In an effort to improve instruction related to psychometrics and psychological testing for beginning psychology majors, an approach was developed at Pennsylvania's Ursinus College that incorporates active, participatory learning and problem solving. The approach is used in a course on research methods and makes use of a networked computer system…

This report describes the methods and procedures used for the 1994 third followup of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 eighth graders (NELS:88/94). NELS:88/94 collected information on postsecondary education participation, employment, earnings, family formation, and other activities and experiences relevant to individuals as they…

This book focuses on the theoretical, empirical and practice-based implications of recognizing cultural diversity in the psychology of women. Contributors to this volume share the common objective of keeping feminist psychology robust and useful. Chapters in the first section, "Cultural Diversity in Theory and Methodology in Feminist…

Three methods for the estimation of the reliability of single dichotomous items are discussed. All methods are based on the assumptions of nondecreasing and nonintersecting item response functions and the Mokken model of double monotonicity. Based on analytical and Monte Carlo studies, it is concluded that one method is superior to the other two…

The basic premise for this paper is that any educational program or technology should be evaluated on the basis of the theoretical foundations or perspectives on which it is implicitly or explicitly based. Structured in three main sections, it reviews recent literature in areas related to the many aspects that influence learning through…

Proceedings of a symposium sponsored by the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors (CEO) are presented in this report. The CEO is a network of institutions, organizations, agencies, businesses, and associations in support of outdoor education. This symposium, reflecting the work of CEO's Research Task Force, provides literature reviews and field…

Technical aspects of the first followup survey for the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) are documented and summarized. Some information overlaps materials in the users' manuals for this followup, such as the overview and general descriptions of data collection, sampling, weighting, variance estimation, nonresponse patterns,…

Student emotional response to teacher classroom behaviors may offer a theoretical framework for explaining student learning. Such a framework may encompass other models, such as arousal/motivation or identification, in offering an explanation of why students learn when teachers exhibit certain behaviors. Emotional response has provided…

This report describes a 7-week pilot study conducted to estimate probable participation rates for a planned substance abuse treatment outcomes study. The pilot program tested whether acceptable response rates might be obtained by contacting clients whose records had been examined by an earlier study (retrospective) or by contacting current clients…

This activity guide, developed to provide hands-on environmental education activities geared to Pettigrew State Park in North Carolina, is targeted for grades 5, 6, and 7 and meets curriculum objectives of the standard course of study established by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Three types of activities are included:…

This report focuses on several reasons for questioning the appropriateness of the standard measures of returns to education in deciding about education programs and evaluating their comparative advantages vis-a-vis other investments in developing countries. The goal is to provide some guidelines in selecting future research options in the field of…

Six papers on Irish English are presented. "The Study of Hiberno-English" (Jeffrey L. Kallen) surveys some aspects of research on the language and offers a historical context for the subsequent papers. "A Tape-Recorded Survey of Hiberno-English in Its Context" (T. M. Tilling) reports on the early stages of an island-wide survey…

This paper explores technical questions of ethnographic study and uses as an example an actual episode observing college students and the subsequent decisions and steps taken to produce a written account. In particular, the paper seeks to address the question of researcher subjectivity by examining some issues relating to the practice of…

Intended as a guide for both novice and experienced researchers, this collection of articles focuses on single-subject experimental research used for investigations in literacy. The premise of the collection is that this single-subject approach allows researchers--both those from outside the classroom and teacher-researchers--to discover how an…

This article describes the results of a three-month experiment in the use of computer-based semantic networks for curriculum development. A team of doctoral and master's degree students developed a 1200-item computer database representing a tentative "domain of competency" for a proposed MA degree in Workforce Education and Lifelong…