ACER eNews


Aptitude Test for International Secondary Students (ATISS) There has been rapid growth in recent years in the numbers of international secondary school students studying in Australia and it seems likely that the visa application process for the sector will become increasingly regulated. The Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) recently commissioned ACER to develop a test which could be used in this process and provide an instrument that would be useful to schools. Click here to read more. Aptitude Test for International Secondary Students (ATISS) aims to provide an indication of students' cognitive abilities by assessing general thinking and reasoning skills. The original brief was to develop the test items in English, and in low verbal contexts because of the EFL (English as Foreign Language) background of the intended users of the test. During development, DEST also asked for the test items to be translated into Chinese, as substantial numbers of international secondary students are now coming to Australia from China. "ATISS is an exciting and innovative project, as ACER has developed and translated items designed to test a reasoning dimension in two languages," says project director Susan Nankervis. A trial test was conducted in August with over a thousand Chinese secondary students already in Australian schools. The trial test papers were in both languages, so information has been gathered about the performance of each item in its English format and in its Chinese format. According to Ms Nankervis the final shape of ATISS has yet to be established. "It is entirely feasible to develop a test in two languages, with Chinese items in complex contexts and English items in low verbal contexts, offering two sets of scores which will give schools a clear indication of students' cognitive abilities (from the Chinese section), and their ability to read and reason in English (from the English section)," she said. Analysis on the trial data is still being conducted, examining the item functioning and student performance, with a particular focus on the variables of age, gender and English language competence. Early results indicate that while the students understandably found the items in Chinese easier than the ones in English, large numbers of items have high correlations between the two languages, indicating that they are testing the same construct dimension. « Back to eNews
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There has been rapid growth in recent years in the numbers of international secondary school students studying in Australia and it seems likely that the visa application process for the sector will become increasingly regulated. The Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) recently commissioned ACER to develop a test which could be used in this process and provide an instrument that would be useful to schools. Click here to read more.

Aptitude Test for International Secondary Students (ATISS) aims to provide an indication of students' cognitive abilities by assessing general thinking and reasoning skills. The original brief was to develop the test items in English, and in low verbal contexts because of the EFL (English as Foreign Language) background of the intended users of the test. During development, DEST also asked for the test items to be translated into Chinese, as substantial numbers of international secondary students are now coming to Australia from China.

"ATISS is an exciting and innovative project, as ACER has developed and translated items designed to test a reasoning dimension in two languages," says project director Susan Nankervis.

A trial test was conducted in August with over a thousand Chinese secondary students already in Australian schools. The trial test papers were in both languages, so information has been gathered about the performance of each item in its English format and in its Chinese format.

According to Ms Nankervis the final shape of ATISS has yet to be established. "It is entirely feasible to develop a test in two languages, with Chinese items in complex contexts and English items in low verbal contexts, offering two sets of scores which will give schools a clear indication of students' cognitive abilities (from the Chinese section), and their ability to read and reason in English (from the English section)," she said.

Analysis on the trial data is still being conducted, examining the item functioning and student performance, with a particular focus on the variables of age, gender and English language competence. Early results indicate that while the students understandably found the items in Chinese easier than the ones in English, large numbers of items have high correlations between the two languages, indicating that they are testing the same construct dimension.