This investigation is a comprehensive acoustic study of 4 voiceless fricatives (/f [theta] s [esh]/) in English produced by adults and pre-and postpubescent children aged 6-14 years. Vowel duration, amplitude, and several different spectral measures (including spectral tilt and spectral moments) were examined. Of specific interest was the pattern…

This paper focuses on the relationship between institutional factors and the intention of undergraduate students to withdraw from or complete their distance education courses in the Arab Open University (AOU). The model was examine on a pilot sample of 127 students and then re-examined on the field study of 587 students. Mixed paradigms were…

Surveys and observations were undertaken in selected primary schools in Ghana to determine whether principals' and teachers' attitudes towards and knowledge of inclusive education, as well as principals' expectations of teachers in implementing inclusion, were predictors of effective teaching practices in their classrooms. The sample of 128…

We used a systems perspective to examine relationships between adolescents' perceptions of overall family system functioning and selected parental behaviors. Self-report questionnaire data from 160 ninth and tenth grade students were analyzed using MANCOVA and discriminant analysis. The results showed two parental behaviors, support and monitoring…

Hope is a core construct of positive psychology that has received only minimal application to work and vocational situations. C. R. Snyder (2000) conceptualized hope as a cognitive process with 3 primary components: goals, agency, and pathways. This article presents the development and validation of the Work Hope Scale (WHS), which was rationally…

The 1993 Mississippi Report Card was the result of legislative and accountability processes. The state's Education Reform Act of 1982 created a mandate to establish a performance-based school-accreditation system. This paper presents findings of a study that disaggregated and analyzed the total per-pupil expenditure indicators in the 1993…

Findings from a study designed to evaluate the Houston Independent School District's (HISD) program for identifying students at risk of dropping out are presented in this report. In the 1988-89 school year HISD employed a scheme of four state-mandated criteria for identifying at-risk students, and this scheme's performance in predicting actual…

This paper describes Topdown Conceptual Analysis (TCA) and how it can be used to produce the knowledge base for the development of courseware. Some of the prerequisites and basic theories behind TCA are explained. In discussing what is meant by learning and teaching a concept, an explanation is given of how a complex concept can be taught in terms…

The item difficulty and item discrimination of three multiple-choice item formats were compared in experimental and non-experimental settings. In the experimental study, 104 graduate students were randomly assigned to complete one of three forms of a multiple-choice test: (1) a complex alternative ("none of the above") as the correct answer; (2) a…

Discriminant analysis was used to explore the influence of the relative ages of siblings on their dyadic interactions, and to explore which interaction behaviors might discriminate among families and among interaction situations. Six dyadic interaction situations of 30 minutes duration were observed among members of 12 normal families. The…

A review of the literature concerning the relationship between sex role and self measure identity includes a discussion of issues confronted in measurement. The methodology and analyses of data for the study are explained. The research was designed to determine which self referent measure most effectively discriminates among sex role identities.…

The Carroll County (Georgia) Competency-Based Teacher Certification Project developed a measure of teacher effectiveness, the 341-item Georgia Assessment of Teacher Effectiveness, based upon five previously published classroom observation systems. Three concerns were drawn from the development of this instrument: (1) the reduction of observational…

GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF INFERENTIAL STATISTICAL METHODS AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN WOULD ENABLE LANGUAGE TEACHERS TO INTERPRET OBJECTIVELY AVAILABLE RESEARCH REPORTS AND HOPEFULLY WOULD ENCOURAGE MORE EXPERIMENTATION. TO UNDERSTAND THE EXPERIMENTAL PROCESS, EDUCATORS MUST REALIZE THAT ANY EXPERIMENT IS AS SUCCESSFUL AS THE EXPERIMENTER IS IN…

The value systems by which the users of purchased information services select which one to use or buy are found to differ sharply among different user populations, but the variable found to control them is a function of use, not of the user as an individual. Selection variables are summarized in a matrix of user values and interaction effects. The…

The purpose of this research is to develop content analytic techniques capable of extracting the differentiating information in narrative performance evaluations for enlisted personnel in order to aid in the process of selecting personnel for advancement, duty assignment, training, or quality retention. Four tasks were performed. The first task…