An Examination of Two Procedures for Identifying Consequential Item Parameter Drift

The purpose of the present study was to develop and evaluate two procedures flagging consequential item parameter drift (IPD) in an operational testing program. The first procedure was based on flagging items that exhibit a meaningful magnitude of IPD using a critical value that was defined to represent barely tolerable IPD. The second procedure was based on flagging items in which the D² statistic was more than two standard deviations from the mean. Both procedures were implemented using an iterative purification approach to detect IPD. A simulation study was implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of both detection procedures in flagging non-negligible IPD. Both procedures were able to identify IPD and the iterative purification method provided useful information regarding the consequences of excluding or including a flagged item. The advantages and disadvantages of both procedures as well as possible modifications intended to improve the procedures’ effectiveness are discussed in the article.     

Cues To Reading

In recent years, the roles of cognitive and emotional processes in student demoralization have become important research topics. Drawing from the educational and sport psychology research literature, this paper (a) presents an attributional analysis of chronic failure experiences in physical education settings, (b) identifies and describes two important antecedents of student demoralization; namely, the competitive achievement structures of our traditional school systems and reactive teaching behaviors, and (c) outlines equity teaching approaches, proactive teaching styles, and reattribution training as potential remedies for chronic student failure experiences. The suggestion is made that teachers of physical education need to be sensitized to attribution theory if they are to fully understand both the adaptive and maladaptive implications of their own teaching behaviors, and that they should enhance the motivation of all students, not just those who currently excel.     

Teacher education and the best-loved self

Four narrative fragments involving research disseminated globally – namely, United States, Israel, The Netherlands, The People's Republic of China – are used to instantiate the phenomenon of teachers teaching their best-loved selves, without becoming the curriculum themselves. Next, the development of the best-loved self-conceptualization as it emerged in Joseph J. Schwab's scholarship is traced, along with important connections to Michael Connelly and Jean Clandinin's research programme. After that, two important research questions are addressed: (1) If the best-loved self is integral to the teacher-as-curriculum-maker image, what practices might we engage in in teacher education to foster the best-loved self? And (2) How does change happen in pre-service teachers' pedagogical practices and repertoires, given the potential significance of the teacher's best-loved self-image? To conclude, the work returns to the opening narrative fragments to determine the answers that lie within.     

Identification of Effective Strategies to Promote Language in Deaf Children With Cochlear Implants

Parental involvement and communication are essential for language development in young children. However, hearing parents of deaf children face challenges in providing language input to their children. This study utilized the largest national sample of deaf children receiving cochlear implants, with the aim of identifying effective facilitative language techniques. Ninety‐three deaf children (≤ 2 years) were assessed at 6 implant centers prior to and for 3 years following implantation. All parent–child interactions were videotaped, transcribed, and coded at each assessment. Analyses using bivariate latent difference score modeling indicated that higher versus lower level strategies predicted growth in expressive language and word types predicted growth in receptive language over time. These effective, higher level strategies could be used in early intervention programs.     

Framing Intellectual Assessment in Terms of a Person-Process-Context Model

We suggest that the assessment of intelligence (a) ought to be tied to measuring basic cognitive components (as opposed to more heterogeneous tasks found on IQ tests and developmental scales); (b) be "contextualized"; and (c) be embedded in developmental theory, unlike current psychometric approaches. As a first step toward thinking about the contextual nature and the developmental course of intelligence, we propose that infants and young children be assessed on four basic information-procesing components that appear to be involved in higher level thinking and reasoning (concept formation, rudimentary counting, visual expectancy, and long-term memory), and that they be followed over time on variants of these measures in order to gain information about rate and quality.     

State policy and regional diversity in the provision of secondary education for the youth of Sydney, 1960-2001

The International Institute of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, continuously published its Educational Yearbook, in a total of 21 editions, in order to ‘provide students of education sciences with the world education theories and practice’. Headed by Isaac L. Kandel, the journal followed a traditional editorial line in its first issues, which came to change and shift to new themes and methodologies during the 1930s, as social, economic and political problems spread. This journal was a specifically academic initiative, in that it fell outside the scope of governmental or international organisations. This study will focus on the content of the different issues of the Educational Yearbook. It will also reflect on the most sensitive issues concerning the interwar period and, ultimately, it will highlight the underlying goals of this publication: the defence of peace, democracy and intellectual cooperation on the subject of education and citizenship.     

Motives for Sibling Communication Across the Lifespan

The sibling bond has the distinction of being the most enduring and egalitarian connection of all family relationships. Unfortunately, although siblings play an important role in one another's lives, relatively little is known about the communication that characterizes sibling relationships. This study investigated whether the interpersonal communication motives of siblings vary as a function of age or gender. Survey data was provided by 299 respondents aged 18 to 34, 35 to 49, 50 to 64, and 65+. There were significant differences by both age and gender for several of the communication motives.