Testing Measurement Invariance Across Unobserved Groups: The Role of Covariates in Factor Mixture Modeling

Factor mixture modeling (FMM) has been increasingly used to investigate unobserved population heterogeneity. This study examined the issue of covariate effects with FMM in the context of measurement invariance testing. Specifically, the impact of excluding and misspecifying covariate effects on measurement invariance testing and class enumeration was investigated via Monte Carlo simulations. Data were generated based on FMM models with (1) a zero covariate effect, (2) a covariate effect on the latent class variable, and (3) covariate effects on both the latent class variable and the factor. For each population model, different analysis models that excluded or misspecified covariate effects were fitted. Results highlighted the importance of including proper covariates in measurement invariance testing and evidenced the utility of a model comparison approach in searching for the correct specification of covariate effects and the level of measurement invariance. This approach was demonstrated using an empirical data set. Implications for methodological and applied research are discussed.     

小软盘搬运大文件

近日,在网上“溜达”,无意间发现了一个好用的软件,解决了我的一个大难题。它就是1toX,一款把大文件分割成小文件的实用软件。它的下载网址是:http://sq.onlinedown.net/soft/204.htm(嘟嘟已把它收录到本期配套光盘中了)。下载安装后,运行软件,啊?怎么是英文版的?不要着急,我们下载的是汉化版,单击[setting]→[language]→[简体中文]。OK,界面变成中文的了(见图1)。图1 比如我现在选中E:\Flash动画文件夹中的“醉酒记.swf”文件,它的大小为2.3MB。在[文件]窗口中双击该文件就把它添加到了[已选择的文件窗口]中(如图3),然后单击[确定]按钮…     

Young People's Conceptions of Environment: A phenomenographic analysis

Environmental education in schools is an important strategy in achieving environmental improvement. However, it needs to be based on children's understandings of environment rather than on assumptions of what children know and believe. This paper reports on a research project where school children's answers to a question 'I think the term/word environment means ' were analysed using the qualitative research method of phenomenography. Six distinct conceptions were isolated, ranging from the least sophisticated--environment as a place--to the most inclusive and expansive--environment and people in a relationship of mutual sustainability. An important qualitative difference was found between conceptions that treat the environment as an object and relational conceptions. The implications of these findings for environmental education are discussed.     

Revisiting emancipatory teacher research: a psychoanalytic perspective

This paper addresses the issue of how human beings construct themselves as subjects and the parameters within which this is achieved. We question models in which idealism shapes the trajectory of identity formation and consider how identity might be seen alternatively as a somewhat awkward amalgam of identifications with diverse discursive domains. The particular focus is on teachers conducting ‘emancipatory’ practitioner research and on how the researcher understands his/her interface with the situation he/she is researching. We survey a range of theoretical models as offered by some leading writers, with particular reference to Jacques Lacan, and consider each in relation to how the teacher researcher might be understood. We provide as an example an account of one teacher researcher examining issues of ethnicity and gender in her secondary school French classes.     

Commerce Students’ Preferences in Teaching and Learning

The introduction of a large (950 students) new first year class was an opportunity to design and implement a programme on student‐centred learning, where lectures, tutorials, and other teaching activities emphasised student participation and were integrated to promote a good learning environment The programme is described here, together with the results of an evaluation by students at the end of the second trimester. Students responses indicate that a well structured course which integrates content and process results in high student participation and satisfaction. The findings also show that Socratic teaching methods are entirely feasible with very large classes, and result in high student participation.     

The early assessment conundrum: Lessons from the past,implications for the future

The early childhood educational field has garnered attention with initiatives to foster skill acquisition in young children prior to kindergarten entry. These initiatives, in conjunction with the rigorous demands of curricular reform and a burgeoning accountability movement, invoke questions regarding the adequacy of the instruments used to assess young children and the inherent difficulties in conducting such assessments. Because the effectiveness of education relies critically on the sound diagnoses of children's readiness for learning and the measurement of their subsequent progression throughout the schooling process, critical issues in early assessment must be addressed. An examination of past practices was synthesized with recent research to focus awareness on the insufficient content domain, restrictive context, adverse timing and questionable psychometric properties, specifically the inappropriate norms and low predictive validity, of many instruments. Both the implications of and compensatory strategies for each issue are considered. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 737–749, 2004.     

Nationalistic education as the focus for civics and citizenship education : The case of Hong Kong

Civic education has been assigned the mission of preparing critical thinking, responsible, participating, multidimensional citizens and is also used to serve the function of instilling a sense of national identity, loyalty to the nation state and patriotism In 1996, before the return of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, the Hong Kong Education Department published theGuidelines in Civic Education for School (1996), which includes education for democracy, human rights education, global education and nationalistic education This survey adopted an amalgamate framework of five types of nationalistic education to study the understanding of nationalistic education of civic educators in secondary schools in Hong Kong The initial findings showed that the civic educators were basically strongly eclectic in terms of education for cosmopolitan, civic, and cultural nationalism and moderately eclectic in terms of anti colonial nationalism but rejected education for totalitarian nationalism This eclectic understanding can be said to be heading towards a more liberal, rational, open and inclusive type of nationalistic education, which is compatible with a cosmopolitan and pluralistic society such as Hong Kong