Young Children's Understanding of Fictional versus Epistemic Mental Representations: Imagination and Belief

In 2 studies, 3- and 4-year-old children's ability to reason about the relation between mental representations and reality was examined. In the first study, children received parallel false belief and "false" imagination tasks. Results revealed that children performed better on imagination tasks than on belief tasks. The second study demonstrated that, when various alternative explanations for better performance on the imagination task were controlled for, children still performed significantly better when reasoning about another person's imagination than when reasoning about another person's belief. These findings suggest that children's understanding that mental representations can differ from reality may emerge first with respect to representations that do not purport to represent reality truthfully.     

Do Mitigating Circumstances Influence Family Reactions to Physical Aggression?

The influence of mitigating circumstances on family reactions to physical aggression was investigated. 40 families, each with a 2- and a 4-year-old child, were observed during home interactions, and parents' and older children's beliefs concerning mitigation were also assessed. Although parents considered sibling physical aggression to be a serious transgression, they believed that mitigated aggression of both of their children was more excusable and they intervened less often to prohibit mitigated than nonmitigated aggression, even when the aggression was severe. Older children also believed that mitigated aggression deserved less punishment. Provocation, reciprocity, and lack of aggressive intent occurred as mitigating circumstances in the observations. When family members' reactions to these individual circumstances were examined, discrepancies arose in judgments of which specific mitigations justified aggression. These findings were discussed in terms of the clarity of a parent's message, children's appraisals of it, differing conflict roles, and society's impact.     

Novice principals setting goals for school improvement in New Zealand

While principal goal-setting has been shown to be an important leadership practice, there is little research examining principals’ goal-setting and goal-achievement. This research examined novice principals’ school improvement goals and factors affecting their achievement. Goals from 460 principals enrolled in a national induction programme were categorised revealing a strong emphasis on instructional and student-centred leadership. After 18 months, 258 of those principals, and their mentors, rated their achievement. Principals also rated five potential achievement predictors. Goal achievement tended to be high, with commitment, effort, learning and support serving as positive predictors of success. In contrast to what goal-setting theory suggests, goal challenge was a negative predictor of achievement. The analysis of two contrasting cases revealed possible explanations for this negative relationship. These included novice principals’ ability, self-efficacy and attributional processes. This study highlights the role of self-efficacy in the process of goal-setting and pursuit. It emphasises that consideration needs to be given to how novice principals’ self-efficacy can be developed and sustained. Implications for practice in the area of educational leadership and leadership development are discussed.     

Item Difficulty and Interviewer Knowledge Effects on the Accuracy and Consistency of Examinee Response Processes in Verbal Reports

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing indicate that multiple sources of validity evidence should be used to support the interpretation of test scores. In the past decade, examinee response processes, as a source of validity evidence, have received increased attention. However, there have been relatively few methodological studies of the accuracy and consistency of examinee response processes as measured by verbal reports in the context of educational measurement. The objective of the current study was to investigate the accuracy and consistency of examinee response processes—as measured by verbal reports—as a function of varying interviewer and item variables in a think aloud interview within an educational measurement context. Results indicate that the accuracy of responses may be undermined when students perceive the interviewer to be an expert in the domain. Further, the consistency of response processes may be undermined when items that are too easy or difficult are used to elicit reports. The implications of these results for conducting think-aloud studies are explored.     

Models of workplace training in North America: a review

The dominant workplace training model in North America is the behavioural approach which is well matched to the dominant concept of Taylorism in management. Nevertheless, this paradigm has been increasingly challenged by the worker‐centred model which is dissatisfied with the management‐centred tenet within the behavioural approach. Four factors can be attributed to the declining popularity of the behavioural model: social changes, new needs of capitalism, the importance of worker ownership, and attitudinal changes in mangement. Three emerging alternatives to the behavioural model are examined: action regulation theory, critical reflectivity perspective and ‘working‐class adult eduction’ approach. Though under strong challenge, the behavioural model is still influential.     

Retaining a foothold on the slippery paths of academia: university women,indirect discrimination,and the academic marketplace

This paper examines indirect discrimination in Australian universities that tends to obstruct and delay women’s academic careers. The topic is defined and contextualised via a 1998 speech by the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, juxtaposed with a brief contemporaneous exemplar. The paper discusses the prevalence of women among casual and fixed‐term academic workers, and the contrasting low numbers of women in senior academic positions. It is argued that the neo‐liberal ‘marketisation’ of higher education, which still prevails, has fostered a number of indirectly discriminatory practices and conditions that substantially disadvantage women. A selection of studies of the problem are critiqued. It is argued that a broad statistical methodology is inadequate due to its tendency to ‘homogenise’ the academy and its component individuals, in the process giving scope for unjustified optimism among university policy‐makers. A particulate approach is advocated, acknowledging the wide variation between and within universities, and the range of hidden difficulties individual women academics can face. It is concluded that despite apparent reforms over the past decade, the situation of women has improved little in practical terms.     

The Effects of Dimensionality on Equating the Law School Admission Test

Using factor analysis, we conducted an assessment of multidimensionality for 6 forms of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and found 2 subgroups of items or factors for each of the 6 forms. The main conclusion of the factor analysis component of this study was that the LSAT appears to measure 2 different reasoning abilities: inductive and deductive. The technique of N. J. Dorans & N. M. Kingston (1985) was used to examine the effect of dimensionality on equating. We began by calibrating (with item response theory [IRT] methods) all items on a form to obtain Set I of estimated IRT item parameters. Next, the test was divided into 2 homogeneous subgroups of items, each having been determined to represent a different ability (i.e., inductive or deductive reasoning). The items within these subgroups were then recalibrated separately to obtain item parameter estimates, and then combined into Set II. The estimated item parameters and true-score equating tables for Sets I and II corresponded closely.