This paper reports on a study attempting to link teaching practices to the educational achievement of secondary school students learning algebra for the first time. Results are presented. (Author/MT)

The effects of Hooper's seriation training method were investigated using 36 kindergarten children as subjects. Training produced strong effects. Near-far transfer was observed. The effects of training were durable for at least four months after the training. However, two years later the trained and untrained children performed equivalently.…

Two studies assessed the relevance of having students perform exercises with words spelled incorrectly on weekly pretests. Both used a multi-element design in which baseline was followed by the alternation of relevant positive practice and irrelevant positive practice. Both types of tests produced superior spelling scores on weekly posttests.…

The study of linear functions is important as it provides students with their first experience of identifying and interpreting the relationship between two dependent variables. This paper, which builds on previous research, reports a study undertaken with 64 year 9 students from two Australian schools. Linear functions were introduced to these…

Societal acceptance of polarized discourse poses challenges for communication professors engaged in teaching ethical public speaking processes to undergraduates. This study explores how creating caring and safe environments for the discussion of difficult dialogues is paramount to creating civil and reasoned discourse that can address issues of…

This report describes a pilot study conducted to evaluate the instructional effectiveness of the Steck-Vaughn Phonics Program: Level A-Units 3 and 4 and Level B-Units 2 and 3. The Educational Research Institute of America (ERIA) identified volunteer teachers to participate, designed the assessments, and analyzed the collected data. Because the…

This study examined the role of different scaffolding instructional interventions in facilitating students' shift to more sophisticated mental models as indicated by both performance and process data. Undergraduate students (n=51) were randomly assigned to use of one of three scaffolding conditions (adaptive scaffolding (AS), fixed scaffolding…

The Solomon four-group design (R. Solomon, 1949) is a very useful experimental design to investigate the main effect of a pretest and the interaction of pretest and treatment. Although the design was proposed half a century ago, no proper data analysis techniques have been available. This paper describes how data from the Solomon four-group design…

Students who undertook field studies of soil before the related laboratory work performed better on a posttest than students using the opposite sequence. (AL)

Changes, like single scores, are demonstrated to be valid and reliable and potentially predictable by independent variables. Change and growth measures determined from individual examinees' test scores indicated excellent predictive value. (Author/PN)

Effectiveness of cognitive training on older adults performance on the fluid ability of figural relations was examined. A pattern of differential transfer was found with greater training effects to near fluid transfer measures. Findings suggest continued modifiability of intellectual performance through cognitive intervention across the adult life…

If the correlation between selection test and pretest is greater than the correlation between selection test and posttest, a selected group will continue to regress to the mean in the norm-referenced model of the Title I Evaluation and Reporting System and, therefore, yield a biased estimate. (Author/RL)

Brief relaxation instruction alone and instructions plus electromyographic (EMG) feedback produced significant decreases in general and test-specific anxiety. EMG feedback added little to the effectiveness of relaxation instructions and practice. Relaxation instruction without EMG biofeedback shifted subjects toward a more internal locus of…

Research in written composition must not only face up to the fact that composition tests must meet the same requirements for validity and reliability that other tests must meet, but it also faces the unique difficulty of figuring out a way to give a valid and reliable pretest. (DD)

Describes procedure to measure a new course's ability to meet standards in three areas: student acceptance, student gains, and student comprehension. It has been used over three years to test the acceptability of 31 courses which contain more than 200 videotape presentations, and thousands of pages of print materials. (Author/JEG)