Improving SET Response Rates: Synchronous Online Administration as a Tool to Improve Evaluation Quality

Institutions of higher education continue to migrate student evaluations of teaching (SET) from traditional, in-class paper forms to online SETs. Online SETs would favorably compare to paper-and-pencil evaluations were it not for widely reported response rate decreases that cause SET validity concerns stemming from possible nonresponse bias. To combat low response rates, one institution introduced a SET application for mobile devices and piloted formal synchronous classroom time for SET completion. This paper uses the Leverage Salience Theory to estimate the impact of these SET process changes on overall response rates, open-ended question response rates, and open end response word counts. Synchronous class time best improves SET responses when faculty encourage completion on keyboarded devices and provide students SET completion time in the first 15 min of a class meeting. Full support from administrators requires sufficient wireless signal strength, IT infrastructure, and assuring student access to devices for responses clustering around meeting times.     

Transition to Preschool Special Education: A Review of the Literature

Research Findings: Services to young children with disabilities and their families are provided through state and federal resources to those who meet eligibility requirements. This article reviews the literature that addresses the transition to preschool special education services occurring from the time a child reaches 2 years, 6 months, of age until the child's third birthday. Practice or Policy: We discuss the conceptual frameworks of transition, as well as the definition and requirements of transition, and factors affecting a smooth transition for young children and their families. We also present literature on transition practices such as technical assistance and collaboration, parent and family experiences, program quality, assistance for children and families, and policy considerations, as well as implications and recommendations for future research.     

Surveying Adolescent Worries: Development of the ‘Things I Worry About’ Scale

Steve Decker, Anglia Polytechnic University, Death and Loss: Compassionate Approaches in the Classroom, Oliver Leaman. London: Cassell, 1995. 160pp. hb ISBN 0 304 33087 6, pb ISBN 0 304 33089 2, price not available

Alan Dodds, The Ferrers School, Rushden, Northamptonshire, Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do, Dan Olweus. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. 140pp. pb ISBN 0 631 19241 7

Richard Smith, Elliott School, London, Combating Truancy in Schools, Edith Le Riche. London: David Fulton/ The Roehampton Institute, 1995. 112pp. ISBN 1 85346 337, £11.95

Ron Best, Roehampton Institute, London, Psychology in the Classroom: Reconstructing Teachers and Learners, Phillida Salmon. London: Cassell, 1995. 98pp. hb ISBN 0 304 33254 2, £40.00, pb ISBN 0 204 33256 9, £12.99

David Lambourn, NAPCE Base, Warwick, Primary Teachers at Work, R. J. Campbell and S. R. St.J. Neill. London: Routledge, 1994. 252pp. pb ISBN 0 415 08863 1, £14.99     

Toddlers and Preschoolers Understand That Some Preferences Are More Subjective Than Others

Four experiments examined Canadian 2- to 3-year-old children’s (N = 224; 104 girls, 120 boys) thoughts about shared preferences. Children saw sets of items, and identified theirs and another person’s preferences. Children expected that food preferences would be more likely to be shared than color preferences, regardless of whether the items were similar or different in appeal (Experiments 1–3). A final study replicated these findings while also exploring children’s expectations about activity and animal preferences. Across all studies, children expected shared preferences at surprisingly low rates (never higher than chance). Overall, these findings suggest that young children understand that some preferences are more subjective than others, and that these expectations are driven by beliefs about domains of preferences.     

Sexual imprinting: The stability of mate preference in Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

This study investigated the persistence of a mate preference that resulted from early social experience.Coturnix males that achieved an imprinting criterion of selecting an imprint object (an albino conspecific hen) in 8 of 10 trials were then given one of three intervening treatments. Subjects were housed for 10 days with only normal hens or albino and normal hens, or they were isolated for the treatment period. A comparison of subsequent preference for the albino in a second series of 10 choice tests indicated that the strength of the imprinted bond is weakened with respect to the type of intervening experience. This outcome is discussed in terms of the persistence construct of the imprinting process.