The use of random numbers is pervasive in today's world. Random numbers have practical applications in such far-flung arenas as computer simulations, cryptography, gambling, the legal system, statistical sampling, and even the war on terrorism. Evaluating the randomness of extremely large samples is a complex, intricate process. However, the…

Context: Most nursing home care is provided by certified nursing assistants (CNAs), but little is known about rural CNAs. Purpose: To develop a representative geographic profile of the CNA workforce, focusing on paths leading to present job. Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of data from the 2004 National Nursing Assistant Survey (NNAS), a…

Research on person perception typically emphasizes cognitive processes of information selection and interpretation within the individual perceiver and the nature of the resulting mental representations. The authors focus instead on the ways person perception processes create, and are influenced by, the patterns of impressions that are socially…

School resource officers (SROs) are police officers responsible for the daily task of keeping schools safe. The extent to which this goal is achieved depends in part on how SROs identify, assess, and respond to student threats of violence. This task is complicated by the lack of knowledge regarding the most effective ways of handling a threat so…

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe and better understand the meaning, structure, and essence of the experience of learning for adults labeled with learning disabilities as perceived by adults labeled with a "learning disability." Through a purposeful sampling method, six participants were chosen to participate in recorded…

Analysis of children's productions of oral narratives provides a rich description of children's oral language skills. However, measures of narrative organization can be directly affected by both developmental and task-based performance constraints which can make a measure insensitive and inappropriate for a particular population and/or sampling…

In this article, we discuss the effect of removing the independence assumptions between the residuals in two-level random effect models. We first consider removing the independence between the Level 2 residuals and instead assume that the vector of all residuals at the cluster level follows a general multivariate normal distribution. We…

Purpose: Language sample analysis is considered by many to be the gold standard for documenting children's oral language skills. One limitation, however, is the time required for collection and transcription of language samples. The goal of this study was to determine if stable language sample measures could be generated using relatively short…

Courses: Beginning research methods and statistics courses, as well as advanced communication courses that require reading research articles and completing research projects involving statistics. Objective: Students will understand the difference between significant and nonsignificant statistical results based on p-value.

This report summarizes the complex research literature on quantitative methods for assessing how impacts of educational interventions on instructional practices and student learning differ across students, educators, and schools. It also provides technical guidance about the use and interpretation of these methods. The research topics addressed…

E-learning researchers face considerable challenges in creating meaningful and generalizable studies due to the complex nature of this dynamic training medium. Our experience in conducting workplace e-learning research led us to create this guide for planning research on e-learning. We share the unanticipated complications we encountered in our…

First-generation, female college students often face an uphill battle in their quest for degree attainment. Literature suggests several areas in which first-generation college students struggle, but there are programs designed to help this demographic of student; specifically the TRiO program, a federally-funded operation that specializes in…

Higher education is a distribution center of knowledge and economic, social, and cultural power (Cervero & Wilson, 2001). A critical approach to understanding a higher education classroom begins with recognizing the instructor's position of power and authority (Tisdell, Hanley, & Taylor, 2000). The power instructors wield exists…

This study investigated resource utilisation in vocational and technical education as a correlate of student learning outcome in selected colleges of education in south west Nigeria. The study examined the relationship between time, space and physical resource utilisation and perceived student learning outcome. The study used the descriptive…

The alarming rise of office referrals, suspensions, and expulsions among students in public schools, have been a major concern for stakeholders in learning communities throughout the country. The Individuals with Disabilities Act (2001) and The No Child Left Behind Act (2001) mandated state and local educational agencies to implement scientific…