Performance assessment of higher order thinking

This article describes a study investigating the effect of intervention on student problem solving and higher order competency development using a series of complex numeracy performance tasks (Airasian and Russell, 2008). The tasks were sequenced to promote and monitor student development towards hypothetico-deductive reasoning. Using Rasch partial credit analysis (Wright and Masters, 1982) to calibrate the tasks and analysis of residual gain scores to examine the effect of class and school membership, the study illustrates how directed intervention can improve students' higher order competency skills. This paper demonstrates how the segmentation defined by Wright and Masters can offer a basis for interpreting the construct underlying a test and how segment definitions can deliver targeted interventions. Implications for teacher intervention and teaching mentor schemes are considered. The article also discusses multilevel regression models that differentiate class and school effects, and describes a process for generating, testing and using value added models.