Since Topping published his literature review on peer assessment in 1998, the number of studies on this subject has doubled, if not tripled. However, along with this expansion, the diversity of peer assessment applications increased equally fast. Based on recent literature, this contribution focuses specifically on the diversity that has come to…

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an observation measure designed to capture teachers' use of interactive teaching skills within the delivery of the All Stars substance use prevention program. Coders counted the number of times teachers praised and encouraged students, accepted and used students' ideas, asked questions,…

Scores generated by two optimality and three complication scales used to assess perinatal risk for 103 infants were compared for accuracy in predicting a variety of neonatal and infant outcome measures. Results suggested an advantage in favor of the three complication scales. (Author/RH)

An empirical method called Predicted Error Sum of Squares (PRESS) is advanced and studied. This method is used to examine the cross-validated prediction accuracies of some popular algorithms for weighted predictor variables. The weighting methods that were considered were ordinary least squares, ridge regression, regression on principal…

It is axiomatic that context influences interpersonal behaviors, yet communication researchers have had limited success in generating a set of conceptual or operational definitions for the situation variable. Two studies were conducted to examine emotion-eliciting qualities as the basis for such a typology and the relationship of situations…

While published recommendations for housing design and neighborhood planning for older people continue to proliferate, these standards and criteria are rarely subjected to empirical testing. In this study, objective field assessments, using objective measures of residential quality, measured residential resources for meeting life maintenance and…

Although social support has been operationally defined, a lack of conceptual clarity has made measurement modest and unreliable. To investigate the feasibility of measuring social support from a qualitative rather than a quantitative perspective, and to consider negative social interactions in the assessment, 130 college students were administered…

Reports on a study done with the intentions of determining the relative contribution of eight variables in predicting environmental behavior. Concluded that the major predictors were skill in using environmental action strategies, level of environmental sensitivity, and percieved knowledge of environmental action strategies. (TW)

Investigated the extent to which three personological variables (age, level of education, and attitude towards television) affect the amount learned from a documentary by adults over 50 years of age. The results indicated that education was the most reliable and important predictor of retention: as education increased, so did retention. (Author/RP)

A study examined the relationship of multiple measures of reading and writing at the second and fifth grade levels. Multiple reading tests (measuring vocabulary, word recognition, sentence comprehension, and passage comprehension) and writing tests (evaluating vocabulary diversity and syntactic complexity, and providing qualitative and…

This paper illustrates the need for full description and measurement of differences between "experimental" and "control" situations in school program evaluation studies. Two studies were completed at the University of Oregon involving the innovative program--differentiated staffing (DS). The first study, a doctoral investigation, sought to assess…

This paper addresses the problem of heterogeneity of samples of learning disabled (LD) children by comparing five different systems for identifying homogeneous subgroups in terms of their ability to predict longitudinal reading and mathematics scores. One hundred and sixty LD children served as subjects. Three of the five subgrouping systems were…