This article argues that a mixed methods approach is useful in understanding the complexity that underlies teachers' commitment to environmental education. Using sequential and concurrent procedures, the authors demonstrate how different methodological approaches highlighted different aspects of teacher commitment. The quantitative survey examined…

Presents maximum-likelihood confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) as a means for interpreting complete and incomplete multitrait-multimethod designs. CFA was applied to four data sets representing four designs and to an artificial data set to demonstrate its use in test validation designs to assess discriminant, convergent, and construct validity.…

The criteria for assessing convergent and discriminant validity proposed by D. T. Campbell and D. W. Fiske (1959) are shown to be inadequate for either the additive or multiplicative structures of data in a multitrait-multimethod matrix. Model-specific criteria are more promising for assessing convergent and discriminant validity. (Author/SLD)

The purpose of this study was to compare multiple regression with canonical analysis in order to introduce a new, policy relevant methodology to the literature on production functions. Findings from this study confirmed the results of past inquiries that found a relationship between the inputs to schooling and measures of student achievement. A…

This paper presents findings from research into students' perceptions and experiences of geography fieldwork. The study focused on Year 9 students (13-14 years) from three state secondary schools in urban northern England. Geography fieldwork, depending on its conceptualisation and implementation, has the potential to provide students with a wide…

This study featured validity evidence for scores from states' alternate assessments of alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AASs). It evaluated students from 6 states who were eligible for an AA-AAS concurrently with measures of academic competence and adaptive behavior. The investigators also assessed students with disabilities who were…

Two needs of Georgia State University Professional Development School Partnerships are to show increases in both student academic achievement and teacher efficacy. The Teacher-Intern-Professor (TIP) Model was designed to address these needs. The TIP model focuses on using the university and school partnership to support Georgia State University…

In confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), models exist that are admissible and demonstrably identified where the factor loading matrix from latent to manifest variables is of less than full column rank, even though other models are not identified. Implications for CFA are discussed. (SLD)

The trait-based perspective of leadership has a long but checkered history. Trait approaches dominated the initial decades of scientific leadership research. Later, they were disdained for their inability to offer clear distinctions between leaders and nonleaders and for their failure to account for situational variance in leadership behavior.…

This paper uses mixed methods to document how a new charter school's curriculum facilitates in the development of a learning community. The study highlights diverse curricular practices that often do not take place in traditional public schools. The school's philosophy and curriculum, which is based in social justice, provides a unique environment…

Background: A programme of construct validity research is necessary to clarify previous research on self-regulation and to provide a stronger basis for future research. Aim: A multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) analysis was conducted to assess convergent and discriminant validity of three self-regulation measures: the Learning and Study Strategies…

During the last 15 years, there has been a steady increase in the popularity and sophistication of the confirmatory factor analysis approach to multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data. However, important problems exist, the most serious being the ill-defined solutions that plague MTMM studies and the assumption that so-called method factors primarily…

Multiple evaluation methods (MEMs) can cause an inferential challenge, although there are strategies to strengthen inferences. Practical and theoretical issues involved in the use by social scientists of MEMs, three potential problems in drawing inferences from MEMs, and short- and long-term strategies for alleviating these problems are outlined.…

An equal-level approach is proposed for investigating multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) matrices with respect to other organizational units that contain additional information concerning a MTMM matrix's validity. The approach requires equality in "data level" before coefficients are submitted for evaluation. Disaggregation is central to…

Applications of the confirmatory factor analysis block-diagonal model to published data on 18 multitrait-multimethod matrices were reviewed to show widespread estimation problems. Possible causes of estimation difficulties were explored using computer simulations. These problems make the block-diagonal approach less useful than has generally been…