The effects of providing immediate knowledge of results (KR) and adaptive testing on test anxiety and test-taking motivation were investigated. Also studied was the accuracy of student perceptions of the difficulty of adaptive and conventional tests administered with or without immediate knowledge of results. Testees were 350 college students…

Discusses findings from an empirical investigation of the effects of bilingualism (Spanish-English) on the creativity of language minority children in terms of the cognitive processes of divergent and convergent thinking, and the linguistic process of metaphorizing in the context of formulating scientific hypotheses. (Author/CB)

Two types of computer-administered unit quizzes in a systematic pathology course for second-year medical students were compared. Quizzes composed of questions selected on the basis of a student's ability had higher correlations with the final examination than did quizzes composed of questions randomly selected from topic areas. (Author/JAZ)

When kindergarten, second grade, fourth grade, and college students listened to stories and were asked to predict and explain the story character's behavioral or emotional reaction to a new event, the use of personality attributions to predict and explain future reactions increased with age. (RH)

Children develop emotional intelligence during the early years of life, and according to some experts, emotional intelligence is a more reliable predictor of academic achievement than is IQ. However, today's children appear to be low on emotional well-being. This has potentially negative consequences, not only for academic achievement but also for…

Twenty studies of the effects of teacher questions on student achievement were reviewed. Internal validity of experiments and integrity of treatments were less adequate than population and ecological validity. Whether teachers used predominantly higher cognitive or predominantly fact questions was found to make little difference in achievement.…

Ninth-graders read a passage for a test to be taken the next day, anticipating a recall test, a multiple-choice test, and a retention test. Half received either a recall or a recognition test regardless of prior instructions. Subjects did better on the recognition tests in all conditions. (Author/RD)

Describes a program in which intermediate students of French as a second language wrote and illustrated short stories to be used as reading materials by beginning and other intermediate students. The activity provided both purposeful, satisfying writing experience and a substantial collection of texts, including children's stories, fables,…

Context analysis of 10 adolescent novels revealed that the primary female characters of pre-1971 novels attempted only low-level tasks which involved self-concern and peer relationships. The primary female characters in post-1980 novels attempted tasks of practical and abstract skills that involved planning for the future. (BB)

Sixty hearing-impaired students, aged 12-22, studied one of four instructional formats describing basic science concepts. Comprehension gains were measured using a pretest-posttest procedure. Formats which featured highly pictorial content and simplified English produced significantly higher mean gain scores than formats with less pictorial…

An analysis of questionnaires completed by 94 partially sighted children and their parents attempted to identify the visual environmental adaptation problems (VEAPs) of children in regular classrooms. Significant VEAPs were found in classroom tasks, in tasks that required the resolution of fine detail, and in some mobility tasks. (Author/DB)

A method for analyzing test-item responses is proposed to examine differential item functioning (DIF) in multiple-choice items within the latent class framework. Different models for detection of DIF are formulated, defining the subgroup as a latent variable. An efficient estimation method is described and illustrated. (SLD)

Perceptions of U.S. (n=870), Chinese (n=709), and Japanese (n=713) mothers about their children's problems with first and fifth grade mathematics were examined in two studies. Results suggest that U.S. mothers evaluated their children's skills less critically and had lower mathematics achievement standards than did Asians. (SLD)

French news broadcasts by Satellite Communications for Learning (SCOLA) may prove overwhelmingly difficult for typical intermediate-level students because it is written discourse in an audiovisual medium. However, thoughtful selection of material and careful preparation of related exercises can make SCOLA features rewarding even for students with…

Whether there is a gender-by-item interaction that makes easy mathematics test items easier for females than for males and difficult items harder for females than for males was tested in two studies, involving 10,321 eighth graders and 5332 ninth graders and results from nine mathematics tests. The hypothesis was generally supported, as discussed.…