This paper explores the connection between how groups are defined and activated and the possibilities for community democracy in schools. Several theories of group politics are discussed in the paper including concepts such as structural conflict, overlapping memberships, and potential publics, followed by an exploration of the group focus of some…

Each year the Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF) seeks to create a mock trial that addresses serious matters facing young people today. In recent times, the actions and behaviors of student groups on high school and college campuses have become major stories in the national media. Incidents of hazing and peer pressure have raised questions…

Advances in cognitive psychology deepen the understanding of how students gain and use knowledge and broaden the range of performances and situations researchers want to see to acquire evidence about students' developing knowledge. Advances in technology make it possible to capture more complex performances in assessment settings by including, as…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of local item dependence (LID) in passage-based testlets on the test score reliability of an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading comprehension test from the perspective of generalizability (G) theory. Definitions and causes of LID in passage-based testlets are reviewed within the…

In this study, the Bystander Turing Test (BTT) paradigm is used to determine whether participants rate particular dialog moves in tutoring transcripts to be generated by a computer tutor, AutoTutor, or by a skilled human tutor. Currently, AutoTutor initiates a conversation with the learner by posing a question or presenting a problem for the…

This study investigated the variation of meaning that may be assigned by students to instructional symbol systems. Toward this end, student interpretations of symbols employed to represent free fall in Boxer, a computational environment designed for innovative instructional activities in math and science, were analyzed. Four classes of…

A method of item pool design is proposed that uses an optimal blueprint for the item pool calculated from the test specifications. The blueprint is a document that specifies the attributes that the items in the computerized adaptive test (CAT) pool should have. The blueprint can be a starting point for the item writing process, and it can be used…

The Visual Communication section of the proceedings contains the following 8 selected papers: "Affect and Emotion: Eliciting Compassionate Response via Facial Affect in Visual Images" (Courtney Bennett); "A Study of the Persuasiveness of Animation When Used as Forensic Demonstrative Evidence" (Benjamin Allyn Meyer);…

The challenges of modeling students' performance in simulation-based assessments include accounting for multiple aspects of knowledge and skill that arise in different situations and the conditional dependencies among multiple aspects of performance in a complex assessment. This paper describes a Bayesian approach to modeling and estimating…

The achievement gap between low-income African American students and their White counterparts remains substantial. To address this, researchers have begun to examine the impact of culture on cognitive performance among African American students (Lee, 2001; Foster, Lewis, & Onafowora, 2003). The findings from this work suggest that when aspects of…

Satellite instructors and classrooms are useful when community college students need instruction in specialized skill areas and can fill in for lack of expensive equipment. Conversely, the college can go into the community to meet special needs off-campus. Simulation games, field trips, and televised instruction bring greater realism to courses.…

Describes how the audiotutorial method of instruction can be used to simulate field trips in earth science. Each excursion takes the student, via slides, audiotapes, specimens and maps, to various parts of the world to observe and investigate phenomena associated with a particular aspect of earth science. (JR)

Explains details behind some of the new planning and building terms that represent concepts designed to generate high quality school structures at more reasonable costs than previous traditional methods. (Author)

Describes a unit of study in environmental education which utilizes multimedia techniques to assist the student in making and evaluating predictions about the future of "spaceship earth." (JR)