The use and validity of the Graduate Record Examination General Test (GRE) to predict the success of graduate school applicants is heavily debated, especially for its possible impact on the selection of underrepresented minorities into science, technology, engineering, and math fields. To better identify candidates who would succeed in our program…

Constructing a computational model of conceptual change for a computer-based scientific inquiry learning environment is difficult due to two challenges: (i) externalizing the variables of conceptual change and its related variables is difficult. In addition, defining the causal dependencies among the variables is also not trivial. Such difficulty…

Adolescents' motivation is a critical factor for reading success. The lack of motivation adversely affects adolescents' abilities to enhance vocabulary and reading comprehension skills as well as developing powerful reading strategies (Roberts, Torgesen, Boardman, & Scammacca, 2008). Starting in the fourth grade, students' academic…

This article examines the use of institutional research data on tertiary academic success of students in the first-year Biology program at the University of Canterbury in relation to their secondary school performance in English, Mathematics with Statistics, Biology and Chemistry. This study was commissioned by the School of Biological Sciences to…

This study explores factors that predict learner satisfaction and transfer of learning in an online educational program at a multinational corporation, established to improve organizational learning by providing training in technical skills. A mixed-methods design was used, selecting both quantitative methods (utilizing survey research) and…

The relationships between achievement at university and self-reported characteristics of students and their social environment were explored. College freshmen were interviewed twice, first for their social and study experiences, and second regarding preparation for final examinations. (Author/MLW)

An attempt to assess the validity of the personal interview in the selection of residents for the program in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, is reported. The data suggest that the residency interview may be of greater value to applicants than to selection committees. (Author/MLW)

Factor analysis was used to examine underlying structures for both admission and clinical performance measures. Multiple regression showed that admission interview comments best predict narrative clerkship performance, while objective scores best predict an objective measure of clinical knowledge. (Author/MLW)

Students who accept the goal of becoming physicians early in life because of external pressures appear to have lower academic achievement than students who develop their professional identity because of personal abilities or interests. Data are from students (N=1156) attending the University of Michigan medical school between 1976-81. (MLW)

The incremental contribution of an interview to the student admission process was studied for 331 applicants accepted as undergraduates at a private university. Interviews provide information about applicants and correlate to grade point average (GPA). Interviewer judgments do not contribute incremental variance to prediction of admissions…

This study of U.S. college students' soap opera viewing habits investigated their motives; interrelationships among motives, audience viewing dispositions, and life patterns; whether viewing dispositions and life pattern variables explain viewing motives; and what multivariate structures explain relationships between viewing motives, viewing…

The ways in which knowledge of mechanical motion is affected by contextual factors of assessment such as means of depiction (ranging from abstract to contextualized) and the effect of sequencing of contexts (from abstract to contextualized or contextualized to abstract) on students' display of knowledge were studied for 40 fifth graders in two…

To determine whether admission interviews could differentiate commitment, 456 applicants from 2 medical schools were tested on the commitment, 456 applicants from two medical schools were tested on the Defining Issues Test, which measures the amount of principled or postconventional moral reasoning. The participating institutions were two Israeli…

Study surveyed students in an alternative, multicultural teacher certification program to determine how well the Urban Teacher Selection Interview could predict the success of future urban teachers. Comparisons between their interview rankings and their rankings as classroom teachers indicated that degree of future teaching success can be…

An item classification scheme developed by A. M. Gallagher (1990) was refined, resulting in a more accurate prediction of sex differences in the mathematical sections of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Differential Item Functioning (DIF) procedures for examinees scoring over 650 indicated that the majority of items favoring males required the…