Item response theory (IRT) is used to develop a form of adjusted cumulative grade point average (GPA) for use in predicting college academic performance appropriately for males and females. For 1,564 students at Stanford University (California), the IRT-based GPA was more predictable from preadmission measures than the cumulative GPA. (SLD)

Examines the social organization of the university, faculty organization, class and education, and race and ethnicity in the context of an expanded canon. (SM)

Researchers examined the effect of contextual variety on practice, retention, and transfer of the long and short badminton service in a college physical education class. Results indicated a practice schedule requiring students to change the plan of action from trial to trial facilitated retention and transfer of motor skills. (SM)

This article discusses how alternative assessment strategies can tap into learners' espoused theories of action and ways in which educational platforms and portfolios become strategies for revealing learners' theories. The leadership preparation program of the University of Northern Colorado (Greeley) shows use of platforms and portfolios in a…

This paper illustrates how, in the item-response theory framework, collateral information about test items can augment or replace examinee responses when linking or equating new tests to established scales, using data from the Pre-Professional Skills Test for approximately 40,000 examinees. Collateral information can predict item operating…

Attributional retraining, the restructuring of an individual's explanations for events in his environment, is proposed as one method of enhancing college student motivation and achievement, particularly for high-risk students. Drawing on previous research and theory, the most promising strategies for using attributional retraining with this…

A study used theory elaboration to help revise Tinto's interactionalist theory of individual student departure from college to include the effects of organizational attributes on student withdrawal. Results provide strong support for including concepts from organizational theory and suggest future research should use theory elaboration to look for…

Explores the prediction of the referential theory, which maintains that the relative complexity of discourse representations plays a key role in determining the perceiver's immediate parsing preferences. Results indicate that semantic/referential principles are applied immediately in an online ambiguity resolution and preempt general world…

Reports Chinese university students views on appropriateness and effectiveness of communicative and non-communicative activities in English-as-a-Foreign-Language courses. Results reveal students' perceptions sometimes surprised their teachers, and students' perceived difficulties caused by communicative language teaching had their source in…

Discusses the focus of this special issue on college student retention and describes the issue's articles, which advance recommendations for institutional action that emanate from theory and research rooted in several different theoretical orientations: organizational, sociological, and psychological. (EV)

This chapter summarizes theoretical perspectives and research findings on developmental education, and emphasizes the importance of considering students' voices and experiences in determining how best to facilitate growth and development in college.

Oral retellings are strongly recommended as a way to measure reading comprehension for second language learners (Bernhardt, 1985, 1990, 1991). However, the reliability of such ratings is a matter of concern for a variety of reasons (Aiken, 1996; Cooper, 1981; Saal, Downey, & Lahey, 1980). The purpose of this study was to establish reliable rating…

This paper examines part of a set of students who were followed during their first-term, first-year studies in formal definition-based real analysis at a British university. It explores the approaches to problems about convergence of sequences and series made by students who have a tendency to include visual imagery in their reasoning. We explore…

Objectification theory proposes that the objectification of women's bodies causes women to self-objectify, adopting an outsider's view of themselves. Engaging in a high amount of self-objectification is thought to place women at increased risk for mental health problems such as body dissatisfaction and depression. It was hypothesized that…

This article discusses how the critical examination of "culture as difference" and "culture as hierarchy" is often lacking in the Spanish language classroom. As such, the author suggests that the current challenge in the Spanish language classroom is to identify techniques to enhance not only students' language proficiency but also their cultural…