Piezoelectric actuators (or piezoactuators) are known for their nanoresolution and high-speed positioning capabilities. Therefore, they are used in scanning probe microscopes and in the design of innovative surgical tools and biomedical devices. The expected growth of engineering jobs in the nano- and bio-related fields, in which piezoactuators…

The psychometric properties of measures of self-efficacy for the six themes of Holland's theory were examined using item response theory. Item and scale quality were compared across levels of the trait continuum; all the scales were highly reliable but differentiated better at some levels of the continuum than others. Applications for adaptive…

Objective: Examine the validity of a self-report measure of eating competence with low-income women. Methods: Twenty-five females (18-49 years old) recruited from low-income venues in Pennsylvania completed cognitive testing through an iterative interview process. Respondents' oral responses were compared to researchers' intended meaning of…

The purposes of this article are threefold: (a) to test measurement invariance of the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale (OBCS), a central tool for testing objectification theory, across men and women, given that measurement invariance is a prerequisite for gender comparisons; (b) to examine the mediating role of body shame in the link between…

The research aims to articulate the experiences and opinions of Year 6 (Y6) teachers, primary headteachers and primary science coordinators as a contribution to the debate about the effect of statutory national testing in England and its abolition in Wales. A multi-faceted approach of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis was…

According to the strength model, self-control is a finite resource that determines capacity for effortful control over dominant responses and, once expended, leads to impaired self-control task performance, known as "ego depletion". A meta-analysis of 83 studies tested the effect of ego depletion on task performance and related outcomes,…

This study examined the potential for educational investments in Mexican immigrant mothers to enhance their management of their children's pathways through the educational system in the United States, which often disadvantages them. We tested this hypothesis with data on 816 Mexican immigrant women and their children from the Early Childhood…

Written essays are a common feature of classroom and high stakes standardized tests at many age levels. However, little is known about how small alterations in the writing task affect students' writing, an issue made more important by the increasing use of task alterations for students with disabilities. In the present study, 140 college students…

In this paper we present a method for adaptive selection of test questions according to the individual needs of students within a web-based educational system. It functions as a combination of three particular methods. The first method is based on the course structure and focuses on the selection of the most appropriate topic for learning. The…

This paper systematically reviews research on the effects of gluten-free and/or casein-free (GFCF) diets in the treatment of ASD. Database, hand, and ancestry searches identified 15 articles for review. Each study was analyzed and summarized in terms of (a) participants, (b) specifics of the intervention, (c) dependent variables, (d) results, and…

People use external knowledge representations (KRs) to identify, depict, transform, store, share, and archive information. Learning how to work with KRs is central to be-coming proficient in virtually every discipline. As such, KRs play central roles in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. We describe five key roles of KRs in assessment: (1)…

Recently, the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) has focused its attention on mandating specific ethics coursework within the 150-hr requirement for eligibility to sit for the uniform CPA examination. This push for ethics education heightened attention toward ethics in the accounting curriculum and is the basis for the…

In spontaneous speech, speakers sometimes replace a word they have just produced or started producing by another word. The present study reports that in these replacement repairs, low-frequency replaced words are more likely to be interrupted prior to completion than high-frequency words, providing support to the hypothesis that the production of…

This paper investigates the role questioning occupies in an oral examination as it relates to King and Kitchener's theory of critical, reflective thinking. Pre-service teachers' experience of sitting an oral examination and professors' reflections on conducting the assessment in a small liberal arts university are considered. Findings from this…

This article investigates how measurement models and statistical procedures can be applied to estimate the accuracy of proficiency classification in language testing. The paper starts with a concise introduction of four measurement models: the classical test theory (CTT) model, the dichotomous item response theory (IRT) model, the testlet response…