Classroom context and climate are inherently classroom-level (L2) constructs, but applied researchers sometimes--inappropriately--represent them by student-level (L1) responses in single-level models rather than more appropriate multilevel models. Here we focus on important conceptual issues (distinctions between climate and contextual variables;…

With the advent of the computer and user-friendly statistical software packages, factor analysis has become accessible to most researchers. However, conventional factor analysis, or R-technique, is only useful for research concerning types or groups of variables. Educational and psychological researchers are often interested in types of people,…

New ways of using factor analysis in research designs are suggested in this paper that would allow research to move in new directions that are being suggested for educational technology. A brief simplified overview of factor-analytic techniques is given, followed by a description of some recent developments in factor-analytic techniques which make…

Investigators are urged to plan factor analytic studies prior to collecting the data, to formulate a hypothesized factor structure, to develop several relatively pure measures of each factor expected, and to select an appropriate sample of at least 200 cases. Continuous variables should be used rather than dichotomous variables. (Author)

This paper examines interaction in a school class through the factor-analytical P-technique, considers the behavior of the factor scores in combination with certain other variables included in the interaction matrix, explores the formation of homogeneous groups of lessons in a grouping analysis based on the factor scores, and compares this latter…