Classroom context and climate are inherently classroom-level (L2) constructs, but applied researchers sometimes--inappropriately--represent them by student-level (L1) responses in single-level models rather than more appropriate multilevel models. Here we focus on important conceptual issues (distinctions between climate and contextual variables;…

The multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) paradigm is used widely to assess construct validity, but D. A. Kenny and D. A. Kashy (1992) lament that even after 30 years we still do not know how to analyze MTMM data. The Composite Direct Product (CDP) model has recently attracted considerable attention. Its strengths and weaknesses are evaluated, and a…

Within-class experimental designs (with experimental and control groups in the same classroom) are subject to diffusion effects whereby both experimental and control students benefit from the intervention, thereby contaminating the control group and biasing evaluations of intervention effects. In support of diffusion effects, this study shows that…

H. W. Marsh's monograph (1987) on students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness in higher education is summarized. The research, which emphasized the construct validity approach, led to the development of the Students' Evaluations of Educational Quality (SEEQ) instrument. Factor analysis resulted in identification of nine SEEQ factors--learning…

The purposes of this study are to examine the factorial invariance of responses by preadolescent males and females to a multidimensional self-concept instrument, and to demonstrate the use of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Sets of responses by 500 males and by 500 females were each randomly divided in half to form four groups (M1, M2, F1, and…

The purpose of the present investigation is to study the hierarchical structure of academic self-concept. The original Shavelson model posited specific facets of academic self-concept to define a single higher-order facet, but Marsh and Shavelson (1985) found the hierarchical structure to be more complicated. In a revised model they proposed that…

Critical reanalysis of a previous Australian study comparing the effects of single-sex mathematics and mixed-sex mathematics instruction on students in grades seven and eight suggests that the randomly assigned class-type intervention had relatively little effect on mathematics achievement or attitudes, and that at least some effects favored…