The research project presented in this article was set in the Swedish school context and carried out on a set of compulsory national tests for English, Swedish, and mathematics used at the end of compulsory school. The aims were: (a) to gain a deeper knowledge of the internal structure of the tests and (b) to separate individual performance from…

Based on theories of emotional intelligence, adult education, psychology of reading, and emotions and literature, this study was designed to develop and validate the Affective Response to Literature Survey (ARLS), a psychological instrument used to measure an emotional response to literature. Initially, 27 items were generated by a review of…

This study examined the difference in the levels of the variables related to the school climate factors among the teachers teaching social science courses, the teachers teaching natural science courses, and the teachers teaching art, music and physical education. As a result of the analyzes, all the teachers reported open climate in relation to…

This study investigated the effect of self-regulated learning, as indicated by academic self-concept, motivation and learning strategies, reading attitude and family based prerequisites on reading ability. Students (n=4018) in the eighth grade answered the IEA reading literacy test, the self-regulated learning questionnaire and a student…

The aim of this study was to investigate self-theories (theories of intelligence, confidence in one's intelligence, internal attribution of failure, academic self-efficacy), specific control, and experiencing of stress by means of a questionnaire for 915 Swedish high school students. Factor analysis yielded 6 stress domains (Workload, Psychosocial…

Cultural competence has become a central social work tenet enshrined in the profession's ethical and educational standards. Few measures of cultural competence exist, however, in spite of an increasing array of religious, ethnic, and racial groups in U.S. society. This article develops a new measure to assess cultural competence among one family…

As individuals mature, they show increasing responsibility for events in their lives, but with variation in this form of maturation from one individual to another. These individual differences can be observed in doctoral candidates' activities associated with completion of the doctoral dissertation. The purpose of this study was to assess doctoral…

The issue of what exactly is measured by different types of reading items has been a matter of interest in the field of reading research for many years. Language teaching and testing specialists have raised the question of whether a reading test for foreign students wishing to enter a university in the United States should include questions…

Both concurrent and predictive validity of two developmental instruments, each purporting to measure the same five developmental dimensions, were compared. The Developmental Profile II (DPII), a commercial test, was administered to the same children when they were in prekindergarten and first grade. The initial samples were 91 and 267…

This paper outlines the development of a quantitative instrument designed to measure students' multiple achievement goals and key aspects of their cognitive engagement in Australian educational settings. The paper demonstrates the use of congeneric measurement models in assessing and improving the validity of the scales comprising the Goal…

The purpose of this study was to reveal the prevailing instructional method utilized by inquiry-oriented science teachers using national representative teacher data. The first part of the study focuses on the measurement of teaching emphasis on inquiry science or the intended curriculum. The second part focuses on the relationship between the…

A study sought to better understand the construct of teacher verbal effectiveness. Teacher verbal effectiveness was theoretically conceptualized using certain variables: verbal immediacy, language intensity, self-disclosure, communication and accommodation, and humor. A scale was developed and factor analysis yielded a unidimensional teacher…

A crossnational study compared secondary school boys' and girls' social (individual attitudinal, and family) and linguistics (type/frequency of oral conversations and test related activities) experience, and their relation to differential writing performance. Subjects included more than 1000 secondary students in their final year of compulsory…

This study investigated relationships between willingness to teach and selected variables including personal, familial, school, and social factors among teachers of the mentally retarded in Taiwan. Participants included 527 elementary and junior high school teachers of the mentally retarded. Personal factors statistically correlated with teaching…

The functioning of a cognitive taxonomy within the test specifications of an allied health certification examination was studied. The taxonomy used was a simplification of the scheme of B. S. Bloom (1956), in which items were classified as comprehension, application, or analysis. Whether items written purposely to assess higher order cognitive…