An attempt was made to determine which item response theory (IRT) equating method results in the least amount of equating error or "scale drift" when equating scores across one or more test forms. An internal anchor test design was employed with five different test forms, each consisting of 30 items, 10 in common with the base test and 5…

Exploring the responses of a variety of readers from three-year-old Dominic sharing a picture book with his father to adults reading a poem by Ted Hughes, this book examines the ways in which various readers respond to different texts. The aim of the book is to develop an awareness of the issues involved in readers' responses for primary teachers.…

This paper provides an idea of how to improve computer-assisted instruction effectiveness by incorporating teachers' images and voices into computers. Efforts to increase students' motivations by improving computer-assisted instruction feedback systems through the use of arcade-style video games and animation have proven to be ineffective and…

The current national focus on critical thinking is unnecessarily narrow in its scope, and this mitigates against essential changes being made in the thinking and reasoning activities experienced by students. Two shortcomings, however, restrict the possibilities for change: the first results from taking a generic (versus discipline-based) view of…

Two studies examined seven teachers' acceptance of a strategies-based approach to reading instruction during their first year of using the intervention. Interviews and observations revealed that the intervention, a long-term transactional strategies instruction program called SAIL (Students Achieving Independent Learning), was fully acceptable to…

The Foreign and International Media section of this collection of conference presentations contains the following 27 papers: "Cultural Orientation in Turkey: Are The Theorists Right about the Effects of Imported Cultural Products?" (Christine Ogan); "The Role of Mass Media in a Newly Emerging Democracy: The Latvian Case Study"…

The feasibility of quick norms derived by the procedure described by B. D. Wright and M. H. Stone (1979) was investigated. Norming differences between traditionally calculated means and Rasch "quick" means were examined for simulated data sets of varying sample size, test length, and type of distribution. A 5 by 5 by 2 design with a…

A preliminary study set the groundwork for exploring the challenges secondary school teachers and students face in reading texts drawn from their own culture and from cultures quite different from their own. Interviews were conducted with 89 secondary school students, and also with university teachers and secondary school teachers of African…

Previous work on the effects of dimensionality on parameter estimation was extended from dichotomous models to the polytomous graded response (GR) model. A multidimensional GR model was developed to generate data in one-, two-, and three-dimensions, with two- and three-dimensional conditions varying in their interdimensional associations. Test…

Noting that it is only within the last decade that schools have begun to identify ways to optimize language use to promote higher level thinking, this ERIC Digest focuses on developing thinking skills in reading. The digest discusses the impetus for critical reading, the use of children's literature as a tool for teaching thinking skills, a…

Generalizability theory (G-theory) and many-facet Rasch measurement (Rasch) manage the variability inherent when raters rate examinees on test items. The purpose of G-theory is to estimate test reliability in a raw score metric. Unadjusted examinee raw scores are reported as measures. A variance component is estimated for the examinee…

Those in composition studies know, experientially, that teaching informs their lives and results in knowledge, but they also know that English Studies culture(s) continue to valorize expert knowledge over community knowledge, empirical and scholarly research over alternate methods of constructing inquiry, and theory over practice. Although…

Intended for use in classes in children's literature at the preservice and graduate levels in education or English departments and in library schools in colleges and universities, this book provides a rationale and suggestions to teachers for planning and evaluating a literature-based curriculum. The three-part organization of the book emphasizes…

This study compares the attitudes of "somewhat" religious teachers toward teaching about religion in the public schools with the attitudes of very religious teachers. The sample consisted of public school teachers enrolled in elementary and secondary education courses at two Texas universities during the summer of 1995. Data were…

The purpose of this study was to describe the Rasch model for measurement and apply the model to examine the relationship between raters, domains of written compositions, and student writing ability. Twenty raters were randomly selected from a group of 87 operational raters contracted to rate essays as part of the 1993 field test of the Georgia…