EVALUATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF PLACEMENT PROCEDURES IN GENERAL CHEMISTRY.

摘要

Placement tests are given to university or college students to help assign them to the proper courses. These examinations are sometimes little-regarded but can be invaluable in advising students and in structuring courses. They are particularly useful in chemistry because of the cumulative nature of the material.;Despite the immediate improvement of the chemistry placement examination, it is believed that the CAT design offers greater depth and more predictive value than any traditional paper-and-pencil examination. This thesis examines obstacles to broad adoption of the CAT format and outlines ways to overcome misconceptions about the CAT design. A working, reduced-scale microcomputer CAT is developed to demonstrate chemistry placement applications of this test design.;;Technological advance has made a new type of placement examination possible. This is the computerized adaptive test (CAT). This thesis lays the ground-work for the eventual installation of CAT placement in chemistry both at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and in the wider national arena. It includes: (1)~A telephone survey of 50 diverse U.S. universities and colleges to explore the current status of placement testing in chemistry nationally. (2)~A study of the chemistry placement practices at UIC. This includes the evaluation of the pre-existing placement examination to determine its congruence with accepted standards of test construction, and revision of the examination (placed into use in March, 1987). In addition, a follow-up study of the revised placement examination was conducted through an item analysis. (3)~A reduced-scale CAT placement examination (based on a hierarchical flow chart for the chemistry placement examination) to demonstrate the CAT format. Some salient observations can be given here: (1)~Placement examinations are not even in use in about two-thirds of the survey group. When used, they tend to stay in use without revision for many years. (2)~About a third of the items on the UIC chemistry placement examination required replacement; another third required some revision. The order of test items was undesirable. (3)~Greater uniformity in the revised test's construction was evident in the increased average item difficulty factor, increased average item correlation value, and increased student success rate.