Describes a Dutch study of changes in teacher communication styles during their careers, combining findings from longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses of teachers' and students' perceptions of teacher interpersonal behavior. Survey results indicate the changes are found mainly in dominant behavior, whereas cooperative behavior remains…

The old era of educational assessment and reasons for its demise are described. The new era will be different and will present four challenges to the assessment community: (1) new assessment targets; (2) technical challenges of alternative assessments; (3) demystifying assessment and evaluation; and (4) reexamining assessment priorities. (SLD)

Using portfolios in assessing literacy is explored, considering student portfolios and the teacher's class portfolio. Portfolio assessment is a valuable complement to externally mandated tests, but technical issues must be addressed if the portfolio movement is to survive. Portfolios must be linked to the broader task of instructional improvement.…

Guidelines for developing performance assessments in science education allied with current research and reform are presented. The guidelines are applied to 3 hands-on science investigations performed by over 300 fifth and sixth graders and scored by science educators. Although difficult to develop, such assessments can be scored reliably. (SLD)

A study investigated the use of teaching portfolios and student evaluations in evaluating 97 college faculty members for contract renewal. Two faculty peers and a dean evaluated the portfolio of each teacher. Student evaluations correlated reasonably well with portfolio evaluations by the deans and one of the peers. (Author/MSE)

Describes experiments in Arabic information retrieval using 29 queries against a base of 355 bibliographic records. Using roots and stems as index terms worked better than words, and the root performed as well as or better than the stem at low recall levels and definitely better at high recall levels. (Contains 30 references.) (KRN)

Reports on a study of citation retrieval performance using three Internet-accessible databases and a database composed of six Wilson databases. Variables examined included citation frequency, percentage of unique periodicals cited per search, and relevancy of citations to stated search topic. The implications of the data for database selection are…

Increasing emphasis on assessment and concern about assessment techniques have stirred interest in alternative assessment forms, for which evidence is needed about consequences, transfer of performance on specific assessment tests, and assessment fairness. Criteria concerning consequences, fairness, transfer-generalizability, cognitive complexity,…

Discusses the nature of job satisfaction, its relationship to performance, and associated organizational factors, such as commitment, in research libraries. Symptoms of job dissatisfaction are outlined, and a framework for improving job satisfaction provides suggestions in the areas of hiring, professional development, job design, empowerment, and…

Nineteen people (ages 11-21) with profound mental retardation and multiple handicaps were given visual stimulation in a blacklight environment. Results indicated that students performed better under conditions of blacklight than normal light for tracking and reaching, as the blacklight removed distracting stimuli and exaggerated critical features.…

A study applied the concept of market segmentation to student evaluation of college teaching, by assessing whether there exist several segments of students and how this relates to their evaluation of faculty. Subjects were 156 Australian undergraduate business administration students. Results suggest segments do exist, with different expectations…

A recent effort to bring the Total Quality Management approach into an upper-division economics course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is described, focusing on three major elements: (1) proficiency-based customer focus, (2) student involvement in team research projects, and (3) continuous improvement through ongoing student evaluation of…

A study used data from 548 classes on student evaluations of faculty at a state university to examine, from an equal opportunity perspective, the practice of using those evaluations for personnel decisions. Analysis of faculty gender and ethnic background as they related to teacher ratings suggests possible unfair discrimination warranting further…

The performance of 254 Israeli twelfth graders on multiple-choice tests with positive or negative item stems was studied. For items requiring low cognitive reasoning, performance does not differ, but, for items requiring high cognitive reasoning, the negative mode is more difficult. Implications for test construction are discussed. (SLD)

Uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) to reveal a detrimental contextual effect on 10th-grade mathematics and reading achievement associated with attending a school with a high concentration of children from single-parent homes. Maintains this effect is evident even when individual demographic characteristics and family…