The research project assignment can create meaningful opportunities for students to apply sociological concepts. For grading these projects, assessment rubrics are useful pedagogical tools to evaluate students' abilities in achieving course learning objectives. In this study, I analyzed final research papers collected over multiple semesters in my…

The hypothesis was tested that subjects fake personality tests by enacting a specific social role, rather than by responding in terms of personality constructs, and that such role faking cannot be detected by validity scales. Results support the hypothesis. (Author)

The Education Trust research report "Stuck Schools" suggests a framework for identifying chronically low-performing schools in need of turnaround. The study uses Maryland and Indiana to show that some low-performing schools make progress while others remain stagnant. The report has four serious problems of reliability and validity,…

Testing showed the dynamometer to be a sufficiently accurate instrument for recording force-time and force-displacement curves. (GW)

This study investigates how closely different interviewers agree when ranking the same applicants, and determines the "correctness" of their rating of applicants. Interview data for applicants to a medical school for two recent consecutive years were examined. For the first year, 573 applicants were interviewed; for the second year, 675 were…

Discusses rationale, reliability, factorial validity, and educational usefulness of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities. The I.T.P.A. is a serious attempt to identify specific sensory processing abilities. (Author)

Reported are the development and testing of a scale measuring the attitudes of elementary school students toward physical education programs. (GW)

Investigated in a series of experiments with 40 adults (20- to 70-years-old) having bilateral sensorineural hearing impairments was the test-retest reliability of the comfort level method for setting the acoustic gain of hearing aids, and the relationship between the comfort settings utilized in more realistic daily listening situations.…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether ninth-grade pupils making appropriate vocational choices attained higher scores on measures of vocational maturity than pupils making inappropriate vocational choices. Analyses of the results showed that the group making appropriate vocational choices attained significantly higher scores than the…

This is the preliminary report of a new memory scoring method. Using the Wechsler Memory Scale as its base, it scores lateralized verbal and figural memory and long- and short-term memory. Six independent memory scales were developed. Studies of 105 subjects demonstrate that these scales are reliable and valid. (Author)

Analyses of 212 reports of crime incidents from the 1974 Portland, Oregon, victimization survey were conducted. These were matched with official crime reports of the same incidents. The record check described and analyzed the following: differences between survey and police data; the frequency of "don't know" responses; patterns of telescoping and…

The Gross Self-Insight Scale was administered to an encounter group and a control group before and after the group experience. The scale was found to have very high reliabiltiy and moderately high validity. Observation of the encounter group members' behavior supported the change in the scale scores of group members. (SE)

This article elucidates criteria which might be helpful in evaluating praxis-related research. The authors explore both sides of the research and development (R & D) project. They examine different ways of understanding contributions to knowledge through research but more especially exploring ideas about contributions to changing praxis. Changing…

This paper describes the planning of a qualitative research methodology to develop strategies to improve and expand social interaction skills of deaf-blind students in supported employment settings. Characteristics of qualitative research are delineated and include: definition of the domain of the research; an evolving study design; behavior…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the admission process for an undergraduate research program in health science and to assess the students' statement of purpose for entering the program. Admission data (high school marks, supplementary application information, and overall rater score) and first-year GPA…