Research on classroom and school effectiveness and its implications for improving big city schools

Research on effective teaching has produced useful knowledge regarding instructional techniques dealing with classroom management, teacher-centered direct or explicit instruction, student time-on-task, questioning, and cognitive instruction for low-achieving students. Research on effective schools has produced useful knowledge regarding the characteristics or correlates of schools that are unusually successful in enhancing student achievement. Projects that utilize these research findings in working to improve teacher and school effectiveness have been and are being conducted in many big cities. While encouraging results have been registered in some locations, achievement is still unacceptably low in many cities. Efforts in the future should draw systematically on research dealing with effective classrooms and effective schools.     

Teaching Introductory Business Statistics Using the DCOVA Framework

Introductory business statistics students often receive little guidance on how to apply the methods they learn to further business objectives they may one day face. And those students may fail to see the continuity among the topics taught in an introductory course if they learn those methods outside a context that provides a unifying framework. The DCOVA problem‐solving framework that presents discrete steps to define, collect, organize, visualize, and analyze data addresses these concerns while helping to enhance the perceived value of taking statistics courses.     

Modeling the psychometric properties of information manipulation ratings

This paper provides a reanalysis of two large data sets (Jacobs, Dawson & Brashers, 1996a; McCornack, Levine, Solowczuk, Torres, & Campbell, 1992) involved in a recent dispute over the validity of Information Manipulation Theory (IMT) (McCornack, 1992; McCornack et al., 1992). McCornack, Levine, Morrison and Lapinski's (1996) results were consistent with a second‐order factor model predicted by IMT while Jacobs, Brashers and Dawson (1996b) found that the same data were first order multidimensional with quality and honesty ratings loading on the same factor. Because the results of exploratory factor algorithms, especially when coupled with varimax rotations, are suspect when second‐order unidimensionality present, the Jacob et al. (1996b) results are dubious, and published errors may exist. The reanalyses reported here demonstrate that the second order model predicted by IMT provides an excellent fit to the data, while the first order model advanced by Jacobs et al. does not. The curren t results provide further evidence that the use of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with varimax rotations produce erroneous results in the context of second‐order unidimensionality.     

The circulation/acquisition ratio: An input-output measure for libraries

A “quick-and-dirty” input-output measure for libraries is derived using readily available data. The library is defined as a system that acquires books as input and circulates books as output. By simply dividing the number of books circulated per unit time by the number of books acquired in that same time, such a measure is created. Used like a temperature thermometer, the C/A ratio has to be “just right” (not too high and not too low) if the library is to be considered “healthy”.     

A Meta‐Study of Journal of College Counseling (JCC) Author and Article Publication Characteristics From 1998 to 2009

Patterns of articles accepted for publication in the Journal of College Counseling from the past 12 years were reviewed in this metastudy. Results were described and statistically analyzed to identify trends over time in characteristics of authors, including sex, institutional classifications, employment setting, and domicile, and characteristics of articles, including article type, research design, sample size, types of participants, and statistical procedures.     

Active agents of health promotion? The school's role in supporting the HPV vaccination programme

By providing a place in which children can be accessed, the school has long been a site for population-level health initiatives. Recent policy shifts towards health-promoting schools have however re-cast the school from passive host to active collaborator in public health. This paper examines secondary school teachers' views of their roles as partners in Scotland's human papilloma virus vaccination programme. Focus groups were held in seven schools across Scotland. Confusion was evident in relation to this role, with competing understandings of young women's sexuality, concerns about parental perceptions and uncertainty about professional responsibilities. Many teachers sought to distance themselves from the vaccination programme. Evidence was found of a ‘sedimentation of discourses’, as mass models of state-sanctioned health intervention persist alongside contemporary discourses of individual choice.     

Culture and information manipulation theory: The effects of self‐construal and locus of benefit on information manipulation

This paper offers a preliminary exploration into how culture and cultural orientation influence the perception of deceptive messages. Information manipulation theory (IMF) posits that covert violations of Grice's four conversational maxims give rise to messages that are functionally deceptive. This study (N = 323) attempted to replicate previous IMT results regarding the perceptions of information manipulation in an academic situation, and with a culturally diverse sample. Locus of benefit (self and other) was manipulated, and the respondents’ self‐construal was assessed. Previous IMT findings were replicated, and the effects for self‐construal on honesty ratings varied considerably by manipulation type. Explanations for these findings are provided, as are suggestions for future research.