According to many documents, there is a strong need to renew science education. One way could be to work with SSI (socio-scientific issues). This paper reports on both students' and teachers' experiences and learning when working with socio-scientific issues in science education in secondary school (aged from 13 to 16). The approach is…

Research investigating affective dimensions in reading has long been plagued by vaguely defined constructs and, consequently, by an array of potentially problematic instruments designed to measure them. This mixed-methods study investigated the relationship among three popular group-administered instruments intended to tap affective constructs in…

Purpose: Transitions in caregiving, such as becoming a primary caregiver to grandchildren or having adult children and grandchildren move in or out, may affect the well-being of the grandmother. Design and Methods: This report describes caregiving patterns at 3 time points over 24 months in a sample of 485 Ohio grandmothers and examines the…

Continuous exponential families are applied to linking forms via a single-group design. In this application, a distribution from the continuous bivariate exponential family is used that has selected moments that match those of the bivariate distribution of scores on the forms to be linked. The selected continuous bivariate distribution then yields…

Multidimensional item response models can be based on multivariate normal ability distributions or on multivariate polytomous ability distributions. For the case of simple structure in which each item corresponds to a unique dimension of the ability vector, some applications of the two-parameter logistic model to empirical data are employed to…

Compared to traditional classification methods, developing a peer group using the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Systems (IPEDS) data allows institutions to add comparative dimensions, to update the peer group, and to track changes at peer institutions over time. Peer selection and…

Test security has been a concern for computerized adaptive tests (CAT) due to the nature of continuous testing. This concern becomes unprecedentedly severe with increasingly easy access to the World-Wide-Web where some examinees post on the internet their recollections of items they are administered, leaving future examinees with opportunities to…

This study empirically evaluated a classification schema based on symbolic communication level use with students with significant cognitive disabilities. Ninety-five teachers of students with significant disabilities rated students' level of performance on 10 academic tasks. Cluster analysis suggested a range of two to four clusters solutions.…

Farmers' attitudes, to agricultural production, diversification and policy support, and behavioural intentions in five Member States of the EU (France, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, England) are analysed comparatively. Groups of farmers with similarly held attitudes are identified using cluster analysis to investigate whether differences in…

This article proposes and applies a simple method to measure the distance from a situation of uniform participation. First, a discrepancy index based on the use of generalized Lorenz curves is presented. This index can be expressed in terms of means and Gini indices of relevant characteristics in the populations of participants and that of a…

Objective: The authors explored the relationship between self-reported vigorous exercise frequency and alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use behaviors among first-year college students who self-identified as drinkers. Participants: The authors recruited 391 freshman college students in Northeast Florida to participate in an alcohol abuse…

In this survey of early Norwegian school adolescents, the prevalence, course, and incidence of self-harm behavior with or without suicide intent were examined, in addition to predictors of self-harm for a 1-year follow-up period. Lifetime prevalence rates of self-harm without suicide intent and suicide attempts were 2.9% and 3.0%, respectively,…

Objective: To examine correlates of perceived access to cigarettes at home, school, and the store among youth. Methods: Virginia middle school youth were surveyed before beginning tobacco prevention programs. Multivariate analyses examined household smoking, peer smoking, and perceived community tobacco use for their relationship to perceived…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of TRALE (Technology-Rich Authentic Learning Environments) on children's writing development by tracing the logical sequence of how TRALE fostered goal-directed behavior and planning that resulted in initiating and maintaining cognitive components until a written product was completed. The…

Language anxiety is a prevalent phenomenon in second language learning. This experiment examines the arousal of anxiety caused by the introduction of a video camera at various points in a vocabulary learning task. Two hundred sixteen students of 1st-year university English language course were randomly assigned to one of four groups: (a) one group…