Trends and Future Perspectives in Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methods for Educational Psychology:

The Use of Statistical Analysis and Towards Developing Evaluation Literacy

Abstract

  This article reviews recent trends in measurement, evaluation, and research methods for educational psychology in Japan. The topics we discuss are classified into five issues: (a) use of statistical analysis, (b) educational evaluation, (c) examination and testing, (d) psychological scales, and (e) other research. We point out the increased usage of confirmatory factor analysis and the multilevel model, as well as the problems of random item effects and dealing with missing data. The importance of developing evaluation literacy and its suggested future perspectives is also stressed.