Epistemological correctness in English 101

He is the author of a comprehensive analysis of undergraduate curricula in Michigan's state university system, prepared for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Midland, Michigan, to which he serves as an advisor on higher education issues. Please address correspondence toAcademic Questions     

EFFECTS OF INCORPORATING HUMOR IN TEST ITEMS

Two matched forms of a 50 item multiple-choice grammar test were developed. Twenty items designed to be humorous were included in one form. Test forms were randomly assigned to 126 eighth graders who received the test plus alternate forms of a questionnaire. Inclusion of humorous items did not affect grammar scores on matched humorous/nonhumorous items nor on common post-treatment items, nor did inclusion affect results of anxiety measures. Students favored inclusion of humor on tests, judged effects of humor positively, and estimated humorous items to be easier. Humor did not lower performance but was sought by the students. Potential for more valid and humane measurement is discussed.     

EVIDENCE ON THE QUALITY OF SEVERAL APPROXIMATIONS FOR COMMONLY USED MEASUREMENT STATISTICS1

What is the extent of error likely with each of several approximations for the standard deviation, internal consistency reliability, and the standard error of measurement? To help answer this question, approximations were compared with exact statistics obtained on 85 different classroom tests constructed and administered by professors in a variety of fields; means and standard deviations of the resulting differences supported the use of approximations in practical situations. Results of this analysis (1) suggest a greater number of alternative formulas that might be employed, and (2) provide additional information concerning the accuracy of approximations with non-normal distributions.     

The effect of financial education on pupils’ financial knowledge and skills: Evidence from a Solomon four-group design

Abstract

The present study used a Solomon four-group quasi-experimental design to examine the short-term effect of a large-scale national financial education program on children’s knowledge and skills in responsible spending and performing transactions effectively. Our study included a representative sample of Dutch pupils in the fifth grade of primary school (N?=?2,650). Controlling for different children-specific characteristics, results showed that the program increased pupils’ knowledge and skills scores in performing transactions effectively, but not in responsible spending. The insights gained from the present study show how financial education programs that enable children to immediately apply what they learn in practice can improve children’s knowledge and skills regarding certain financial competencies.     

The ontogeny of the feature-positive effect in young chicks

The wide generality of the feature-positive effect (FPE) has caused speculation that the FPE may represent innate biases in the stimulus control of discriminative responding. There is little experimental evidence to date ragarding this possibility. In the present study, 1- or 4-day-old chicks were trained on a feature-positive (FP) or feature-negative (FN) discrimination with heat reinforcement. After the acquisition phase, these subjects received extinction training followed by a reacquisition phase. The FP performance was superior to the FN performance in both age groups. Extinction resulted in improved discrimination performance in both the FP and FN conditions. Unmasking of FN learning by the extinction treatment suggests that the FPE represents a deficit in performance, rather than an inability to learn the FN task. These data demonstrate that adult-like performance on feature discriminations is evident as early as the first day post-hatch.     

Toward a Developmental Counseling Curriculum

Extensive attention has been given by ACES and AACD to the unique role of the counseling profession. It is suggested that the definition of the profession lies in the association name: American Association for Counseling and Development. Counselors must integrate developmental theory systematically into the practice of counseling. Several alternative developmental models are summarized in this article, along with their implications for the future. Special attention is given to the soul of counseling, which is defined as a professional commitment to development. Counseling is not psychology, it is a specialized profession with a unique role in society.     

The existence and extent of spatial working memory ability in honeybees

Honeybees foraged from six locations, each of which was baited with sugar solution prior to each experimental trial. Under a variety of conditions, bees exhibited a small but reliable tendency to avoid revisits to locations that they had visited earlier during the experimental trial. These results replicate those of Brown and Demas (1994), who concluded that bees use working memory to discriminate previously visited locations from those not yet visited. The present experiments included procedures that allowed alternatives to this explanation to be more completely ruled out. The extent of spatial working memory performance exhibited by honeybees in these experiments appears to be limited by a process other than working memory capacity, perhaps the ability of bees to discriminate among several locations in close proximity to one another.     

A reading level match study of nonword reading skills in poor readers with varying IQ.

This study evaluated the hypothesis that poor readers are characterized by poor nonword reading skills, but that a specific deficit, as opposed to a developmental lag, in nonword reading will be found only in subjects whose reading is discrepant from intellectual ability. To test this hypothesis, we measured nonword reading skills in 93 (64 male, 29 female) third-grade poor readers and 54 (37 male, 17 female) fifth-grade poor readers (with and without reading/IQ discrepancies) who were matched to 147 (81 male, 66 female) nondisabled first graders on word identification skills. Results showed third- and fifth-grade poor readers to be significantly more impaired than word-identification level match first graders on all measures on nonword reading. These findings were not related to the verbal IQ level within the poor reader groups and, thus, provide strong evidence for a deficit in nonword reading skills that is not explained by verbal intelligence.     

战后美国公民教育的嬗变及启示

二战后，美国公民教育经历了高度的意识形态化后，逐步走向了科学化、专业化的发展方向。研究其发展的原因，给我们的启示是：公民教育必须与国家政治发展相一致，要加强理论研究和科学有效方法的使用。