ACER Newsletter No. 6 Spring 1970

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Australian Scholastic Aptitude Test

In 1968 the Australian Council for Educational Research prepared a battery of five tests of scholastic aptitude as part of the Tertiary Edu- cation Entrance Project. The project is a part of the first serious attempt to find a solution to the problem of selecting and guiding students for tertiary institutions, at a time when the achievement-type matriculation examination, in use in all states, is under increasing fire.

As a further part of the TEEP ex- periment, we have recently pub-

1 ished a single-sitting, three-hour Australian Scholastic Aptitude Test (ASAT), which yvill be used experi- mentally in several states in 1970, and in others in 1971.

A test of scholastic aptitude (the SAT) has long been an element in the process of student selection for college entrance in the USA, and more recently, several forms of such a test have been constructed for ex- perimenta I work in both the UK and Canada. In the USA the SAT has been used in conjunction with a battery of achievement tests in certain key subjects. There is no clear in- dication as to how the UK and Cana- dian versions might be used, but it is probable that a sirnilar use to that in the USA is intended.

Tests of aptitude such as TEEP tests or the ASAT can be used in a

number of ways for tertiary selection.

• They can replace entirely currently-used st1:1te-wide achievement examinations.

• They can be used to scale the results of a state-wide examination in a range of subjects; it is other- wise difficult to add together the results of these subjects since the groups sitting for each subject are not comparable.

• They can be used to place can- didates on an order of merit roll for tertiary selection, subject to an assessment by the school that the students have achieved, to a satisfac- tory degree, the objectives of a required number of secondary school subjects. This procedure would also eliminate the need for a state-wide achievement examination.

• They can be used in conjunction with a limited number of achievement-centred tests in key subjects. Such tests would be constructed so as to test 'general' rather than specific achievement.

The importance of such tests is that, while providing a state-wide mea- sure of achievement in a subject, they would be so constructed as not to force every class to limit itself to a narrowly specified syllabus.

• They can be used to scale the schools' own ranking of their stu-

dents. It is being increasingly recognized that, within a single school, teachers can make judgments about the academic potential of their students with the same kind of ac- curacy ,as a state-wide examination.

Aptitude tests can be used to scale the rankings between schools in terms of a common standard.

All of the above possibilities and others are either being currently explored or will be explored in the near future in Australia. The ASAT is an additional instrument now available for these experiments. It is a three- hour test, consisting of 110 mul- tiple-choice items that require students to choose one answer from four possible ones in each item.

The test consists of some nine- teen units from a variety of areas in mathematics, science, social science, the arts and the humanities.

In each unit the pattern is to provide material with which the candidate is unfamiliar, followed by a number of questions to test his ability to com- prehend and interpret the material.

No specific knowledge, except of elementary conventions, is assumed.

We have recognized three broad types of approach required of the student to the information presented:

• Some units require the kind of deductive and inductive reasoning common to mathematics and the physical, biological and social sciences.

• Some units require the student to recognize implications and rela- tionships in the material, and to

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make inferences of the kind asso- ciated most often with studies in the humanities and arts faculties.

• Some units require a student to exhibit a sensitivity to structure, pattern and form in poetry, visual and verbal material of the kind useful in a diverse range of faculties and schools such as engineering, archi- tecture, art and literature.

The three sections are not given equa I weight among the 110 items, and it is possible that a student's separate scores for each section might be available in addition to his total score.

The ACER Newsletter is published quarterly by the Austra- lian Council for Educational Research, Frederick Street, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122. Com- munications should be ad- dressed to the Editors, ACER Newsletter, at this address.

We hope that ASAT will be used in experimental work in conjunction with a number of other tests such as the American SAT previously men- tioned. For this reason we have not felt it desirable to model the ASAT on the US, UK, and Canadian tests.

All final-year school students in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia and a sample of those in Tasmania and New South Wales are taking ASAT in 1970.

It is possible that major experiments using a modification of the earlier TEEP tests (now called TEEP C), the ASAT, and a number of other test instruments, will be car- ried out in 1971 in Victoria and New South Wales. Such experiments are at present being planned.

A report is being prepared by the Department of Education and Science in Canberra on the results of experiments ( begun in 1968) using TEEP tests in Western Australia, the ACT and Tasmania.

Already the Radford committee in Queensland has recommended the abolition of the sixth-form examination in that state by 1972. It is perhaps possible to hope that the experiments described will result in major changes in senior school examining in Australia.

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TEST LIBRARY

Advisory Services fulfils a number of roles at ACER. One of its most important tasks is to keep teachers and others informed about the many tests we offer for classroom use- whether developed by our own test writers, adapted by them for Aus- tralian conditions, or imported and stocked by our sales department for the convenience of users.

A crucial part or this service is helping teachers select the right tests for their needs; and as part of this advisory process, we often send copies of test materials to teachers who want to examine the material at first hand.

Test Library, our borrowing service, was set up initially to keep ACER staff up-to-date with new developments in testing. To stock it, we accumulated tests from leading test publishers overseas to build on to the base of the variety of tests published or republished by ACER.

INSPECTION

It soon became obvious that there were many others besides our own staff who wanted to inspect test material-many who were unable to visit our offices at Hawthorn, and many who wanted to see for themselves what a catalogued test was like and how it worked. So Test Library broadened its scope and be- gan to meet the borrowing needs of users around Australia.

Since then, it has become a well used facility. Loans are now at the level of four hundred a year, and steadily rising. These requests, with the hundreds of others answered by letter and telephone and during personal visits by teachers, are indica- tive of the heightening interest in the importance of assessment in the teaching process.

The tests in Test Library are divided into many categories. The following subject headings may give some notion of the variety: Achieve- ment Batteries ( kindergarten to adult), Group Intel! igence ( kindergarten to adult), Reading (Diagnos- tic, Attainment), Mathematics (Dia- gnostic, Attainment, Reasoning), Pre-school, Foreign Languages (Ap-

titude, Attainment), Music, Science ( Physics, Chemistry, Biology).

The growth of Test Library de- pends on the creativity of test authors here and overseas, and on the needs expressed by users in the schools and elsewhere. Below are some of the more recent tests ( both ACER and imported) added to our borrowing list:

Achievement Batteries:

BRISTOL ACHIEVEMENT TESTS-level:

8.0-13.11 years; CLASSIFICATION AND PLACEMENT EXAMINATION-/eve/: secondary school; STANFORD EARLY SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT TEST-level: 4.9-8.0 years.

Foreign Languages:

ELEMENTARY MODERN LANGUAGE AP- TITUDE TEST-level: Grades 3-6; PIMS- LEUR LANGUAGE APTITUDE BATTERY- /eve/: Grades 7-12.

Group Intelligence:

OTIS-LENNON MENTAL ABILITY TESTS- /eve/; Grades 1-12.

Pre-School:

BOEHM TEST OF BASIC CONCEPT$;

PRE-SCHOOL INVENTORY. Readiness:

CLYMER BARRETT PRE-READING BAT- TERY-level: Kindergarten and Grade 1; BIOLOGY READINESS TESTS-lever:

Form V and VI; MATURITY LEVEL FOR SCHOOL ENTRANCE AND READING READINESS-level: Kindergarten and Grade 1; PHYSICS DIAGNOSTIC READI- NESS TESTS-level: Form IV-V.

Test Library has become an inte- gral part of ACER's information services. We can see only a growing demand for its facilities, as teachers accept educational measurement and evaluation as essential elements in teaching and learning.

As from 1 September, Angus &

Robertson ( Publishers) Pty Ltd of Singapore have become sole agents for ACER books in Singapore, Ma- laysia, Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia. They will hold stocks. of a number of our titles, so that these books can be promoted and sold on the spot to teachers, educational ad- ministrators and parents. Mrs Janet Theseira, who runs A & R's Singa- pore office, has established links with leading booksellers and educational centres in these countries, and is active in keeping them informed about new books as they come out.

ACER Newsletter No 6: Spring 1970

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Closed Circuit Television Project

This year has seen the beginnings of the practical application of a research study into the use of closed circuit television in secondary schools. The study, known as the Malvern Project, is now operating in four schools in Melbourne, chosen to provide a cross-section of the features characteristic of secondary schools throughout Australia.

The Project staff consists of a Di- rector, a school Liaison Officer (on secondment from the SA Education Department), and a television tech- nician (on secondment from the Victorian Department). Using a mobile TV production van which tows an 18-foot caravan specially fitted out as a studio, the staff move from school to school as required for recording sessions.

Programmes made by each school are recorded on videotape on a master machine fitted in the production van; replays of these programmes take place in the classroom on a sma Iler version of the master recorder. The school VTRs are mounted on a trolley, which also carries a 25-inch TV receiver.

Teachers have found little difficulty in wheeling the unit into the classroom and threading the machine for playback. The system has been in operation in the schools since- the beginning of the second term.

PROGRAMME ANALYSIS By the end of second term, thirty- two programmes were produced for the schools. Of these, eleven were recorded 'off-air' at the request of teachers wishing to use all or part of a broadcast programme, and four of the eleven were from the ABC 'Telecasts for Schools'. The remain~ der were documentaries screened at night on the national or commercial channels. These 'off-air' segments varied in length from twenty minutes to one hour.

The remaining twenty-one programmes were of the 'home-made' type, and fell into the following three categories.

1. 'Team-teaching' programmes These, programmes, sixteen in all, were the result of the cooperative

ACER Newsletter No 6: Spring 1970

efforts of several teachers at a school combining to produce a common approach to a topic. In pre- paring these programmes, allowance was made for the persona I preferen- ces of the teachers who were to use the tape, and also for the use of the programmes at different form levels. It is surprising how much flexibility can be built into a programme if these basic variables are taken into account at the planning stage: Subject matter for the programmes included maths (graphs), biology, music, and English literature. The 'team' consisted of staff members of the school concerned, and in one case included visiting specialist music teachers.

2. Programmes made to avoid repetition of lessons. Two such pro-

studies investigation into local area entertainment facilities. These programmes were organized as both motivational and enrichment material by the teachers concerned, and aroused much interest and en- thusiasm.

All the thirty-two programmes re- ferred to above have been made for three Project schools-Syndal Tech- nical School, Lauriston Girls' School, and Chadstone High School. The operation of the Project in the fourth school-St James' East Bentleigh- will be different, not only in that actual TV replays will not begin there until 1971, but also in the style of viewing and the type of programme.

In 1971 St James' will be experi- menting with a departure from the

Mr W. Isbister, maths and science teacher at Syndal Technical School, at work producing a maths programme in the mobile studio of the Malvern Project. The cameraman is Mr I.

Mortlock, the Project Liaison Officer. The programme is recorded on videotape for later replaying by a number of maths teachers at the school. Photograph by arrangement

wi-th the Chadstone Progress.

grammes were made: one on scone making, the other on musical nota- tion. In each case the teacher found that one good presentation served as an excel lent basis for a number of lessons at the same form level.

3. Programmes made by the students themselves. One was a student summary of a science topic prepared by the class, another was on the organization of the school library, and the third was a social

traditional classroom approach to teaching and learning geography at Form I level. The experimental approach will be towards an individualized instruction system; group tutor- ials and personal interview sessions with the teacher will supplement the learning material. The Project will produce a range of audio-visual pre- sentations to parallel the 'verbal'

(textbook and workbook) presentation of the same content.

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ABOUT BOOl<S

The study at East Bentleigh willr, c

assess the relative effec;t,ive'!_~ss , o,_f \

these two methods of presentation Professor Dunn's

Measurement and

£valuation in the Secondary School

joined our publishing list in 1967.

Since then, it has found its niche on the bookshelves of teachers, students and educational libraries, and is widely used as a learning and reference aid.

of subject-matter in an individualized learning system, a~nd will look for correlates in reading ability and visual perception ability.

An interesting development in the preparation of audio-visual materials for an individualized presentation is the use of· videotaped programmes to record a teacher de- veloping the main points of some topics, just as he would in the classroom. Student-active phases are being built into such 'lessons', providing, in effect, personalized teaching.

The staff at East Bentleigh are concerned that perhaps the not-so- bright students will find some difficulty in working their own way through a topic, no matter how well prepared the material may be.

Rather than teach formal classes for these students, the teachers will direct such children to these programmes which are presented along direct teaching lines.

Much of the planning for this work has now been completed, and production of videotaped materia I has now begun.

ROLE OF CCTV

Whilst it is too early yet to esti- mate the value of CCTV in the secondary school, some observations after one term of operation may be of interest. Those teachers who have used the medium all remark on the simplicity and directness of closed circuit television. Initial concern by teachers producing tapes for the first time is soon dispelled as they realize that the emphasis is solidly on the subject-matter and not on their own personality. Preparation time is shortened as a teacher be- comes more confident in his ability to handle the medium, and as he grows more accustomed to the Pro- ject production procedures. In this respect, the Liaison Officer is the most important part of the team.

All teachers have reported a high level of interest on the children's part, and the medium-particularly in the student-made programmes- has proved to be of great motiva- tiona I value.

The book's early acceptance was reflected in the variety of favourable reviews it received. Typical were the following comments by Ke.eling in th.e

New Zealand Journal of Educa- tional Studies:

'The discussion is brief but by no means cursory, and well illustrates the inc1s1veness, clarity, and economy of style which are sustained throughout the mono- graph . . . It would be difficult to improve on his discussion of the sources of error variance in examination performance, and his well- balanced review of the pros and cons of short vs. extended-answer questions should serve both to re- buff the more extravagant claims of

extended-answer supporters and to curb the excesses of short-answer enthusiasts.'

For the book's second edition- which has just been released-we again called on the author's exten- sive experience as teacher, re- searcher and test constructor, to bring his text into line with recent thinking and developments in testing and examining. The result is a book which readers will find up-to- date in its information about the how and the why of a good test, and about examinations in all states of Australia.

Amongst the new material is a

chapter on writing examination questions (which includes an interesting selection of sample items), and an appendix of stimulus material and multi-choice questions from the 1970 Commonwea Ith Sec- ondary Scholarships tests.

Both these additions should en- hance the value of the book to the classroom teacher looking for model questions against which to compare his own efforts. It is the want of a suitable yardstick that so often frightens him away from trying out different approaches to assessment.

COMPANION VOLUME

Measurement and Evaluation-

1 ike its companion ACER volume

Objective Tests and Mathematical Learning

by Noel Wilson-will en- able teachers and students to bring their testing problems into sharper focus. We hope they will discover that there is both art and science in the preparation of a good test. Per- haps too they will realize the value of collaboration and discussion during test construction, a point driven home strongly in

Objective Tests.

Though

Objective Tests

leans towards assessment in the quantita- tive area, other subject teachers have found a number of its chapters :very useful-chapters like 'What Are Objective Tests?', 'Diagnostic Tests', 'Analysis of a Test', and 'How to Produce an Objective Test'.

Teachers, then, who are intent on writing better tests and making good use of the results, will find these two ACER books a rewarding duo.

OFF THE PRESS

Our major review of secondary education-R. T. Fitzgerald's

The Secondary School at Sixes and Sevens-is

now in print. Its early press and radio coverage brought it immediately into the public eye. We have contacted a 11 secondary schools throughout the country, drawing to their notice the avail- ability of this comprehensive review which probes the key aspects of the secondary system. Whither goeth the secondary school, the author asks. No one is quite sure at this point in time, but this book will at least serve as a sounding board for the concerned.

ACER Newsletter No 6: Spring 1970