This article reports the results of a research study to determine the washback effect of an oral assessment system on some areas of the teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The research combined quantitative and qualitative research methods within a comparative study between an experimental group and a comparison group.…

Articles published in three leading North American higher education journals during the year 2000 are compared with those published in three leading, English language, non-North American higher education journals (and with a larger sample of fourteen such journals). The comparison focuses on the location of their authors, the themes researched,…

Background: Various studies on analogical problem solving have shown that children can be taught to use analogies within a single session, but it is not known whether they can be taught a strategy for using analogical problem solving that persists over a period of time. Aim: Our study focused on the effects of prior assistance in analogy use on…

Ramsay curve item response theory (RC-IRT) was recently developed to detect and correct for nonnormal latent variables when unidimensional IRT models are fitted to data using maximum marginal likelihood estimation. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the performance of RC-IRT for Likert-type item responses with varying test lengths, sample…

It has been suggested that infants respond preferentially to infant-directed speech because their auditory sensitivity to sounds with extensive frequency modulation (FM) is better than their sensitivity to less modulated sounds. In this experiment, auditory thresholds for FM tones and for unmodulated, or pure, tones in a background of noise were…

We examined whether social anxiety resulted in different levels of perceived impairment in first- and second-generation students of Chinese heritage (ns=65 and 47) compared to their European-heritage counterparts (n=60). We also used a modified version of the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS-IV) to determine whether the 3 groups…

Under item response theory, the characteristic curve methods (Haebara and Stocking-Lord methods) are used to link two ability scales from separate calibrations. The linking methods use their respective criterion functions that can be defined differently according to the symmetry- and distribution-related schemes. The symmetry-related scheme…

Standardized effect sizes and confidence intervals thereof are extremely useful devices for comparing results across different studies using scales with incommensurable units. However, exact confidence intervals for standardized effect sizes can usually be obtained only via iterative estimation procedures. The present article summarizes several…

There is currently intense national and international interest in which particular methods of teaching reading are the most effective for early literacy acquisition. The great bulk of research work that is cited in these debates, however, focuses almost exclusively on the evaluation and comparison of particular programmes underpinned either by…

The performance of five simple multiple imputation methods for dealing with missing data were compared. In addition, random imputation and multivariate normal imputation were used as lower and upper benchmark, respectively. Test data were simulated and item scores were deleted such that they were either missing completely at random, missing at…

Memory plasticity, or the ability to improve one's memory performance through instruction and training, is known to decline during adulthood. However, direct comparisons among middle childhood, adulthood, and old age are lacking. The authors examined memory plasticity in an age-comparative multisession training study. One hundred and eight…

This paper describes and compares six models for teaching second languages developed and adopted since 1840 (grammar-translation, direct, structural, situational, audiolingual, and communicative methods), and proposes a seventh, the cognitive-linguistic method, incorporating Noam Chomsky's theory of learning. The model takes both extralinguistic…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether differences exist with regard to music achievement, music self-concept, or student course satisfaction among students enrolled in four different sections of an undergraduate music appreciation course taught from chronological or sociocultural approaches in online or face-to-face formats.…

The math achievement of third and fourth grade special education students has been identified as an area of concern within a public school located in a small rural town located on the east coast. The purpose of this action research study was to investigate whether or not the Touch Math strategy increased the math ability of third and fourth grade…

No Child Left Behind has increased the demand for evidence of student achievement in America's public schools. As a result, the importance of the role of superintendent as instructional leader has increased. Some superintendents have responded to this demand by mandating that principals increase their presence in classrooms; yet, research on…