This study is intended to examine the influence of the democratic climate of classrooms on student engagement and learning outcomes in order to find out a more adequate model of learning in Civic Education classrooms. A model is developed for testing with data obtained from a sample of 930 students from schools in North Sulawesi. Prior to the…

Background: Claims that male role models can improve the behaviour and achievement of boys are familiar and persistent. However, research has not confirmed such a link; recent UK studies indicate that peers and relatives may be far more important to boys than their teachers. Given the seemingly relentless reference to male teachers as role models…

This study investigated the factor structure of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). Principal components analysis (PCA) and principal axis factor analysis (PAF) evaluated archival data from children presenting to a university clinic with suspected autism spectrum disorders (ASDs; N = 164). PCA did not replicate components identified by…

This article describes a model for response times that is proposed as a supplement to the usual factor-analytic model for responses to graded or more continuous typical-response items. The use of the proposed model together with the factor model provides additional information about the respondent and can potentially increase the accuracy of the…

Although studies of students' study approaches in face to face learning environments are commonplace, studies investigating the role of students' study approaches in online learning environments is currently a less explored area. This paper presents the findings of a survey aimed at investigating the relationship between students' approaches to…

A study evaluated the validity of the Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) grade-3 reading assessment from 2 perspectives: its relationship to 21 other measures of reading via factor analyses, and the sensitivity of the IGAP to instruction in 3 schools via multiple regression. Data were collected in a longitudinal study involving 350 students.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the convergence among observational data on children's temperament. Data were gathered through: (1) standard procedures designed to elicit discrete emotions; (2) parental reports; and (3) children's emotional tone observed during naturalistic mother-child contexts. A total of 112 normally developing 8- to…

Results of several analyses of the dimensional structure of four forms of the Preliminary American College Test Plus (P-ACT+) are presented. Dimensionality was assessed using factor analysis, multidimensional item response theory (IRT), and the Stout Test for Essential Unidimensionality (STEU). Analyses were conducted with data from the spring…

Q-technique factor analysis identifies clusters or factors of people, rather than of variables, and has proven very popular, especially with regard to testing typology theories. The present study investigated the utility of three different protocols for obtaining data for Q-technique studies. These three protocols were: (1) a conventional ipsative…

The purpose of this paper is to help higher education institutions determine how well their institutional effectiveness models match the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Institutions of Higher Education Criterion Four requirements. The paper describes each of the major requirements as a domain in a matrix with…

The multi-stage development of the Community Service Attitudes Scale (CSAS), an instrument for measuring college students' attitudes about community service, is reported. The CSAS was developed based on the helping behavior model of S. Schwartz (1977). The developed instrument was tested with two samples of 437 and 332 college students. The scales…

Previous research has shown that ethnic background impacts scores on measures of psychological functioning. False positives and false negatives may be obtained as a function of cultural differences. This paper examines the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans (ARSMA), an instrument that might be used clinically to augment…

Counseling professionals' and counseling psychology students' interest in performing research seems to be waning. Identifying the impediments to graduate students' interest and participation in research is important if systematic efforts to engage them in research are to succeed. The Research Self-Efficacy Scale (RSES) was designed to measure…

A new index for assessing the dimensionality underlying a set of test items was investigated. The incremental fit index (IFI) is based on the sum of squares of the residual covariances. Purposes of the study were to: (1) examine the distribution of the IFI in the null situation, with truly unidimensional data; (2) examine the rejection rate of the…

Three methods of factor analyzing dichotomously scored item performance data were compared using two raw score data sets of 20-item tests, one reflecting normally distributed latent traits and the other reflecting uniformly distributed latent traits. This comparison was accomplished by using phi and tetrachoric correlations among dichotomous data…