Investigates whether the vocabulary of written comprehension questions is an independent factor in determining students' reading comprehension performance. Finds that academic vocabulary in comprehension questions significantly decreased question-answering performance. Computes simple, multiple, and semipartial correlations between vocabulary…

Finds that New Zealand students sampled were significantly less willing to communicate and experienced greater communication apprehension than U.S. students. Finds significant negative correlations for United States students between communication apprehension and humor variables (liking of humor, sensitivity to humor, and coping humor), whereas…

The relationship of teacher participation in Quality Circles to teacher satisfaction was examined for 64 elementary school teachers participating in 9 Quality Circle decision-making groups. Participation in the Quality Circles did not meet subjects' needs for achievement, recognition, or growth; and it did not increase job satisfaction. (SLD)

Describes study of undergraduate students in the United States and in China that was conducted to compare their attitudes toward computers, specifically computer anxiety. Attitude measures are discussed, statistical procedures for examining the invariance of constructs obtained from measurement scales are explained, and results indicate similar…

Discusses a survey of 185 academic librarians in Oklahoma that was conducted to examine the relationships between institutional provision of release time and financial assistance and librarians' participation in various types of professional development activities. Results are reported that indicate a strong correlation between institutional…

Reports on the results of a study of nontraditional undergraduate students that was conducted to determine whether self-directedness in learner profile was a predictor of computer anxiety. Analysis based on the Oddi Continuing Learning Inventory and Oetting's Computer Anxiety Scale (COMPAS) indicates that self-directedness is a useful predictor.…

This study analyzes the interstate variation in the achievement gap among racial and social groups and the ways in which state policies contribute to the achievement gap. The primary data source is the National Assessment of Educational Progress Trial State Assessment. Influences of state policies are noted and discussed. (SLD)

Compares the performance of the Target and Freestyle commercial search engines. Discusses traditional performance measures such as precision and recall, analytic models of performance, document rankings, query difficulty and correlates with other performance characteristics, and future research needs. (LRW)

Describes a study that investigated the relationship between student self-beliefs and science achievement using data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and examined the generalizability of previous findings for students in a cross-cultural context. Results indicate self-beliefs were associated with higher science…

Focuses on Latina mothers' well-being and the effects of having a mentally retarded child. Results, based on 148 mothers with and 101 without children with mental retardation, show that the former exhibited significantly higher levels of depressive symptomatology relative to controls. Depression was predicted by low family cohesion and other…

Examines four common modalities (physical accessibility, cognitive accessibility, perceived quality, and perceived importance) underlying the complex citation practice by translation analysis. An analysis of Chinese literature in library and information science found a strong correlation between languages cited and languages translated. Highly…

Studied correlates of academic performance across mathematics, science, reading, and writing for 6,883 Canadian students in grade 6 in 148 schools (the New Brunswick School Climate Study). Results show that students were differentially successful in different subject areas, that schools were differentially successful in different subject areas,…

Empirical estimates of the power and Type I error rate of the test of the classrooms-within-treatments effect in the nested analysis of variance approach are provided for a variety of nominal alpha levels and a range of classroom effect sizes and research designs. (SLD)

Presents data from the development and testing of an instrument created to evaluate the oral health of nursing home residents by nursing personnel. Examination of 100 residents by dentists and 3 categories of trained nurses established statistically significant interrater reliability, suggesting that nursing staff can be taught to evaluate the…

Reports on the development of the Hebrew language translation of the Bath County Computer Attitude Scale among a sample of 339 undergraduate students in Israel. The data support the reliability and validity based on frequency, correlation, reliability, and factor routines analyzed with the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).…