Item writing skills and their development: Implications for operational item writing and item-writing training

试题通常由试题组成，试题的质量直接影响试题的效度。然而，人们对试题写作的本质以及编写试题的人--试题作者--是如何获得制作试题技能的知之甚少。因此，我的博士研究的首要目标是在入门项目写作培训课程中调查项目写作技能的性质和发展模式。本研究对项目写作知识的发展做出了一些重要的理论和实践贡献：它提供了对项目写作技能本质的洞察，它详细描述了项目写作技能习得背后的认知过程，它提供了对项目写作技能发展的社会情境本质的洞察。从实践的角度来看，这项研究得出了一系列具体的建议，说明如何能够更好地组织项目编写者的培训。从我的研究中收集的结果具有极大的潜力，可以引起更广泛的兴趣和传播。如果我的申请成功，获得ESRC奖学金将使我能够通过会议报告和出版物传播这项研究的发现，使全球学术和语言测试社区知道这一发现。项目编写和培训项目编写者的实用建议将在教育专业人员的一系列影响活动中传播，如目标所述。Impact活动的受众将包括专业语言测试员、负责测试的课堂语言教师和教师教育工作者。将通过举办三次国家一级的影响活动(在联合王国、奥地利和乌克兰举办的讲习班/网络研讨会)、一次欧洲一级的活动(为欧洲语言测试和评估协会在赫尔辛基举办的为期三天的会前讲习班)和一次全球活动(由英国文化协会主办的网络研讨会)实现广泛的外联。此外，为了确保传播产生持续的影响，我将开发和维护一个网站，所有感兴趣的个人都可以免费访问。该网站将包含实用指南和短片介绍，为语言测试试题写作和试题写作培训提出有针对性的建议。该网站将通过全球各地的专业网络和语言教学/考试协会进行宣传。我的博士研究必然局限于调查入门培训课程期间项目写作技能的发展，这使得培训后可能发生的任何技能发展都没有得到探索。我的长期研究目标是进行一项纵向研究，调查项目写作技能是如何在最初的训练之后发展起来的。为此，我将利用博士后奖学金期间制定一项赠款提案，以确保此类研究的研究资金。作为兰开斯特大学的一部分，我将通过为兰开斯特大学研究人员提供的培训计划，在开发研究资金应用程序方面获得新的技能和能力。我还将与我的导师卢克·哈丁教授密切合作，讨论拨款撰写的具体策略。在发展了我的资助申请技能后，我将寻找资助机会，推动我的研究进入项目写作。在奖学金结束之前，我将首先向勒弗胡姆信托基金提交至少一份资金提案。如果我的申请不成功，我将通过向经济及社会研究理事会(ESRC)和英国文化协会评估研究补助金等较小规模的资助者提交资助申请，寻求进一步的资助机会。

Tests are normally composed of items (questions), the quality of which has direct impact upon the test's validity. However, very little is known about the nature of item-writing and how the skills of producing test items are acquired by the people who write them: item writers. Therefore, the overarching aim of my doctoral study was to investigate the nature of item-writing skills and the patterns of their development during an induction item-writing training course. This study has made several important theoretical and practical contributions to the advancement of the knowledge about item writing: it provided insights into the nature of item-writing skills, it detailed the cognitive processes behind item-writing skill acquisition, and it provided insights into the socially-situated nature of item-writing skill development. From a practical perspective, the study resulted in a range of specific recommendations as to how the training of item writers can be organised more optimally.The findings gleaned from my study have great potential for wider interest and dissemination. An ESRC fellowship, should my application be successful, will allow me to disseminate this study's findings through conference presentations and publications, making the findings known to the global academic and language testing community. The practical recommendations for item writing and training item writers will be disseminated in a series of impact events for educational professionals, as outlined in the objectives. The audience for the impact events will include professional language testers, classroom language teachers with testing responsibilities, and teacher educators. The wide outreach will be achieved by conducting three country-level impact events (workshops/webinars conducted in the UK, Austria and Ukraine), one Europe-level event (a three-day pre-conference workshop conducted in Helsinki for the European Association of Language Testing and Assessment) and one global event (a webinar hosted by the British Council). Furthermore, to ensure that the dissemination has sustained impact, I will develop and maintain a website that will be freely accessible to all interested individuals. This website will contain practical guides and short video presentations formulating targeted recommendations for language test item writing and item-writing training. The website will be publicised through professional networks and language teaching/testing associations around the globe.My doctoral study was necessarily limited to investigating the development of item-writing skills during an induction training course, which left any skill development that might have occurred after the training unexplored. A longitudinal study to investigate how item-writing skills develop beyond initial training is my long-term research goal. To this end, I would make use of the postdoctoral fellowship period to develop a grant proposal to secure research funding for such a study. Being part of Lancaster University will allow me to gain new skills and competencies in developing research funding applications through training programmes available for Lancaster University research staff. I will also work closely with my mentor, Prof. Luke Harding, to discuss specific strategies for grant writing. Having developed my funding application skills, I will seek funding opportunities to advance my research into item writing. By the end of the Fellowship, I will submit at least one funding proposal, in the first instance, to the Leverhulme Trust. Should my application be unsuccessful, I will seek further funding opportunities by submitting funding applications to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and smaller-scale funders such as the British Council Assessment Research Grants.