The goal of this paper is to examine the psychometric properties of a live-coded behavioral measure of joint attention, the "Attention-Following and Initiating Joint Attention Protocol" (JA Protocol), in order to assist researchers and clinicians in identifying when this measure may meet their joint attention assessment needs. Data from…

This study used exploratory factor analysis to test the factor structure of the Project for Educational Research That Scales (PERTS) instrument. Research that reports the reliability, construct validity, and factor structure of the PERTS scale is useful for interpreting the results from the use of the widely distributed survey and for suggesting…

Foreign language anxiety (FLA), which constitutes a serious problem in the foreign language learning process, has been mainly seen as a research issue regarding adult language learners, while it has been overlooked in children. This is because there is no an appropriate tool to measure FLA among children, whereas there are many studies on the…

The scales for rating the behavioral characteristics of superior students (SRBCSS), which were developed by Renzulli and his colleagues, are considered the most widespread and the most important scales used in the identification of gifted and superior students. Recently, four new scales were added. The aim of this research was to examine the…

In order to promote voluntary reading in elementary school, students need to have access to books they want to read, to believe they can read, and to be in an environment conducive to reading. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an instrument intended to measure students' perceptions in these areas. An exploratory factor analysis…

Numerous well validated academic progress monitoring tools are used in schools, but there are fewer behavioral progress monitoring measures available. Some brief behavior rating scales have been shown to be effective in monitoring students' progress, but most focus only on students' social skills and do not address critical academic-related…

The psychometric properties of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale-Second Edition (RCMAS-2) were examined in a sample of 1,003 U.S. elementary and secondary students in Grades 2 to 12. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were performed comparing the five-factor (target) model consisting of three anxiety (Physiological Anxiety, Social…

The purposes of this study were to develop and validate an instrument for assessing elementary students' nature of science (NOS) views and to explain the elementary school students' NOS views, in terms of varying grade levels and gender. The sample included 782 students enrolled in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Exploratory factor analysis…

The main purpose of this study is to develop a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the "attitudes toward science class" of fourth- and fifth-grade students in an Asian school culture. Specifically, the development focused on three science attitude constructs--science enjoyment, science confidence, and importance of science as…

A Chinese version of the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale was developed to find out the subjective PSSM of Mainland immigrant and local Hong Kong students. Five schools participated with 295 boys and 252 girls from Primary years 4, 5, and 6 taking part. Among those, 264 students were local Hong Kong students, while 283 were…

This report is based on the assessment of ICT (information and communication technology) literacy conducted in October 2005. It describes the development of a computer-based tool for assessing ICT literacy among school students and the application of that tool with a nationally representative sample of approximately 7,400 students from Years 6 and…