Background: Interpersonal staff behaviour is one of the instigating factors associated with challenging behaviour in clients with intellectual disabilities (ID). There are several studies focusing on the influence of intrapersonal staff characteristics--such as beliefs, attributions and emotional reactions--on staff behaviour. Little is known,…

How do the best administrators find out how to improve their schools? They actively engage the people who work and study there. In "From Questions to Actions: Using Questionnaire Data for Continuous School Improvement," data experts Victoria L. Bernhardt and Bradley J. Geise explain how to collect and analyze data with an eye toward positive…

Holland's theory of six work personalities has become a staple of vocational psychology, providing a robust and simple model for understanding the structure of vocational interests. Though Holland's types provide a common vocabulary for vocational psychologists working with a variety of populations, until this point there has not been a measure of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on the rationale behind the use of a unique paper-based individualised accounting assignment, which automated the provision to students of immediate formative and timely summative feedback. Design/methodology/approach: As students worked towards completing their assignment, the package provided…

Lexical competence is considered to be an essential step in the development and consolidation of a student's linguistic ability, and thus the reliable assessment of such competence turns out to be a fundamental aspect in this process. The design and construction of vocabulary tests has become an area of special interest, as it may provide teachers…

We propose an extension of the Teaching Machine project, called Quiz Generator, that allows instructors to produce assessment quizzes in the field of algorithm and data structures quite easily. This extension makes use of visualization techniques and is based on new features of the Teaching Machine that allow third-party visualizers to be added as…

The authors report the development of an assessment process for distinguishing between higher and lower risk youth offenders through the use of 3 measures. Preliminary results and applications for practice are included. (Contains 2 tables.)

Self-efficacy is an important cognitive predictor of substance abuse treatment outcome. Although measures of coping self-efficacy are related to substance use relapse in adults, their properties are not well-known in adolescent populations. The present study examined 223 adolescents while in treatment for substance abuse and comorbid psychiatric…

This study reports on the development and evaluation of a rating tool to assess the scientific utility and cultural appropriateness of community-level indicators for application with Indigenous populations. Indicator criteria proposed by the U.S. Institute of Medicine were culturally adapted through reviewing the literature and consultations with…

Assessments labeled as formative have been offered as a means to improve student achievement. But labels can be a powerful way to miscommunicate. For an assessment use to be appropriately labeled "formative," both empirical evidence and reasoned arguments must be offered to support the claim that improvements in student achievement can be linked…

This study investigated the benefits of creating item "testlets" or "parcels" in the context of structural equation modeling confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Testlets are defined as groups of items related to a single content area that is developed as a unit. The strategy is illustrated using data from the administration of…

This study investigates the population sensitivity of the commonly used linear equating methods in the Non-Equivalent-groups with an Anchor Test (NEAT) design: the Tucker, the Levine observed-score, and the chain linear methods. For a detailed analysis of the subject, we apply three distinctive approaches to a real data set from a NEAT design: a)…

Money has significant impacts on people's motivation and their work-related behavior in organizations. This study was conducted to develop the Money Ethic Scale (MES) and to examine the initial nomological network of the scale. A 25-page questionnaire on attitudes toward money was distributed to 1,200 subjects, including students and faculty of a…

Described is the use of filmed sequences in conjunction with multiple choice tests to extend the range of behaviors that can be assessed. The research was completed with students aged 13-14 who had studied Nuffield 0-Level chemistry. (RH)