This exploratory study applied a proposed force and motion learning progression (LP) to high-school and university students and to content involving both one- and two-dimensional force and motion situations. The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) was adapted, based on a previous content analysis and coding of the questions in the FCI in terms of the…

Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to develop an instrument that has scores that are valid and reliable for measuring students' attitudes toward fitness testing. Method: The method involved the following steps: (a) an elicitation study, (b) item development, (c) a pilot study, and (d) a validation study. The pilot study included 427…

The Department of Education is moving to change accountability for teacher preparation institutions to include surveys of the graduates and their supervising principal following paid employment. This study describes one of a number of quantitative studies that examine the validity and usefulness of such follow-up surveys. Using multiple years of…

Contemporary research into science education has generally been conducted from the perspective of "conceptual change" in learning. This study sought to extend previous work by recognizing that human rationality can be influenced by the emotions generated by the learning environment and specific actions related to learning. Methods used…

The purpose of this demonstration was to evaluate a universal intervention during teacher-identified routines that were characterized by significant classwide problem behavior. Six Head Start classrooms (seven groups of children, with one classroom divided into two groups) received two workshops and two coaching sessions on universal Positive…

The identification of children at-risk for reading problems can be costly and time-consuming. Previous research has indicated that teachers are relatively accurate in assessing children's overall reading ability. This study investigated the accuracy of kindergarten and first grade teacher rating scales in predicting children's reading…

Writing assessments have attended to the mechanics of writing, reflecting a value on the teaching of writing conventions. One quality of writing rarely assessed is authorial voice, a personal style that communicates the author's stance toward events reported and the author's relationship to the audience. The authors explore associations among…

The present study investigates differentiation in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) in Finland and addresses the issue of how to support the pupils with special needs in it. Specifically, this combination of a qualitative case study and quantitative survey examines (1) primary teachers' perceptions of differentiation, (2) the…

The Community of Inquiry model provides a framework for recognizing and evaluating interpersonal behaviors in online educational settings. One of its three components, teaching presence, describes behaviors that are under the auspices of the online instructor. By examining behaviors through the theoretical lens provided by teaching presence, and…

This study investigated whether college students' self-efficacy, level of learning strategy use, academic burnout, and school support predict course satisfaction and learning persistence. To this end, self-efficacy, level of learning strategy use, academic burnout, and school support were used as prediction variables, and course satisfaction and…

The purpose of this national, quantitative study was to (1) provide psychometrics for the ACUHO-I/EBI RA Survey, a joint project between between Educational Benchmarking, Inc (EBI) and The Association of College and University Housing Officers--International (ACUHO-I), and (2) explore the sophomore resident assistant (RA) experience. This study…

Using reliable and valid measures of students' outcomes which are sensitive to change is critical for obtaining interpretable and therefore useful results from evaluations of school-based interventions. While measurement development for use in experimental evaluations receives a great deal of attention in the U.S., it lags behind in low-income…

Clinical judgment, defined as "the application of the nurse's knowledge and experience in making decisions about client care" (The National Council of State Boards of Nursing, 2005, p. 2), has been recognized as a vital and essential skill for healthcare providers when caring for clients. Undisputedly, nurses represent the largest…

In social science research, the Likert method is commonly used as a psychometric scale to measure responses. This measurement scale has a procedure that facilitates survey construction and administration, and data coding and analysis. However, there are some problems with Likert scaling. This dissertation addresses the information distortion and…

Children who are identified as visually impaired frequently have a functional vision assessment as one way to determine how their visual impairment affects their educational performance. The CVI Range is a functional vision assessment for children with cortical visual impairment. The purpose of the study presented here was to examine the…