Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine factors influencing the engagement of public school teachers in informal learning activities. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a survey research design. Findings: Analysis of the data found that teachers rely to a greater degree on interactive than on independent informal learning…

The Hong Kong Classroom Environment Scale (HKCES) is a new instrument designed to assess upper primary and junior secondary school students' perceptions of actual and preferred classroom environment. The development of the scale involved 2 stages of study. In the 1st stage of study, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses clearly identified 4…

This report describes the development of the Primary Teacher Questionnaire (PTQ), a self-report teacher beliefs scale based on the position statement on developmentally appropriate practice in the primary grades published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The development of the PTQ was conducted in three…

The Career Interest Inventory is a paper-and-pencil, self-report career guidance instrument that is designed to assist students in grades 7 through 12 and adults with career decisions. It can be administered to individuals or groups and alone or in combination with the Differential Aptitude Test. It is available in machine-scored and hand-scorable…

This report documents the development and validation of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) cognitive test battery. The cognitive test battery assesses growth between grades 8 and 12 in the content areas of reading comprehension, mathematics, science, and history/citizenship/geography. The battery was part of the NELS:88…

The Department of Defense is developing norms for its Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and the newly created Interest Finder, a vocational interest inventory. The normative effort, called the 1997 Profile of American Youth (PAY97), will be undertaken as part of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of…

The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) has been designed to test developed verbal and mathematics reasoning abilities of college-bound students, primarily high school juniors and seniors. For almost a decade there has been a research and development process to evaluate and change the entire SAT program. These changes were implemented in the SAT I:…

This paper traces developments in educational psychology and measurement that led to the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) and the application of educational measurement terms such as validity and reliability to testing. Use of a table of specifications for planning…

This paper discusses the construction of language tests, particularly for English as a Second Language (ESL), that focus on language use in real situations. Linguistic theories that provide background for language test construction are reviewed, and application of those theories to ESL instruction in Japan is examined, with attention to the…

The Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:93) tracks the experiences of a cohort of recent college graduates, those who received the baccalaureate degree during the 1992-93 academic year and were first interviewed as part of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. The experiences of this group in the areas of academic…

This report describes a 48-month project which developed, field tested, and evaluated the utility of the Vocational Assessment Protocol (VAP) for use with persons with traumatic brain injury resulting in a severe and persistent disability. The VAP is intended to assist in the community-based vocational rehabilitation of these individuals. The VAP…

This book for college faculty provides a resource for developing, using, and grading classroom exams. The first chapter addresses ways to determine what content should be included on an exam. The second chapter identifies testing considerations such as number of exams, difficulty level of items, and test length. Chapters 3 and 4 provide guidelines…

Patterns of assistance in parent-child dyads were examined by developing measures that could be used to explore the nature of assistance and learner action sequences. A microgenetic approach was adopted in a teaching experiment that may be regarded as a variation of the double stimulation method of L. S. Vygotsky. A second goal was to explore the…

This book is a guide to the development and use of performance tasks and rubrics in the middle school mathematics classroom. It contains a rationale for, and a discussion of strengths and limitations of, performance tasks to assess student achievement and progress in mathematics. A field-tested process is offered for developing performance tasks…

This individualized learning package on test item construction as a component of evaluation is designed for the undergraduate student in teacher education programs. The hierarchy of learning levels on which the package rests is that of B. Bloom's (1956) taxonomy of learning. The premises are that higher order learning is significant and desirable…