Reference intervals, or reference ranges, aid medical decision-making by containing a pre-specified proportion (e.g., 95%) of the measurements in a representative healthy population. We recently proposed three approaches for estimating a reference interval from a meta-analysis based on a random effects model: a frequentist approach, a Bayesian…

Research literature provides evidence that new graduate nurses are often deficient in clinical judgment (CJ). One way to increase CJ is by using simulations. However, the literature is replete with descriptions of the high anxiety that simulation triggers. It is not currently known how anxiety in simulation affects clinical judgment for…

Assessing a student's level and rate of improvement on an academic skill is a contemporary approach to the identification of specific learning disabilities. This approach, broadly categorized as responsiveness to intervention, however, does not obviate educators from scrutinizing the psychometric qualities of the data used to make important…

Large-scale assessment (LSA) is a tool used by education authorities for several purposes, including the promotion of teacher-based instructional change. In Canada, all 10 provinces engage in large-scale testing across several grade levels and subjects, and also have the common expectation that the results data will be used to improve instruction…

We describe a unique co-curricular honor and integrity program at a large, research university's business school. We discuss the evolution of the program as well as the array of stakeholders who were involved in its early development and sustenance. We use an ethical culture template to highlight the formal and informal systems, and we discuss…

We present a new model for the general study of how the truth and biases affect human judgment. In the truth and bias model, judgments about the world are pulled by 2 primary forces, the truth force and the bias force, and these 2 forces are interrelated. The truth and bias model differentiates force and value, where the force is the strength of…

The study aims to gain a better understanding of the national large-scale curriculum process in terms of the used implementation strategies, the function of the reform, and the curriculum coherence perceived by the stakeholders accountable in constructing the national core curriculum in Finland. A large body of school reform literature has shown…

The fast-and-frugal recognition heuristic (RH) theory provides a precise process description of comparative judgments. It claims that, in suitable domains, judgments between pairs of objects are based on recognition alone, whereas further knowledge is ignored. However, due to the confound between recognition and further knowledge, previous…

The German education system does not traditionally rely on standardized testing. However, when the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study revealed an average performance of German students compared to other participating countries, a particular proportion of low-performing students, and remarkable disparities between the…

This dissertation includes three essays: one essay focuses on the effect of teacher preparation programs on teacher knowledge while the other two focus on test-takers' response times on test items. Essay One addresses the problem of how opportunities to learn in teacher preparation programs influence future elementary mathematics teachers'…

Securing the future of the human race will require an improved understanding of the environment as well as of technological solutions, mindsets and behaviors in line with modes of development that the ecosphere of our planet can support. Some experts see the only solution in a global deflation of the currently unsustainable exploitation of…

The Internet plays a critical role in informing individuals about society, politics, business, and the environment. So much so that it has been said that the digital divide makes the segment of society on the ''right side'' of the divide (the digitally endowed group) better off and that on the ''wrong side'' (the digitally challenged group) worse…

A point of view is presented concerning the psychological concept of subjective probability, both to study its relation to the corresponding mathematical and philosophical concepts and to provide a framework for the rigorous investigation of problems unique to psychology. In order to do this the empirical implications of axiom systems for…

Five definitions of evaluation are considered: (1) evaluation as measurement; (2) evaluation as the process used to determine how well prespecified objectives have been achieved in measurable performance; (3) evaluation as professional judgement; (4) evaluation as public opinion; and (5) evaluation as tax dollars. The advantages and disadvantages…

Professor Stake feels that Professor Glaser's paper does not give adequate attention to how descriptions and judgements of the instructional process can be used to facilitate educational decisions. He also asserts that behavioral specification, as it is usually defined, is often impractical and unnecessary, and he challenges the primacy of goal…