Three techniques for determining a straight line fit to data are compared. The methods are applied to a range of datasets containing one or more outliers, and to a specific example from the field of chemistry. For the method which is the most resistant to the presence of outliers, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, as well as two Matlab routines, are…

The qualitative action-project method is described as an appropriate and heuristic qualitative research method for use in counseling psychology. Action theory, which addresses human intentional, goal-directed action, project, and career, provides the conceptual framework for the method. Data gathering and analysis involve multiple procedures to…

Sources of population heterogeneity may or may not be observed. If the sources of heterogeneity are observed (e.g., gender), the sample can be split into groups and the data analyzed with methods for multiple groups. If the sources of population heterogeneity are unobserved, the data can be analyzed with latent class models. Factor mixture models…

A sample of 134 sixth-grade students who were using the Connected Mathematics curriculum were administered an open-ended item entitled, Vet Club (Balanced Assessment, 2000). This paper explores the role of misconceptions and naive conceptions in the acquisition of statistical thinking for middle grades students. Students exhibited misconceptions…

Attachment Q-Sort (AQS) is a tool for quantifying observations about toddler/caregiver relationships. Previous studies have applied factor analysis to the full 90 AQS item set to explore the structure underlying them. Here we explore that structure by applying multidimensional scaling (MDS) to judgements of inter-item similarity. AQS items are…

This chapter explores the characteristics and features of remedial education at community colleges, examines participation in these courses, and reviews findings on the effects of remediation on student decisions and outcomes. (Contains 2 tables.)

In the high school experiment reported in this paper, spiders were provided with 40% ethanol (ETOH) in order to determine the effects of alcohol on the web-spinning ability of orb weaver spiders. It was hypothesized that alcohol would have a deleterious effect on the number of radii, number of cells, and area of cells in the webs of orb weaving…

Synthesis can take many forms at the high school level and from a Big6 perspective. Synthesis means purposeful, valuable and interesting assignments. It is very important for a classroom teacher to recognize that students can synthesize information several times during a project and that there are many different ways to present information.

Although arguments in scholarly journals claim that leadership is critical in initiating and sustaining school improvement, ambiguity surrounds the sources and role of leadership. In addition, little research documents how educators involved in school improvement perceive who leads, how, why, and for what purposes leadership is important. This…

This article offers different examples of how to fit latent growth curve (LGC) models to longitudinal data using a variety of different software programs (i.e., LISREL, Mx, Mplus, AMOS, SAS). The article shows how the same model can be fitted using both structural equation modeling and multilevel software, with nearly identical results, even in…

A shared document-based annotation tool was presented, and its usefulness in two different real-life web-based university-level courses (adult learners, n = 27 and adolescent learners, n = 23) was empirically investigated. The study design embodied three data collection phases: (1) a pretest measuring self-rated motivation, learning strategies,…

The most important things learned about violence and trauma in the past 20 years are that interpersonal violence is prevalent, with different forms co-occurring, and that victims' reactions are complex. Researchers are called to consider models that include the ecological context within which victims experience violence and trauma to gain a better…

This paper takes a critically reflective look at field research done in the early career of an academic and in so doing uncovers the dilemmas of a novice researcher that are rarely acknowledged in texts that address qualitative methods. It addresses issues of power in research associations surrounding different paradigms and the ways in which the…

This study used the team climate inventory (TCI) to create awareness of the multidimensional nature of team climate, to diagnose the climate of teams, and to present specific actions to improve team climate. Management undergraduates from 81, four-person teams completed the TCI and an open-ended question at week 3 and week 12 of their team…

This paper presents data and empirical models to explain the causes of the decline in the enrollment of economics majors during the 1991-1992 to 1995-1996 academic years. It first discusses the theoretical bases for a qualitative analysis of this type. It then discusses a sample survey methodology used to obtain cross-sectional information from…