A more parsimonious interpretation of the factor structure of creativity tests than that afforded by the original study was found in this reanalysis of a study of 403 sixth graders by P. Merrifield, J. Guilford, and A. Gershon (1963). The prior analysis extracted and rotated too many factors. (SLD)

A study of 47 clinical medical faculty teaching behaviors had teachers report their teaching behaviors in four areas: interactive skills; knowledge or abilities important for students to develop; factors influencing curriculum development; and sources of pedagogical assistance. Subjects' written simulations on teaching techniques, curriculum…

An annotated bibliography lists French language tests designed for core French, French immersion, or French native language instruction at the elementary and secondary levels. Citations include basic bibliographic information, intended population, grade or difficulty levels, brief descriptions of test sections or format, and approximate test…

Examined development and validation of measure of adaptation to problematic academic and interpersonal tasks during transition to middle school (Survey of Adaptational Tasks of Middle School). For girls, peer relationship tasks appeared most salient with regard to criterion measures, whereas for boys, peer relationship, conflict with authority,…

Cognitive holding power is defined as a characteristic of the learning setting that presses students into different kinds of cognitive activity. Development of an instrument to measure cognitive holding power and studies of the instrument's reliability with over 1,500 Australian technical college students are reported. (SLD)

A survey of 177 Hispanic and 93 Anglo college freshmen examined acculturative stress within a multivariate framework that includes social class, gender, and ethnicity as precursor variables; demographic and psychological indexes of acculturation; college role stresses experienced by most students; and minority stresses especially relevant to…

A set of Q-sort items to assess individual differences in infant-mother attachment was adapted for a Hispanic population of low-SES background. Completion of the Q-sort by observers and inner-city Hispanic mothers and testing of 43 infants with the Ainsworth Strange Situation established the Q-set's validity and indicated moderate reliability for…

Reviews research on the development of academic skills in arithmetic and early reading, emphasizing the individual cognitive processes occurring during learning. Offers implications for the development of new methods of assessment that stress processes, rather than just products. Suggests that researchers in cognitive development and assessment…

The development of tools for testing the abilities of students in "interpreting data" is discussed. A longitudinal and cross-sectional study of the responses of examinees and the application of SOLO Taxonomy for the design of structured questions to classify the level of performance of examinees were used to select indicative items. (KR)

The experience of the RAND Corporation as it develops the performance test component of a licensing examination for secondary school teachers is explored. The performance test, composed of written tasks that simulate important teacher activities, corresponds to portions of other professional examinations. (SLD)

Describes the development of a history assessment test by Northeast Missouri State University (Kirksville) faculty. Discusses content, problems with design and cooperation, and theories of assessment testing. Includes sample questions demonstrating the cube plan, a technique that involves using a single question to measure three learning…

Effects of item wording on questionnaire reliability and validity were studied, using 280 undergraduate business students who completed a questionnaire comprising 4 item types: (1) regular; (2) polar opposite; (3) negated polar opposite; and (4) negated regular. Implications of results favoring regular and negated regular items are discussed. (SLD)

Hierarchical (adaptive) and linear methods of testlet construction were compared. The performance of 2,080 ninth and tenth graders on a 4-item testlet was used to predict performance on the entire test. The adaptive test was slightly superior as a predictor, but the cost of obtaining that superiority was considerable. (SLD)

The Children's Sex Role Inventory was tested on third, fourth, sixth, and seventh graders. Reliability was established through internal consistency of femininity and masculinity scales and stable test-retest reliabilities. Validity of the scales was evident in gender differences on both scales. (BC)

Studied the ability of logical test design (LTD) to predict student performance in reading Roman numerals for 211 sixth graders in Mexico City tested on Roman numeral items varying on LTD-related and non-LTD-related variables. The LTD-related variable item iterativity was found to be the best predictor of item difficulty. (SLD)