The "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education" generated by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL 2000) provides a plausible set of pedagogical goals to guide the construction and implementation of an undergraduate research methods course. We argue that the context of the undergraduate methods…

The e-rater® system has been used by ETS for automated essay scoring since 1999. This paper describes a new version of e-rater (v.2.0) that differs from the previous one (v.1.3) with regard to the feature set and model building approach. The paper describes the new version, compares the new and previous versions in terms of performance, and…

Schemes for assessing reading achievement with specific tests have been in use since early in this century. The two driving forces behind the testing movement--scientific objectivity and compulsory education--blossomed in the 1920s and 1930s and continued substantially unchanged through most of the 1960s. In the early 1970s, the idea of mastery…

Analysis of teacher trainee performance ratings collected from special education teacher trainees (N=151), university supervisors (N=9), and cooperating teachers (N=44) revealed that all three groups perceived identical factors--instructional management, cognitive strategies instruction, and career/vocational education--as underlying the construct…

A University of New Mexico medical school program to evaluate students having difficulty with noncognitive professional traits (responsibility, reliability, maturity, self-assessment, communication, honesty, integrity, respect for patients and peers) has identified 10 students with difficulties and provided interventions and remediation over a…

Explores the cumulative impact of repeated standardized testing on student attitudes and motivation. By high school, a large number of students, especially low achievers, become disillusioned about tests, are less motivated to give genuine efforts, and increasingly use inappropriate test-taking strategies, undermining test validity and genuine…

Identifies problems with the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) as a survey instrument for use with non-Western students. A study using ASI attempted to examine the effects of secondary educational experiences on Fiji college students' study habits. Responses suggested the students were influenced by an acquiescent response bias. (MJP)

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a new learning environments instrument designed to aid investigators and practitioners in measuring and researching the psychosocial learning environment in post-secondary distance education. Using a three-stage approach, the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES) was…

The physical education curriculum in the state of South Carolina is representative of a trend towards increasing instruction in health-related fitness concepts. In 1994 the South Carolina state legislature mandated that the required physical education course in high school include one semester of lifetime fitness and one semester of personal…

This article describes the revised Transdisciplinary Play Based Assessment, a dynamic assessment for children functioning developmentally between infancy and six years that involves the child in play situations, which provide opportunities to assess cognitive, social-emotional, communication and language, and sensorimotor development. Its…

Purpose: Research on dynamic risk assessment has developed over the last 10 years and a number of variables have emerged as being possible predictors of future sexual and violent offences. These variables include hostile attitude/anger and compliance with routine. In 2002, Thornton ("Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research & Treatment" 14, 139)…

A taxonomy of potential values conflicts in evaluations is presented. Basis is the distinction of types of conflict (aims vs. means conflicts; qualitative vs. quantitative conflicts). Six areas of values are discussed: the ethical, methodical, social and interactive, legal, economic, and personal values. The taxonomy of conflicts between these…