Highlights the theoretical differences between the approaches of R. Likert (1932) and L. Thurstone (1928) to attitude measurement. Uses real and simulated data on attitudes toward abortion to illustrate that attitude researchers should pay more attention to the empirical-response characteristics of items on a Likert attitude questionnaire. (SLD)

It is commonly assumed that worry and anxiety are synonymous. However, there is growing evidence that anxiety and worry are separate, yet related, constructs (i.e., Davey, Hampton, Farrell, & Davidson, 1992; Davey, 1993; Gana, Martin, & Canouet, 2001 ). Worry, is generally defined as a stream of negative thoughts (Kelly & Miller,…

Dental students in third (n=35) and fifth years (n=50) at Adelaide and Trinity College Dental Schools were surveyed about their experiences of assessment and their perceptions of the importance of particular aspects of assessment. Students reported on their assessment experience within their programmes by describing a critical assessment incident…

Purpose: The purposes of this investigation were to examine the construct dimensionality and range of ability effectively measured by 28 assessment items obtained from 3 different patient-reported scales of communicative functioning, and to provide a demonstration of how the Rasch approach to measurement may contribute to the definition of latent…

Genetic engineering and biotechnology made possible of gene transfer without discriminating microorganism, plant, animal or human. However, although these scientific techniques have benefits, they cause arguments because of their ethical and social impacts. The arguments about ethical ad social impacts of biotechnology made clear that not only…

The study design investigated the leadership behavior of deans of education that addresses an important aspect of leadership--leadership is created when there is alignment between the organizational leadership behaviors needed by the institution and the leadership behaviors provided by the organizational leader. A survey of a selected group of…

An increasing number of students are choosing online education programs to complete their higher education. Research concludes that student satisfaction and retention are related to program completion. Furthermore, research indicates that physical distance alone does not influence student satisfaction and retention. In this study, we examined…

The purpose of this study was to explore how satisfied prospective science teachers are with their department (academic staff and administration) at different Faculties of Education in Turkey. For this purpose, Prospective Science Teachers Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSTSQ) was developed by considering related literature. PSTSQ consists of two…

Attitudes of members of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) towards treatment, release, and recidivism of sexual predators are assessed through an anonymous questionnaire. Fifty-two percent (540 members) responded. A large majority report little hope for cure (63%) and fear of recidivism after treatment (88%). No differences…

Many educators agree that pre-service teachers bring into their teacher education programs previously constructed ideas and beliefs about students, teaching, and learning. They contend that it may be difficult for students to change these constructs when participating in a teacher education program whose views of instruction are not congruent with…

One prominent issue in contemporary special education is that teaching techniques found by research to be effective in improving the educational outcomes of students with disabilities are not routinely implemented. One way to enhance teachers' use of research-based practices is to disseminate information on effective teaching techniques in ways…

Business students' perceptions concerning several academic advising resources are presented. Using a Likert scale, students evaluated resources such as their academic advisor, course instructors, staffs, friends, and parents as well as the university catalog and the Foundations of Business Administration (FBA) course. Selected demographic…

Student retention is an ongoing issue for most engineering programmes in the United States. Although engineering continues to be regarded as a promising profession, many students beginning in an engineering programme will not successfully complete their engineering studies. In an attempt to understand student perceptions of issues that relate to…

Multilinguals appear to become better at learning additional languages the more languages they know, and in particular, to be faster at learning grammar. This study investigates the use of grammar learning strategies in 144 participants who knew between 2 and 12 languages each, using a language background questionnaire, a set of 40 grammar…

The purpose of this study was to better understand the instructional and assessment strategies that are most effective in the online learning environment. Faculty and students identified several strategies for maintaining instructional quality in the online environment, including the importance of using a variety of instructional methods to appeal…