Using person response functions to investigate areas of person misfit related to item characteristics

Individual person fit analyses provide important information regarding the validity of test score inferences for an individual test taker. In this study, we use data from an undergraduate statistics test (N = 1135) to illustrate a two-step method that researchers and practitioners can use to examine individual person fit. First, person fit is examined numerically with several indices based on the Rasch model (i.e., Infit, Outfit, and Between-Subset statistics). Second, person misfit is presented graphically with person response functions, and these person response functions are interpreted using a heuristic. Individual person fit analysis holds promise for improving score interpretation in that it may detect potential threats to validity of score inferences for some test takers. Individual person fit analysis may also highlight particular subsets of items (on which a test taker performs unexpectedly) that can be used to further contextualize her or his test performance.     

Nordic cooperation—expanding to the Baltic countries

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Restoring the Tower of Babel: building a multilingual thesaurus on health promotion

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Publication and citation patterns among LIS faculty: Profiling a “typical professor”

Research on publication and citation patterns generally focuses on prolific or highly cited authors or on highly ranked programs. This study investigates the work and influence of a cross-section of library and information science (LIS) researchers at various stages of their academic lives, using a random sample of faculty members at programs accredited by the American Library Association. The analysis shows that the number of publications increases steadily as faculty rank advances. Assistant professors publish more conference papers and fewer journal articles, a pattern that is reversed with associate and full professors. Researchers used Web of Science® and Google™ Scholar to determine the influence of the publications. Web of Science reported no citations for most LIS faculty publications. With its broader scope, Google Scholar located more citations and revealed that the works of professors are cited significantly more frequently than publications by assistant or associate professors. When faculty profiles are compared by type of program, faculty members at schools granting doctoral degrees publish significantly more than their counterparts at schools where there is no doctoral program or where the doctoral degree is offered jointly with other academic units. When the comparison is made across ranks, full professors publish significantly more than faculty members at other ranks. There is no significant difference between assistant and associate professors.     

Parental Depression,Overreactive Parenting,and Early Childhood Externalizing Problems: Moderation by Social Support

This study used a large (N = 519), longitudinal sample of adoptive families to test overreactive parenting as a mediator of associations between parental depressive symptoms and early childhood externalizing, and parents’ social support satisfaction as a moderator. Maternal parenting (18 months) mediated the association between maternal depressive symptoms (9 months) and child externalizing problems (27 months). Paternal parenting was not a significant mediator. Unexpectedly, we found a cross-over effect for the moderating role of social support satisfaction, such that partners’ social support satisfaction reduced the strength of the association between each parent's own depressive symptoms and overreactive parenting. Results point to the importance of accounting for broader family context in predicting early childhood parenting and child outcomes.     

Assessment of learning gains associated with independent exam analysis in introductory biology

This study evaluates the impact of an independent postmidterm question analysis exercise on the ability of students to answer subsequent exam questions on the same topics. It was conducted in three sections (～400 students/section) of introductory biology. Graded midterms were returned electronically, and each student was assigned a subset of questions answered incorrectly by more than 40% of the class to analyze as homework. The majority of questions were at Bloom's application/analysis level; this exercise therefore emphasized learning at these higher levels of cognition. Students in each section answered final exam questions matched by topic to all homework questions, providing a within-class control group for each question. The percentage of students who correctly answered the matched final exam question was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the Topic Analysis versus Control Analysis group for seven of 19 questions. We identified two factors that influenced activity effectiveness: 1) similarity in topic emphasis of the midterm-final exam question pair and 2) quality of the completed analysis homework. Our data suggest that this easy-to-implement exercise will be useful in large-enrollment classes to help students develop self-regulated learning skills. Additional strategies to help introductory students gain a broader understanding of topic areas are discussed.     

INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND AGENDA MELDING: A THEORY OF SOCIAL DISSONANCE

Many studies have established that there is a degree of audiencelearning from the mass media, especially of new issues enteringthe news. But recent studies show an agenda-setting effect atdeeper levels beyond broad news categories. Audiences also absorbthe attributes of news—the frames and slants in the waynews is presented—and this suggests that while the massmedia do not tell us what to think, the mass media do have considerablepower to tell us how to think about topics, with implicationsfor social policy. Beyond these two levels of agenda setting,however, is something more significant—agenda melding.Agenda melding argues that individuals join groups, in a sense,by joining agendas. There is a powerful impulse to affiliatewith others in groups as one leaves the original family setting,and one joins these groups via media of connections, mostlyother people but also other media. This paper suggests a modelof agenda melding that accounts for the role of media (massor interpersonal) in helping individuals move toward or awayfrom groups. This attempts to build toward general social theoryby suggesting the role of media in how individuals functionwith others in a coherent social system.     

The effects of a rational-emotive affective education program for high-risk middle school students

This study investigated the effects of participation in a developmentally appropriate affective education program. The independent variable was the rational-emotive curriculum Thinking, Feeling, Behaving: An Emotional Education Curriculum for Adolescents (Vernon, 1989), and the dependent variables were self-concept measured with the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale and end-of-year report card grades. Twenty-three middle school students who were identified as high risk for dropping out prior to completion of high school and also as learning disabled or emotionally disturbed were randomly assigned to experimental (n = 12) and control (n = 11) conditions. Participants in the affective education group met for approximately 45 minutes a week for 15 weeks. Self-concept and grades did not differ between the two groups.     

Rehabilitation and nutrition protocols for optimising return to play from traditional ACL reconstruction in elite rugby union players: A case study

Current nutrition and exercise focus during rehabilitation periods has been on reducing muscle atrophy associated with immobilisation. This case report outlines a best practice anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rehabilitation programme undertaken by two professional rugby athletes, with the addition of an evidence-based supplementation (gelatine and vitamin C) and exercise protocol focused on collagenous tissue. Both players ruptured their left ACL and were repaired with a traditional hamstring graft. Players undertook a structured rehabilitation programme for 34 weeks before being clinically assessed ready to play. Players saw minimal changes in body composition in the early rehabilitation period (P1 – 0.8 kg; P2 – 0.4 kg). Leg lean mass reduced in both legs of Player 1 (Injured – 0.8 kg, Non-injured – 0.6 kg) at 17 weeks, with Player 2 only experiencing a loss of 0.3 kg of lean tissue in the injured leg. Both players returned to baseline body compositions after 24 weeks. Leg strength returned to a maximum at 24 and 15 weeks, respectively, with knee function returning to baseline by 30 weeks. This case report provides evidence that nutrition and rehabilitation programmes targeted at minimising the effects of disuse in both muscle and connective tissue may assist return to play after ACL injury.