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Alignment of Classroom History Assessments and the 7th National Curriculum in Korea: Assessing Historical Knowledge and Reasoning Skills

Kim, Mi-Sun (2005) Alignment of Classroom History Assessments and the 7th National Curriculum in Korea: Assessing Historical Knowledge and Reasoning Skills. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This study examined the extent to which middle and high school classroom history assessments align with the educational objectives outlined in the 7th National Curriculum in Korea. In particular, the alignment between the classroom assessments and the educational objectives focused on the level of cognitive reasoning skills and the breadth of historical knowledge. The technical quality of the classroom assessment items, and the extent to which teachers had professional development activities related to the design, use, and interpretation of assessments were also examined. Korean history assessments for the 2004 school year from 22 middle schools and 10 high schools were collected and analyzed. The classroom assessments and the educational objectives were analyzed to examine their alignment with respect to the depth of understanding, breadth of knowledge, and balance of representation. An item writing guideline developed by Haladyna, et al. (1989, 2002) was used to examine the technical quality of the items. A brief survey of history teachers was conducted to obtain information about their assessment related professional development activities. The results of the study indicated that a relatively large percent of the assessment items from both middle and high schools tended to measure lower levels of historical reasoning than those required by the objectives, resulting in a small percent of items being consistent with the cognitive level of objectives. The distribution of the test items was not balanced across the objectives, rather they tended to emphasize factual knowledge, and the assessments did not thoroughly cover the span of knowledge represented in the curriculum. There were little differences across different levels and types of schools. However, multiple-choice test items from high schools were more likely to assess higher levels of historical understanding than middle school test items. In contrast, the performance assessment tasks for middle school students provided more opportunities to use higher level thinking skills. Most of the items were well developed in terms of formatting and writing test item stems and alternatives. The teacher survey suggested that teachers had little professional development related to the design, use, and interpretation of assessments in both their training courses and activities before and during their professional careers.


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Details

Item Type: University of Pittsburgh ETD
Status: Unpublished
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Kim, Mi-Sunmisun_pitt@hanmail.net
ETD Committee:
TitleMemberEmail AddressPitt UsernameORCID
Committee ChairLane, Suzannesl@pitt.eduSL
Committee MemberJannetta, Annannj@pitt.eduANNJ
Committee MemberAtman, Kathryn Skayatman@pitt.eduKAYATMAN
Committee MemberGarman, Noreen Bngarman@pitt.eduNGARMAN
Date: 14 July 2005
Date Type: Completion
Defense Date: 13 June 2005
Approval Date: 14 July 2005
Submission Date: 16 May 2005
Access Restriction: No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately.
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs: School of Education > Instruction and Learning
Degree: PhD - Doctor of Philosophy
Thesis Type: Doctoral Dissertation
Refereed: Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords: Korean history education; breadth of historical knowledge; consistency of standards and tests; depth of historical understanding
Other ID: http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-05162005-175020/, etd-05162005-175020
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2011 19:44
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2016 13:43
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/7890

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