The study utilised a fine-grained diagnostic checklist to assess first-year undergraduates in Hong Kong and evaluated its validity and usefulness for diagnosing academic writing in English. Ten English language instructors marked 472 academic essays with the checklist. They also agreed on a Q-matrix, which specified the relationships among the…

Describes three experiments with college students that compared the learning potential of text, outline, and matrix displays. Explains the theoretical framework, reviews related research, and discusses results that show matrix displays produced greater relational learning. (Author/LRW)

Two sets of real sorting data from 50 college students are used to compare results of multidimensional scaling of raw co-occurrence frequencies or dissimilarity measures (D) and profile distances (delta) to determine which yields a better representation of the underlying structure of 2 sets of stimuli. Slight differences are discussed. (SLD)

Geometric approaches to representing interrelations among tests and items are compared with an additive tree model (ATM), using 2,644 examinees and 2 other data sets. The ATM's close fit to the data and its coherence of presentation indicate that it is the best means of representing tests and items. (TJH)

A reporting and study format for the investigation of university student retention is presented. Student progression and loss is shown graphically and in tabular form to enable ready comprehension and encourage data exploration. Data obtained at Virginia Commonwealth University for 1977-80 are used as illustration. Two ways of viewing student…

This article's goals are to validate the Computer and Information Technology Attitude Inventory (Weinsier and Leutner, 1988), a nontraditional approach to attitude measurement; and to report on a study designed to search for intercultural differences or cross-cultural consistency of attitudes toward computers and information technology. (46…