Exam Research Collection-(Issue 3)

Author: Xie Xiaoqing, Zhang Jinjun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: In terms of per capita share, China cannot be considered a major country in natural resources and may even be classified as a resource-poor country. However, China is undoubtedly a major country in human resources. The sustainable development of China in the future will largely depend on the development of its own human resources rather than the exploitation of its natural resources. How to transform the "burden of population" into "human resources" will be a major issue concerning the fate of China. In the development of human resources, examinations play a very important role. Today, China's contributions to science, technology, culture, and arts do not match the internationally recognized "intelligence and diligence" of the Chinese people. Although there are many reasons for this situation, it cannot be said that it has nothing to do with the "exam-oriented education" of "learning for exams, teaching for exams." This kind of "exam-oriented education" has severely stifled the curiosity and creativity of Chinese children since childhood, affecting the entire national education system from basic education to higher education, creating a situation where students study for exams and teachers teach for exams, and leading to the widespread phenomenon of "learning one book, teaching one book, memorizing one book, and taking one book." This situation has severely impacted the development of human resources in our country and has severely damaged the independent innovation ability of the Chinese nation. This collection of essays addresses some issues of common concern to those working in the field of examinations, including in-depth reflections on "exam fairness," discussions on "whose will should exams reflect," explorations on the interpretation of test scores, the determination of passing scores in criterion-referenced tests, the relationship between difficulty and discrimination, the determination of test length, electronic scoring of essays, test score equating, portfolio assessment, and so on. Some articles also explore issues related to language testing. Additionally, some articles address the improvement of language tests such as the HSK, MHK, and ZHC.