Noting that children who witness family violence, but are not direct victims of the violence, are frequently forgotten, this 33-minute video and complementary written materials provide a highly flexible program designed to address the multiple needs of these children with diverse backgrounds and a wide range of experiences. The first part of the…

As teachers experiment with the many related types of response-centered approaches (including whole language and literature-based instruction), many are uncertain about the place of instruction in these paradigms and their role in it. For pedagogical purposes, it is unproductive to conceptualize the teaching and learning of reasoning in general…

Two studies investigated children's responsiveness to an adult's negative emotions (anger, sadness, and pain). The studies also evaluated effects of adult scaffolding (labeling and explaining negative emotions, and requesting help). In the first study, subjects were 55 preschool children between the ages of 33 and 56 months. During individual play…

The difference between compensatory and non-compensatory item response theory (IRT) models in terms of the dimensionality of test data generated by them, and its effect on the model-data-fit were examined. The STRESS (proportion of variance not accounted for by the multidimensional scaling model) and RSQ (proportion of variance accounted for by…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether systematic, non-zero differences between pairs of item bank b-values have occurred in the recent history of two licensure examinations. Licensing examinations were studied for two related health care professions (Program 1 and Program 2). A series of analysis of covariance models was fit to the…

Since 1985 several procedures for computerized test construction using linear programing techniques have been described in the literature. To apply these procedures successfully, suitable item banks are needed. The problem of designing item banks based on item response theory (IRT) is addressed. A procedure is presented that determines whether an…

The influence of culture on the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher, student, and curriculum is examined. The assumption is that if acknowledgement is given to: (1) the influence of culture; and (2) ways that cultural assumptions of teachers and students differ, then adjustments can be made that permit a more rewarding and enjoyable…

To help improve students' ability to interpret and write about literature, teachers should get rid of old habits. The old habits include giving quizzes to make sure students read assignments, and assigning readings just because particular works are part the literary canon. Once a teacher assigns a novel and gives a quiz, everything the teacher and…

Decentralization of school systems is based on certain assumptions concerning the teaching profession. In the Swedish reform debate one assumption is put forth as a chief condition for successfully giving teachers more responsibility and power: there must be a common ground of professional norms, especially concerning internal and social values…

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…

Discussing the profound changes and possibilities for writing and writing instruction that are evident at this stage of the computer revolution, this book contains 17 articles which focus on implications for teaching, learning, and teacher education and highlight questions that teachers and researchers must address to realize the potential 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…

Many researchers have suggested that the main cause of item bias is the misspecification of the latent ability space. That is, items that measure multiple abilities are scored as though they are measuring a single ability. If two different groups of examinees have different underlying multidimensional ability distributions and the test items are…

One hundred undergraduate business students completed a questionnaire designed to determine their reactions to a traditional and a "flashier" textbook format. Before completing the questionnaire, subjects spent several minutes examining two business textbooks--one an older textbook with black ink on white paper, narrow margins, and few…

Sections of the newspaper "USA Today" were compared with corresponding sections of four major newspapers--the "New York Times," the "Wall Street Journal," the "Los Angeles Herald Examiner," and the "Los Angeles Times"--to determine what editorial components made "USA Today" different and…