In this clinical study on helping students prepare for an exam, we compared three different treatments. All students were asked to take a practice exam. One group was then given worked-out solutions for that exam, another group was given the solutions and targeted exercises to do as homework based on the result of their practice exam, and the…

Instructional labs are widely seen as a unique, albeit expensive, way to teach scientific content. We measured the effectiveness of introductory lab courses at achieving this educational goal across nine different lab courses at three very different institutions. These institutions and courses encompassed a broad range of student populations and…

Students' performances in introductory programming courses show large variation across students. There may be many reasons for these variations, such as methods of teaching, teacher competence in the subject, students' coding backgrounds and abilities, students' self-discipline, the teaching environment, and the resources available to students,…

The Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) laboratory instruction approach has been used successfully over a decade to engage students in laboratory activities. SWH-based instruction emphasizes knowledge construction through individual writing and reflection, and collaborative learning as a group. In the SWH approach, writing is a core component of…

Linear programming (LP) is taught in different departments across college campuses with engineering and management curricula. Modeling an LP problem is taught in every linear programming class. As faculty teaching in Engineering and Management departments, the depth to which teachers should expect students to master this particular type of…

The literature indicates that there is a lack of learning outcomes in economics that can be attributed to the reliance on traditional lecture and the failure to adopt innovative instructional techniques. This study sought to investigate the student learning effects of academic controversy, a cooperative learning technique that shows promise in the…

Cooperative learning has many pedagogical benefits. However, if the cooperative learning teams become ineffective, these benefits are lost. Accordingly, this study developed a computer-aided assessment method for identifying ineffective teams at their early stage of dysfunction by using the Mahalanobis distance metric to examine the difference…

The newly developed computerized Constructive Multiple-choice Testing system is introduced. The system combines short answer (SA) and multiple-choice (MC) formats by asking examinees to respond to the same question twice, first in the SA format, and then in the MC format. This manipulation was employed to collect information about the two…

Compared the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the WAIS-Revised (WAIS-R) in a sample of college students (N=70). A highly significant test order interaction was found. The WAIS-R will result in significantly higher ability estimates when administered following the WAIS than the WAIS will when following the WAIS-R. (JAC)

After an extensive review of relevant research, this paper describes a study concerning the relationship between the American College Test (ACT) and the Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST). Specifically, the study assessed the extent to which ACT scores predict PPST scores. Subjects included 169 Harding University students (42 males and 127…

Compared the test scores of high and low anxious subjects when the Wechsler Adult Intelligence scale was administered by a trained examiner or mechanically. Findings indicated that performance was influenced by test administration procedures. There was a trend to score higher on the test given by an examiner. (Author/JAC)

Compared Hispanic students' (N=51) self-ratings of personality with less direct assessment by the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. Results showed that Hispanic students could rate themselves accurately on 50 percent of the factors when given only the names of the dimensions, suggesting differential patterning for perceived versus measured…

The use of the "none-of-the-above" option (NOTA) in 20 college-level multiple-choice tests was evaluated for classes with 100 or more students. Eight academic disciplines were represented, and 295 NOTA and 724 regular test items were used. It appears that the NOTA can be compatible with good classroom measurement. (TJH)

The frequency of multiple testing on the Proficiency Examination Program (PEP) multiple-choice tests, the characteristics of examinees who retest, and the effects of retesting on test scores were examined. Tests in the PEP program cover a broad range of academic disciplines and generally include material covered in one or two semesters of an…

Results for 78 college students who took a pretest on basketball knowledge, read a passage on basketball, and took an immediate or delayed posttest indicate that pretest scores are significantly related to immediate posttest scores, whereas delayed posttest scores are related to Scholastic Aptitude Test verbal scores. (SLD)