There is much agreement among chemical education researchers that expertise in chemistry depends in part on the ability to coordinate understanding of phenomena on three levels: macroscopic (observable), sub-microscopic (atoms, molecules, and ions) and symbolic (chemical equations, graphs, etc.). We hypothesize this "level-coordination…

We present a data-based perspective concerning recent (e.g., 2008) "Maclean's" magazine rankings of Canadian universities, including cluster analysis of the 2008 data. Canadian universities empirically resemble and relate to each other in a manner different from their formal classification and final rank ordering in the…

Discusses the nature, power, and limitations of four multivariate techniques: factor analysis, multiple analysis of variance, multiple regression, and multiple discriminant analysis. Shows how decision trees assist in interpreting results. (SK)

Procedures used in Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) dissertations at the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) were studied. Focus was on identifying: (1) characteristics of the research designs used; (2) sources of the instruments used to collect data; (3) reports of reliability estimates and evidence of validity of the instruments; and (4) types of…

Asserts that traditional approaches to multivariate analysis, including standard linear regression techniques, ignore the special character of count data. Explicates three suitable alternatives to standard regression techniques, a simple Poisson regression, a modified Poisson regression, and a negative binomial model. (MJP)