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DIFFERENCES AND BIASES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE EXAMINATION FORMATS
Author(s) -
BELL RICHARD C.,
HAY JOHN A.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8279.1987.tb03154.x
Subject(s) - psychology , contrast (vision) , comprehension , test (biology) , multiple choice , subject (documents) , developmental psychology , social psychology , significant difference , linguistics , statistics , mathematics , computer science , artificial intelligence , paleontology , philosophy , biology , library science
S ummary . For some time gender differences have been noted in different formats of English language testing. In this study an examination was made of such differences in a Year 12 level examination where both comprehension and composition were tested, the former in both multiple‐choice and extended‐response formats, the latter only in extended‐response format. In addition to considering differences in level of performance, differences in relationship to an aggregate of other subject scores were also considered. These differences could be considered as related to test bias. Complex patterns of difference were noted since males and females were also classified by their pattern of studies as arts or science students. In contrast to previous studies, males were not seen to score higher on multiple‐choice questions; and in considering the relationships with the aggregate, gender differences were found to be small in comparison with subject‐base differences, and the regression lines for the multiple‐choice questions were more similar than those for extended‐response questions.