Founded in 1985 by Jean-Claude Falmagne and Jean-Paul Doignon, Knowledge Structure Theory (KST) constitutes a rigorous and current mathematical theory for the representation and the assessment of human knowledge. The seminal work of these authors initiated a highly active research strand with an ever-growing literature, mostly scattered across various technical journals.
Starting from a concise but comprehensive introduction to its foundations, this volume provides a state-of-the-art review of KST. For the first time the volume brings together the most important theoretical developments and extensions of the last decade and presents new areas of application beyond education, with contributions by key researchers in the field.
Among the important advances covered by this book are (1) a comprehensive treatment of probabilistic models in KST; (2) polytomous extensions of the theory; (3) KST-based psychological diagnostics and neuropsychological assessment; (4) the representation and assessment of cognitive skills in problem solving, as well as procedural skills. In addition, this book also includes an overview of available software for the application of KST.
Contents:
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Basics of Knowledge Structure Theory:
- Knowledge Structures and Their Competence-Based Extension (J Heller, L Stefanutti)
- Probabilistic Knowledge Structures (S Noventa, J Heller)
- Knowledge Structures and Related Theories (P Anselmi, S Noventa, J Heller)
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Applying and Validating Knowledge Structures:
- Innovative Methods for Building Knowledge Structures (D de Chiusole, A Spoto, L Stefanutti)
- Parameter Estimation and Model Validation (J Heller, L Stefanutti, P Anselmi, D de Chiusole)
- Identifiability in Probabilistic Knowledge Structures (J Heller, L Stefanutti, A Spoto)
- Adaptive Assessment (P Anselmi, D de Chiusole, J Heller)
- Modeling Learning in Knowledge Structures (P Anselmi, L Stefanutti)
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Extensions of Knowledge Structure Theory:
- Assessment Structures (J Heller)
- Polytomous Knowledge Structures (J Heller, L Stefanutti)
- Procedural KST and Problem Spaces (L Stefanutti, A Brancaccio, D de Chiusole)
- Software Packages for Knowledge Structure Theory (A Brancaccio, D de Chiusole, F Wickelmaier)
Readership: (1) Researchers in education, psychometrics, pyschological testing, and technology-enhanced learning; (2) researchers in cognitive assessment and/or cognitive modelling; (3) researchers interested in the applications of knowledge structure theory as a innovative alternative to trandtional approaches in many domains including pyschometrics, data analysis, medical diagnostics, and psychology; (4) background materials for advanced courses on psychometrics, data analysis, or cognitive psychology; (5) secondary market: libraries of universties, and educational research instutitions.
Key Features:
- State-of-the-art review of the highly active area
- Comprehensive coverage of scattered literature
- Each chapter is written by leading researchers on the topic
- First comprehensive treatment of probabilistic model in knowledge structure theory (KST)
- First survey on the important generalization from dichotomous to polytomous KST, which can apply to a wider class of problems
- Compared to previous books, this book contains new areas of application beyond education, such as medical diagnostics and psychological testing, as well as cognitive psychology
- First book to contain an overview of available software, valuable for practitioners who want to apply KST methods in their domain
