title: Cognitive assessment in mathematics with the least squares distance method.
abstract: This study investigated the validation of comprehensive cognitive attributes of an eighth-grade mathematics test using the least squares distance method and compared performance on attributes by gender and region. A sample of 5,000 students was randomly selected from the data of the 2005 Turkish national mathematics assessment of eighth-grade students. Twenty-five math items were assessed for presence or absence of 20 cognitive attributes (content, cognitive processes, and skill). Four attributes were found to be misspecified or nonpredictive. However, results demonstrated the validity of cognitive attributes in terms of the revised set of 17 attributes. The girls had similar performance on the attributes as the boys. The students from the two eastern regions significantly underperformed on the most attributes.
authors.affiliation: Morgridge College of Education, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208, USA. lma3@du.edu
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Emre
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Çetin
authors.forename: Kathy E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Green
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics