BACKGROUND Introspection into the factors that affect student success at higher education institutions has gained significant momentum in recent years. Teaching and learning has come under the spotlight with quality enhancement and teaching development funding focussing on student support, enhancing the student environment, and enhancing academics as teachers. Included in this are aspects that ...

Test-based accountability as well as value-added assessments and much experimental and quasi-experimental research in education rely on achievement tests to measure student skills and knowledge. Yet we know little regarding fundamental properties of these tests, an important example being the extent of test measurement error and its implications for educational policy and practice. While test v...

This paper examines results from a multiple-choice test given to novice programmers at twelve institutions, with specific focus on annotations made by students on their tests. We found that the question type affected both student performance and student annotations. Classifying student answers by question type, annotation type (tracing, elimination, other, or none), and institution, we found th...

Aqueous and ethanol extracts of cassia didymobotraya were investigated for purgative and anit-inflammatory activities in albino mice and rats, respectively at a dose of 100 mg/kg body weight. Anti-inflammatory activity was screened by 1% carageenan induced paw edema method and purgative activity was screened by the method described by Akah etal, Both the extracts exhibited significant purgative...

While the use of high-stakes testing in education is increasingly common, it is also controversial as opponents argue that these tests lead to distortion of teacher activity towards the test and away from activities that are not incentivized. An alternate use of tests that is suggested as a way of improving student learning outcomes is to use lowstakes tests to provide teachers with detailed di...