This paper discusses some means by which one might answer the question of "What makes problem solving hard?" In order to facilitate the investigations required to answer this question, a model of problem solving is needed. From some simulated solutions to a physics problem, several problem solving processes used by students are…

Since Upshur's (1969) original paper describing a picture-description test of oral communication ability, four empirical studies have been completed in which variants of the tests have been used. From these studies considerable new information on the tests' reliability and validity has become available. Indications are that the reliability is…

A Children's Health Locus of Control Scale (CHLOCS), consisting of 20 items with three subscales (powerful others, internal control, chance control) was developed previously by Parcel and Myer to facilitate measurement of the Internal-External Construct relative to children's health behavior. The present study used two samples of children in…

The Personal Profile System (PPS) is a self-referent device to measure behavioral responses of individuals on the dimensions of dominance, inducement of others, steadiness, and compliance. The PPS booklet contains: (1) a measurement device which generates scores for each dimension, (2) graphs for plotting obtained scores, (3) directions for…

This report investigates an area of uncertainty in using the Angoff method for setting standards, namely whether or not a judge's conceptualizations of borderline group performance are realistic. Ratings are usually made with reference to the performance of this hypothetical group, therefore the Angoff method's success is dependent on this point.…

An extensive search of the literature and existing programs was undertaken to identify instruments that were being used to measure school effectiveness. Twenty-four instruments are currently available and are critiqued in this publication. Each critique reports the format and components of the instrument, its intended purpose and uses, reliability…

To provide an assessment of current instruments being used by communication scholars, investigators examined and identified the most frequently used instruments that had been published in the past five years in the nine major speech communication journals. Each article was examined for the identification of the instruments used, constructs…

Three features of High School and Beyond (HS&B) provide rare opportunities for examining the quality of the responses of high school students to group-administered questionnaires: (1) many identical or similar items also were asked in questionnaires completed by about 6,500 of the students' parents; (2) high school transcripts containing…

Criterion-referenced evaluation (CRE) describes achievement in performance terms, whereas norm-referenced evaluation (NRE) compares the performance of one individual to that of others with respect to a given evaluation instrument. Vocational educators who base their programs on behaviorism commonly evaluate student performance from a CRE…

A total of 60 kindergarten and first- and second-grade girls were presented with three tasks: concept-shift, sort, and hierarchization. Without exception, children who failed a task also failed the higher-order task(s), and children who passed a task also passed the lower-order task(s). Implications in relation to Piaget's theory of development of…

Two questions were investigated: (1) would rewording items on a questionnaire for evaluating faculty teaching effectiveness substantially affect students' ratings? and (2) would students' ratings of professors' teaching quality be totally consistent with their ratings of benefits derived from courses? (Author/RC)

Presents the results of a study to determine whether an abbreviated edition of the Miller-Fisk questionnaire could be developed that would retain the range of content and statistical reliability of the original. (RB)

The traditional reliability coefficient and standard error of measurement are not adequate measures of reliability for tests used to make pass/fail decisions. Answering the important reliability questions requires estimation of the joint distribution of true and observed scores. Lord's "Method 20" estimates this distribution without the…

The validity and dependability of functional competency tests for adults are examined as they relate to the information needs of instructional decision makers. Test data from the Adult Performance Level (APL) Program (funded by the U.S. Office of Education at the University of Texas at Austin) is used to illustrate key points. In the discussion of…