Self-efficacy is defined as the belief that one can successfully perform a behavior. Self-efficacy theory asserts that self-efficacy expectancies exert powerful influence on behavior and behavior change. The Self-efficacy Scale, which was developed to assess generalized self-efficacy expectations, consists of two subscales: general self-efficacy…

An instrument for measuring telephone apprehension was developed to facilitate research into hypothesized relationships between communication apprehension and telephone apprehension. A set of 92 Likert-type items was adapted from previous communication apprehension scales and administered to 81 undergraduate students in a speech communication…

A pictorial self-concept inventory for Mexican-American children was developed and validated. A primary concern was the adequate selection of pictures that would be relevant to the child's cultural background and environment. Another concern was the development of subscales which would measure the areas of sense of control, social self, academic…

Differential responses to Female and Male Lawyer scale items on the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) were analyzed for 67 male and 35 female law students. The results are discussed. Because there is an implicit bias in maintaining separate sex scales, the author suggests the SCII should be considered an intermediate step to a combined…

Dimensions of student academic self-concept were found to be significantly related to students' judgments of teaching, student interpersonal effectiveness being the most significant overall predictor of high school students' attitudes toward teachers and student's assessment of his academic abilities being the major predictor variable among…

The authors conducted a large-scale survey to confirm that the writing skills being assessed in the GRE® General Test can be linked to writing tasks that were judged to be important by graduate faculty from a variety of subject areas and across a wide range of institutions at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The results obtained in this…

This text was written to help the reader acquire a base of knowledge about classical psychometrics and to integrate new ideas into that framework of knowledge. The material is organized into five units: (1) introduction to measurement theory; (2) reliability; (3) validity; (4) item analysis in test development; and (5) test scoring and…

In 1989, Cochise College (CC) conducted a study to determine if a positive relationship existed between grade placement scores on the Nelson-Denny or Nelson reading comprehension examination and academic performance. The study population consisted of new or first-time CC students who were tested after May 1989. Placement scores for students who…

A frame of reference for studying culture in middle schools was developed. Items for the Middle School Description Survey (MSDS), which was designed to test elements of the ideal middle school culture, were created based on middle school advocacy literature. The items were conceptually categorized according to E. H. Schein's (1985) cultural…

In 1987, Santa Barbara City College, California, received a grant to develop valid and culturally fair assessment procedures for placing students into appropriate level courses. Specifically, the project sought to: (1) determine faculty and student perceptions of the skills needed to succeed in entry-level college classes; (2) examine the…

In the past several years, numerous educational climate instruments and questionnaires have been developed. One such instrument is the Charles F. Kettering (CFK) School Climate Profile, a popular measure of school climate that is widely used to gather data for administrative planning and curriculum revision. The instrument is patterned on the…

Methodological aspects of a study are reviewed to illustrate the utility of the case study approach in researching the effectiveness of a motivational intervention in an instructor-facilitated learning context. In the study, learners were prompted via motivational messages into modifying their disposition to engage in learning tasks. The setting…

This study examined efficacy of different story collection procedures with normally developing (N=10) and language disordered (N=6) preschool children. Factor analyses probed such possible interfering factors as home vs. school environments, familiarity of the story requester, coaxing cues, stimulus structure, and presence of such props as dolls…

A study investigated the validity and reliability of grades and credits earned by students in the five academic departments of biological sciences (33 majors), organic chemistry and biology (106 majors) at a large public university. Validity was assessed by comparing grades assigned by faculty with scores earned on subject-related standardized…

This report reviews and evaluates the tradition of assessing early literacy with formal tests. It begins with a historical account of the readiness movement, focusing on the development of formal measures of early literacy and tracing the development of the movement into the 1980s. Next, the paper analyzes in depth tests that are currently…