Multiple True-False Items: A Study of Interitem Correlations, Scoring Alternatives, and Reliability Estimation

Intercorrelations among multiple true-false items were examined to determine to what extent each true-false option can be treated as independent. Results from 157 health science students and 170 medical students showed that correlations between true-false options associated with the same stem were from 2.6 to 7.0 times larger than those from different stems. This suggests that results from previous research indicating that each true-false option could be treated as an independent item cannot be generalized to other tests and examinee populations without supporting evidence. Four scoring methods were explored which varied chance success levels and scoring for partial knowledge. The results showed that scoring methods incorporating partial knowledge were more reliable and possessed greater concurrent and predictive validity than those minimizing chance success. Methods for computing reliability estimates were compared and suggestions were offered regarding practical use     

Teachers’ Emotional Competence and Social Support: Assessing the Mediating Role of Teacher Burnout

This study explored the relationships among teachers’ emotional competence, burnout as a mediator, and social support. Teachers’ emotional competence was assessed via measures of emotional intensity and emotional regulation. Social support was evaluated in terms of external versus internal support, and teacher dissatisfaction with support received. Participants were 149 Italian primary school teachers. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings suggested that teacher burnout partially mediated the relationship between emotional intensity and satisfaction with social support received. Overall, the results showed that teachers were at risk of highly intense unpleasant emotions in relation to their burnout syndrome. Moreover, teachers’ satisfaction/dissatisfaction with social support received was predicted by burnout symptoms. These results extend the findings of earlier studies, and provide indications as to how to help teachers experiencing burnout.     

(Under)valuing care work: the case of childcare workers in small‐town Quebec

This paper challenges the assumptions that women ‘care’ as a matter of course, that care work is natural, inevitable, and easy—requiring little skill and as a result should not be highly valued or rewarded. It does so by assessing the impact of Quebec’s (Canada’s) $7/day childcare program on an economically disadvantaged community near the Quebec/Ontario border. This pilot study of mothers and childcare workers marks the first phase of research in the community. This paper looks at some of the care work involved in childcare settings in small‐town Quebec. At the same time, the paper aims to show the importance and impact of Quebec’s childcare initiative on an economically hard‐hit community. It shows that, despite mothers’ recognition of the importance of the program to themselves, their children and their community, there is still evidence of the undervaluing of the care work that childcare providers do.     

Teacher dialogue style and children’s story comprehension

The three components of the dialogue style are: a) a great number of questions asked by the teacher during the storytelling; b) three exclusive types of questions asked; and c) a variety of questions. The present study is intended to analyse the relationships between these components and children’s story comprehension. The subjects were 48 children, aged 4;4 to 6;2, randomly divided into four groups of 12 children each: the number, exclusive types, and variety groups, and a control group (the reading group). Twenty-four teachers were also divided randomly into four groups of six teachers each, and assigned to the four children’s groups. Each teacher told the story to two children at a time; the children were chosen and paired randomly. Each child, singly, retold the story and then answered a questionaire on the structure of the story. The responses of each child were compared with the story text and considered correct if approriate to the contents of the story. The mean percentages of correct responses in the three experimental groups were higher than those of the control group. This difference is significant in the free retelling situation.     

Professionalization as an advocacy strategy: a content analysis of Canadian child care social movement organizations’ 2008 discursive resources

Do early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals make good advocates? Canadian advocates have fought for better child care policies since the mid-1940s. What has happened to this advocacy with the recent increased professionalization of the ECEC sector? How does increased professionalization limit, innovate or expand advocacy strategies? This content analysis of seven Canadian child care social movement organizations’ discursive resources in 2008 examines how different types of child care social movement organizations communicated their positions to their members and the public to manage a changing economic and political climate. Preliminary findings indicate that both ECEC workforce sector associations and grassroots organizations shared common advocacy messages, played down problems associated with a market approach to child care, and framed child care as a business case in their messaging. The authors suggest this reflects a nascent discursive move towards the professionalization of Canadian child care movement advocacy messages.     

Type K and Other Complex Multiple-Choice Items: An Analysis of Research and Item Properties

What is a complex multiple-choice test item? What is the evidence that such items should be avoided?     

Selection and acquisition of audiovisual materials by health professionals

Audiovisual (AV) materials are widely used in the education of health professionals, and health science educators are usually the people who select audiovisual teaching materials. However, little is known about the selection process and there are few parameters that can be used for guidance. No previous research was uncovered that documented the selection/acquisition of materials by users. This paper reports a survey of health science educators and resource consultants at forty-five academic health centers in the United States, on their experiences in identifying, selecting, and using AV materials. The results provide a baseline of information on which future research can build.     

Models in Science and in Education: A Critical Review of Research on Students' Ideas About the Earth and its Place in the Universe

Research on students' conceptions about the Earth and its place in the universe has been active since 1976. These years have also witnessed the development of the constructivist model of learning and a growing interest in epistemological and historical considerations among science educators. The paper presents a critical review of the research in the light of epistemological, historical and cognitive aspects. The analysis shows that, as far as the research on the shape of the Earth is concerned, the research results are valid and conclusive in giving general information about children's ideas. The same cannot be said for the research concerned with the position of the Earth in the Universe, where the Copernican model, seen as the final essence of astronomical concepts, drives the research questioning with little correlation of the model with the empirical level of observation.     

The Projected Impact of the Correction for Guessing on Individual Scores

This article presents estimates of the effects of the use of formula scoring on an individual examinee's score. The results of this analysis suggest that under plausible assumptions, using test characteristics derived from several studies, some examinees would increase their scores by one half standard deviation or more if they were to answer items omitted under formula directions     

The Effect of Story Impressions Preview on Learning From Narrative Text

The authors assessed the extent to which a generative prereading activity known as Story Impressions (SI), or composing a guess from clues, influences passage recall relative to a more passive prereading activity of reading a Content Preview (CP). The results from 74 eighth-grade students indicated the CP groups equaled the reading-only control groups in recall of the major phrases of the narrative as well as other passage information. As expected, the SI groups significantly exceeded the CP groups and the control groups on both aspects of passage recall. The authors argued that the SI method could be effective because it induced the three fundamental processes that constitute reading comprehension (M. A. Gernsbacher, 1990) and the concomitant generative learning effect (M. C. Wittrock, 1989).