Brief Research Report: A User Friendly Effect Size—When Normality Matters

There is a need for effect sizes that are readily interpretable by a broad audience. One index that might fill this need is π, which represents the proportion of scores in one group that exceed the mean of another group. The robustness of estimates of π to violations of normality had not been explored. Using simulated data, three estimates of π (π? _direct, r, and r_robust) were studied under varying conditions of sample size, distribution shape, and group mean difference. This study demonstrated that r and r_robust were biased estimates of π when data were nonnormal. We recommend that neither be used in estimating π unless data are normally distributed.     

A comparison of the mathematical performance of mature students and traditional students over a 10-year period

Every student who enrols in a degree programme involving service mathematics in the University of Limerick in Ireland is given a mathematics diagnostic test. The diagnostic test was developed due to mathematics lecturers’ anxiety regarding students’ mathematical competency levels. Students receive the 40 question paper-based test in their first service mathematics lecture without prior notification. Initial analysis of students’ work revealed that many students were having difficulties with basic algebra and arithmetic in particular [Gill, O. 2006. “What Counts as Service Mathematics? An Investigation into the ‘Mathematics Problem’ in Ireland.” PhD diss., University of Limerick]. Further research highlighted the significant decline in diagnostic test performance and the changing profile of service mathematics students between 1998 and 2008 [Faulkner, Fiona, Ailish Hannigan, and Olivia Gill. 2010. “Trends in the Mathematical Competency of University Entrants in Ireland by Leaving Certificate Mathematics Grade.” Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications 29 (2): 76–93]. One of the most notable changes to the student profile over time was the increase in mature students (non-standard students) entering service mathematics programmes. Although non-standard students had a lower mean performance in the diagnostic test, they were found to have a higher mean performance in some cases in service mathematics compared to standard students. This paper explores some of the possible reasons for such findings.     

Measuring Relational Reasoning

Relational reasoning is the foundational cognitive ability to discern meaningful patterns within an informational stream, but its reliable and valid measurement remains problematic. In this investigation, the measurement of relational reasoning unfolded in three stages. Stage 1 entailed the establishment of a research-based conceptualization of the construct and the development of a corresponding Test of Relational Reasoning (TORR). Stage 2 focused on the reliability and validity of data from the TORR. Analyses showed the data from the TORR to be reliable indicators of students' ability to reason relationally, and TORR performance predicted students' performance on SAT verbal and math problems. Stage 3 examined the underlying structure of the construct through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Of the three CFA models tested, models with dedicated factors for analogical, anomalous, antinomous, and antithetical reasoning were deemed the best fit for the data.     

Ages and ages: the multiplication of children’s ‘ages’ in early twentieth-century child psychology

This paper explores the trend, between 1905 and the late 1920s in UK and US child psychology, of ‘discovering’, labelling and calculating different ‘ages’ in children. Those new ‘ages’ – from mental to emotional, social, anatomical ages, and more – were understood as either replacing, or meaningfully related to, chronological age. The most famous, mental age, ‘invented’ by Alfred Binet in the first decade of the century, was instrumental in early intelligence testing. Anatomical age triggered great interest until the 1930s, with many psychologists suggesting that physical development provided a more reliable inkling of which grade children should be in than chronological age. Those ages were calculated with great precision, and educational recommendations began to be made on the basis of these. This article maps this psychological and educational trend, and suggests that it cultivated a vision of children as developmentally erratic, worthy of intense scientific attention, and enticingly puzzling for researchers.     

浅谈服装工艺课教学

文章通过对服装工艺课的课程性质的分析,探讨了怎样安排合理的教学内容,采用合理的教学方法和教学手段,以提高教学质量,使学生熟练的掌握技能。     

Revising the Online Classroom: Usability Testing for Training Online Technical Communication Instructors

ABSTRACT

This article reports on an effort by the authors to use usability testing as a component of online teacher training for their multimajor technical communication course. The article further explains the ways in which program administrators at other institutions can create their own usability testing protocols for formative online teacher training in course design and in principles of user-centered design.     

计算机软件系统测试方案研究

结合从事软件系统测试工作的实践经验，总结归纳出一套软件系统测试的基本方案，包括建立测试流程，有效地组织测试人员，合理地选择测试手段，安排测试任务，规范测试程存等等，帮助软件开发和测试人员提高测试效率，从而提高软件系统的质量和可靠性。     

"进入型"小说初探

本文初步探讨了"进入型"小说的类型、叙述内容、结构特征、叙述策略及其与人生基本模式的关系,为进一步深入研究提供了一个新视角.     

杂交水稻新品种引种试验

对8个杂交水稻品种进行了引种试验,通过大田生育期观察,室内考种,产量分析,对引进的水稻新品种进行了综合评估。     

Objective Score Versus Subjective Satisfaction: Impact on Emotions Following Immediate Score Reporting

Abstract

There are positive feedback loops between students’ grades and emotions. However, subjective appraisals, not grades, are theorized to trigger emotions. We extended previous research by comparing the effects of objective score and subjective appraisals of the score (i.e., satisfaction) on emotions. We used an ecologically-valid quasi-experimental design and found differences in how objective score compared to satisfaction impacted emotions. Main effects for score showed positive associations with hope, pride, relief, and negative associations with anxiety, anger, and shame. An interaction for satisfaction occurred such that students who were satisfied with their score had the same effect as objective score, but students who were unsatisfied with their score felt less hope, pride, relief, and more anger and shame. Implications for the control-value theory of emotions as well as for instructors are discussed.