Category Archives: Tests and Assessments

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village A recent study by Bloomberg, based on UN population data, has brought on a resurgence of discussions about the impact of “Generation Z-ers”–also known as Gen Z-ers, iGeneration, Post-Millennials, Homeland Generation, or Plurals–on society. Bloomberg takes 2000-2001 as the “intergenerational cut-off point” and predicts that …

“Generation Z-ers are coming of age and bringing fresh challenges to educators”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village In the past two decades, new standards have been defined for the adaptation of assessment instruments into multiple languages. Sophisticated translation designs have become the norm in international large scale assessments (ILSAs). However, in item development, the “Anglo-Saxon legacy” still prevails: the most common practice …

“Redefining the concept of “master version” in test item development to address the “Anglo-Saxon legacy” and other translation effects”

by Steve Dept – cApStAn partner In some areas, AI may be a hype. Not so for neural machine translation (NMT). On a daily basis, we hear and read about the new threats and opportunities that come with new advances in artificial intelligence (AI). In the field of translation, the advances are real, the opportunities …

“Garbage in, garbage out: feed AI translatable items”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Welcome to the third issue of cApStAn’s monthly newsletter. For those of you who did not see the first two editions, in our newsletter we share news about recent developments in the cApStAn ecosystem as well as snippets of information about and around the linguistics …

“cApStAn June 2018 Newsletter”

by Steve Dept – cApStAn partner The International Test Commission (ITC) is a closely-knit community of researchers and field practitioners who share their work with one another, set up joint research projects and, perhaps most importantly, pool resources to define, streamline and promote best practices in testing. The ITC Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests …

“11th Conference of the International Test Commission”

by Steve Dept – cApStAn partner When either the OECD or GESIS—the Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences—organise a methodological seminar, it is an opportunity to learn something from authoritative sources and to test one’s working assumptions with experts from the field. When OECD and GESIS join forces to organize such a seminar, one knows in …

“Looking at Comparability from the Vantage Point of Translation and Adaptation”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Welcome to the second issue of cApStAn’s monthly newsletter. This is our first newsletter after the coming into force, on the 25th of May, of the EU Regulation on Data Protection (GDPR). We at cApStAn have the protection of your personal data very much at …

“cApStAn May 2018 newsletter”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Heading to Paris for the OECD seminar on “Translating and Adapting Instruments in Large Scale Assessments” (June 7-8), and proud to have two cApStAn speakers at this important meeting, designed to foster discussion and “cross-fertilisation of ideas” between different stakeholders: Danina Lupsa, one of our …

“OECD seminar on “Translating and adapting Instruments in Large Scale Assessments””

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village In this interesting article for EdTech magazine, digital citizenship is defined as ” a set of responsibilities all internet users should practice”. The issue of digital citizenship is gaining momentum worldwide and, given the early age at which children start to use internet, it has …

“Incorporating “digital citizenship” lessons in school curricula”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Irwin Kirsch is the highly respected Project Director for PIAAC, the OECD Programme of International Assessment of Adult Literacy. PIAAC measures adults’ proficiency in key skills such as literacy, numeracy and problem solving. In a recent interview (see link below) Kirsch says that assessments such …

“What did large scale assessments add to our understanding of adult literacy?”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Welcome to the first issue of cApStAn’s new-fangled monthly newsletter. What is different about it? Of course we’ll share news about recent developments in the cApStAn ecosystem. We also intend to post snippets of information about and around the linguistics field in general, about testing …

“cApStAn April 2018 newsletter”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village The challenges posed by our current fast-paced, mobile, complex and multicultural world require using increasingly diverse sets of skills. Studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), have shown that social and …

“Expanding the traditional focus on cognitive skills to embrace social and emotional ones”