The construct validity of children's responses to the Self Description Questionnaire, the Perceived Competence Scale for Children, and the Multidimensional Measure of Children's Perceptions of Control was assessed. The tests' authors emphasized the importance of distinguishing self-perceptions in the physical, social, academic, and general content…

Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), school districts are required to meet the educational needs of all students with disabilities. However, school districts struggle to provide adequate services to students with disabilities who have extraordinary needs and require unusually high expenditures to meet those…

A study evaluated the overall evaluative validity of the Four Skills Exam, a Spanish language proficiency test designed to ensure that bilingual education teachers in New Mexico can meet Spanish language demands in the bilingual education classroom. The test's construct validity was limited for several reasons. In designing a test capturing…

The cognitive processes students use in doing the 1996 science assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were studied using two booklets from the 1993 NAEP science field test. Blocks of items from these booklets, a hands-on task block and either a conceptual/problem solving block or a theme block, were administered to 16…

This publications presents 20 papers from a conference on innovations in teaching psychology at the college level along with a conference program that lists and describes all presentations. The papers are "They Can't Learn When They Don't Know How: Teaching Statistics Using a Learning to Learn Model" (Beverly Rolker-Dolinsky and Donna Qualters);…

Results of a study designed to explore the construct validity of the Change Facilitator Style Questionnaire (CFSQ) as a measure of the aspect of a principal's leadership style that includes leader behavior and combinations of behavior influenced by such things as belief systems, and knowledge and attitudes about leadership. The sample consisted of…

The construct validity of a multidimensional adolescent self-concept was estimated separately for males and females, and the results were compared across gender. The application of four multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) approaches to estimating construct validity was demonstrated, and the scope and consistency of the findings derived from each were…

As a measure of musical aptitude, a new 90-item Pitch Discrimination Test was developed, and its internal structure was examined. Each of the three sections of the test measures an individual's aptitude for pitch discrimination in a different frequency range using square-wave tones generated by a personal computer. A total of 1,303 examinees,…

The construct validities of the Self Description Questionnaire I, the Perceived Social Competence Scale, and the Multidimensional Measure of Children's Perceptions of Control were assessed, using 508 seventh through ninth graders in Sydney (Australia). Factor analysis, multitrait-multimethod analyses, and patterns of correlations with additional…

Background: The aim of this investigation was to examine the construct validity and distinctiveness of the inattentive type (IT) and combined type (CT) of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in a Latino/Hispanic sample. Method: A comprehensive assessment was conducted with a clinically diagnosed school-based sample of 98 children aged…

The importance of genetic factors in autism has prompted the development of mutant mouse models to advance our understanding of biological mechanisms underlying autistic behaviors. Mouse models of human neuropsychiatric diseases are designed to optimize (1) face validity, i.e., resemblance to the human symptoms; (2) construct validity, i.e.,…

Lifelong learning has become an important goal of education over the last decade. According to the United States Department of Education (2001), nearly 3 million students over age 17 (excluding those institutionalized) enrolled in adult basic education, adult secondary education, or English as a second language classes in the United States.…

The revised standards used by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) embody several departures from past standards. One difference is that they oblige units to focus on the knowledge bases pertinent to professional preparation for education. The concept of knowledge bases is explored, and implications for the construct…

For individuals to use computer tools for learning effectively, they must feel self-efficacious in using them. For this reason, it is important to examine attitudes and perceptions of competence that are encouraged by undergraduate educational programs. The factor validation of two affective measures related to computer technologies is reported.…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on learning organization practices. "The Beliefs of Managers as Facilitators of Learning in Learning Organizations" (Andrea D. Ellinger) reports selected findings from a qualitative study that examined the perceptions of managers regarding their beliefs, behaviors, triggers, and…