IELTS Research Reports

Construct validity in the IELTS Academic Reading testExtended written answera) From a physics perspective, and using the simple model (F= CAv), discuss how gelelectrophoresis allows fragments of different mass and/or electric charge to be separated over time.b) Using an example constructed by you (i.e. you decide the mass, size, and charge of eachfragment), demonstrate that two different fragments will separate over time.c) consult the literature on gel electrophoresis and briefly discuss one aspect of your initialanalysis that is idealised or inaccurate.Sample A21. Exercise task - PhysicsIn their commentaries on these more interpretative tasks, informants emphasised the need for studentsto be operating beyond any ‘simple factual’ understanding of knowledge, where answers fall neatlyinto correct and incorrect responses. Interestingly, such a view was also enunciated by some from thehard technical disciplines, including the Physics lecturer who was keen to disavow students of the ideathat studies in her subject involved a simple quest for the right answer:PHYSICS: People think traditionally that Physics is really just about the mathematicalsolving of problems, and coming up with the right answer. In fact there’s a lot in it that’s justnot that. A lot is about being able to understand concepts and working out how and when toapply them.A similar view was expressed by the Architecture lecturer who also stressed the ‘open-ended’ natureof reading tasks in her discipline area. She pondered whether this in fact was a conception that was atodds somehow with those held by students from certain educational backgrounds.ARCHITECTURE: In terms of tasks we set around reading, we have many openendedtasks with no right or wrong answer. If students are coming from a different culturewhere there is an expectation that they need to get something right, then there are difficultiesthere I suppose.Evaluation tasksLess prominent among the tasks fitting a ‘local interpretative’ pattern were those that required explicitevaluation of material, involving the assessment of the value, worth, benefit etc. of some entity.Consistent with the finding from the interviews, it was noted that such tasks in the corpus wereconfined to the softer ‘humanities’ disciplines, as seen in the following examples. We note in passingthat a range of different types of entities are presented here as the objects of evaluation; in Sample A22it is a ‘policy’; in A23, a ‘thesis’; and in A24, a ‘concept’.Explain what a ‘polycentric’ staffing policy is. What are the positives and negatives of a firmadopting such a policy?Sample A22. Exam question - ManagementIELTS Research Reports Volume 11237