Discusses the construction of validation examinations used to certify that students claiming transfer credit for a required course possess the required level of competency. Covers test specifications, writing test items, pretesting items, and formatting considerations. (CH)

Addresses the assertion that the teaching of calculus using reform techniques puts students at a disadvantage when they must take subsequent math or science courses that are not instructed using the reform techniques. Answers the question of whether one method of instruction in calculus is better than another with regard to students' grades in…

Presents data from a survey of continuing education in all higher education institutions in Australia (58 of 76 responded). Organizes courses in 11 fields of study and gives information on duration and frequency of courses, prerequisites, clientele, location, fees, and enrollment. (SK)

A study of 326 undergraduate students who completed the business computer literacy requirement before the business communication course performed better. Another prerequisite, freshman composition, also affected business communication grades. (JOW)

H. Blanton and J. Jaccard examined the arbitrariness of metrics in the context of 2 current issues: (a) the measurement of racial prejudice and (b) the establishment of clinically significant change. According to Blanton and Jaccard, although research findings are not undermined by arbitrary metrics, individual scores and score changes may not be…

Three masked-prime naming experiments were conducted to examine the impact of morpheme boundaries on letter transposition confusability effects. In Experiment 1, the priming effects of primes containing letter transpositions within (sunhsine) and transpositions across (susnhine) the constituents of compound words were compared with correctly…

Cross-curriculum comparisons help open up new perspectives on old issues. The flight from physics by students is one such issue. Here a comparison is made with music education and language education. Where these comparisons provide useful insights they can also warn against knee-jerk panaceas. It is suggested we need to understand how and why…

The overall purpose of this study is to disclose plausible prerequisites for students' success in mathematics. The assumption is that a number of interactional conditions are important for students' achievement in mathematics. Certainly, there are individual differences with respect to intellectual qualifications. However, this study concentrates…

Adaptive chemical behavior is essential for an organism's function and survival, and it is no surprise that biological systems are capable of responding both rapidly and selectively to chemical changes in the environment. To elucidate an organism's biochemistry, its chemical reactions need to be characterized in ways that reflect the normal…

Economics is a building block for additional business knowledge. In most business curricula, the principles of economics sequence is a prerequisite for further business study. Economists have their own ideas of which economic concepts are most valued by business peers, but the authors are unaware of any published study which specifically asks…

Regression analysis of data from 144 students in business communication found that the freshman writing prerequisite improved course performance, whereas the computer literacy prerequisite did not. Those who completed a lower-level accounting course that was not required earned better grades in business communication. (SK)

Many students struggle with college mathematics topics due to a lack of mastery of prerequisite knowledge. Set theory language is one such prerequisite for linear algebra courses. Many students' mistakes on linear algebra questions reveal a lack of mastery of set theory knowledge. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative analysis of a…

The Sociology/Anthropology Articulation Committee has engaged in a project resulting in tandem reports for each of the respective disciplines, which identify flexible pre-majors for both Sociology and Anthropology and summarize the specific types of courses that must be taken by students to allow them to transfer into the third year of a major. A…

Universal screening is a critical prerequisite to providing early school-based prevention and intervention services for students at risk for or with academic, behavioral, or emotional difficulties. Although use of academic and behavioral screening has become more prevalent, criteria for making informed decisions about appropriate screening tools…

A study was conducted at Blinn College in Texas to investigate the performance of students enrolled in 20 selected fall 1993 courses and their subsequent performance in related courses in spring 1994. The study sought to provide an outcome measure for the courses that could be use in program review and development, student advisement, and student…