). They completed the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition. The data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and SPSS-16 and AMOS-16 soft wares.Results: The results of the factor analysis (using the principal components analysis) and Varimax rotation were indicative of the two factors: cognitive-affective and negative attitude-somatic symptoms. The reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha) were satisfactory for all the extracted factors. The total score of BDI-II was significantly correlated with the two extracted factors. The confirmatory factor analysis also showed that the two-factor model, rather than the one-factor model, seems to provide a more satisfactory fit to the data in the present study.Conclusion: Finally, the study showed that BDI-II can use in research and educational settings, particularly, in assessing depression normal and abnormal groups.

Background: Health, one of the most important resources of humankind life, is so effective on the quality of human life and advancing the society goals.Objectives: This study was carried out to compare the total index of mental health in males and females using the meta-analysis method.Method: 26 studies were gathered through net surfing in internal databases as well as manual searching in various Tehran universities and their data were encoded.Results: Cohen’s Index of Effect Size in the fixed and random models was respectively 0.286 and 0.301, which was indicative of a better status for men in the total index of mental health than women. The results of the publication bias methods showed no bias in meta-analysis sample. Because of the heterogeneity of the studies, the moderator analysis was carried out for age, implementation region, and measurement tool, the results of which prove the moderating effect of age on the results of the studies.Conclusion: It seems necessary to paying more attention to women's life issue and to provide the possibility for them to enjoy health care.