Models and Strategies for Factor Mixture Analysis: An Example Concerning the Structure Underlying Psychological Disorders

The factor mixture model (FMM) uses a hybrid of both categorical and continuous latent variables. The FMM is a good model for the underlying structure of psychopathology because the use of both categorical and continuous latent variables allows the structure to be simultaneously categorical and dimensional. This is useful because both diagnostic class membership and the range of severity within and across diagnostic classes can be modeled concurrently. Although the conceptualization of the FMM has been explained in the literature, the use of the FMM is still not prevalent. One reason is that there is little research about how such models should be applied in practice and, once a well-fitting model is obtained, how it should be interpreted. In this article, the FMM is explored by studying a real data example on conduct disorder. By exploring this example, this article aims to explain the different formulations of the FMM, the various steps in building a FMM, and how to decide between an FMM and alternative models.     

Mature-age students-how are they different?

Mature-age students have formed a significant proportion of preservice students in primary teacher education over recent years. Academic staff have reported a difference between mature-age students and school-leavers, particularly in motivation and achievement. This report examines part of a study which explored mature-age students' views about aspects of teaching science and technology, compared to the views of students who came to university straight from school. It examines, in particular, students' personal feelings of adequacy in teaching science and technology in primary schools. Specialisations: primary teacher education, teaching strategies in science.     

The improtance of selected textbook features to science teachers

This paper reports the results of a study of teacher opinions about the features considered important in an ideal textbook. A survey of Queensland high school teachers revealed that they favoured texts that focus on student cognition and which provide useful features such as exercises and practical activities. Differences were found between the preferences of Queensland teachers and the preferences of teachers reported in two American studies. The significance of these differences for writers and publishers is discussed. Specializations: communication and cognition in science. Specializations: science education.     

Science education research in Papua New Guinea 1978–1990

This paper presents a science/science education bibliography, to assist science educationalists interested in Papua New Guinea. 392 articles were reviewed. The bibliography was then categorised in a number of ways to indicate patterns of research productivity in various areas of science education, and at different levels of education. A questionnaire was devised to obtain information from former and current researchers in the field about their own contributions. This exercise produced some surprising information about science education research in Papua New Guinea. Specializations: science teacher education, chemical education, science education in developing countries, educational issues.     

Retraining chemistry teachers in the Philippines

A recent large scale educational aid program to the Philippines included the retraining of secondary chemistry teachers. Teachers were introduced to new content and to alternative teaching strategies. An initial resistance to change arose as it was perceived that the new approaches did not take into account very limited school facilities and very large teaching groups. The lecturing style of teaching, which predominates at all levels throughout the country, was seen as the most effective method to handle overwhelming classroom problems. Resistance was overcome after alternative teaching styles were modelled. This paper gives an overview of the aid program and outlines the introduced teaching strategies. It contends that Asian teachers have been largely unaffected by western educational aid due in part to the fact that such aid is rarely accompanied by the modelling of introduced strategies. Specialisations: primary teacher education, primary mathematics, pre- and in-service science education.     

Assessing the psychosocial environment of science classes in Catholic secondary schools

Much Catholic school and church rhetoric suggests that Catholic schools possess distinctive learning environments. Research into this aspect of Catholic schooling has been hampered by the lack of an appropriate assessment instrument. By drawing on contemporary church literature, the perceptions of personnel involved in Catholic education and existing classroom environment questionnaires, a new instrument was developed to assess student perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment in Catholic schools. The use of this instrument in 64 classrooms in Catholic and Government schools indicated significant differences on some scales. The distinctive nature of Catholic schooling did not extend to all classroom environment dimensions deemed important to Catholic education. Specializations: Catholic education, learning environments. Specializations: conceptual change in students, science teacher professional development, scientific reasoning, learning environments. Specializations: learning environments, science education, educational evaluation, curriculum.     

A comparison among three experimental education programs

The primary characteristics of the three programs are used to compare participants to each other and to a group of students in the regular curriculum: (1) development of logical thought, (2) broader educational development, and, (3) career development, as well as selected academic characteristics (grades academic aptitude). The programs and their evaluations are described. The outcomes claimed for each program occurred more frequently in that program than in the comparison groups. The absence of differences in grades, despite differences in academic ability and in extent of program involvement, is interpreted as further evidence of the insensitivity of grades. The question of generality of the results is explored briefly.