Exploratory factor analysis involves five key decisions. The second decision, how many factors to retain, is the focus of the current paper. Extracting too many or too few factors often leads to devastating effects on study results. The advantages and disadvantages of the most effective and/or most utilized strategies to determine the number of…

In this literature review, we examined 30 years of play-literacy inquiry through a quantitative lens in order to identify, assemble and summarize studies of sufficient methodological strength to form a corpus of research that encourages meta-analytic thinking. First, a multi-phase search of the literature was conducting yielding 192 studies that…

This article examines the utility of multi-matrix sampling as a technique in health education research that permits collection of large quantities of data without lengthy questionnaires or excessive time demands on respondents. Advantages and limitations of multi-matrix sampling are delineated through a hypothetical example. (Authors/CJ)

One solution to the problem of obtaining test scores in order to assess multiple outcomes of educational programs is a basically simple technique called matrix sampling. Matrix sampling is the estimation of total test score statistics by administering random subsets of test items to randomly selected students. This chapter lays out the specific…