The present study examined performance on an arithmetic task of increasing difficulty and a frustrating puzzle task for children with ADHD and comparison children. Emotional competence also was investigated in the two groups. Sixty-four children, 21 previously diagnosed with ADHD, participated. Performance on the arithmetic task was measured in…

Development in the ability of 11-year-olds to solve numerical problems of addition, multiplication, and proportion was analysed by means of three Rasch models of change. The students, who had participated in a New Zealand numeracy project in 2002, comprised two groups that differed in socio-economic status: 1,274 students came from low…

This paper reviews the corpus of research on feedback, with a particular focus on formative feedback--defined as information communicated to the learner that is intended to modify the learner's thinking or behavior for the purpose of improving learning. According to researchers in the area, formative feedback should be multidimensional,…

The effects of age, task, and egocentric responding on visual-spatial perspective taking were studied among 41 preschool children between 3.0 and 5.9 years of age. Children were individually administered three perspective-taking measures: the upside-down/right-side-up task, a block task, and a picture box task, all previously described in the…

When subjects are given open-ended stimulus situations allowing for responses at all possible stages of a developmental theory, the stage scores of individuals for each situation can be treated as scores on polychotomous items. Extensions of the concepts of difficulty and discriminating power from the dichotomous case to this ordinal category…

Assesses the degree of difficulty parents attribute to specific socialization tasks; explores the relation between parents' perceived difficulty and children's perceived and actual competence in these two domains; and determines whether the ease or difficulty of these child rearing tasks, as perceived by parents, varies as a function of the…

Describes a specific technique that involves initiative games to assess the level of group cooperation among children ages 11 to 13 in a school setting. Describes the development of initiative tasks used in the evaluation and the observation procedure used. (SB)

Reviews a study that was designed to find evidence of factors influencing the kind of interaction found in small-group work in language learning among young adult English teacher trainees in a developing country. (22 references) (GLR)

This paper analyses the effects of manipulating the cognitive complexity of L2 oral tasks on language production. It specifically focuses on self-repairs, which are taken as a measure of accuracy since they denote both attention to form and an attempt at being accurate. By means of a repeated measures design, 42 lower-intermediate students were…

Difficulties associated with the DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process of the British Columbia Ministry of Education were identified in this study. Using a task analysis of a hunter's job, a set of procedures was developed that can improve the curriculum development process and, to some extent, overcome the difficulties associated with it. The…

PERHAPS THE MAJOR PROBLEM IN TASK ANALYSIS FOR INDUSTRIAL TRAINING IS TO DETERMINE WHAT TO DESCRIBE AND ON WHAT LEVEL OF DETAIL. MANY DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DESCRIPTION MAY BE NEEDED TO ESTIMATE THE COST OF INADEQUATE PERFORMANCE TO A SYSTEM AND THE PROBABILITY OF ADEQUATE PERFORMANCE WITHOUT TRAINING--THE PROBLEM OF IDENTIFYING DIFFICULT COMPONENTS…

To investigate developmental differences in timesharing performance, 60 boys, 20 in each of three age groups (7-, 10- and 13-year-olds), performed an auditory matching task and a tracking task alone and concurrently, the latter under two sets of instructions. Decrements produced by concurrent performance were compared for the three age groups.…

Structuring leader behavior can increase group member morale by decreasing perceptions of failure. Task nature determines how much discussants believe they can improve on future tasks. Style of leadership is an important determinant of member satisfaction. (Author/MFD)

An attempt is made to establish a link between ordinary arithmetical situations and relevant mathematical concepts by the analyzing of complexity of concepts. (MP)

This article presents procedures, forms, and instructional techniques used to increase achievement of learning-disabled students through measuring and controlling task difficulty during classroom instruction time. These techniques are especially recommended for classrooms using individualization and small group instruction. (Author/PB)