ITC JULY 08 NEWLETTER in Progress FINAL
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TESTING INTERNATIONAL Vol. 19, July, 2008 Editor: Jan Bogg PRESIDENT Prof. Jacques Grégoire Université catholique de Louvain CONTENTS Faculté de Psychologie Place du Cardinal Mercier, 10 1348-Louvain-la-Neuve ITC PRESIDENT’S LETTER 2 Belgium PRESIDENT-ELECT MEET THE ITC 2008 SCHOLARS 3 Prof.. M. Born Erasmus University Rotterdam SCHOLARS ARTICLES Institute of Psychology Woudestein, T13-15 Testing in the South African Context P.O. Box 1738 Dalray de la Harpe, SOUTH AFRICA 3 3000 DR Rotterdam SECRETARY The Use and Development of Personality Testing in China Prof. R.K. Hambleton Zhou MingJie & Zhang JianXin, CHINA 5 University of Massachussetts U.S.A TREASURER Testing in Albania – a new field full of needs and challenges Prof. Em. Barbara M. Byrne School of Psychology Gladiola Musabelliu, ABANIA 7 University of Ottawa 145 Jean-Jacques Lussier Psychological testing in South Africa current issues and challenges Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1N 6N5 Thamsanqa. j. Dhladhla & François de Kock, SOUTH AFRICA 8 PAST-PRESIDENT Prof. Jose Muniz ARTICLES 11 University of Oviedo, Spain The Challenges of Fostering a Culture of Psychological Testing in a Small Post-Soviet Country COUNCIL MEMBERS Elected Members Albinas Bagdonas, Lithuania 11 Prof. Fanny Cheung Chinese University of Hong From normal curve to slippery slope Kong, Hong Kong John H Court, Australia 12 Prof. Cheryl Foxcroft University of Port Elizabeth, S.A Prof. Frederick Leong The intelligence test-battery: AID 2 as a prototypical globalised test Michigan State University, USA Klaus D. Kubinger, Austria 13 Co-Opted Members Dr Iain Coyne University of Nottingham, UK Large Scale Assessment at the Austrian Educational Standards: a Review Dr David Foster Klaus D. Kubinger, Martina Frebort, Lale Khorramdel, Kryterion, USA Prof. Tom Oakland Elisabeth Weitensfelder, Philipp Sonnleitner, Christine Hohensinn, University of Florida, USA Manuel Reif, Kathrin Gruber & Stefana Holocher-Ertl, Austria 15 REPRESENTATIVES Dr. M. Bullock, IUPsyS DEBATES IN PSYCHOMETRICS American Psychological Fundamental Problems in Psychometrics Association, U.S.A. John Raven, United Kingdom 16 Prof. D. Bartram, IAAP SHL Group plc U.K On the need to secure psychological test materials EDITORS Jacques Grégoire & Thomas Oakland 18 International Journal of Testing Prof. John Hattie NEWS 18 University of Auckland School of Education Fisher Building CONFERENCE WATCH 18 Waterloo Quadrant TH Private Bag 92019 THE INTERNATIONAL TEST COMMISSION (ITC), 7 CONFERENCE Auckland HONG KONG 2010 20 New Zealand Testing International Dr. Jan Bogg University of Liverpool Department of Clinical Psychology The Whelan Building AN OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL TEST COMISSION LiverpoolL69 3GB UK International Journal of Testing ITC PRESIDENT’S LETTER For the past three years, John Hattie has been the editor of the International Journal of Testing. During that time, the Journal has meet every time schedule, has developed a policy for the mission of the Journal Dear ITC Members, re International focus, increased the rejection rate to I am pleased to inform you about 80%, has worked to include articles in IJT in about the current activities and major index systems. The International Journal of projects of your organization. Testing is becoming an important part of the interna- The next important ITC activities tional testing literature. As part of the transition of the will be the 6th ITC Conference Journal, and to further enhance the quality and focus, in Liverpool (14 – 16 July 2008) two new Associate-editors were appointment in Octo- and the General meeting in ber 2007: Professor Steve Sireci from the University Berlin during the XXIXth International Congress of of Massachusetts and Professor Rob Meijer from the Psychology (July 20-25 2008). I will be pleased to University of Twente, Netherlands. This new editorial meet you on these occasions. The Council already team will have a series of initiatives for the Journal, decided to organise the 7th conference of the Interna- and along with the Editorial Board, will aim to en- tional Test Commission in Honk Kong, July 19-21, hance the value of IJT for all readers and the interna- 2010. It will be the first ITC Conference in Asia where tional measurement community. testing is a fast emerging field. Next General meeting ITC 2008 Conference The next General meeting will be held during the The ITC conference (14–16 July,2008) in Liverpool, XXIXth International Congress of Psychology in Ber- UK, has the main theme of ‘The impact of testing on lin, July 20-25 2008 (for information about the Con- people and society. The overall goal is to bring gress, http://www.icp2008.de/). During this meeting, together researchers, educators, psychologists and we will hold the election of a new President-elect and testing experts from across the world to discuss the several other ITC officers. You are kindly invited to impact of testing on people and society. participate to the meeting and the election. More in- formation on the meeting is available on the ITC web- The scientific program incorporates workshops, site. plenary keynote presentations, themed keynotes, Jacques Grégoire individual papers, round-table discussions and ITC President posters. Workshops include structural equation modelling (Barbara Byrne), DIF (Bruno Zumbo), IRT (Craig Wells) and communicating test results (Dave Bartram). We have had over 160 submissions to the conference including 18 symposia submissions, 26 ITC Website poster submissions and 4 round-table/discussions. Individuals in a number of different countries News—Guidelines (including the US, Canada, UK, Netherlands, New Zealand, China, Israel, Turkey, Sweden, Croatia, Publications—Information Spain, Lithuania and Belgium) have submitted papers. www.intestcom.org ITC web site Initially developed by Dave Bartram, and then by Iain Coyne, the ITC web site was recently revamped. Cur- rently hosted by a server of the Rotterdam University, the new web site was developed by Arjen Karten, from the Rotterdam Univerisity, under the supervision Testing International of Marise Born, ITC President-elect. Visit the ITC Submit articles, news, reviews Web site to find all the last information about your or- for consideration to the Editor ganization and its activities on test and testing. You are also invited to send us International News for Jan Bogg publication on the website. Keep the ITC web site ad- [email protected] dress bookmarked: http://www.intestcom.org/ 2 ITC 2008 CONFERENCE FOCUS ITC sponsored scholars 2008 SCHOLARS ARTICLES Information about the ITC 2008 sponsored scholars features below, followed by an article Testing in the South African Context from each scholar on testing in their country. Dalray de la Harpe Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Dalray de la Harpe South Africa Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Introduction South Africa South Africa’s history is one that is dominated by Dalray de la Harpe completed her MA in Research the legacy of apartheid. Apartheid was a system of Psychology in 2002 at the University of Port Eliza- racial segregation which existed after 1948, with beth (UPE) and her internship at the Unit for Stu- major language and cultural differences fuelling the dent Counselling at UPE in the same year. Dalray is racial divide. Robinson (1999) asserts that “…with currently the Co-ordinator of Research And Devel- Nelson Mandela's election as South Africa's first opment at the Student Counselling Career and De- black president, the last vestiges of the apartheid velopment Centre, in addition she is a member of system were finally outlawed”. However, the quality the University Research, Technology and Innovation of life of many has not changed, and group differ- Committee and the Research Ethics Committee. ences still exist based on differential exposure to Her present interests include health promotion and developmental opportunities. The system might no test development. longer exist, but the effects still remain. These group differences have had, and continue to have, signifi- Zhou MingJie cant implications for the development of appropriate Chinese Academy of Sciences. counselling and assessment practices. China Zhou MingJie, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Early Test Use Key Lab of Mental health, Institute of Psychology, Early South African psychologists enthusiastically Chinese Academy of Sciences. MingJie is involved imported and adapted various psychological tools in two psychological assessment projects, The Gen- and technologies, most notably intelligence tests, for eral Assessment and Prediction System of Sub- use in education and industry (Foxcroft, 2004; Louw health of Chinese and The Evaluation Index System & Foster, 1991). However, South African norms of 0-6 Infants Phased Development. The data have been developed for only a limited number of gained from the two projects will provide national psychometric tests, thereby increasing the risk of norms. significantly underestimating the capacities of non- Western South African children (Richter & van der Gladiola Musabelliu Walt, 2003). Furthermore, the norms of many locally University of Tirana developed instruments are not applicable to the total Albania South African population (Owen, 1998). Gladiola Musabelliu has a Master in Psychological In addition, negative perceptions have been re- Counseling and works as an assistant professor in ported regarding the role of psychologists in sup- the Psychology Department, in the Faculty of Social porting the