Consistent behavior is a desirable characteristic that common items are expected to have when administered to different groups. Findings from the literature have established that items do not always behave in consistent ways; item indices and IRT item parameter estimates of the same items differ when obtained from different administrations.…

Research has shown that children with disabilities are often rejected by their peers and are rarely selected as playmates. The purpose of this study was to investigate preschoolers' preferences for children with physical or developmental disabilities or typically developing children in hypothetical situations. Sixty-four preschool children from…

This paper is concerned with the role of language in mathematics learning at college level. Its main aim is to provide a perspective on mathematical language appropriate to effectively interpret students' linguistic behaviors in mathematics and to suggest new teaching ideas. Examples are given to show that the explanation of students' behaviors…

The decade preceding the end of apartheid in South Africa (SA) represents a period of remarkable national leadership, and atypical business leadership. Insights from these extraordinary business leadership experiences largely remain in the form of uncaptured oral histories. Yet they are inspiring stories of practices and principles of truly…

This book aims to increase the level of interest and understanding of leadership within the academic context and to demonstrate the relevance of leadership for contemporary United Kingdom universities. The book considers the concept of leadership and its appropriateness and usefulness for nonprofit professional organizations such as universities,…

Within the paradigm of cultural pluralism, four areas seem worth exploring in depth: (1) language and power; (2) multiculturalism vs/as cultural pluralism; (3) English itself--the discipline, course, and class; and (4) individual vs/as the collective. Language and power include the primary paradox facing the English teaching profession, that in a…

Reports further analysis of longitudinal records of mother-infant interaction at home during the infant's first year of life. Analysis was designed to clarify the role of maternal affectionate behavior in defining maternal patterns and in discriminating anxious/avoidant mothers from secure mothers and from anxious/resistant mothers. (Author/DB)

Describes two experiments on the processing of ambiguous words: one involving lexical decisions for words related to dominant or subordinate meanings of homograph primes, the other involving ambiguous words ending sentences that bias the homographs at varying degrees. Concludes that dominance and context contribute independently to processing of…

This study investigated differences in performance when sixth graders were presented with fractions in three contexts (understanding the meaning of fractions, computation with fractions, and solving word problems with fractions). Student performance varied significantly in different contexts, with the lowest performance observed on the…

Focuses on three main issues emerging from studies of conceptual development: (1) young children's naive theories of the world; (2) how innate constraints in conceptual development work; and (3) how innate and sociocultural constraints are integrated. Maintains that early development of core domains of thought (naive psychology, physics, and…

Critiques studies of moral development and culture in light of key assumptions of cultural psychology with regard to culturally mediated contexts, the coherence and complexity of cultures, and agency in a culturally grounded self. Argues that the challenge remains to retain concern with agency and context sensitivity, while giving weight to the…

Compared effects of syntactic context and attention on identifying masked spoken words in reading-disabled seventh graders and good readers. Found that, in both groups, syntactic structure of context triggers a process of anticipation for particular syntactic categories based on an assumption that linguistic messages are syntactically coherent;…

Rhetorical, historical, and feminist perspectives are used to critique some common assumptions about adolescents and their universal and distinctive status. The characteristics often perceived as timeless can be located within a sociohistorical context of their creation. The view of adolescents as out of control due to hormonal action is…

Describes contextual therapy, which proposes that many childhood sexual abuse survivors grow up in an interpersonal context that fails to transmit the capacities needed for effective daily functioning. Contextual therapy retains trauma-focused interventions as one component of a broader framework aimed at helping survivors develop adaptive…

Teaching with the grain is a teacher education model rooted in constructivism. It has three phases: the teacher describes a specific teaching situation; analyzes the situation by examining its relationship to self, culture, students, curriculum, sponsors, and colleagues; and generates and addresses systemic issues arising from the analysis.…