Validation of Analytical Measurements by Single-trial and Collaborative Study

ABSTRACT: Validation of analytical measurements is necessary to report scientifically justifiable results. In this exercise, students validate the accuracy and precision of analytical instruments in single trials and in collaborative study, and validation results are used to report measurements in a scientifically justifiable manner. Tables are provided to guide data collection and to clarify reporting of results. A set of allied questions explores validation theory to develop student understanding, stimulate discussion, and provide feedback to the instructor regarding student comprehension. References are given that reinforce the validation concepts.     

Factors associated with college attendance of high-school seniors

Demographic, locational, family background, economic, attitudinal and school-related variables are studied to determine factors which lead high-school seniors to go directly on to college. The data come from the 1979 and 1980 National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth Labor Market Experience, and probit analysis is used. Some factors found to be significant imply possible changes in college enrollment patterns: delayed plans for marriage by females, population growth in the South and increasing education among the youths' fathers could portend higher rates of enrollment. While minority and poor youth were less likely to go directly from high school to college, it appears that factors associated with these variables, such as father's education and lower scores on the proxy ability measure, are causal. Finally, school characteristics appear to have a very limited influence on the probability of going directly from high school to college.     

Evaluating library resources for accreditation: results of a study.

When the nursing collection at the University of Illinois Library of the Health Sciences was evaluated in 1990 for an accreditation self-study for the National League for Nursing, the evaluation was broadened to study resources, faculty participation in selecting them, and completeness of holdings. To evaluate holdings, lists were checked and conspectus and comparative statistical data were analyzed. Organization and collection development were also described, to document faculty input. User services and on-site and remote access were briefly reviewed to document how resources were made available. The results demonstrated that the library provided an acceptable level of support for nursing studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.     

Critical action research: the Achievement Group

Critical action research is contextualized in a low socioeconomic, multicultural urban school in Auckland, New Zealand. The writers are a university lecturer (mentor) and a school principal (critical action researcher). The research was part of a meta project which aimed to raise the achievement of Māori (indigenous) students. Research processes incorporated Freirean dialogical processes, cross cultural learning and teacher professional development. The research outcomes for students are critically examined.     

Diagnosing the Poor Performance of Self‐worth Protective Students: A product of future outcome uncertainty,evaluative threat,or both?

Self‐worth protective students characteristically perform well on some occasions yet on other occasions they perform poorly. In this study, two accounts of the poor performance of self‐worth protective students are assessed. The first is that their poor performance is an outcome of evaluative threat. The second is that their poor performance is an outcome of future outcome uncertainty: a product of their uncertain global self‐esteem and uncertainty about the causes of achievement outcomes. Students high or low in self‐worth protection were exposed to either noncontingent success (creating future outcome uncertainty), noncontingent failure (evoking evaluative threat), or contingent success. Their ability to solve two tasks that involved a high degree of uncertainty was then assessed. Students high in self‐worth protection performed poorly following both noncontingent failure and noncontingent success, supporting the roles of both evaluative threat and future outcome uncertainty. The implications in terms of enhancing the achievement of students high in self‐worth protection are discussed.     

Interaction,Comprehension, and Instruction Usage

This article explores the learning of common practice in a community of agents. We focus on how learning occurs "out in the world," rather than on learning as it occurs in the classroom. The emphasis of this article is that much of the learning of practice is guided by comprehension processes. We take as prima facie evidence for this the ubiquitousness of instructions. We present a concrete model of the comprehension processes that occur when interacting with an unfamiliar device. An important focus is on the usage of instructions.     

Early Family and Child-Care Antecedents of Awakening Cortisol Levels in Adolescence

This study examined early observed parenting and child-care experiences in relation to functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis over the long term. Consistent with the attenuation hypothesis, individuals ( n  =   863) who experienced: (a) higher levels of maternal insensitivity and (b) more time in child-care centers in the first 3 years of life had lower awakening cortisol levels at age 15. Associations were small in magnitude. Nonetheless, results were (a) additive in that both higher levels of maternal insensitivity and more experience with center-based care uniquely (but not interactively) predicted lower awakening cortisol, (b) not accounted for by later caregiving experiences measured concurrently with awakening cortisol at age 15 or by early demographic variables, and (c) not moderated by sex or by difficult temperament.