Considerable research has been conducted examining the use of laptops in higher education, however, a reliable and valid scale to assess in-class use of laptops has yet to be developed. The purpose of the following study was to develop and evaluate the "Laptop Effectiveness Scale" (LES). The scale consisted of four constructs: academic…

This paper forms part of an exploration of assessment on one part-time higher education (HE) course: an in-service, professional qualification for teachers and trainers in the learning and skills sector which is delivered on a franchise basis across a network of further education colleges in the north of England. This paper proposes that the…

Guidelines for the use of observation instruments in pre-and in-service teachers of the handicapped are provided. It is explained that guidelines have been developed according to the following five principles: (1) the observation instrument must be relevant (including empirical, normative, and interpretative relevance); (2) methods of gathering…

The Answer-Until-Correct (AUC) procedure has been proposed in order to increase the reliability of multiple-choice items. A model for examinees' behavior when they must respond to each item until they answer it correctly is presented. An expression for the reliability of AUC items, as a function of the characteristics of the item and the scoring…

Two studies involving 368 elementary and high school students and 29 readers were conducted to investigate reader consistency, score reliability, and reader time requirements of three hands-on science performance tasks. Holistic scores were as reliable as analytic scores, and there was a high correlation between them after they were disattenuated…

The development of a coding scheme to identify the function of each conversational turn within episodes of conflict in a peer tutoring setting is described, and the scheme, based on Cohen's kappa analysis, is presented. Although 15 codes were developed for the initial effort, 7 codes were finally used to reflect each utterance as: (1) agreement;…

The problem of this study was to determine whether Method A is a more efficient observational method for obtaining activity type behaviors in an individualized classroom than Method B. Method A requires the observer to record the activities of the entire class at given intervals while Method B requires only the activities of selected individuals…

This paper reports results of efforts over a 7-year period (1960-67) to determine if the Hayes Pupil-Teacher Reaction Scale is a reliable, valid unidimensional instrument which may be used to measure the attitude of students toward the teaching effectiveness of their teachers. Criteria used were 1) each respondent's total score describes with at…

Smith (1969) reported the results of an instrument for measuring teacher judgment of written composition. His test was first administered to a group of "experts" whose ratings were in high agreement. Then the test was given to a sample of over 200 teachers and lay readers. Among Smith's conclusions was that over half of the teachers have judgment…

Demonstrates that differences occur in role fidelity and in the performance consistency of a coached client over a series of simulated interviews. Illustrates that such differences can be quantitatively described, and that the results of the frequency tabulation procedure are affected by the training of raters in component observation. (Author)

Reports that the "Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature" provides quick access to popular magazine content, although the titles are not drawn randomly from a universe of publications; that the indexers take an inclusive approach to cataloging; and that the indexers demonstrate high reliability in locating and cataloging full-length…

Recommends criteria for determining adequate sample size for the use of Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) as an indicator of early language development. (BD)

Anonymous reports (n=155) of child physical abuse in Baltimore (MD) were compared with reports made by professionals (n=588) and nonprofessionals (n=262) in terms of substantiation rate, seriousness of substantiated incidents, and severity of allegations. While anonymous reports were more likely to be unfounded, those that were substantiated were…

Construct validity patterns of test-criteria and item-criteria correlations are shown to be inconsistent across samples. The results of an investigation of construct validity patterns on two published personality scales is presented. (JKS)

An Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is an assessment approach employed in medical education, in which residents rotate through multiple stations of standardized clinical tasks to evaluate their clinical competence. Because items used to evaluate residents' performance in each OSCE station are linked to the same task and are rated…