Variance and Invariance in Expert and Novice Triple Junipers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine relative timing, relative distance, and effector independence characteristics of the triple jump. We videotaped expert and novice triple jumpers using standing and running starts. On some trials, the triple jumpers were required to take off from their nondominant leg. Gentner's (1987) interaction test was used to assess the proportional duration model in describing the timing of the component submovements. For both experts and novices, the proportional durations varied with the type of start. For experts, the relative timing of the jump components was independent of the take-off leg. The findings were mixed for the novices. Similar results were obtained when relative distance was examined. These results are discussed with respect to constructs related to variability in skilled performance.     

Effects of Differing Prepuberty Exercise Programs on the Emotionality of Male Albino Rats

Abstract

The problem under investigation in this study was to determine if differing programs of prepuberty exercise had any effect upon the emotionality of male albino rats at puberty. The subjects were 48 male albino rats of the Sprague-Dawley strain who were subjected to a 35-day training program under conditions of sedentary existence, voluntary exercise, or forced exercise. At the end of the experimental period the animals were tested in an open field marked into 49 consecutively numbered 7 1/2-in. squares.

Emotionality in the open field was determined by two methods: (a) the total number of squares traversed by an animal in 5 min., and (b) the total number of squares traversed by an animal toward the center of the field. The relationship between exploratory behavior and emotionality is considered to be an inverse one, that is, the more exploratory the behavior, the less emotionality the animal exhibits.

The results indicated that the animals which had been subjected to the forced exercise regimen traversed significantly more squares under both testing conditions and therefore evidenced more exploratory behavior and therefore less emotionality than the animals in the voluntary exercise and sedentary groups. There were no significant differences on either measure of exploratory behavior between the voluntary exercise and sedentary groups.     

The effect of the demand control and effort reward imbalance models on the academic burnout of Korean adolescents

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the Demand Control Model (DCM) and the Effort Reward Imbalance Model (ERIM) on academic burnout for Korean students. Specifically, this study identified the effects of the predictor variables based on DCM and ERIM (i.e., demand, control, effort, reward, Demand Control Ratio, Effort Reward Ratio) on academic burnout. Participants were 1,530 elementary, middle, and high school students and multivariate multiple regression analysis was used. Results indicated that the variables of ERIM (i.e., effort, reward, Effort Reward Ratio) were more influential predictors than the variables of the DCM (i.e., demand, control, Demand Control Ratio). Implications and limitations are discussed.     

Some assembly required: How scientific explanations are constructed during clinical interviews

This article is concerned with commonsense science knowledge, the informally gained knowledge of the natural world that students possess prior to formal instruction in a scientific discipline. Although commonsense science has been the focus of substantial study for more than two decades, there are still profound disagreements about its nature and origin, and its role in science learning. What is the reason that it has been so difficult to reach consensus? We believe that the problems run deep; there are difficulties both with how the field has framed questions and the way that it has gone about seeking answers. In order to make progress, we believe it will be helpful to focus on one type of research instrument—the clinical interview—that is employed in the study of commonsense science. More specifically, we argue that we should seek to understand and model, on a moment‐by‐moment basis, student reasoning as it occurs in the interviews employed to study commonsense science. To illustrate and support this claim, we draw on a corpus of interviews with middle school students in which the students were asked questions pertaining to the seasons and climate phenomena. Our analysis of this corpus is based on what we call the mode‐node framework. In this framework, student reasoning is seen as drawing on a set of knowledge elements we call nodes, and this set produces temporary explanatory structures we call dynamic mental constructs. Furthermore, the analysis of our corpus seeks to highlight certain patterns of student reasoning that occur during interviews, patterns in what we call conceptual dynamics. These include patterns in which students can be seen to search through available knowledge (nodes), in which they assemble nodes into an explanation, and in which they converge on and shift among alternative explanations. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 166–198, 2012     

Using a Taxonomy of Differential Step Functioning to Improve the Interpretation of DIF in Polytomous Items: An Illustration

The assessment of differential item functioning (DIF) in polytomous items addresses between-group differences in measurement properties at the item level, but typically does not inform which score levels may be involved in the DIF effect. The framework of differential step functioning (DSF) addresses this issue by examining between-group differences in the measurement properties at each step underlying the polytomous response variable. The pattern of the DSF effects across the steps of the polytomous response variable can assume several different forms, and the different forms can have different implications for the sensitivity of DIF detection and the final interpretation of the causes of the DIF effect. In this article we propose a taxonomy of DSF forms, establish guidelines for using the form of DSF to help target and guide item content review and item revision, and provide procedural rules for using the frameworks of DSF and DIF in tandem to yield a comprehensive assessment of between-group measurement equivalence in polytomous items.     

Validating Measurement of Knowledge Integration in Science Using Multiple-Choice and Explanation Items

This study explores measurement of a construct called knowledge integration in science using multiple-choice and explanation items. We use construct and instructional validity evidence to examine the role multiple-choice and explanation items plays in measuring students' knowledge integration ability. For construct validity, we analyze item properties such as alignment, discrimination, and target range on the knowledge integration scale using a Rasch Partial Credit Model analysis. For instructional validity, we test the sensitivity of multiple-choice and explanation items to knowledge integration instruction using a cohort comparison design. Results show that (1) one third of correct multiple-choice responses are aligned with higher levels of knowledge integration while three quarters of incorrect multiple-choice responses are aligned with lower levels of knowledge integration, (2) explanation items discriminate between high and low knowledge integration ability students much more effectively than multiple-choice items, (3) explanation items measure a wider range of knowledge integration levels than multiple-choice items, and (4) explanation items are more sensitive to knowledge integration instruction than multiple-choice items.     

A Comparison of IRT Linking Procedures

Various applications of item response theory often require linking to achieve a common scale for item parameter estimates obtained from different groups. This article used a simulation to examine the relative performance of four different item response theory (IRT) linking procedures in a random groups equating design: concurrent calibration with multiple groups, separate calibration with the Stocking-Lord method, separate calibration with the Haebara method, and proficiency transformation. The simulation conditions used in this article included three sampling designs, two levels of sample size, and two levels of the number of items. In general, the separate calibration procedures performed better than the concurrent calibration and proficiency transformation procedures, even though some inconsistent results were observed across different simulation conditions. Some advantages and disadvantages of the linking procedures are discussed.     

Beyond Commercialization: Science, Higher Education and the Culture of Neoliberalism

Since the 1980s, scholars and others have been engaged in a lively debate about the virtues and dangers of mingling commerce with university science. In this paper, we contend that the commercialization of academic science, and higher education more broadly, are best understood as pieces of a larger story. We use two cases of institutional change at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to shed light on the implications of neoliberalism for public research universities in the United States. We conclude that instead of neoliberalization being a timely strategy for the specific fiscal and other problems facing public universities today, it has become an omnibus solution available to be employed when any opportunity arises and, in fact, helps to define the “problems” of the university in the first place.