Developmental Relations Among Behavioral Inhibition,Anxiety, and Attention Biases to Threat and Positive Information

This study examined relations between behavioral inhibition (BI) assessed in toddlerhood (n = 268) and attention biases (AB) to threat and positive faces and maternal‐reported anxiety assessed when children were 5‐ and 7‐year‐old. Results revealed that BI predicted anxiety at age 7 in children with AB toward threat, away from positive, or with no bias, at age 7; BI did not predict anxiety for children displaying AB away from threat or toward positive. Five‐year AB did not moderate the link between BI and 7‐year anxiety. No direct association between AB and BI or anxiety was detected; moreover, children did not show stable AB across development. These findings extend our understanding of the developmental links among BI, AB, and anxiety.     

Examining the literature to reveal the nature of community EE/ESD programs and research

Interest in community environmental education (EE) and community education for sustainable development (ESD) is increasing, as evidenced by the increase in studies examining community EE/ESD approaches and NAAEE’s current development of the Community EE Guidelines for Excellence. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to: (1) provide a review of research which identifies as examining community EE/ESD issues from 1994 to 2013, (2) examine themes specific to community-oriented program implementation and outcomes, and (3) examine theoretical trends within this work. While no single framework emerged from the diverse studies on community EE/ESD, themes suggested greater success for programs that were rooted in community issues, involved multiple community partners, were oriented towards collaborative and civic action, and incorporated reflection on social institutions and power dynamics. These characteristics reflect an emancipatory approach to education which seeks to enhance human development through public participation and engagement. To this end, future researchers and practitioners should consider: (1) the resources needed to understand community values and concerns, (2) skills and knowledge required to build relationships and attend to community culture, values and democratic processes, (3) theories that account for the socio-historical contexts of participants and their pathways for transformation and empowerment, and (4) a process of action that continually reflects on power structures and dynamics.     

Person‐Fit Statistics for Joint Models for Accuracy and Speed

Response accuracy and response time data can be analyzed with a joint model to measure ability and speed of working, while accounting for relationships between item and person characteristics. In this study, person‐fit statistics are proposed for joint models to detect aberrant response accuracy and/or response time patterns. The person‐fit tests take the correlation between ability and speed into account, as well as the correlation between item characteristics. They are posited as Bayesian significance tests, which have the advantage that the extremeness of a test statistic value is quantified by a posterior probability. The person‐fit tests can be computed as by‐products of a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm. Simulation studies were conducted in order to evaluate their performance. For all person‐fit tests, the simulation studies showed good detection rates in identifying aberrant patterns. A real data example is given to illustrate the person‐fit statistics for the evaluation of the joint model.     

Inclusive Achievement Testing for Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Test Takers: Essential Considerations for Test Developers and Decision Makers

Substantial growth in the numbers of English language learners (ELLs) in the United States and Canada in recent years has significantly affected the educational systems of both countries. This article focuses on critical issues and concerns related to the assessment of ELLs in U.S. and Canadian schools and emphasizes assessment approaches for test developers and decision makers that will facilitate increased equity, meaningfulness, and accuracy in assessment and accountability efforts. It begins by examining the crucial issue of defining ELLs as a group. Next, it examines the impact of testing originating from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) in the U.S. and government‐mandated standards‐driven testing in Canada by briefly describing each country's respective legislated testing requirements and outlining their consequences at several levels. Finally, the authors identify key points that test developers and decision makers in both contexts should consider in testing this ever‐increasing group of students.     

Test-Retest Stability of the Task and Ego Orientation Questionnaire

Abstract

Establishing stability, defined as observing minimal measurement error in a test-retest assessment, is vital to validating psychometric tools. Correlational methods, such as Pearson product-moment, intraclass, and kappa are tests of association or consistency, whereas stability or reproducibility (regarded here as synonymous) assesses the agreement between test-retest scores. Indexes of reproducibility using the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ; Duda & Nicholls, 1992) were investigated using correlational (Pearson product-moment, intraclass, and kappa) methods, repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance, and calculating the proportion of agreement within a referent value of +1 as suggested by Nevill, Lane, Kilgour, Bowes, and Whyte (2001). Two hundred thirteen soccer players completed the TEOSQ on two occasions, 1 week apart. Correlation analyses indicated a stronger test-retest correlation for the Ego subscale than the Task subscale. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated stability for ego items but with significant increases in four task items. The proportion of test-retest agreement scores indicated that all ego items reported relatively poor stability statistics with test-retest scores within a range of +1, ranging from 82.7–86.9%. By contrast, all task items showed test-retest difference scores ranging from 92.5–99%, although further analysis indicated that four task subscale items increased significantly. Findings illustrated that correlational methods (Pearson product-moment, intraclass, and kappa) are influenced by the range in scores, and calculating the proportion of agreement of test-retest differences with a referent value of +1 could provide additional insight into the stability of the questionnaire. It is suggested that the item-by-item proportion of agreement method proposed by Nevill et al. (2001) should be used to supplement existing methods and could be especially helpful in identifying rogue items in the initial stages of psychometric questionnaire validation.